Two out of Eight ain't bad

Eight Degrees was one of the first Irish brewers to adopt the high-turnover mode of brewing, supplementing a safe core range with a regular train of specials, crossing all the beer style boundaries and involving all manner of ingredients and collaborators. That ended when the brewery was sold to a multinational, and never came back in this changed era, even now that the original founders are in charge once more. So I'm pleased today to be covering two new Eight Degrees beers.

They describe Dolcita as a "tropical IPA", and I've voiced my concerns before about the t-word being rarely indicative of actual tropical fruit flavours. So it goes with this one, but that's not a problem. In lieu of mangoes and pineapples, this 5.7% ABV hazy IPA has a bright pithy bitterness, pushing mandarin zest and lime rind. There's an almost earthy tang on the finish, where the bittering compounds concentrate together on the palate. Despite the haze and the claim of tropicality, this tastes like an IPA from the classic era of Eight Degrees: big flavoured and technically proficient. I've missed that.

The brewery has had something of a fractious relationship with stout over the years. Its original Knockmealdown Porter got rebranded as a stout, then faded from sight and wasn't revived when the company was. Instead, the new bottled core range includes Bojanter. I really like how they've gone all-in with bottles, which is of course the correct serving format for Irish stout. Tracking it down was tough but it showed up recently, like Dolcita, at The Porterhouse.

I was curious as to what glass they'd serve it with -- a half-pint pilsner flute is traditional -- and it was a bit of a surprise to get a snifter. That's a perfectly fine glass, so no harm. The beer is properly black though doesn't hold its head well. An aroma of mild roast and sticky treacle starts us off. The carbonation is light, giving it a smoothness which I'm sure is intended but isn't quite typical for bottled Irish stout, especially at a mere 4.3% ABV. The brewer has opted for sweetness as the main feature, the aroma's treacle built out into a flavour of dark caramel, similar to that of a Czech dark lager, I thought. Dryness is in short supply but there is a mineral tang, slightly vegetal, demonstrating that some appropriate old-world hops are involved. I liked this, as much for the daring choice of format as the taste. I might have dialled up the alcohol and reduced the caramel, but that's a personal preference thing. Bojanter deserves a place in the canon of proper Irish stout, where it's not trying to be anything other than itself.

The pace may have slowed, but Eight Degrees is still turning out quality new beers. I await the next ones eagerly.