The struggle

In early October I watched the new beers arrive on the Craft Central website and counted 17 variants on pale ale in the chronological list before there was something else. That something else was Into The Abyss, a Festbier by Whiplash. Sold!

It boasts of decoction, which is a nice piece of beer nerdery, whatever you think of the process itself. 5.8% ABV is a proper feisty Festbier strength, and there's an edge of amber darkness about the colour. It smells rich and wholesome, the cake-like malt complemented by contrasting hop sharpness from Saaz and Perle. As expected, it's chewy, though doesn't lose sight of its fundamental lager crispness. This would still be drinkable in Maßkrug quantities, but only just. The foretaste is a little reticent and it takes a moment for the flavour to develop. I thought there would be more malt sweetness but the biscuit side of the picture is quite restrained. Instead, the hops use the beer's density to build gradually on the palate, starting as a dry papery rasp but intensifying into a more enjoyable green bitterness, as of fresh leafy vegetables. One can view this as both filling and nutritious while also refreshing and gulpable: the sweet spot for the style. Whiplash should brew more lagers.

Elsewhere in south-west Dublin, Rascals held their annual Rocktoberfest. As usual, there was a lager to mark the occasion, although not as usual it was canned as well, which means I got to try it. As far as I can see, previous editions were in an Oktoberfest-appropriate style, whereas this year it's a pilsner. It's a festively strong one, though, at 5.1% ABV. It's pilsner-pale in the glass, perfectly clear, though lacking head retention for the genuine German effect. The aroma has a proper hit of noble hop herbs, all done with Tettananger hops, we're told, and the strength gives it enough of a Festbier weight. It's still a pils though: no bed of pillowy Bavarian malt, but instead an altogether more Prussian starkly crisp grain flavour. That's well suited to the equally-stark hopping, which goes big on bittering and chooses a hard, medicinal, mineral flavour as the centrepiece, mixing flint, wax, earth and boiled green cabbage. I thought I might have got past my aversion to concentrated German hop flavours, but I haven't: as I mentioned recently, they just don't cross my path as often these days. This is a well-made beer, but the choice of flavour hop is unfortunately not to my taste.

Regardless, it's still pleasing that my local breweries are well able to make decent lager. When they want to, that is.