Brother beyond

The beers from Leeds's Northern Monk Brewing Company are imported to Ireland by the owners of Galway Bay Brewery so it's not surprising that they're a fairly regular feature of the guest taps across the brewery's estate. Against the Grain had what amounted to a tap takeover just before Easter with a slew of monkish offerings on the bar.

Taking the opportunity to tick off the ones that were new to me, I began with Black Arches black IPA. It's a strong 'un at 6.7% ABV and packs in huge amounts of everything. Sweet caramel and treacle occupy the centre, flanked by harshly bitter citrus and oily hop resins. The malt comes back in the finish with a dry cocoa powder effect. There's a lot going on but I found it too discordant to be enjoyable: the dark malt and hops fight with each other and the drinker is left to deal with the resulting mess. Black Arches is a tiring beer that needs a time-out.

Rapscallion (L), Faith (R)

No style was advertised for Rapscallion, only that it's 5.3% ABV and based on a recipe from the 17th century. It's bright orange and smells thickly of liquorice. Different herbs fill out the flavour: I detected lavender in particular, but also the cardamom effect found in Hilden's Barney's Brew. It's not unpleasantly herbal, overall, as long as you manage to keep thoughts of bathwater from your mind. Research indicates that the trick was done with nothing more involved than ginger, coupled with orange zest and lots of UK hops. Right at the end I got a sensation of orange pith showing that the zest wasn't completely lost, but really this is all about those olde worlde herbs. Rather enjoyable, if you like such things, as I do.

Faith is one of the brewery's core range: a US-style pale ale at 5.1%. It's fine: looking identical to Rapscallion with a slightly sweaty tone to its aroma. The flavour is sweet and heavy on the jaffa orange, which I found a little surprising given the brewery's assertion that Citra is the main hop. Like I say: passable, but not terribly exciting; you've tasted this style done better.

And having covered Northern Monk's pale ale I wasn't quite sure what True North was meant to be when I saw it on tap at another Galway Bay pub, The Beer Market. It was chalked up as another pale ale, though this time the strength is just 3.7% ABV. It's a clear gold with a sharply bitter waxy flavour and a surprisingly weighty caramel-sweet malt base. It took me a while to get my head around what I had: the small serving measure and keg dispense were distractions from the fact that this is a straight-up, ey-up, northern bitter, and a rather good one at that. Once I'd figured that out, the classic English orange pith and distinctly Yorkshire honey lacing were perceptible. This is not a beer for fancy glassware; this is one to settle into and quaff by the pint. I'm impressed by how close to a cask classic it tastes when served kegged.

Good beer is good beer, regardless of dispense. But you knew that already.

Gold in the village

Has it really been three years since I was last at the Hilden Beer & Music Festival? Time flies when you're doing other things with the last weekend in August. But I was back this year and spent a jolly afternoon in the company of many fine friends exploring this year's offerings.

I noted in relation to the 2009 line-up that golden ales featured very strongly. This year, confining myself to the beers I'd never tasted before meant it was almost exclusively a golden line-up. The first one I went for was Bath Ales's Summer Hare, and it was a dud. I've noticed before the masses of buttery diacetyl in Bath beers and while it's acceptable, and sometimes even pleasant, in a darker amber beer, it was just wrong in this light and supposedly refreshing quaffer. Summer Hare opens quite dry and finishes with just a hint of hop tang, but the middle is pure liquid toffee and spoiled the show for me completely.

I got something similar from Bank Top's Pavilion: a heavy, sickly difficult beer, which just didn't fit with an idle afternoon in the beer garden. Still, both of these were better than the Penine Sunstone, which smelled like someone tried to use vinegar to mask the odour of a swimming pool recently vacated by over-excited toddlers. That got passed round the table and sent back to the bar.

Several of the blondes had more than a touch of pilsner about them, balancing grassy hop bitterness against sweet biscuit. Ghost by the Partners Brewery of West Yorkshire laid on the latter in a big way, heading towards golden syrup territory. Lymestone's Stone Cutter was a step better, properly bitter opening with the sweet grain coming out at the end. The most full-on of these, however, was Phoenix's Struggling Monkey, a 4.5%er packed with delicious sticky honey, studded with fresh citrus hops. Big flavours, yet balanced ones.

Barnsley Gold from Acorn was worryingly cloudy but tasted spot-on, with a lasting sharpness sitting on some fruity bubblegum. Very interestingly complex, yet extremely drinkable. The palest of the lot was Brigantia by Allgate's. This was light and breezy but had plenty of gorgeous lemon notes to keep the palate awake. Shading towards pale amber we have a beer with the unlikely name of Mr Chubbs Lunchtime Bitter. It begins on a slightly nasty gastric note but settles down to grapefruit then mellowing to strawberries. I liked it a lot.

Talk of the festival was Ossett's Hop Monster: a symphony in Nelson Sauvin, bursting with intense gooseberry and passionfruit. I'm glad I left it towards the end. Ossett also provided the only dark tick for me in the form of Dirty Rat, a dark mild which begins simply enough with lots of stouty dark roast but gets more complicated as it finishes, introducing fruit esters and a little bit of smoky phenol. Not everyone was a fan, but I enjoyed my half, and Steve liked it too.

There was just time for my customary pint of Hilden Barney's Brew: still in cracking form, and a beer I'm really looking forward to seeing bottled. Then a Tempted? Special Reserve cider and a Mac's Armagh Scrumpy saw me merrily to the train home.

Kudos once again to all at Hilden for putting on a great show. The beers may not have all been stone cold classics, but anyone would be hard pressed not to find something nice to drink, golden or otherwise.

The good, the bad and the Blondie

Rounding up last weekend's trip to Liverpool with some of the better beers encountered, plus a couple of stinkers.

Obviously, a trip to the Baltic Fleet brewpub had to be done -- an odd little ramshackle pub, squeezed between a busy main road and a vast building site near the docks. It looks like it hasn't seen a lick of paint in some time, and there was no sign of the Wapping Brewery, which lurks somewhere in the building. Wapping Stout was the order of the day, and a damn fine pint it was too -- strong, heavy, and brimming with big earthy hops. Just what you want on a chilly November afternoon with the wind whipping in off the Irish Sea (and through the doors into the pub as the greengrocer made his deliveries).

Initially I'd passed over the offer of Blondie at the bar, fearing another dull golden ale, but my interest was piqued when I read it's a wheat beer. I've had some very positive experiences of cask wheat beer (Barney's Brew; Curim), and this turned out to be another. It's quite sharp and citric, tempered by a calming dryness. It was being served a tad warm, but when cool on a summer's day I'd say it's a winner.

The previous evening, as I mentioned, we were in the award-winning Ship & Mitre. The layout is a little irritating in that the handpumps are spread out in groups around the central bar making it difficult to find out what's available when the pub is packed. Two milds were on: Wentworth Maple Mild sounds promising but is actually rather boring, being pale brown with just a hint of unpleasant phenols to break the monotony. Devon Mild was much better: sweeter and with more chocolate than I had expected, but with all the roasted coffee any mild fanatic could ask for.

Séan, meanwhile, veered away from cask ale orthodoxy when the possibility of some Little Creatures Pale Ale opened up. I've heard lots about this Aussie but had never seen it in real life. It's good stuff -- a rock-solid American-style pale ale with a very nice balance between green C-hop bitterness and toffee malts.

Pint of the trip was a beer I've had before, but never on cask. The Fly In The Loaf was pouring Fuller's London Porter from the cask and it is simply stunning. No. Wait. It's complicatedly stunning. There are all manner of things going on here: hot cross buns, licquorice, dates -- the works -- and all on a silky full body that caresses the throat. Gorgeous gorgeous beer. Next to it at the bar there was a Fuller's beer I didn't know: Red Fox. Very poor, this -- super-sweet and cloying, like crappy keg bitter.

One pint left, and it's where we came in, with local regional Cains. This time we were at their flagship boozer, Doctor Duncan's, as recommended by Melissa. It was just gone 4 on Saturday. The pub was busy with a variety of punters, from post-shopping families to watchers of football. We needed some food and I went to the bar to order. "We stop serving food at 3.30". As Séan put it, that's just like saying "No thank you, we don't want to make any more money". So despite the lovely shiny array of Cains pumpclips and some interesting looking guests, we just stayed for the one. It goes without saying that it was the Cains specialty Raisin Beer. This seems to have started life as an ordinary brown bitter without much happening in it, but the raisins definitely make themselves felt. They taste exactly like raisins -- not raisin extract or concentrate -- real, fresh (for a dried fruit, obviously) raisins. The flavour lasts for ages, and when combined with the malt produces a sensation similar to drinking a glass of Bran Flakes. I loved it, though it would have been nicer with a pie. Everything is.

(A more succinct run-down of the Scouse pub scene is also available, courtesy of Mr R. Scooper.)

JAGA

It's a happy coincidence that the Session on summer beer comes just after the Hilden festival. This was my third year attending the event in the brewery yard near Belfast, where summery blondes form a big part of the selection. I may not be a huge fan of the genre, but at least that's the legwork taken out of this Session.

The festival itself got a little bigger this year, with the addition of two teepees in the gardens, hosting comfy seats and live traditional music: respite from the benches and amped-up rock of the main stage area. There was also a homebrew competition (well done Derek; hard luck Níall), an additional al fresco bar, giant games, and all manner of more festive things. It's always a great day out.

My first blonde of the day was by Williams Brothers, the Scottish brewery which seems to be everywhere these days. I'm a massive fan of their Heather Ale Company range (especially Fraoch), but had never tried any of their more mainstream beers. Ceilidh was on offer -- a cask lager with 4.7% ABV. Sadly, it's not very good: very very sweet, with what they claim to be toffee flavours seeming like brown sugar, with lots of unpleasant graininess behind it. I suspect a bit of forced carbonation would liven this up, and make it taste like Barry says it should. Mrs Beer Nut didn't have a great start either, opting for Nethergate's coriander-infused Umbel Ale: an attractive shade of light copper, but really lacking any distinctive flavours, including the coriander. There's a bit of crunchy grain to it, but the rest is thinness and dullness.

Oakham's JHB gave us a bit more taste: a slightly spicy green flavour, like cress, as well as some bubblegum malt, but with Cotleigh Monument we were leaving flavour country once again. By the time we came to the unspeakably tasteless Evan Evans Gold, my wife had coined the term JAGA (Just Another Golden Ale) for the succession of boring blondes that had passed our way.

There were some notable exceptions, however. Cravenbräu from Nethergate offers a lovely balance between the big pale malt body and a hoppy bite at the finish: that's what summer blondes are supposed to do. Even better was Summer Lightning. I quite liked the bottled version of this, but on cask it's simply amazing: lots of zesty citrus, sherbety fruit notes and a generous dusting of spices -- wonderfully refreshing and very moreish.

Of course, summer beer doesn't have to be blonde. Okell's Red went down an absolute treat on Saturday: a simple ale with big malty flavours and all the tasty chewy caramel and toffee you could wish for. I was less impressed with another amber ale: Skinner's Keel Over. This is too watery and the caramel and smoke flavours just don't work hard enough.

And that was all the new beers. I also took the opportunity to find out if Spitfire is as boring on cask as it is from a bottle -- it is -- and had my third go of Timothy Taylor Landlord. For the first time I understand what people see in this beer: it was all bittersweet honey and botanicals and not the harsh monstrosity I'd been given in London previously. I only got a sip of it, though, because it sold out in very short order, unfortunately. My appetite for a proper pint is whetted.

The Irish breweries were well represented. On the downside, Messrs Maguire IPA and Franciscan Well Shandon Stout failed to impress: there's not really much going on in either. Cathedral Quarter on cask was a marked improvement on the bottle -- lots of lovely smooth chocolate flavours. Finally, I bored the hell out of everyone by going on at length about Barney's Brew -- Hilden's wheat beer and an epiphany at last year's festival. It's still sublime: spiced nine ways from Sunday with coriander, cardamom and what I'd swear is chamomile. I've said it before and I'll say it again: this beer needs to get out more.

And there ended another Hilden and another summer. Still, I can't complain: September brings a bit of travel plus the year's second big celebration of Irish beer, this one on my doorstep in Phoenix Park. I've time for plenty more summer beers yet, I'd say.

The main event

And so I was off to Cork on a bright and sunny Easter Saturday morning for the headline event of the Irish beer calendar. This year, the Franciscan Well's posters were proclaiming it the "Easter Craft Brewing Festival", which I think definitely has a better ring to it than the old "Easter Beer Festival" or "EasterFest", especially since this year the importers were left out of the line-up and everything on sale in the refurbished covered yard was genuine Irish beer.

A couple of old favourites were making their last public appearances at the gig, including a 20-month-old cask of White Gypsy Cask No. 1 aka Messrs Maguire Imperial. The Laphroaig smokiness was as present as ever with barely a hint of sourness about it, and the cask dispense added a sweet milk chocolate dimension to the stout which I'd never got from the keg version. I also said my goodbyes to Phúca, the Franciscan Well's marvellous celebration winter ale, still tasting as fresh and spicy as it did four months ago. And it was hello and goodbye to Kinsale Lager, the last ever outing of one of Ireland's pioneer craft beer brands. The lager itself, a very pleasant smooth and full-bodied thirst-quencher, was contract brewed at Beamish & Crawford, but with production at the brewery winding down following Heineken's takeover, that arrangement has come to an end. The Franciscan Well festival is a fitting farewell.

But one door closes and all that -- the kit from the Kinsale brewery itself, which made everything but the lager, is now operational in its new home in Templemore. Here, Cuilán Loughnane's long-anticipated White Gypsy brewery has finally started producing beer in its own right (Cuilán remains the brewer at Messrs Maguire, where previous White Gypsy-branded specials had been produced). His first regulars are a Dunkel Lager (recipe still being finalised -- what was on tap was rebadged MM Bock) and an Indian (sic) Pale Ale. The IPA is very much in the English style, a little bit sharp but mostly light and lemony. It's a welcome new addition to the Irish beer scene, though I'm a little disappointed with the whopping 5.2% ABV -- it tastes like it's about 4% and it would be nice to be able to down as if it were.

Though not open a wet week, White Gypsy already has a new brewing company under its wing, in the form of Barrelhead, registered in Dublin but brewing in Templemore. Bull Island Pale Ale was the offering here, and I think it needs work. A very pale yellow ale served on nitro with the accompanying dullness of taste. There's a little bit of sweet caramel to it, much like there is with other smoothflow nitro ales. I can't say I approve, but if it gets a foot in the door for another Irish brewer then I reckon I'll let it past. I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for new stuff from Barrelhead in Dublin.

As usual, the team from UCC's pilot brewery (pictured teaching Cuilán a thing or two, left), who I'm told work closely with their counterparts in Weihenstephan, had something vaguely Germanic up their sleeves. This year it was Swiss Pale Bock and I rather liked it. The sugariness in it was rather grainy and it stayed light and crisp rather than heavy or syrupy, despite a sizeable 6% ABV.

The only other new scoop for me was Ireland's Call, a dark ale commissioned by J.D. Wetherspoon's from Hilden. Though very sessionable at 4.3% ABV, it's rich and full of character thanks to a generous dose of chocolate malt. I made my pitch to the brewer for more of their superb wheatbeer, Barney's Brew, but I don't know how far I'll get with that, especially since we don't get to see much of Hilden on this side of the border.

And that was the Easter Festival for another year. It was great talking to my fellow beer aficionados and the brewers, and congratulations to the winners of this year's ICB awards. I'm always so optimistic about the future of Irish beer when I get back from Easter in Cork.

Get up the yard

Dubbel, of Young CAMRA Collectiv fame, noted recently the preponderance of beer festivals around the UK August Bank Holiday. I certainly did my bit, heading north on Saturday to Hilden, for the second year, to attend the annual bash in the brewery yard there. We didn't get as good weather as last year. In fact, it pissed down for most of the afternoon, but I got in early and managed to stake my claim on a bit of prime dry real estate under one of the gazebos, making sorties into the brewhouse bar nearby as necessary.

The selection, as usual, came from a variety of breweries in England, Northern Ireland and the Republic, and the Irish industry was particularly well-represented this year. On arrival I decided that what we were experiencing was very much porter weather, and fortunately Messrs Maguire Porter was on tap. I started with this one, having previously enjoyed it during the brief period it was available in bottles. It's not a beer to blow socks off, but a well-constructed easy-going affair, with the characteristic black malt charcoal dryness. The texture from the cask edition is a massive improvement on the bottled version, being superbly rich and creamy. All-in-all a good start.

Golden ales featured heavily at the festival, as they did last year. I started with Everard's Tiger and really shouldn't have bothered. This reeks of a mildly-bleached brewery floor and follows it with yet more bleach in the taste and absolutely nothing else. Something must have gone wrong here.

Two beers from Ossett in Yorkshire followed: Silver King is a very pale and rather dry ale with just a teensy hint of summer fruits in it. Quite dull, really. Beijing Gold is shade or two darker with an interesting flavour I couldn't quite put my finger on. Fortunately, I had the CEO, Brewmaster and Chief Taster of the up-and-coming Clanconnel Brewery to hand (hi Mark), and he had no problem identifying it as Chinese five-spice, and aniseed in particular. It was certainly interesting, and very tasty. Keep an eye out for Clanconnel's Weavers' Gold coming your way in the autumn, by the way.

Abbeydale were out in force again, and Larceny was the beer I tried: it's a rather lagery affair with a nice refreshing sharpness but not a whole lot else. Titanic was another return visitor, but the beers really weren't up to the standard of last year: White Star is a creamy pale yellow ale with an unfortunate gastric acid harshness. Lifeboat is a darker amber and was served rather cloudy and loaded with yeasty flavours. Oh dear. I couldn't detect much behind this so I doubt I missed anything special through lack of condition.

Two golden ales really stood out for me on the day. The first was Elsie Mo from Castle Rock, served under a pump clip that would have Alcohol Concern tutting into their soda waters. It's light and easy-going, perfumed with breezy peach blossom flavours. But the standout was one which has seen its share of plaudits in recent years: Crouch Vale's Brewer's Gold -- CAMRA's supreme champion two years running. It's a very pale shade of yellow, gently hopped against a subtle graininess, creating a delicious sherbet-like flavour. Another light and approachable quaffing beer full of understated class and quality.

Before catching my train home, I finished with a couple more local beers. Hilden Halt was a new one for me -- their strong dark red ale. I suspect this wasn't in great condition, being cloudier than I expected, but I still enjoyed it. The malt is running the show and imparts a delicious chocolately flavour of the sort I most associate with Clotworthy Dobbin. Halt has more of a fruit character to it as well, however. Rich, filling, and just the thing as we head into autumn. My beer of the festival was another one produced on-site: a new "wheat ale" called Barney's Brew. Frances from the brewery told me that it follows, to some extent, the recipe for the legendary Belfast Bap, and is named in honor of its inventor Barney Hughes. With the sparkler screwed off (see right) it's a nearly-headless golden-amber beer with an amazing spiciness that just catches the back of the throat and then warms all the way down. I'm reminded of the late lamented Maeve's from Dublin Brewing Company, and reckon this would work similarly well as an accompaniment to curry. How do you make wheat do this, and why aren't more people doing it?

I had time for one last beer before hitting the road, and made it a pint of O'Hara's Stout -- a favourite everyday beer of mine and one I'd never tried on cask where, it turns out, it's rounder, roastier, chocolatier and generally so much of an improvement on the pasteurised bottled version (speaking not of the nitrokeg abomination).

A final note of thanks to Frances for arranging a couple of beers on the house for ICB members attending. Overall, I found 160km to be a very small distance to travel to experience this kind of quality.