ICYMI

Bless you, DOT Brew. I missed the raft of new beers that were available at White Hag's Samhain festival, but a mere month later they landed in in small-pack form. Not that I'm susceptible to FOMO, you understand. This is more the joy of discovering you haven't missed out completely.

I started with the dark stuff, perversely perhaps. Back to Black looks dead handsome in the 440ml can. It's a black IPA with rye, and despite the style going out of fashion, we are extremely well served for this subset in Ireland with Kinnegar's Black Bucket. I'll try not to make this a direct comparison, though they are near identical strengths, with Kinnegar's at 6.5% ABV and this one 6.4. It's not quite black though, more a dark brown and distinctly red around the margins when held to the light. From the first sip there's that beautiful burnt tarry bitterness I enjoy in these, matched with a perfect unctuous texture. Yet before it burns through the palate, the flavour immediately softens, exploding in a floral burst of rosewater and lavender. This doesn't fade out completely but is gradually replaced by a sharp grapefruit bitterness which forms the main part of the aftertaste. That mouthfeel means the whole flavour progression happens slowly and each element gets to fully unfold before the next one moves in. This is absolutely beautiful, with its extremely intense flavours and smooth drinkability. All the complex alchemy of great black IPA.

Also canned, 12 Dots is a collaboration with DOT's regular host brewery 12 Acres in Laois. It's a rye IPA of 6.7% ABV, pouring a bright and hazy orange colour. The flavour is fresh and sweet Seville orange, aided by a rich and full texture. There's a grassy bitterness with a pinch of pepper typical of rye, but the sweet fruit reasserts itself as soon as that arises. Despite the density this is a zingy and refreshing number, clean and balanced, exactly what a rye pale ale is supposed to be.

Next it's the fourth in DOT's tequila barrel series, the intriguingly named Barrel Aged Tequila Black. According to the blurb this started life as an "imperial Belgian ale" (not a style I'm familiar with) and had a full year in the casks. It came out at 10.8% ABV and, between this and the Belgian roots, I was shocked at how thin it was. That means the flavours don't get the platform that I think they need to perform. My first impression was of white wine, but turning quickly oxidised and more like medium-dry sherry after a moment or two. When the beer was still cold, that was pretty much the extent of its complexity; later it does offer some extra chocolate and black pepper, but no more substance. I can't believe I'm complaining that a beer of this strength needs beefing up, but it really does. While it's far from bad -- very far -- every sip made me think it could be better. Probably not constructive criticism but we'll all have to live with that. Next!

Rum Red Dark is basically an Irish red, aged in ex-rum whiskey casks. It's 8.9% ABV and a dark ruby colour, flat-looking on pouring with no real head. The flavour is sweet toffee and caramel with an underlying twang of old oak. I don't pick up whiskey but there's a certain vinous quality, like tawny port, perhaps. It never really escapes being a bit of a dull Irish red ale, despite the extra alcohol and barrel ageing. It's cruel to say, but there's a touch of Innis & Gunn about this. Not DOT's best work.

I had much higher hopes for Mad Imp imperial stout, created exclusively for Redmond's off licence in Ranelagh. No head worries here: it pours with a thick pillow of foam on top. It's 10.8% ABV and there's a lot of resin about it, bitter balsamic, like retsina. Floral lavender provides a lighter note, and then the concentrated herbal bittersweet taste comes back, accompanied by a wisp of smoke. There's only a little milk chocolate from the underlying stout and I think I'd have liked more of that. While it's undoubtedly a quality beer, there are too many bells and whistles and not enough attention to the fundamentals of imperial stout. At least there's no pastry.

The odd outlier here was the aptly named Why Not, a barrel aged lager. Going in I was sceptical that pale lager, of all styles, might be improved with a bit of whiskey barrel. I took the first sip before reading the label and got a definite kick of white grape, so was pleased to read that the barrel had contained Muscat wine before the distillery got its hands on it. There's a peppery spice too, and a green-cabbage noble hop bitterness, the clean profile lining these flavours up and delivering them one by one. Corky oak finishes it, but there's no spirit heat. I'm going to say this is interesting rather than good, and I don't think it's a real improvement on an ordinary decent lager. But I can see what's going on: it's not some Innis & Gunn-style oaky butterbomb, there really is a character that's all its own. I think your mileage will vary from mine on this, so probably best to ignore my review.

We round out this post with two more I discovered last week on the taps at Alfie Byrne's. Another tequila one came first: Barrel Aged Double Tequila which, despite the name, is actually lighter than the black one above, at 8.8% ABV. It's a dark red-brown and absolutely loaded with woody flavours: oak and pine in particular. Just when I thought that was going to be it, in drops some luscious ripe fruit: sweet strawberry and juicy grapes. I found myself wishing this side were more prominent. As-is, the splintery wood gets in the way of the subtleties without really bringing any charm of its own to the picture.

I had a better time with the beer beside it: Down Down, presumably a relative of the Double Down served at Big Grill, as the badge artwork is the same. As is the ABV, more or less, at 9.6% here, and it looks similar and tastes similar too. That's a wonderful mix of herbs and coconut, plus a spicy cedar complexity, some oaky white wine grape and a pinch of vanilla. It's smooth and big-bodied, much better suited to a grim winter's evening than a summer festival in the park.

DOT ends another year with a thought-provoking selection. I look forward to what's in store for 2019.

Ryed off into the sunset

It's Saturday, the Irish Craft Beer and Cider Festival is on at the RDS, everyone is either anticipating going or trying desperately to forget they were there. The point is this: nobody is reading beer blogs. But I felt I should round off the series of Irish Craft Beer Week posts with a couple of late additions. Both, as it happens, are brewed with grain du jour, rye.

Kinnegar are past masters of putting hops with rye and their Rustbucket IPA is one of the best of its kind. It has been extensively tweaked and starkly re-coloured to make Black Bucket, Ireland's first black rye IPA. This is 6.5% ABV, a strength that's very apparent in the heavy, almost sticky, texture. It shows the same huge grassy flavours as Rustbucket but in a different way. I'm not sure if the dark malts make much of a contribution -- it can be hard to tell because the visual clues are so powerful -- but perhaps there's a light dusting of milk chocolate. Or perhaps there isn't. There's definitely an extra floral intensity, a kind of hop perfume effect which is quite fun. Overall a very drinkable beer at the strength and one which I think meets my gimmicky requirement that black IPAs should taste indistinguishable from their pale equivalents.

Galway Bay Brewery have coupled the grain of the moment with the style of the moment to produce Holocene, a rye saison. A red rye saison, in fact, and a beautiful dark red-amber colour at that. The darker malt most definitely makes its presence felt here with a slightly sickly aroma and lots of smooth candy sweetness up front in the flavour. Fortunately this is quickly countered by the fruity saison tartness for an effect I can best describe as "toffee apple". A smack of dry grass enters the picture in what I thought was the finish of the flavour, but the tartness won't quit and that mouthwatering sharpness is the beer's valediction. No complaints about complexity here: this beer has a lot going on in it, and there's even a touch of that pepperiness so often missing from modern Irish saison. But at the heel of the hunt it left me wanting something simpler and cleaner. The toffee redness just gets in the way a bit, I think.

It'll be a while before I have a chance to compile my notes from this year's festival. But suffice it to say for this week anyway, Irish beer is all go.