Expand your mind, extend your brand

I've been working through some of what's on offer from Oskar Blues at the moment, beginning with Slow Chill, badged as a Munich-style Helles. It's weird and inappropriate to get one of these in a small can so I picked a wide glass to help make it seem bigger. Apart from the quantity, the appearance is bang-on: a crystal clear pale gold with a lasting layer of fine foam. The aroma is quite biscuity, with a touch of lemon spritz. The texture, again, is beyond reproach, being pillow-soft and sinkable.

I don't think they've quite nailed the flavour, however. While there's a sufficient malt element it's not the fresh white bread of the Bavarian real thing but quite a worty dry-malt-extract sweetness. The bitterness is too high as well; a grassy kick more like you'd find in a northern pils that conflicts with the sweet malt side instead of complementing it. There's an aftereffect of fluffy effervescence which is pleasant, but takes away any sensation of crispness. Not a bad effort, overall, but not something that'll convince any regular drinkers of actual Munich Helles. I'm sure the brewery will be on better form with the IPAs.

From a Slow Chill to a Thick Haze, presented as a New England-style IPA though not completely hazy and with a fair whack of bitterness. It's not even very thick, though it is a full 7% ABV. While the aroma is peachy and tropical, the first hit from the flavour is an intense pithiness with added lemon rind and damp grass. Late on there's a brief flash of peach and mango but it makes way for the return of the bitterness, giving the beer a waxy finish. I wonder were they aiming at cloning the flavour profile of Heady Topper -- my memory of that one arose while I was drinking. It's not what I was expecting, but overall I liked it. There's plenty of poke from the hops and the booze. IPAs really are the go-to style for Oskar Blues.

I highly enjoyed the Can-O-Bliss Tropical I had back in the summer. It turns out that the brewery has a slew of C-O-B variants available for the curious and brand-loyal. Sign me up, I guess.

First of those today is Can-O-Bliss Hazy, sticking with the series-mandated 7.2% ABV. Once again it's light on drugs, big on old-school citrus pith. You get a noseful of freshly-peeled satsuma and a flavour packed with dry tannins, incense spicing and full-shred marmalade. Mwah! It's like a hot whiskey but without the whiskey, and very easy going despite the strength. Hazy? Well it's not clear, but nor is it the custard emulsion that the cool kids insist upon. This is another blousey beauty; full strength yet accessible, with enough complexity to hold your attention without being at all busy. Is there a danger that these are all a bit samey? A cynical attempt at drawing in the tickers with different labellings of basically the same beer? To test this I immediately opened...

... Can-O-Bliss Citrus: same strength and looking the same translucent orange-yellow. This lacks the dryness in the aroma but has a similar orangey effect beyond that. As the name implies, it's much more bitter: an abrasive tang right from the first sip. The malt body helps balance that, and when the initial hit of gastric acid fades there's an exotic mix of jaffa pith, coconut oil and pine resin. They've called it citrus but it's through that and out the other side: a more intense, concentrated blend of exotic flavours. It's not very exciting though. I liked the kick, the punch, the rasp, but it doesn't finish anywhere nice. It's unbalanced. Though it's not unpleasant, I prefer both of the previous takes.

The latest edition to hit the shelves locally is Can-O-Bliss Resinous. It's cool to see that word front and centre on a label, but would the beer deliver? The appearance is as usual and there's the same lightly fruitsome aroma. It's sweet and tropical to begin and I had to look for the resin: I don't think I'd have picked this as "the resinous one" from a blind line-up. There is a certain oily dank that emerges as it warms but it's not the main feature. We're back in Satsuma Town for that. My scepticism about the series consisting of very similar IPAs was rekindled. I can't complain about the beer or its quality, mind.

Top of the line is Can-O-Bliss Double IPA at 8.2% ABV.  The visual theme continues here: an eggy yellow shade. Big hop and big malt jump out of the aroma right from the start: a warm lemon drink with a toffee on the side. That toffee thing is very strong in the flavour; intensely sweet to the point of turning tangy. The Citra comes in next but is held in check by the malt, delivering quite a mild charge of limey bitterness. There's plenty of more nuanced hop flavour too, including a clean and zesty citrus sorbet and a juicy mandarin-and-passionfruit angle. After a moment or two it's possible to forget how strong and sweet it is and just enjoy the hop party. This is a beer out for a good time. Be careful with it.

My affinity for the Can-O-Bliss series remeains unshaken, and I will be buying more as and when they appear. You can take it from me that it's a sign of good American IPA.

The Blues are calling

It's been a few weeks since any American beer has featured on these pages, so here's a selection from Oskar Blues that has been sitting in the drafts folder, patiently awaiting its turn.

We'll start at the start with One-y, a sort of diet IPA, promising an even 100 calories. It looks like a slimmers' beer too, pouring a watery yellow with a sickly looking haze and the thinnest of heads. You need to take a big huff to get any aroma from it -- there's just a faint dankness echoing from the deep. Unimpressive so far, but the foretaste is nice: a fresh combination of classic American hop flavours like grapefruit, lemon, pine and weed. Unfortuntely there's no malt substance to carry these forward and it all fades out quickly, leaving just a sad wateriness behind. It's very unsatisfying to drink, and frustrating because the constituent parts would work very well together in a bigger beer. The brewery may proffer the excuse that it's only 4% ABV, which is nothing in American terms, but I know plenty of British brewers who can make American hops absolutely sing at that sort of strength. No excuses.

The next step up the strength ladder is Rosé for Daze, 6% ABV and promising slight tartness with hibiscus and prickly pear. It really does look like a rosé wine: not pink pink, but the rich red of polished copper. The aroma gives little away, smelling crisp and plain, like a rye cracker. Its flavour is milder than anticipated but everything is there: the tartness front and centre, melding with the sour cherry and raspberry effect I usually get; and then the silly pink-tasting prickly pear arrives late and is uncharacteristically polite, not interrupting the others. I think that a bit more flower and fruit would be welcome over the acidity, and you get poor value for your 6% ABV given it's another thin one. Still, if you don't mind your pink fruit beers being a little on the severe side there's fun to be had here.

To follow, an oddity: Death by King Cake. I was hitherto unaware of a dessert called "King Cake", let alone that it can be fatal. The given style is nothing more specific than "ale", to which has been added vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cacao, orange peel and pecans. You'd wonder if there was room for malt and hops after all that. It's 6.5% ABV. For some reason I thought it would be dark so was surprised by the medium amber colour. Again the aroma has little to say, but the spices are definitely conspiring in there. The texture is thick and syrupy, with no immediate flavour, giving a first impression of a super-strength tramps' lager. The orange peel is probably the most prominent of the novelty flavours, then the cinnamon and chocolate. None of it is very loud, though. This tastes of alcohol more than cake; the spices an afterthought. It's inoffensive, and maybe the light touch on silliness is a point in its favour. Consider it as a slightly milder alternative to your after-dinner snifter of barley wine.

We approach top-out with Can-O-Bliss "Tropical India Pale Ale" at 7.2% ABV. It's a bright and hazy orange colour, smelling sweet and a bit sticky, like Fanta or orange travel sweet. That sweet jaffa theme continues on tasting. It's a very typical, even old-school, American IPA, bringing to mind echoes of Odell IPA and Bell's Two Hearted. Any stoners looking for something in their line will be disappointed. OK, if you take a big enough mouthful there's maybe a certain bud-like resin at the back of the palate, but you'd have to be looking for it. This one, finally, is full textured and full flavoured, tasting like the beer One-y could have been. With no gimmicks, and barely a nod to modern vanilla-and-garlic IPAs, it's unspectacular and nicely done. Well worth adding into your 4-for-€10 mix where you see it.

My last is a longtime fixture in the Oskar Blues line-up, but one I'd never tasted before, an archetype of the Americo-Belgian style Skaatch Ale: Old Chub. It's 8% ABV and a mahogany brown colour, topped with a handsome ivory-coloured head. It pours dense and it smells dense, all toffee and liquorice. They swap order in the flavour, with the bittering herbal aniseed to the fore, then burnt caramel rolling in behind. That's pretty much your lot, the contrasting elements combining into a nutty fade-out. While it's big and chewy on the palate and warming in the belly, there's no booze heat in the flavour, which is quite a deft move. The end result is smooth, mellow and easy going; verging on boring. It's the sort of strong and gentle beer you can relax into after tasting a selection of brash and loud ones, offering thick Belgian-style fun minus the fruity esters.

Quite a mix here, but the classically-constructed IPA wins the day for me.