A whip round

Today I have a selection of beers from Whiplash. I've been making good use of their Dublin bar, Fidelity, which has made finding some of their more esoteric output easier to find than hunting in shops.

Allta Dark Sour is first, created as a house beer for Dublin restaurant Allta but available elsewhere too, like Fidelity where I found it. It's dark: at the brownish end of garnet; and it's properly sour: the classy balsamic vinegar tang of Flanders red ale. Any more? I thought I detected some sweet bourbon vanilla in the aroma but it turns out it's cognac barrel aged, so that's the oak component. I can't say it tasted like brandy, though. From the dark malt there's a little caramel and a crisp roasted edge, then we're back to the sourness and the typically Flemish cherry and raspberry tartness with sweeter date and tamarind. It's an odd choice for a restauranty foody beer, but maybe they're pitching it as an aperitif. Regardless, it's rather nice, especially when allowed warm up and round out.

Staying in Fidelity, a new lager called They Reminisce Over You, in the still-sort-of-fashionable "Italian" style. The board shys away from calling it a pilsner and I'm not sure why that is: it's properly crisp and even a little creamy in the central European way. The hop profile is not what it could be, however, and I didn't get a whole lot of that character. In both flavour and aroma there's a mild summer fruitiness, of honeydew melon and white grape, but almost imperceptible. For the most part this is dry: clear and clean but avoids feeling thin or overfizzed. On a sunny summer evening it worked well as a refresher: 4.5% ABV and served at 3°C, numbers fans. I could have let it warm up to see if more flavour emerged but I doubt that's the brewer's intention.

My mantra of don't muck about with classic German styles has been observed with Don't Call Me Uncle, as straight a dunkel bock as you like. It's crystal clear and a gorgeous shade of cherrywood red. The aroma is a perfectly balanced mix of caramel malt and herbal noble hops, and there are no surprises from that in the flavour. It's 6.5% ABV and full bodied, which means the malt is foremost in the taste: bourbon biscuit, hard toffee and a little burnt breadcrust dryness. The hops take a back seat and, as someone who has occasional difficulties with pungent German hops, I'm glad of that. Here, they're limited to providing only a minor tang of acidity, preventing the sweet profile from getting cloying. It works, in that effortlessly refined German way, which I'm sure is not easy to do. Usually, bock fails to push my buttons but this example is spot on.

The brewery's can labels have become rather less engaging since they changed designer. The new one doesn't even have their name on it. Anyway, this is Desire Lines, a 6.8% ABV IPA, opaque as you like and hopped with Azacca, Galaxy and Motueka. There's a lovely fresh tropicality about the aroma with maybe just a hint of naughty dank in the background. The texture is nicely creamy, with low carbonation for enhanced suppability. I was a little let down by the flavour after that. There's rye in the grain bill, and the main thing I get from the flavour is a savoury, almost smoky, bitterness, which tastes very like rye to me. The fruit side of the hops, suggested by the aroma, doesn't really come through. It's certainly not juicy, though does have a stimulating hard bitterness in the finish. Ultimately I think it's a bit bland. With all the named varieties of ingredient I think I have a right to expect more complexity than was delivered.

Its ABV twin is Embracing Facts, another hazy IPA, this time with Hüll Melon and El Dorado. There's an annoyingly generous head and the standard Whiplash beaten-egg body. The aroma is sweet, fruity and crisp, like Skittles, and again we get that creamy meringue mouthfeel. But also again the flavour disappoints. Here it's standard haze problems: a rough and savoury grittiness, too much heat and a garlic or spring onion effect which drowns out the mix of grape melon and stonefruit which I can just about detect hovering in the background. The fun side of the off-flavours is a spicy nutmeg character, but I wanted fruit, dammit, and it didn't deliver. Whiplash used to be the one reliable brewery when it came to hazy IPA but they seem increasingly to be making ones that aren't to my taste. That's not on.

Let's regroup for a pale ale, one at 5% ABV called Slide. It's hazy, of course, and hopped using Strata and Galaxy. They give the aroma a pleasing mandarin juiciness, which is promising. There's a surprising amount of bitterness in the flavour; a hard resinous quality which isn't unpleasant but isn't what I was expecting either. The orangey fruit side sits behind this, though isn't strong enough to make the beer taste juicy or sweet. Once I had adjusted my expectations, I enjoyed it. They haven't skimped on the hops, and the bitterness builds, tasting almost like raw cones by the end. There's a very slight haze sharpness, but the hops prevent it from doing anything seriously problematic. It's not an easy drinker, but I like its sheer uncompromising wallop. Strap in.

At the same ABV but calling itself an IPA is Note To Self. It also says it's "West Coast" and it's the translucent gold of Sculpin and friends. I had been expecting grapefruit, though the aroma is sweet mandarin, which is lovely, but where's the bitterness? It's not really in the flavour either. There's a certain pithiness, but that's being charitable. Zest is as intense as things get, and there's certainly no resin, all of it finishing quickly with little to no aftertaste. We're in accessible-quencher territory here, rather than Whiplash hop fireworks. It's in a small can and sits comfortably beside the brewery's core offerings Rollover and Body Riddle -- built for the six-pack, or indeed pints at Fidelity. 

Finally, it looks like Chimes, the lovely lime-flavoured pale ale that Whiplash made for Dublin burger chain Bunsen, has been retired and replaced by the more plain-spoken Bunsen Pale Ale. This is 4.8% ABV and, as you might expect, fully hazy. There's a balance of sweet and bitterness, lemon juice meeting soft vanilla. I was served it very cold, in a chilled glass, and it's probably best consumed this way. There's a grittiness which begins to make its presence felt as the beer warms, accompanied by unwelcome oily garlic. But when cold it's clean and zesty, and does an excellent job of scrubbing burger grease off the palate. There's certainly no indication that they've skimped on hops, just because it's not pitched at hardened beer enthusiasts.

It seems Fidelity is definitely the place to go if you want Whiplash beer that isn't a hazy pale ale of some sort, although it does sell lots of them too.

Flashing the lights and sweeping up

And so we bring down the curtain on 2022 with the year's final post. It wasn't a bad one for me, all things considered, and I was able to get out and about more than in previous recent ones. This was the year beer festivals returned, and I was lucky enough to get to attend them in three different countries. While I tot up the particular highlights, I'm aided by something suitably strong and wintery.

Kinnegar has substantially re-jigged its sweet stout Winterland for its second outing. Now it's gone imperial, with the ABV up at 9% and coconut as the added ingredient. Is that Christmassy? Christmassy enough, I guess. It's thick in the glass, shimmering black under a tan coloured head. The aroma is sweetly floral, suggesting rosewater or cherry liqueur to me. They haven't gone overboard with the coconut, and before that arrives it's a roasty and bitter old-fashioned stout, perhaps more in the Foreign Extra genre than imperial. There's a slightly unctuous quality, giving an early impression of super-strong filter coffee and leaving that as residue in the finish. The coconut makes an appearance in the middle where it's very much dry and toasted rather than fresh and moist. This tones down the novelty factor and complements the dark grain well. Despite the slight severity of the bitterness this fulfils its role as a cuddly winter beer very nicely.

So I am positively aglow as I face into...

The Golden Pint Awards 2022

Best Irish Cask Beer: Brehon Black Hills
Options around Irish cask beer have been severely limited this year and it didn't feature at any of the Irish festivals I went to. On the plus side, JD Wetherspoon has a new commitment to Irish cask, making arrangements with Brehon and Dungarvan to have at least one of theirs on the handpumps at any given time. I've not yet seen Dungarvan's Black Rock stout in the wild, but have had the pleasure of Brehon's excellent Black Hills (aka Ulster Black) oatmeal stout and it really sings in this format. Do not pass it up if you see it.

Best Irish Keg Beer: Third Barrel Funk's Old Brother
This aged Brettanomyces-fermented red ale showed up at the Fidelty festival over the summer where it wowed me with its endlessly unfolding complexity.

Best Irish Bottled Beer: Land & Labour Bière de Rhubarbe
Ireland's spontaneous-fermentation guru would be claiming a few spots if this were a top ten instead of single winners. However, this was the one I thought most accomplished of the offerings so far, and was a highlight of the Mullingar Wild Beer Festival where there was plenty of competition.

Best Irish Canned Beer: O Brother Opus One
We have not been short of big stouts this year, with Lough Gill, Larkin's and Wicklow Wolf all releasing multiple versions. Opus One, a 12.5% ABV job given a gentle whiskey barrel treatment, was my favourite of the lot. Everything to enjoy about the style was ably demonstrated.

Best Overseas Draught Beer: Eik & Tid Barbar
When I'm compiling these, I try as much as possible not to refer to notes. I'm looking for the memorable ones. This Norwegian sour ale I found on tap at BXLBeerfest was one of the year's showstoppers for me. I don't remember exactly how it tasted, but I remember how it made me feel. A close second place goes to the mighty Keesmann Herren Pils, and drinking it at source in Bamberg was one of my year's beery achievements.

Best Overseas Bottled Beer: HORAL Oude Geuze Mega Blend (2021)
I've had a few vintages of this and they haven't all been brilliant. This one, however, was utterly magnificent, even by the standards of high-end oude geuze. A  nine-way collaboration seems like a recipe for watered-down mediocrity but instead they've made something better than I've had from any individual producer.

Best Overseas Canned Beer: Hoppin' Frog T.O.R.I.S. the Tyrant
It was fun going through all the B.O.R.I.S. variants back in February, and it isn't often that such a variant would outshine a classic original. T.O.R.I.S. did, though, simply by bigging up what was already there. Fair play.

Best Collaboration Brew: Otterbank/Third Barrel Time Will Tell
Like our Irish Keg winner, this was another heavy red ale given the Brett 'n' bugs treatment with spectacular results. It arrived in April as the first in a collaboration series which then went no further. Was the brew day that bad?

Best Overall Beer: HORAL Oude Geuze Mega Blend (2021)
The fact that I drank this in early January and I'm still thinking about it means it's the obvious candidate for the top prize. I have another bottle too, so you may be seeing it here again.

Best Branding: Larkin's
Brightly coloured cartoons of anthropomorphic animals aren't just a sound financial investment, they also look good on beer cans. I've been enjoying the most recent Larkin's rebrand, especially the action foxes on the imperial stouts.

Best Pump Clip: Ca' del Brado Cerbero
I went through my photos for the year and found very few pumpclip images. It seems cool bars and festivals don't use them much any more. I liked the shaggy purple doggo on this old ale from Emilia-Romagna's finest, however.

Best Bottle/Can Label: Whiplash Chimes
Second year in a row for Whiplash, which I doubt anyone familar with the brewery's can art will be surprised at. Chimes is a pale ale produced for the Bunsen chain of burger restaurants. "Let's put a burger on it, which is also a bunsen burner". Simple, a bit daft, but it amused me and that's what counts.




Best Irish Brewery: Galway Bay Brewery
I'd be prepared to give them this on foot of the return of Märzen To The Fire alone, but we also got new Two Hundred Fathoms, a West Coast IPA that actually means it, a bunch of stouts and some fun tinkering in the broad Belgian farmhouse genre.

Best Overseas Brewery: Moersleutel
The Dutch brewery graduated from one whose beers I enjoy when I find them to one I actively seek out. It was all imperial stouts until this year's Borefts Beer Festival where I tried a double IPA they'd made and it was at exactly the same high standard. They're occasionally available in Ireland, if you want to find out what the fuss is about.

Best New Brewery Opening 2022: Original 7
This was a tough one. 2022 has been much more about breweries closing than opening. We said goodbye to Metalman and St Mel's, and are watching with concern as Eight Degrees slips into a zombie half-life while the stupid multinational that acquired it tries to find a buyer. There have been rays of light, however, especially up north, but nothing that I've actually been able to drink. I haven't had any beers from Cork's Original 7 either, but I'm giving them the award for what they represent: the spirit of independent brewing after Molson Coors has come in and absolutely trashed the brand you built previously. Let's hope for something similar for Eight Degrees.

Pub/Bar of the Year: Foeders
It has taken me far too long to find my way to this geeky heaven in Amsterdam, very much one of those for-people-like-me bars. An excellent beer line-up and lovely service. If they gave the floor an occasional sweep it would be nearly perfect.

Best New Pub/Bar Opening 2022: UnderDog @ The Legal Eagle
"Will it / won't it" was the talk of Dublin's beer scene since version one shut up shop during the throes of the pandemic. Consequently there was proper elation when Dublin's only beer-first pub found a new home, where the winning formula of constantly rotating high end beers and first rate service has been reinstated with more legroom and actual windows. Most pleasing of all is that fact that the regulars are back and once again we have place to pull up a barstool and set the beer industry to rights with whomever is there to listen. There was a late contender for the title with the arrival of Fidelity on Queen Street just last week. More about what's going on there early in the new year.

Beer Festival of the Year: BXLBeerFest
So many great candidates but I'm picking this one because it was the most me of them. The range of beers and breweries wasn't the biggest, but there was a theme of wild and funky running through it which I wasn't expecting but valued hugely. The atmosphere was upbeat, the seating was plentiful and at the end you got to go drinking in Brussels. If all that seems like the kind of thing you might enjoy, stick it in your calendar for late August.

Supermarket of the Year: Polonez
There wasn't a whole lot of special interest beer at my usuals, but I did enjoy the occasional foray into the eastern European supermarket chain for exotic items, mostly of the lager variety.

Independent Retailer of the Year: Mace SCR
I usually go in for something specific and come out with a bag bursting at the seams. Serendipity, thy name is the Mace on the South Circular Road, at the back gate of James's Hospital.

Online Retailer of the Year: Craft Central
Can't argue with the numbers here: I bought more beer from Craft Central than anywhere else in 2022. The system is simply too easy: new beers arrive, they go up on the website, I order them and pick them up next time I'm passing. There's a slight premium to be paid for the convenience but it's very much worth it to me.

Best Beer Book or Magazine: none
I usually award this one by default for the single book I read during the year, but I don't even have that for 2022. A symptom of wider malaise in the beer publishing industry? Nope, just me being bad at reading.

Best Beer Blog or Website: BeerFoodTravel
April was the only month that Liam didn't have a new post for us, which counts as prolific in beer blogging these days. It's all great stuff too, meticulously researched and entertainingly written. This Golden Pint is very much a personal token of appreciation for the effort that goes in.

Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer: @alldoomandgloom
In-jokes are the best jokes; the more specific and audience-tailored the better. Ross gets to them faster and better than I do. I don't know how much longer I'll still have a Johnson to give, but for now it's his.

Best Brewery Website/Social media: @PilotBeerUK
They last collected this one from me in 2016 but they're still at it and it never gets old. I don't get to drink their beer and daft tweets is the second-best thing a brewery can produce.

There. That'll do for 2022. I have a generalised bad feeling about what 2023 will bring to the small and independent brewing sector in Ireland and abroad so I'll sign off with a wish of good luck to all who may be affected.

The browns and the blues

It's a new set of Whiplash cans today, all be it slightly fewer than the last tranche, and some smaller cans too.

Loud Places is a pale ale, presented in the typical hazy Whiplash fashion. With that comes the typical Whiplash cleanness and the typical Whiplash juice: it goes big on the soft and mouthwatering mandarin and satsuma first, tempering it with a slightly hard lemon citrus later on, for an extremely thirst-quenching Rock Shandy effect. The aroma more or less matches that, perhaps suggesting a little more bitterness than is actually delivered, but you know what you're getting. I would ding it a little on the texture: though it's light-bodied and extremely easy to drink, it's a full 5% ABV. I expect something a little more rounded at the strength, or for such a lightweight to be appropriately lower in alcohol. It's hard to be too critical of this one, though: an unfussy and perfectly tasty pale ale.

Its fraternal twin, or possibly arch-nemesis, is also 5% ABV but otherwise quite different. The label describes Quiet Crowd as a "robust brown [ale]" and boy is it robust. No sneaky thinness here. The hefty, thick, creamy body carries an almost harsh coffee bitterness, one which takes a few sips to adjust to. At that point the complexities emerge, including summer fruit, melty milk chocolate and gooey caramel. A scorching burnt dry roast arrives in the finish, lest you begin taking it for a softie. This is no easy drinker but it's just as much fun as the one above; possibly even more so as brown ales aren't as commonplace as hazy pale ales, despite something of a recent resurgence. Of course, Whiplash has played a big part in that resurgence, and they're not done yet.

I had to go out for the next small can: Chimes, brewed for the Bunsen burger chain and only available in their restaurants. The official description is that it's a "lime zest pale ale" and it's 5% ABV. Served to me cold in a chilled glass it tasted of very little at first and I had to wait for it to warm up and present itself properly. It was worth waiting for. First off, there's a pleasingly full and soft fluffy texture, more like a wheat beer than a pale ale. I didn't get much by way of hop, but the lime plays things interestingly, bringing a spicy and spritzy quality, all bergamot and lavender: much more complex than simply a base beer dosed with syrup. There's a tighter zest in the finish for anyone who thinks a lime beer should taste of actual limes. I liked the rounded fullness of it, making this great for matching with food. It has been thought through, well designed and executed: streets ahead of the usual approach of slapping the restaurant's name on whatever a nearby brewery makes cheaply and isn't too precious about.

Today's third pale ale is called Got To Keep On and is a smidge stronger than the others at 5.3% ABV. The can didn't need to tell me there were oats in the grist: it's very apparent from the appearance, a dull beige emulsion. The hops are an intriguing combination of Vic Secret, Azacca and El Dorado, the latter two giving it that fruit-chew candy sweetness they tend to remind me of. There's a bitterness behind this which is in part the herbal side of Vic Secret, but there's a nastier murky grit element too, something that Whiplash usually manages to avoid, despite turning out endless varieties of very hazy beer. The payoff is a lovely smooth creamy texture which almost makes it worthwhile. Half way down I realised I had no more to say about this one. There are no hidden underlying complexities and the flavour doesn't evolve as it goes. It's simple and drinkable, doing the basics for a pale ale quite well, but not as good as Loud Places above.

Moving, on, seeming like a leftover from the big drop of German-style beers late last year, next it's Melted, a roggenbier, so centred on rye malt and hopped with Magnum and Hersbrucker. As one might expect from a rye beer, it's a dark orange-amber in colour, looking stronger and denser than 5.4% ABV. There's Vienna malt in the mix as well, and that comes through strongly on the aroma: lots of biscuit, at the expense of any rye or hop bitterness. It doesn't get much bitterer on tasting, the rye is restrained -- a little bit grassy and very slightly peppery -- and I couldn't detect anything much from the hops. At this point I checked the yeast variety listed and discovered that it is a lager, which makes total sense. Despite quite a busy mix of ingredients, this is a lager first and foremost: immaculate in the cleanness of its flavour, approachable and refreshing, with the rye serving to add a pinch of additional character, not dominate the whole picture. Malted barley reigns supreme here: smooth and a little bit caramelised, but not fully sweet. I came to it expecting something challenging and busy, so was very pleasantly surprised to be given a beer to relax into, one which makes few demands on the drinker while also being far from boring.

Released at the same time as Got To Keep On was a double IPA named Temporary Pleasure and it's a similarly extreme sort of beige colour. Vic Secret and Azacca return too, joined by BRU-1, and oats, of course. But while that was innocent and easy going, this is a hot beast of a thing, laying on the alcohol alongside that grit again and a low level of sweetly tropical fruit, almost an afterthought. It's difficult drinking, even at 8% ABV. This is not how Whiplash normally makes double IPAs. It's how a lot of breweries make them, but not Whiplash. With the heat and grit, all that's missing is the garlic for a clear run of wrong. Fingers crossed this is just a temporary phase.

Presenting, penultimately, Smoke Stack Lightnin', a biiig brown ale of 8.5% ABV with smoked malt and barrel aged. Compared to Quiet Crowd they've gone big with the can too, upgrading to 440ml. It's on the red side of brown -- ruby coloured when held to the light -- and is topped by a thick cream-coloured head. The aroma is a strange mix of coffee, caramel and ham. Strange, but not unpleasant. That ham effect is the first part of the flavour to hit the palate, and also the part which lingers longest in the finish. In the middle, just like with the aroma, there's sweet and chewy caramel and rich oily coffee. Despite the strength, a considerable density, and the full-on flavours, it's clean and surprisingly drinkable, with no heat or esters to disturb the experience. It made for a highly satisfying nightcap: better than any mug of cocoa.

There's a triple IPA to bring us home: Sound of Silver, with Strata, Azacca and Sultana which should be quite a fruity proposition. It's hella murky, and eggy yellow with visible gritty silt in the glass. The aroma is lightly tropical and there's no sign of the looming 11% ABV. It is indeed very clean and quite warming, with a softly comforting texture and tropical cordial flavours. No grit, and no especially strong heat. At the same time, the hops are a bit of a mush, all smudged in together with nothing in particular standing out. I get that's it's very much going for the New England thing, but a bit of a bitter edge would be a big improvement. As is, this doesn't really deliver the excitement that "triple IPA" ought to elicit. It's too calm and too balanced. Make extreme beer extreme again.

While I'm all in favour of style diversity and hope Whiplash continues to keep things original and interesting, I would not at all mind a few more in the brown ale genre if the quality is as good as this latest pair.