To the point

It has been a slow start to 2019 for DOT Brew: a few rare special editions and exclusive blends, none of which have crossed my path. And then last week, in landed three fresh cans of non-barrel-aged beer and a set was very kindly donated to your correspondent by the guys in DrinkStore. There's an unusual reticence to name the brewery of origin on the cans; they just say "Brewed in Dublin". Third Barrel? Hope? DOT HQ, now that it holds a licence of its own? I'm sure it's no big secret.

The first I opened was So Far So Good: described as a New England session IPA, with a microscopic ABV of 3.2%. While that matches the "session" claim, there's not much "New England" in the appearance: it being an almost totally clear rose-gold colour. Galaxy and Amarillo are the billed hops, and there's a pleasant spicy dankness in the aroma, with an additional lacing of tropical fruit. This is all present in the flavour, but really quite muted. I think it's the lightness which lets it down: there's a watery feel, causing the hops to fade too fast, with insufficient malt to support them. A mere seconds after sipping, the flavour has shrunk to a mere tang of mineral water with a metallic bitterness on the very end. I wonder if this didn't turn out quite as planned: the description doesn't match and the taste is not quite right.

Moving on, it's an amber ale next. DOT's core bottled amber ale is a longtime favourite, so how is fancy-dan and fancy-can Intersection? It looks gorgeous: a crystalline auburn, topped by thick foam the colour of old ivory. The aroma has the delicious mix of fresh hops and caramel, though nowhere near as strongly as I'd like. The shadow of disappointment loomed again, and with less excuse, given this is 5.9% ABV. From tasting, it's not what I was expecting, but I can't say I'm disappointed. The hops quotient is lower than I anticipated, offering a punchy bitterness but not much flavour or complexity. To make up for it, the malt gets properly busy, bringing toffee and burnt caramel, increasing in intensity as it warms. The hops season this with a peppery greenness which is present but not terribly assertive, but it doesn't need to be. The finish brings it all in with sense of gingerbread or Christmas cookie which I found charming. It's an interesting sideways take on the amber ale style. Don't serve it too cold.

An IPA completes the trilogy: the solid-sounding Straight Up. Slightly hazy again, and a solid 6.6% ABV. There's no lack of aroma here, Idaho-7 and Centennial hops hitting the precise junction point between juicy tropicals and dry savoury seeds. The savoury wins that battle in the flavour, but it's joined, and enlivened, by a zesty citrus: sweet tangerine and candied lemon peel. While there's plenty of malt substance to carry the hops, and even a warmth from the alcohol, there's a pleasing dryness too, with not a jot more residual sugar than is strictly necessary for balance. For once the savoury quality didn't annoy me and I was able to enjoy this classically-constructed American-style IPA, just as it was billed.

Just one slight mis-step here. Otherwise DOT continues to show itself as an adept brewer of mainstream styles, as much as the casked and blended specialities.

The year DOT

My blog is 12 years old today. I'm using the opportunity to catch up with a local brewer whose beers I've been gathering notes on for months and am overdue actually doing a post about. The brewer is DOT, a Dublin-based outfit. I last met its proprietor Shane at an event in Teeling's Distillery back before Christmas. I tasted a few of his then-new releases, and bought a few more to take home and intend to drink for ages but not get around to.

DOT Amber Ale was the first I tried on the day. The accent is very definitely more on the hops than the malt in this one. It's relatively pale, for one thing, only 4.5% ABV, and places a bright and fresh citrus juiciness at the heart of the flavour. Though there's none of the toffee often found in the style, a certain creamy texture starts to emerge when it warms a little, with a touch of coconut about it, but it stays clean and keeps pushing the American hop flavours. Lovely.

I wasn't so keen on DOT American Stout. Despite the name, this uses New Zealand hops and there's a strong hit of the medicinal eucalyptus flavour some of them give. The intense dryness doesn't help this at all either.

On, then, to the set of bottles I brought home and finally opened a couple of weeks ago.

01: The Origin is a red ale Shane has used as the base for a trilogy of experiments. I could have bought the three-pack of all of them, but I'm annoying like that. It's big for the style at 5.6% ABV and poured a dull ochre colour with little by way of head. The aroma suits a heavy red, being toffee and red liquorice, while the flavour is dry and grainy to begin with, before opening out into summer fruit, meadow perfume and finishing on a strongly assertive bitterness. Despite the complexity it never loses sight of its roots, still a soft, easy-going down-to-earth sort of beer. I nearly regret not paying in to find out where the story went from here, but the other beers available were far too distracting.

So next up is DOT's Barrel Aged Roasted Oat Stout, a 6.5% ABV job in a classy paper sleeve. There's a bit of a homebrew twang off this one: a touch of meaty savouriness and a fruity side that speaks of temperature control which is not what it should be. The dryness I was expecting is quite low and there's surprisingly little roast. It does have the soft smoothness of oatmeal as well as the slight putty tang I often find in beers that use it. While a certain vanilla element from the barrel is present, it's not overdone. Redcurrant jelly is the flavour analogue it keeps bringing to mind: it has that same sort of dense homogeneous texture, as well as the sweet tart fruit. On balance I'm not sure I like it: while it's certainly complex, the flavours I enjoy in stout are absent, and I miss the extra spirity booze that tends to come with barrel-aged stouts, if the barrel did something fun before the beer went it. This one is just a bit too serious and plain.

The last of the set is one I'd had back in Teeling's originally and was impressed enough to make sure I brought a bottle home. It's DOT's Champagne Beer, using three yeast strains and aged in Chardonnay casks, and it does an amazing job of picking up the champagne qualities into what must have been a perfect base blonde beer. The fruit level is off the scale with succulent white grape, soft juicy melon and the green edge of kiwifruit. The back label mentions pineapple and yes, I get that as well. All the soft sweet and juicy notes are here and it's very difficult to believe we're facing 8.3% ABV when it's so lightly textured and easy drinking. I thought so when I first tasted it -- and stand by my view four months later -- that this is one of the best Irish beers ever made: massively complex yet exquisitely balanced, it verges on perfection.

Bringing us (I think) right up to date is DOT Spring Saison, the first of a promised sequence of seasonal saisons. A hazy deep orange colour, it's a substantial 5.9% ABV, but plays things light and breezy with a soft, juicy and above all fresh peach and melon flavour. A dry sharpness builds gradually as it goes -- and it goes quickly -- giving it the classical saison pepper. It's complex enough to be interesting but also works as a beautiful thirst-quenching refresher, albeit one which could do with a point or so knocked off the strength. Maybe the summer edition will do that.

DOT celebrated its own first birthday last night in Idlewild with a swathe of brand new beers. Look out for reviews of them in a post here soon. A couple gave that champagne beer a run for its money in the phwoar stakes.