Hopswitching

All of today's beers have featured on the blog before. Well, sort of. Breweries change their recipes all the time: hop availability, or lack of it, can be a bit of a random factor so change is inevitable. But there are plenty of other reasons too. It's generally a good sign when the brewery is up front with the drinker about it, and that's the case with each of these.

Lineman is first, with version four of their Electric Avenue pale ale, this one with Idaho 7, Citra and Chinook. As well as the hops, the ABV is the lowest yet at 5.1% ABV and it's considerably paler than previous iterations. The aroma is a luscious sort of bitterness, with honeydew melon gradually sharpening through kiwi fruit into full-on lime. No limes in the flavour, however. All is soft and sweet and summery, suggesting strawberry, mango, passionfruit and pineapple. If I hadn't read the varieties on the label I would have said with conviction that Mosaic was among them: there's even a tiny hint of savoury caraway, but otherwise a lot in common with White Hag's Little Fawn. It's beautifully refreshing and very downable. I love its brightness and freshness, and I'm somewhat surprised that it's done with dank badboys like Citra and Chinook. Regardless, very tasty stuff.

I was also surprised to learn it's coming up on four years since Rye River released its Whiplash homage Miami J. Back in 2018 it was a cutting-edge hazy IPA though the hops were mostly classics like Amarillo, Citra and Mosaic: not a thing wrong with them. But the edge needs sharpening and this new version is officially a collaboration with hop merchants BarthHaas, utilising Lupomax, Incognito and Spectrum from the drawer labelled "New Stuff". The rest is presumably the same: 6.5% ABV and a medium hazy orange. The aroma is funky and dank, and that's even more intense in the flavour. I get a mix of over-ripe apricots, extremely ripe and runny cheese, and fermenting silage. It's like it's gone through freshness and out the other side. As such, it's a bit extreme for my tastes. I like juicy tropicals but I don't think you can keep turning up the volume on that and expect it to improve. While I appreciate the artisanship that's gone in here, and what it's meant to be, I found it quite sickly and difficult, which wasn't the case with the much more balanced original.

I didn't really need an excuse to pick up another can of Western Herd Flora and Fauna, the champion Beoir Beer of the Year for 2022, but I got one. With a 10-hop double IPA I imagine there's plenty of room for switching things about, and with batch two they've replaced the Strata with Galaxy. It's still 9.45% ABV and a flawless golden colour, and still low on aroma, with only a kind of white lemonade sweetness to speak for all that malt and all those hops. The pine and the lime are still there, but I'm not getting the same level of oily dank richness that was a big part of the original. It's still beautiful: constructed with precision and not a thing out of place. But I can't help thinking there's something missing, and I don't know if that's because of the hop substitution or not. Still, if you have yet to have the pleasure of Flora and Fauna, this version is absolutely worth your while.

I haven't seen hop shortages in the beer news for quite a while. I guess that means that changes to recipes are more often at the brewer's discretion these days, which is good. I do wonder at what point a recipe deserves a new name, though. Those Electric Avenues don't have much in common with each other, for example.

Back slaps and barley wine

My reflections on 2021-that-was are dogged by the question of whether this was Another Weird Year or the beginning of The New Normal. Regardless, I am sticking doggedly to the old categories laid out by Mark and Andy 600 years ago, and will endeavour to fill each one, however meaninglessly. If you're looking for relevance and insight you are very much on the wrong blog.

A tradition of my own dictates that the meandering musings be accompanied by a beer, and this year's was shipped to me by Eight Degrees as a kind gift. Irish Oak-Aged Barleywine is the fourth in their five-beer Original Gravity series. It's a beast of a thing at 12.2% ABV and one noteworthy aspect is its use of Irish oak for the ageing, something we also saw from Wicklow Wolf's autumn Locavore barley wine last month. In the glass it's a pleasing russet shade and has a gorgeous vinous aroma, all Madeira, Tokaji and similarly sweet, luscious styles. Though it poured thickly, the texture is light on the palate, and only the heady alcohol vapours give the drinker pause; a reminder that this is very much a sipping job. The flavour opens with a sharp pinch of wood, sappy and resinous, before smoothing out into the sweet wine detected in the aroma. This would run the risk of turning cloying were the texture thicker, though there's also a certain balancing bitterness from Nugget and Cascade hops. The specs tell us they're working at a massive 82 IBUs though only just making themselves heard. I think I enjoyed the base beer a lot more than the barrel effects. An additional can will be aged to see if that sappiness fades eventually. Overall, though, this is an excellent relaxing beer for a winter's afternoon. Not that I get to do any relaxation, as I move on to...

The Golden Pint Awards 2021

Best Irish Cask Beer: BRÚ Brown Ale
There's always at least one winner-by-default in these, and they're starting early this year. The pub situation being what it was, this is the only Irish cask beer I drank in 2021. Still, it wouldn't get an award if I hadn't enjoyed it so BRÚ is fully deserving of the accolade.

Best Irish Keg Beer: Four Provinces Gob Fliuch
A year after its launch in cans, the Four Provinces mild arrived at the brewery pub on draught for the first time, albeit only for takeaway pints, initially. During the summer it became my Friday evening ritual and one of the highlights of the week. This is still a magnificent beer, and that it's comfortingly familiar and brewed on my doorstep is also in its favour.

Best Irish Bottled Beer: Land & Labour Lúnaberry
I mentioned last year that this has become the true prestige category of the GPAs. Bottles are for the special stuff. There were several candidates but when I took stock of my memories of each, the blueberry lambic-a-like from Land & Labour was the one which left the strongest lasting impression of excellence. It's L&L's first appearance in this category but from what I've tasted in 2021 I'm reasonably sure there will be more in future.

Best Irish Canned Beer: Western Herd Flora & Fauna
It was April when this one made me think "that's a Golden Pints winner right there". I have since run the due diligence; there were quite a number of candidates for this award, and an extremely honorable mention must go to Brewmaster Imperial Nitro Stout, but I think Flora & Fauna holds up as the greatest achievement of the canned arts on this island in 2021. I knew nothing about it when I drank it, but in the gap between me drinking it and publishing a review one month later, the plaudits were already pouring in. The apotheosis of the West Coast revival, this brought me back to a time when big and punchy American hops on a clean malt base, served brewery-fresh, was the most perfect thing ever produced for humans to drink.

Best Overseas Draught Beer: De la Senne Zenne Pils
Another category awarded based on the feel of the memory rather than any detailed analysis of the field. I was surprised to find a pils by the pint on my visit to Brasserie de la Senne but utterly thrilled by what I was given. I saw little sign of this becoming a ubiquitous flagship around Brussels but it absolutely deserves to be one.

Best Overseas Bottled Beer: Cantillon Carignan
Yeah, my holidays were largely in Brussels this year, at a time where there was some slight semblance of old-normality about the place. So I drank large bottles of fruited geuze in the Cantillon brewery bar, and they were absolutely delicious, and the Carignan grape one was my favourite of those. Were I giving out silver and bronze medals, other beers from the same session would likely feature, but that would be boring.

Best Overseas Canned Beer: Sierra Nevada Big Little Thing
Now this was a surprise. Nothing jumped out immediately for the category so I had to do some digging to find candidates. And even though I haven't been fully on board with Sierra Nevada's sequence of Hazy Little Thing brand extensions, it turns out I sang the praises of this one. I don't remember now exactly how it tasted so it's just as well it's still in circulation. I will be giving it another go.

Best Collaboration Brew: Galway Bay / Stu Mostów Boulevardier
This was such a close contender for best Irish bottled beer that I'm delighted to find a different rosette to pin on it. My cynicism over beers designed to taste like cocktails was completely washed away by this one. It's all beer, and a masterclass in complexity and balance, even when bourbon barrels and double-digit ABVs are involved.

Best Overall Beer: Western Herd Flora & Fauna
Like I say, it's a classic; a beer for the ages. I wouldn't dream of using this award as a means of bribing the brewery into keeping it in production, but if that should occur, I won't have any particular objection.

Best Branding: Metalman
The 2010 Golden Pints saw brand new brewer Metalman take an award for their art deco logo before it had even released any beer. The brand got an overhaul this year, moving from the 1920s to the 1950s with the classic science-fiction look of its Galactic Voyager series. It's colourful and dynamic, all action and excitement while still classic and charmingly retro. Since the first ones appeared in the spring I always look forward to seeing each new version.

Best Pump Clip: Flow
Table service has really done a number on the tap badge as a marketing tool. Admiring the array of artwork while my pint is being poured seems like something from a bygone age. I feared I might have to skip this award, except... I really like the goofy wolf logo used by the Wolf foodhall in Brussels. You see him a lot in there and he is used on the mini blackboards attached to the taps of the onsite Flow brewery. I therefore deem him a pump clip, and my favourite of the year. Good boy.

Best Bottle/Can Label: Whiplash The Horror
More than any Irish brewery, Whiplash puts High Art on its cans. Just occasionally, however, Sophie the artist gives us something playful and silly, which is when I tend to take notice. So it is with the wide-eyed Charlie Sheen, captured in a particularly daft bit of that very daft war film. Go get 'im, Chuck!



Best Irish Brewery: Lineman
I say this almost every time I review one of their beers, but Lineman really has a bead on how to make classic beer styles, and they've turned out a particularly pleasing high number of those during 2021. Quality and variety done locally is how this award usually goes, and this year Lineman was a level above.

Best Overseas Brewery: Brussels Beer Project
I came home from Brussels very impressed at how the local brewing scene has expanded in recent years, and how the city really seems to be taking it to its heart. I drank and enjoyed quite a few beers from The Big Two, and I'm sure there are those who think I've picked the wrong one here: unlike De la Senne, BBP has not yet made the move to being a fully in-Brussels brewery. But it's coming, as is their all-new lambic brewery, so I have no qualms about giving them this award, though the quality of the many beers released under their name is phenomenal too.

Best New Brewery Opening 2021: Farrington's
Pickings were slim in this category, but there is definitely promise in what I've tasted from the new brewery in Kildare, so they get the gong.

Pub/Bar of the Year: DeRat
I didn't spend much time in pubs this year. It has simply stopped being the fun it used to be, and Dublin lacking a beer bar with serious variety and turnover means there's not much to attract me and my notebook out. Calling in for one beer on a dismal evening in October was enough to secure this prize for DeRat in Utrecht. It was busy but not crowded, highly convivial and with a fantastic selection. For half an hour I had a glimpse back to how pubs used to be. Should it ever come back, I will not be taking that for granted.

Best New Pub/Bar Opening 2021: The Beer Temple
There's only one serious contender in this category: the takeover of this grand prime location on the corner of Dame Street and Parliament Street by the newly combined Galway Bay and BRÚ breweries. They had a short run at normality during November, and I enjoyed my visits. I look forward to making more of it in the months, and years, to come.

Beer Festival of the Year: PINT Jubileum
Another default winner. The bijou little festival at Bierbrouwerij Mommeriete in Gramsbergen to celebrate PINT's birthday was my only beer festival of 2021. I did enjoy it, though.

Supermarket of the Year: SuperValu Sundrive
This shop goes through phases of being good at beer and is currently on something of an upswing. On more than one occasion this year I found beers on the shelves which had not yet made their way to the independent off licences. This award is dedicated to whomever it is who keeps saying "Yes" when the Grand Cru van opens its doors.

Independent Retailer of the Year: Craft Central
My time in the city centre has been limited all year, so when I'm looking to pick up beers, efficiency is important. Craft Central / Stephen Street News hasn't quite been a one-stop-shop for me, but it's the next best thing. I have availed of browsing the fridges, click-and-collect and home delivery, and it all just works.

Online Retailer of the Year: Yards & Crafts
February saw Brickyard in Dundrum pivot to becoming an online off licence as well. I've only used them a few times, but it's always been because they have something in stock that I can't find anywhere else. That's the service I need most from an online operation and what makes this one stand out for me.

Best Beer Book or Magazine: Beeronomics: How Beer Explains the World by Johan Swinnen & Devin Briski
I've had this book since 2018 but for whatever reason never made the time to read it. This year I did, and really enjoyed it. The writers are economists, so take the working of the market as the starting point of their examination of beer and brewing through history, from the church's taxes on medieval gruit, through to the grand consolidation which resulted in AB InBev vs. everybody else. The chapter on how TV advertising was responsible for the death of local American beer brands is particularly enlightening -- it's nice that there are still new stories to tell from 20th century beer history.

Best Beer Blog or Website: Boak & Bailey
Our little community of beer commentariat is getting littler, but Jess and Ray are doing steadfast work to keep it together and, where possible, expand it so it's not the same old voices. Their Saturday morning round-ups are essential reading, and they even find the time for the occasional blog post (and beer reviews!) among the newsletter, Patreon and social media material. Being the Head Girl and Head Boy of Beer Blogging College can be a thankless task, so this is just to say thanks, it is appreciated.

Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer: @Nickiquote
This reformed beer blogger rarely mentions the stuff any more but there's plenty of good (better) content besides: art, music, dry wit and a rich seam of quality retweets. Nick has kept me amused and entertained all year.

Best Brewery Website/Social media: Whiplash
Two in a row for the Dublin brewery. In my citation last year I complained that they were a little too Instagrammy for my liking, but it's all on Twitter where I can see it now: lots of detail on the many new releases and re-releases over the year, plus of course the iconic artwork. Questions get answered too, which should be taken for granted but not every brewery on social media does it. Well played to all the humans behind the Whiplash accounts. 


Is that enough? I think that's enough. On the cusp of this blog's 18th year it only remains for me to say thanks to you, the reader, for keeping my hit counter ticking over. Have a safe and happy New Year, and I'll be back with the first of 2022's posts on Monday.

IPArade

And so we reach the end of this sequence of posts in honour of Indie Beer Week 2021. I'm concluding with a cross-section of pale ales, IPAs and hoppy whatnot from across the independent brewing industry in these parts.

To begin, "just in time for summer", a new version of Black's The Session, this one with Pink Grapefruit. I was never much of a fan of the original 3.5%-er, and dilution with grapefruit to 3.4% ABV didn't immediately attract me. It's an improvement though. The aroma is its best feature: an assertive bitter lemon fizz effect. The base beer is very dry, but the acrdity is offset nicely by whatever sugary concentrate has been dumped in. Even with a minor hop twang, it's a bit cheeky of them to go calling it an IPA. But as something in the broad radler genre it works well: refreshing and very easy to quaff. Best enjoyed without too much analysis, I think.

Its sunny companion is a "Simcoe & Cascade Summer IPA" called St Tropez. Despite that, it has an aroma for all seasons: a sturdy whack of grapefruit and green veg. Perhaps it's the modest 4.8% ABV that qualifies it particularly for summer. It's no compromised lightweight, however, with plenty of body carrying a big and tongue-coating resinous bitterness: waxy at the front with a sage and rosemary oily complexity arriving late. There are some lighter, zesty, citrus notes beyond this -- west coast, old school, grown up: whatever terminology you want to put on it. The branding had me expecting some kind of tropical juicebomb but it is most definitely not that. It's very good though: bracing and refreshing, built for an Irish summer, not a Mediterranean one.

Wide Street brushes away the Brett for Time-Lapse session IPA, first in a new series of seasonals. It's pale and translucent in the glass and smells of mouthwatering tangerine and spicy bergamot. Amarillo and Galaxy are bringing that orangey effect while the random factor comes from Nelson Sauvin. The juicy mandarin and tangerine is the long and short of the flavour, buoyed up on plenty of malt substance. A dry and slightly funky complexity in the background could be the Nelson, or maybe something microbially interesting from somewhere else in the brewery. Regardless, the end result is gloriously refreshing and sinkable, with plenty of complex character. Here's hoping Time-Lapse 2 doesn't stray too far from this fine paradigm.

My previous IPA round-up featured Big Feelings from Galway Bay. It now has a baby brother: Little Feelings, a pale ale of 5% ABV, brewed with Strata and Mosaic. It's yellow and murky, which isn't ideal, but the aroma is strikingly beautiful: a heady mix of fizzy fruit chews and juicy sweet citrus, both in large quantity. These two sides polarise further on tasting, with creamy vanilla at one end and pithy lemon on the other. The latter's sharpness does a great job offsetting the fluffy texture, and thankfully there's no gritty interference from the suspended bits either. The whole thing is bold-flavoured yet easy drinking, and surprisingly clean and refreshing for a dense and hazy job. There's very little to object to here.

It's a series-within-a-series at Kinnegar: Brewers At Play No. 14 is the third one to be a Hazy Session IPA. An endless choice of hop varieties is the excuse on the can, though it doesn't say which ones were used here. It's one of those trubby beige numbers, though has a decent head and a fresh citrus aroma. The dreggyness is polite enough to wait for the flavour. It's dregs in spades, though: an almost smoky savoury quality, biting harshly at the front and sanding down the gullet on its way out. In between, the hop saturation brings garlic oil and the hard pine of a raw hop pellet. Amazingly, they've included lactose in the ingredients, and if it's really there it's not doing anything to soften the roughness. Anyone who can manage an actual session on this is made of sterner stuff than me. I appreciate that the brewery is learning about its recipes and processes with this series, and I'd like the lesson here to be "let's not do this again".

Also continuing a series, Lineman takes us back to Electric Avenue, #2 featuring Talus and Hallertau Blanc with the ABV coming down to 5.3% ABV. I guess this is why it's labelled as an "extra pale ale" rather than "IPA". Pfft, whatever. It's quite dense-looking in the glass, an opaque sunset-yellow shade topped with lots of foam. A fun mix of spice and citrus greets the nose, suggesting a beer that's bitter first and fruity later. And so it goes on tasting: there's quite an intense hit of citrus pith and rind from the outset of the taste. I've only had a handful of Talus beers so I can't go assigning flavours too freely, but the pith comes with a Sorachi-like coconut, and that's definitely not something I associate with Hallertau Blanc. The soft lusciousness in the late flavour, though: that is Hallertau Blanc for sure. The contrast is fun. I'm not sure if it counts as balance, since the pith is mostly in control, but it's a lovely combination anyway -- bright and summery, sweet yet clean, charming but assertive. I'd be quite happy if they stopped the experimenting here.

But of course they didn't. Electric Avenue #3 returns us to the classic 6% ABV IPA and utilises Simcoe, Citra and Mandarina Bavaria. Medium hazy in the glass, it smells quite harsh, a mix of cheap fruit-flavoured candy and melted plastic. The flavour is along the same lines but not as unpleasant. There's a major savoury component: fried onion, black pepper and crusty rye bread. This is all set on a cheery, fluffy New England texture, and it's quite dissonant how the juicy feel doesn't match with a juicy taste. The Germanic noble-hop origins of Mandarina are apparent here and totally wreckin me buzz. #3 is definitely no #2.

Beyond the Avenue, Lineman has also given us kiloHopz: 6.9% ABV, hazy again and hopped with Citra, Centennial, Ekuanot and Azacca which should bring an interesting mix of soft fruit and hard bitterness. The aroma is all the latter: pithy and a little rough seeming. It's quite heavy, though not fluffy in a New England style, and the alcohol brings a substantial heat. All that provides plenty of elbow room for the hops, and the bitterness again dominates the foretaste: waxy, with lime and pine. You have to wait for the tropical fruit, and wait a bit more, but right on the end there's a little burst of mango, passionfruit and Skittles. Nevertheless, this is mostly a very serious IPA: don't let the haze fool you.

There's more haze from Whiplash next. Binary is a dense-looking pale yellow one with Citra and BRU-1 hops. It smells nicely juicy, all mango and mandarin, with the flavour adding a soft scoop of vanilla to that. A slight hint of garlic arrives in the finish, but it comes as a pleasant contrast rather than an imposition. At 6.8% ABV it's a bruiser, but it's very light and easy drinking, completely free of the gritty fuzz that too often plagues hazy IPAs. I wasn't bowled over, but had a jolly nice time with this one. Proper fan service from Team Whiplash.

Two more 'lashes followed swiftly. The first is called Prisoner of Love and it's strange to see something this fiercely modern opaque yellow colour designated in an old-fashioned way as a "Cascade pale ale". Could they not find any cool hops? The aroma is quite rough, suggesting the grittiness of bad murk allied with Cascade's signature earthy quality. And then it's surprisingly sweet and clean on tasting. What's that about? Vanilla, lemon drops and satsuma pop on the tongue then fade quickly. It's quite a fun experience, easy going with just enough complexity. It had never occured to me that Cascade could work in a beer that isn't primarily bitter, but here it is, done well.

Something a little more involved rounds off the Whiplash trilogy. Station To Station is an IPA of 7.1% ABV, hopped with Simcoe and Galaxy. It's another very pale and murky one, but this smells of pungently ripe tropical fruit. Roll up roll up for the mowldy pineapple. The flavour is a fresher version, thankfully, but still based around pineapple, guava and even a little of that fun pink prickly pear taste. The finish is again quick, which is less acceptable in something of this strength, and there's a chalky twang on the fade-out which I didn't care for. Whiplash does this sort of thing better, normally. This is only OK and just has too many of the typical flaws of haze for my taste. Still, the alcohol is well hidden so down the hatch it went in short order.

I was extremely trepidatious approaching this final one from Western Herd. Although Flora and Fauna is a lovely innocent name, it's a "10 hop double IPA" of 9.45% ABV from the country's most hop-happy brewery, boasting the biggest hop load they've ever put into a single beer. Ooo-er. It's a pleasing west-coast gold in the glass, and perfectly clear. Despite double dry hopping, the aroma is mild and only slightly piney. The flavour is remarkably easy-going too. There's a sizeable dankness, followed by a floral spice, more of that pine and then a zesty lime and grapefruit finish. They've used all the hops and it actually tastes of all the hops, or at least the American varieties -- crisp, clean and undisturbed. The strength is entirely justified, providing a soft malt base as a jumping off point, and removing the risk of harshness. Though the style is out of fashion these days, this is a world-class effort and worthy of comparison with the west coast USA's finest. No fancy tricks or gimmicks, just lovely satisfying drinking. The batch sold out in short order but this is deserving of a rebrew, if not a permanent place in the line-up.

And that's it for Indie Beer Week. If you're doing one of the online events tonight or tomorrow, have fun. And if you're not, just remember to buy independent Irish beer whenever you see it. It's not all IPA, although an awful lot of it is IPA. Bye!