Card carrying

I had been keeping up with the beers from the revived Post Card brand but somehow missed their Custom House pale ale. When I noticed, and bought one, it was only a couple of months from the best before. It still had plenty of aroma, though: a zesty lemon freshness coming from the clear pale yellow liquid. It's a light 4.8% ABV and designed for easy drinking, aimed at, according to the can, "those who might not like too many hops". It tastes a lot of hops, however, presenting a sharp bitterness and thickly resinous oils. The dankness leads on to a more savoury white-onion effect. This is decent but definitely not the free-wheeler it's marketed as: for proper hop aficionados who don't mind a bit of old school bitterness.

It's perhaps surprising that more Irish breweries don't have a potato-starch stout, but here's one now: The Forty Foot. They claim it's not a gimmick but helps "balance the flavour" between malt and hops. Hmm... It looks well, being properly black, and there's a considerable bitter and herbal hop aroma. The flavour changes direction somewhat, introducing dark chocolate and sticky treacle first, with the hops -- green and vegetal -- arriving later. The texture is dense and satisfying, feeling like more than its 5.5% ABV. Gimmicky ingredients aside, this is delightfully very old fashioned, classic even. Perhaps the spuds really have balanced the sweet and bitter sides, because there's lots of both and they don't get in each other's way. Nicely done.

Last summer the brewer released a pair of one-off seasonals which included a black IPA. It looks like that one might be back under a new year-round label, as Bull Wall black IPA is the same 6.8% ABV. Does it suffer from the same lack of hop wallop? Yes, a little. They do state on the can that it's in the New England sub-genre because of the yeast used, so perhaps I shouldn't be expecting much bitterness. I would still like some, though. There is at least some decent hop flavour in with the roast: floral and perfumey. It's pleasant as it goes, but is just missing that extra poke that makes black IPAs a favourite of mine.

It's all very maritime so far, but we move inland for the last one: Broom Bridge, a "wee heavy" that was produced for Christmas but has been languishing in my beer fridge ever since. It pours thickly, reflecting its 7.5% ABV and more. I didn't get much of a sense of it from the first sip so allowed it to warm up a while. The aroma is quite dry: I expected toffee but got brown bread instead. It is sweeter to taste, however, just not to the extent I thought it would be. Sipping gingerly I get jam and candy -- sweetly suggesting fruit without tasting of any specific ones. With that comes a lightly tart tang and a little bonus warmth. This is subtle in a way that strong Christmas beers tend not to be, and it's up to the drinker to decide if that's a feature or a bug. I have to say, cliché and all that it is, I would have liked more of the toffee and caramel side. The jammy fruit is fine, but it needs company.

Before I sign off, just to note that the brewery seems to have kicked that lumpy phenomenon which was making some of the earlier releases look awful: these were all spotless in the glass. I hope the arrangement with Farrington's is working out for them because I'm enjoying the results. Where will they take us next?

That summer in Dublin

In its previous incarnations, Post Card wasn't the most prolific Irish beer brand but since they relaunched via the brewing facilities of Farrington's in Kildare they've kept the new beers coming. The beginning of July saw the launch of two summer specials.

First up is an extra pale ale called Irish Summer I, designed for easy warm-day drinking and it was on such an afternoon that I opened it. It's a bright golden colour with a little haze but not excessive amounts. The flavour is bright too, full of spritzy lemon -- bitter for the most part but with a hint of meringue pie sweetness as well. Said sweetness is derived from the malt base which is nicely full even though the ABV is a very modest 4.8%. After the initial zingy zesty burst, there's quite a long citric aftertaste as well. This is no lightweight and does a great job of filling the brief to be accessible, thirst-quenching, but also absolutely packed with clean new-world hop flavour. Something for everyone.

In a baller move, Irish Summer II is a black IPA: not something I'd have thought of as particularly summery but let's go anyway. At 6.8% ABV this one is not a quaffing beer on the same level as the above. It's a properly black black, though with a few of the unattractive floaty flakes that plagued the brewery's recent Mexican-style lager. The aroma is quite sweet and roasty, seeming all stout to me. Have we been gypped on the hops? To an extent. There's a certain amount of green vegetal bitterness in the flavour, and a slight hint of citrus, but no more than that. More prominent is the milk chocolate and milky coffee provided by the dark malts. While this may not be black IPA exactly as I like it, it's still very enjoyable. Once again the flavour is clean and precise, and there's a lovely smooth texture, exactly as promised by the strength. Without the hops it would be a superb extra stout, and with a handful or two more it would be a great black IPA.

These are both very accomplished beers, and not the sort of thing I would imagine a small in-restaurant brewery would be capable of. I've never been to Farrington's Mill but I like that Post Card is getting their delicious output to us here in the capital.