What goes around comes around

In late 2012, about a month before the announcement that the brewery had been sold to Molson Coors, Franciscan Well released an extra stout aged in Jameson barrels. It was packaged in a one litre fliptop bottle, cost €12 and, according to my review, tasted great: lots of treacle, a solid dosing of hops, and a subtle hint of Irish whiskey. Time has not been kind to it, and the remaining bottle I opened recently had a definite air of faded grandeur about it.

Time hasn't been kind to Franciscan Well, either. Molson Coors, to the surprise of nobody in particular, tanked this fondly considered Cork brand, releasing a string of poor mass-market beers and a disastrous macro lager that was everywhere, doubtless at great expense, for a brief while, then seemingly retired to be replaced by stablemate Madrí. Then last year it looked like there was a bit of good news from the whole affair. The brewery at the Franciscan Well pub had stayed in the ownership of founder Shane Long, who together with former Franciscan Well brewer Páidí Scully, had embarked on a new independent brewing enterprise. Since, by Shane's count, Franciscan Well had been Ireland's 7th independent brewery when founded in 1998, the new operation is called Original 7. Until now, all the beers had been draught only and confined to Cork, so I had never tried any. And then, with bemusement, I was gifted their first bottled beer a couple of weeks ago, by their PR firm. It's an Extra Stout Aged in Jameson Casks in a one litre fliptop.

You can perhaps tell that it's their first bottled beer as it's not legally compliant, missing the ABV on the packaging. One press release told me it's 5.4% ABV, and another that its "close to 8% ABV". The Original 7 webshop has it at 9.3% ABV. It's probably one or other of those. Replete with a handsome cardboard tube, the RRP is €29. It's not 2012 any more.

Once poured, it gets full marks for the visuals. It's properly black and the head forms slowly and surely, resulting in a beige pillow of foam with an attractive dome transcending the glass rim. There's not much of an aroma, just like with the 2012 edition, but the flavour is beautiful. A subtle dark chocolate bitterness leads into a tangy herbal pinch of fresh hops. While that's going on, a sweet honeycomb element gradually unfolds on the palate as the whiskey arrives, all flavour but none of the heat. It's fantastically smooth, and very easy drinking for 5.4% / 8% / 9.3% ABV.

And maybe that's the downside. In this day and age, big stouts are really big. This does a great job of recreating the 2012 one, which was revolutionary for a country which didn't even have any double IPA yet. Since then, the nordics in particular have shown us worlds of strong stout flavour, and eye-watering prices, with which this doesn't compare favourably. I'm not a fan of Jameson whiskey, but a bottle of it for around the same price is still a better value proposition.

I can't argue with the liquid, however. It's undeniably a very good stout. And now I can safely add the proviso that if you have a bottle, drink it fresh. It won't improve over the next eleven years. None of us will.

Thar she blows!

The Session this month includes one of my hobby-horse subjects within its remit. Mr. David J is our host and "Don't Believe The Hype" is the topic he has chosen: does a beer's reputation affect how we perceive it?

Following on from this issue is the whole matter of high profile "white whale" beers: the limited editions and hard-to-finds that plague the beer world. Not that they're bad beers, normally. My experiences with the likes of Westvleteren 12 and Dark Lord have been very positive indeed, but there are plenty of beers out there in the same league that don't have so much of a fuss made about them. The drive that some beer drinkers have to capture the white whales unsettles me a little. The make-it-anywhere-from-anything nature of beer means that the notion of special rare beers is a bit ridiculous, and label-chasing makes beer culture a little less of a pleasant place to be. I find more than an echo of the wine snob about some of the Captain Ahabs I've encountered.

All this makes me a little wary when a new, rare, special, limited edition beer comes my way. Yes I want to drink it -- it's what I do -- but I end up trying not to make a big deal of it, unless it warrants it, of course. The hype ahead of the Franciscan Well's new one was substantial. Like last year's Shandon Century it's a strong-ish stout presented in a numbered 1 litre bottle. The big change this year is barrel-aging. At first the brewery gave no more detail than it was maturing in a cask acquired from the Irish Distillers plant in Midleton. The lack of whiskey specifics left me wondering if Irish Distillers simply don't distinguish between the casks used for their many whiskey brands, or whether the brewery didn't want their beer associated with Jackeen labels such as Jameson and Power's, produced in Cork though they may be. They came clean eventually and Franciscan Well Stout Aged in Jameson Irish Whiskey Casks is the full title: 7.8% ABV in a run of 900 bottles.

It pours out jet black but not thick or gloopy and the mouthfeel has a little creaminess yet remains light and easy-going. The carbonation level is set only little above token, of which I heartily approve. There's not much of an aroma either, but it seems to be mostly a sweet and slightly burnt treacle thing, with just a brief hit of the whiskey vapours if you inhale deeply enough.

Charmingly for a strong barrel-aged stout, it's not a smack in the face on the first sip. A host of flavours line up politely to be appreciated, starting with the dark dry roast, overlaid with more of that treacle and accompanied by subtle honey and vanilla from the Jameson. There's a surprise in store at the end when a fairly generous hop character asserts itself: the big vegetal, almost metallic, flavours I associate with bitter powerhouse stouts like Wrassler's XXXX. The hop tang is the takeaway from this feast of a stout. I wasn't expecting that.

No, it's not Dark Lord, true; and nor is it trying to be. But while it's a wonderful example of what you can do with barrel aging a stout it's not worth obsessing over either. It's barely possible to justify the €12 price tag it came with so it would be foolhardy, in my opinion, to pay multiples of this on the grey market. When it's gone, it's gone: accept it and wait for the next beer.

And by all accounts it may not be around much longer. Bottles have been selling fast in what's already a busy season for this sort of beer. And today offers a rare opportunity to try it from the cask at the source. Only two have been filled and one will be tapped tonight and given away free, and exclusively, to Beoir members. Drop along to North Mall from 8.30 and bring your membership card.

Or you can wait for the second cask, scheduled for public consumption at the Cask and Winter Ales Festival in the 'Well in a couple of months' time (edit: confirmed for 15-17 February 2013). I can't make it along this evening so am planning to be there early for that.

Everybody will be talking about it, after all.