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.

What's the matter lagerboy?

Today I'm taking the pulse of Irish lager brewing. Or at least, I'm drinking a random selection of Irish lagers to find out what's what.

We'll start at St James's Gate, home to the only people who thought Rockshore needed a brand extension. So here's Rockshore Light, its ABV reduced from the dizzying 4% of full-fat Rockshore to a mere 3.5%. It's been getting some heavy promotion this last while, so I guess they're pitching it for the outdoor summer everyone is apparently having. In the glass it's a very pale white gold colour, crystal clear, with a frothy topping of fine white foam. There's quite a wholesome biscuit aroma, suggesting melanoidins and bigger sugars than you might expect for a 73-calorie slimmers' beer. There's a touch of that in the flavour too: spongecake and oat cookies. Said flavour doesn't last long, however, leaving behind nothing but a scorch from the overactive carbonation after a few seconds, presaging the inevitable heartburn. I looked hard for any hop character at all but couldn't find any trace. Overall this is better than I thought it would be. The tinny tang which I regard as light lager's biggest failing is absent, and likewise the fruity flaws of Rockshore Senior. The fizz is about the worst thing I can ding it for, though its lack of any other character doesn't exactly endear it to me. The others should give me a bit more to discuss.

To follow, The Pilgrimage, one of the beers in the Odyessy Series from the soon-to-be-rebranded White Gypsy brewery. It's actually a rebrew of Messrs Maguire Bock which I reviewed back in 2007 and which hasn't been seen since Cuilán handed over the reins of MM shortly afterwards. I wasn't a fan then but I think my tastes have broadened since. It's still a very bocky bock: a slightly murky amber and densely textured, even allowing for that full 5.8% ABV. The malt flavour is huge and intense, all rye bread, golden syrup and gooey onion relish. The noble hopping gives it a balancing black-pepper piquancy, particularly in the aroma, and some greener cabbage-leaf bitterness. Younger me found it an overwhelming mess of flavours; now I can pick out the different elements and that allows me to appreciate it more. If lager is a summer drink, this weighty warmer is perfect for the rainy days.

I expected a big contrast for the next one. Rice Rice Baby, oddly, is not a collaboration but brewed by Rascals alone. It's a return to goldenness and clarity, though it's not quite as pale as the Rockshore. In addition to rice, the ingredients include lemon and lime zest, and that's very obvious from the smell: a sort of syrupy, cordial effect dominating any lager subtleties. Crisp is the watchword on the can and crisp it is indeed. There's a lovely snap to the foretaste: melba toast and, oh, rice crackers. I see what they're doing. The citrus zest isn't long to follow, bringing that 7-Up sweetness which adds character but detracts from the cleanness. I guess it would have been a bit bland without some sort of craft gussying-up, and the zest is an OK option if you're not planning to load it up with lots of expensive Nelson Sauvin. Overall, it gets a thumbs up from me. I'd love to try the base lager, and its quality still shines through despite the "enhancements". The crispness and the perfect clean finish are all still here, even if the fruit addition is less than subtle. 4.9% ABV is maybe a little strong for a summery quaffer, but I guess we'll see about that: after I bought one to review, Rascals kindly shipped me a bunch of them for free and I'll be putting them to the test some sunny day.

Finally a beer I have been looking forward to for some time. Galway Bay's Schlenkerla Märzen clone, Märzen to the Fire, has been rocking my world consistently since it arrived last year. Now they've taken the next step in the copycat act and brewed a straight Helles but using trub from the smoky Märzen to give it a little of that character. My Bamberg Hell is the result. This one is a deep golden colour but still perfectly transparent. The carbonation is low and the aroma is mild but there's distant bacon in there. That gets more pronounced on tasting: a fairly involved phenolic edge offering dry beech smoke, shading to peat. The base lager isn't doing much of the lifting. There's a soft Helles texture but very little flavour contribution from the underlying beer. It ends up being smoke for the sake of smoke, not overpowering but not really complementary either. The dark richness of the Märzen is what makes that one work; this, while very well made, misses the mark for me. I liked it, but couldn't help thinking that either a clean Helles or a big dirty smokebomb would have been preferable.

In conclusion, lager is a land of contrasts.

Enough already

When Boak & Bailey kindly awarded me their 2020 Golden Pint for best beer blogger, the citation mentioned my "business-as-usual, non-plague-related content". So shall it be with my own Golden Pint nominations. I'll try and keep the phew-what-a-year, hashtag-unprecedented clichés to a minimum as I go through the categories below. That said, when picking a sipper to assist with my musings I couldn't go past Whiplash's recent offering Let.It.End.

The brewery describes it as a "futuristic stout", and if their prediction is correct, stouts of the future will be made with maple syrup and... French toast? Huh? It's a dense dark brown in the glass, and is that an eggy yellow hint to the head? The French toast thing has thrown me somewhat. As befits 11% ABV, and more, it is extremely dense: one of those beers where pulling it from glass to mouth takes a concerted effort. Although coffee isn't an ingredient there's a very strong coffee component in the flavour, with all the gritty, bitter and concentrated roast of a ristretto. Maple syrup, another ingredient, follows that to bring a contrasting sweetness, one which is just as concentrated and intense. I wouldn't describe this as complex: it's really just two extreme flavours butting up against each other. It's sticky and slow going, though the pay-off is a gradually growing warmth, which was the part I enjoyed most. Otherwise, it was just too much for me. Luckily I had plenty to distract myself with while sipping through it, what with...

The Golden Pint Awards 2020

Best Irish Cask Beer: DOT Barrel Aged Imperial Saison
I'm not aware of this beaut making it out into the world in any other form. Maybe it was the tail end of something. Anyway, I caught this late at the Franciscan Well winter festival in February and was very glad not to have missed it.

Best Irish Keg Beer: Galway Bay Märzen To the Fire
Seems like a simple sort of plan: brew your own clone of world classic Schlenkerla Märzen and stick it on draught in your chain of pubs. I know just enough about brewing to appreciate how tall an order that is, but this one nailed it. Drinking my first pint of it at The Black Sheep on 20th February I was looking forward to many more throughout the year. Just as well, then, that it translated perfectly to cans.

Best Irish Bottled Beer: Porterhouse Around the Clock
This field is getting smaller, though is probably now the purview of high-end cork-and-cage or waxed-capped bottles. The Porterhouse's new imperial stout is the latter, but don't hold that against it. Judicious use of barrel-ageing courtesy of the brewery's sister distillery has created a luxurious yet balanced masterpiece.

Best Irish Canned Beer: DOT Barrel Aged Session IPA
More barrels, but a very different offer to the last one. This was an exclusive to Redmond's of Ranelagh back in the late summer. Under 4% ABV but brimming with honey, dessert wine and white pepper complexities. If Redmond's still has any in the fridges, grab it.

Best Overseas Bottled Beer: Jopen Maria Magdalena
The little bit of travelling I did at the start of the year landed me this bargain black IPA. Its mix of citrus zest and tarry bitterness is everything the style should be.

Best Overseas Canned Beer: Hop City 8th Sin
Another dark one, this time a Canadian dark lager, from the makers of Moosehead. My expectations were low, but I discovered something akin to a superb Czech dark lager, a style we see very little of in these parts. This one is readily available in Irish off licences and is not to be overlooked.

Best Collaboration Brew: DOT / Brú Well-Rounded Individual
There was no shortage of barrel-aged loveliness from DOT this year, and this one on which Brú collaborated delivered the mellow maturity of barrelling at its best.

Best Overall Beer: Porterhouse Around the Clock
Of the seven contenders, the one which comes with a memory of being instantly wowed from the first sip was The Porterhouse's new imperial stout.

Best Branding: Hopfully
The Brazilian gypsy brewers moved operations to Metalman in Waterford this year and gave their branding a makeover. They had always been very artistic in their presentation, and the new style with clean and classy background colours makes their cans stand out even more. There were some lovely beers inside those cans too.

Best Pump Clip: O Brother: Bat Country
A recent one, but still a deserving winner. And while I didn't actually see it clipped to a pump, I did drink the beer via a draught growler and the badge was on display on the menu screens at UnderDog when I bought it, so it counts. Adam West and Hunter S. Thompson getting pulled over by the cops is, for me, a perfect mash-up of pop-culture and literary silliness.

Best Bottle/Can Label: Galway Hooker Cherry
Another serious take on a daft idea. I didn't know Popeye needed a gritty reboot, but here we are. Shout out also to Whiplash's Jupiters, which made me smile every time I took a can out of the fridge. What are those two up to?

Best Irish Brewery: DOT
Nobody has been quite so busy this year as the barrel wizard of Dolphin's Barn. Going beer shopping was the main reason I left the house at all, and DOT's exclusives with various off licences had me biking all over the city. I'm ending 2020 with a vast array of DOT ticks under my belt and a couple more cans still waiting to be opened in the New Year. In this season of goodwill I'll ignore the samey IPAs and concentrate on all the barrel-aged blended class that DOT has provided. If you want in on the ground level, you can find details of their barrel adoption programme in the link above.

Best Overseas Brewery: Oskar Blues
I owe at least some nod to our friends in the States here, having enjoyed several run-throughs of imported cans courtesy of the likes of Cigar City, Ska, Odell and of course Sierra Nevada. Of all of them, I think Oskar Blues had the highest hit-rate of good ones, so while this is largely an award for supply quantity and variety, there is of course a quality element too.

Best New Brewery Opening 2020: Otterbank
Does a brand that's been going for several years taking over an existing premises count as a new brewery opening? I'm saying yes, mostly to make things easier for myself. The first beer has been getting some great press, though it wasn't for me, while the second and third were legitimate hits. I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens when Declan really gets into his stride.

Pub/Bar of the Year: 57 the Headline
The resilience shown by Geoff and Máire in an impossibly tough year was nothing short of astounding. When the pubs were shut, The Headline became one of my go-to off licences and kept me well supplied with new beers. And for the brief time during the summer that indoor dining was possible, a couple of dinners here provided a welcome feel of normality.

Best New Pub/Bar Opening 2020: Crew
What kind of lunatics open a new brewpub in a year like this? Crew in Limerick did, and paying a visit is high on my list of priorities when that becomes an option.

Beer Festival of the Year: Franciscan Well Cask & Winter Ales
I made it to one beer festival this year -- go me! So Franciscan Well kinda wins this by default. I did have a nice time, though. A special mention goes to The White Hag for organising two highly enjoyable online events.

Supermarket of the Year: Aldi
When I started working from home, Rheinbacher quickly became my daily staple. The fortnightly restock at Aldi Terenure became part of that routine. Thanks for keeping the cans consistently in stock, folks.

Independent Retailer of the Year: Mace SCR
In the depths of the first lockdown I had to make a few emergency trips to the office, my route taking me past this unassuming cornershop. It was such a relief to be able to stop, stock up on new beers and continue on my way. Molloy's on Francis Street also provided stellar service of this kind.

Online Retailer of the Year: Craft Central
This isn't a category I would usually trouble myself with much, but in 2020 the market for beer delivery expanded hugely. The service from Craft Central was consistently brilliant, and what really swung it for me was the click-and-collect option which was instrumental in letting me stay on top of new Irish beer releases. 

Best Beer Book or Magazine: Brussels Beer City by Eoghan Walsh
As usual there was only one contender for this, but it's a worthy winner -- a fascinating delve into the chequered history of Brussels brewing, from medieval lambic to the now-vanquished industrial lager giants, to the city's modern beer renaissance.

Best Beer Blog or Website: Shut Up About Barclay Perkins
The unsinkable Ronald Pattinson kept the lights on all year, every day bringing something new about stout or war or sugar or all three, with a bonus sprinkling of naughty vicars.

Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer: @RuariOToole
It was very much the year for weird and grim humour, and Ruari's Twitter provided plenty of it. Much appreciated, my man. Dudes rock!

Best Brewery Website/Social media: Whiplash
They're Instagrammier than I would like, but the information on their beers was always there when I looked for it.


I think that's quite enough of 2020, don't you? We start anew with hope in our hearts and mRNA in our veins, shortly.

New meat

A new month, and time to look at some new beers from across the Irish brewing scene.

Kinnegar's rebooted Brewers at Play series reaches number three with a low-alcohol offering. Such is the brewery's commitment to this exciting sector of the beer market they've given it the imaginative name 3: Low Alcohol. It's a bright golden colour with a stack of white foam, looking for all the world like a lovely glass of Duvel, down to the skeins of suspended lees floating through it. Any sense of Duvel instantly evaporates on drinking, along with any sense of body. This is very thin and has that sharp mineral-aspirin thing that haunts so many of the new wave alcohol-free beers. There's a little lemon sherbet or Berocca as well. All of this tastes like the fringe flavours of a proper pale ale. What's missing is the middle where the malt substance and rich hop fruit are supposed to go. An unpleasant soapy twang is the only feature to speak of, right on the finish. This sort of beer seems like something made because there's a gap in the brewery portfolio. It seems odd to create it as a limited special.

Here's bravery: The Format's sixth beer, Pretty Green, has a mere three months as its best before on the can. I've had a couple of off licence owners tell me that even in notions-riddled Dublin, speciality beer doesn't sell as fast as brewers expect it to. I hope The Format has chosen its outlets carefully. It's an IPA, of course, a very American 7.5% ABV and using equally American El Dorado and Centennial hops. The picture looks like it has a lovely fluffy head but I had to coax that up as it flowed almost lifeless from the can. The texture is a bit flabby as a result, while the appearance is hazy but not opaque, and darker than usual: a medium orange rather than DDH Yellow. There's plenty of hop flavour, however: El Dorado's Skittles effect is in full throat, giving chewy tropical candy under a sugary shell. A grassy dank finishes it off, providing balance of a sort, but not as pronounced as you'd get from a sharp citric hop. There's a savoury side too: not garlic, but a sort of warm akvavit. All of this adds up to an unusual combination, which is great, given how samey the DDHs can be. I'd prefer more bitterness, but other than that: yeah, I liked this odd creature.

And here's even more bravery: li'l ol' Galway Bay going toe-to-toe with Schlenkerla by releasing a smoked Märzen: Märzen To The Fire. The brewery's lager chops have been well-honed over the last couple of years; could they get away with this? The attempt is 5.5% ABV and a very dark mahogany brown colour. Marks off for poor head retention as my pint didn't have much left by the time I got it to my table. The aroma is no more than slightly meaty, but beers like this aren't really built to smell. The flavour, though, is absolutely spot on. Not just bacon, but specifically the crispy edge of an expertly fried rasher. A touch of bitumen bitterness follows, helped by the full proper-Märzen texture. The fade-out is perhaps not quite as clean as the Bamberg classics, but it's still very good, taking full advantage of the lager format to prevent any cloying from the abundant smoky phenols. Moreishness is one of Schlenkerla's hallmarks and this does that too. Overall, a beautiful and audacious beer, and I hope it's more than a one-off special. I was delighted to hear it's about to arrive in cans, and I'm gasping to try it blind next to Schlenkerla.

A new beer brand to the scene is Clean Slate, an Australio-Irish operation whose first beer was brewed at Ballykilcavan. It's called AHAA!, standing for Aussie Hoppy Amber Ale. It's on a few taps in the trendier Dublin hangouts and a pint set me back a handsome €7.60 in Drury Buildings. It's a bright and cheery deep orange colour, densely hazy though not completely opaque. The aroma is gently fruity, suggesting mild mandarin and raisin. Its texture is smooth, entirely in keeping with the style and its biggish 5.4% ABV. There's more of a malt side in the flavour, some moist fruitcake or flapjack to sprinkle those raisins into. The soft orangey fruit element is back, spiced up a little by the suspended yeast and finishing with a curt whipcrack of proper bitterness. While not particularly complex or strongly flavoured, it's well-constructed, quite pintable, and different to anything else on the market. As such it represents a pleasant change from the norm in bars which aren't beer specialists. I'd advise putting it on someone else's tab, though.

I missed 12 Acres's Pallet Jack first time round so was pleased to see it back as part of Lidl's current range of seasonal Irish beers. It's an India pale lager, 5% ABV, and looks deliciously lagery in the glass: a bright and almost flawless gold with a proper pilsner-like dome of foam. Indeed it's described as a pilsner on the back of the can, for those who find IPLs not to their taste. The aroma is sweet and lemony, like meringue pie filling, with just a hint of something sharper -- perfume or citrus washing-up liquid -- lurking in the background. It tastes much more bitter than one might expect from that, the sunny lemons turning to harsher limes and then on to wax and dried grass. This might be unpleasant but for the fact it's a lager and so finishes quickly and neatly before any of the hop napalm can build on the palate and spoil the experience. Instead it's bold, flavoursome and invigorating. I'd even go so far as to say balanced as well, showing enough spongecake malt sweetness to keep the bitter excesses in check. I'm an avowed IPL sceptic, but while this is no classic pilsner it is pretty tasty.

Carlow Brewing's single hop series reaches number seven with O'Hara's Hop Adventure: Centennial. Not the newest or trendiest of hops but a reliable workhorse of the craft beer movement. As usual it's 5% ABV and it follows the pattern of the previous outing by being hazy. Centennial's alter-ego of "Super Cascade" is reflected in the aroma: that rough and earthy bitterness. The flavour is a fresh lemon sherbet, leaning a little to fabric softener. There's a pinch of new-mown grass, a certain dank resinous bittering and a tang of tin. It all adds up to a rather good classically styled IPA. The malt side of the picture is just enough to give the hops a bounce. My favourite aspect is probably the mouthfeel: a soft and fluffy witbier-like texture that complements the lemon notes beautifully. This sort of complexity in a single-hopper is unusual but great to find.

Double IPAs continue to abound, from the usual suspects. O Brother has given us nothing else to date this year. The second is called Follow>Dream>Path, and it looks pale and hazy, like the fruit juice that fans of this style want it to be. Except at 8% ABV, of course. Kveik fermentation and a combination of Vic Secret and Hallertau Blanc are the other parts of the spec, and they result in a beer that has quite a boozy burn in the aroma. The flavour is gentler though. The first sip delivers a super-sweet rush of pineapple juice, and then a weird but not unpleasant funky twang, a bit like the grassy, weedy effect I associate with strong noble hops. The peppery spice that follows is another Germanic trait: weird for a double IPA but rather enjoyable. It all tails off into thick orange cordial, with a trace of yeasty dregs lingering on the finish. It's not a refreshing beer, but is refreshingly different for a hazy DIPA.

Peach & Passion Fruit Sour is number 18 in the Hope Limited Edition series. Sour indeed: it's almost off-puttingly tart; sharp and severe with the chalky dryness often found in kettle-soured beer. The tropical fruit is an afterthought here. Passionfruit has a tendency to dominate everything it's in with a thick and sweet sorbet effect. Here that has all been attenuated away leaving just a faint tang of marmalade and brown bread. This isn't one of those horribly sickly fruited sour beers, but nor is it subtle, complex or fun. It's sour for the sake of sourness and not something I'm into.

A new dark lager always grabs my attention so I prioritised the new Wicklow Wolf one, a collaboration with Berliners Brlo, called Bear With Us. The ABV is a middle-of-the-road 4.8% ABV and it's a properly dunkelish cola-brown. For hops it uses the German varieties with new-world notions, Hüll Melon and Mandarina Bavaria. The aroma isn't fruity, though; it smells meaty more than anything -- a rich umami savoury note which was unexpected. The texture is thick and ale-like, its dark malt and savouriness making it taste more like a porter to me. The crispness I go to dark lager for is missing and it's a bit sad and flabby instead. Zingy hop flavours would have helped offset this, but they're absent: no fruit, no real bitterness, just a kind of rubbery funk, akin to dankness but without the fresh herbal quality. This isn't offensive or flawed, it's just not what I was in the mood for. I finished it hankering for a proper dark lager to make the craving stop.

Next, a rare appearance here from Clonakilty Brewing. I wondered at first if Galley Head was a re-label of their other blue-branded pale ale, Tojo, but the ABV is lower at 4.7%. I poured the bottle-conditioned contents carefully though still got a hazy glassful, a bright glowing orange in daylight, turning a little grey when brought indoors for drinking. The aroma is clean, with a gently spicy citrus air. Flavourwise, it has a lot in common with a good English bitter: that dry tannic base, topped by a mouthwatering fruit and flower effect, finishing with a slightly metallic tang. I'm not usually a fan of bottle conditioning when it comes to a hop-forward beer but this makes good use of it, adding a roundness to the texture and a richness to the flavour, just as if it were from a cask. Despite the English feel, the hops are unmistakably American, and the spritz of lemon and lime is fresh and stimulating. This is a class act.

Celebrating the boss getting injured, Fracture is the new one from Metalman, a rye IPA of 6.5% ABV. It's another pale and hazy orange job with quite a sweet and cordial-like aroma. I would have expected some of rye's spice or bitterness to begin coming through there. But no, that waits for the flavour to make itself felt, and does so thoroughly and properly. It doesn't have the squeaky astringency of the style's archetype -- Kinnegar Rustbucket -- but it's equally charming. The grass is meadow-fresh, the acidic bitterness cleansing, and there's just a sprinkling of black pepper on the finish to add complexity. The cordial is still there too, providing a sweet counter balance to the bitter shapes entertainingly thrown by the hops and rye. All together it's very enjoyable -- distinctive, powerfully flavoured, yet not harsh or difficult. I don't think Rustbucket has a serious competitor here, but this could happily co-exist, doing something different in the same space. I hope they keep it on.

"Juicy" is the current holy grail of IPA brewing, and while on one hand it's a brave brewery that puts it front and centre in the beer's name, they also have your money by the time you find out whether or not the beer lives up to it. Such were the musings elicited by this can of Rascals Judge Juicy, the new 6% ABV New England-style IPA. Before even getting to the flavour, the visuals are off: it's a deep amber colour and barely hazy, not at all the yellow opaqueness one expects when New England is invoked. The flavour is only a little sweet, with a tangy orangeade kick up front. It then finishes dry, the opposite of juicy, with a savoury rasp of caraway and a long pithy finish. A light, slightly thin, texture is another way it comes across as distinctly unjuicy. This seems much more like a clean and hoppy west-coaster to me. It's not bad by any measure, it just fails to live up to the description in almost every way.

Finally, this round-up's big gun: 2020 Vision, a triple IPA from Black's of Kinsale. This is one of those styles where points of difference can be hard to spot, though this one poured darker than most, albeit still that hazy orange shade that all the ones I have encountered have been. The same spirituous vodka burn as well, tasting all of its 10% ABV. And hops? Where we're going we don't need hops. Steam-distilled Azacca oil, if you don't mind. That gives it a concentrated orangey flavour. In smaller doses there might be a more complex tropicality but here it's largely marmalade: bitter tangy rind. There's a touch of rye-like spice as well; a savoury kick on the end. This is an unapologetically hot and heavy IPA, definitely not built for nuance, subtlety or easy drinking. I found it a bit rough and awkward, taking nearly two hours to sip through the can's worth. There's nothing technically wrong, it's just not my sort of beer, all things considered.

And that is indeed all things considered, for now.