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.

Hague intentions

Christmas in England was followed swiftly by New Year in the Netherlands. On arrival, the first forage in my local Albert Heijn landed a new one from the never-not-funny Dutch brewery Hoop. They've co-opted Hope's seasonal deckchair guy for the label of Winter Warming Chocolate Porter. The appearances fitted the description: a thick texture, a deepest brown colour and a dark tan head. The aroma is rich dark chocolate, hinting at a big sweetness to come. It doesn't really, though. There's certainly lots of chocolate flavour but it's balanced by a burnt edge of heavy roast coffee. That tarry effect lasts long into the finish and is of a quality usually found in export stouts stronger than this 6% ABV. This is novelty-free winter warmth in a tidy little packet. Well played Hoop.

I also picked up the Winterbier from AB InBev's local footprint Hertog Jan. The first surprise was that it's golden rather than dark. It doesn't smell very wintery either -- intensely sweet, like honey liqueur or pink lollipops. Thankfully the flavour is rather less intense. If anything it's even a little thin, despite 8.8% ABV. It tastes of lightly floral candy with overtones of nougat and brown sugar. Think of it as an overclocked Belgian-style blonde, or a stripped-back tripel. It's fine, but not the warming winter job I was hoping for.

And I was never going to pass up a black IPA when I saw one of those in the supermarket. Step up Maria Magdalena from Jopen. It's definitely black, and the ABV is a middle-of-the-road 6%. Bright and fresh lemon sherbet sings in the aroma, turning bitterer in the flavour, with notes of tar and tobacco. That super-clean citrus zest returns in the finish. This is a beautifully done example of the style; not overdoing the roast, the bitterness, or the hop flavours but making excellent use of all three sides, holding them in balance. I could merrily quaff this by the pint, and at under €2 a bottle it's an absolute steal.

At the slightly posher Plus supermarket I picked up Tre Fontane Tripel, the first to come my way from Italy's only Trappist brewery. 8.5% ABV and a dark orange colour, it leans heavily on the spices, bringing a kind of aftershave effect. There's lots of yeast character, though dull and savoury rather than the bright and sparky Belgian sort. Thankfully there's enough rounded mellow warmth for this not to matter. Afterwards comes a resinous green herbal quality, all rosemary, wintergreen and eucalyptus. A more typically Belgian note of dark fruit finishes it off. This is a slow drinker, heavy and plodding, but with much to enjoy along the way. I'd still prefer a Westmalle, though.

A haul from the expensive off licence with the ironic name, Free Beer, brings this next lot. First is a Danish sour IPA from Alefarm Brewing called Nogenlunde Afklaret Og Fuldt Ud Til Stede ("Somewhat Clarified And Fully Out Of Place" wut?) It's a translucent orange colour without much head and is a big 6.2% ABV. That's excessive for what it is: a cleansing and refreshing tart ale, the base alkaline soda sweetened up with cherry and forest fruit cordial notes. A little more hop flavour would have improved it, but what's there is decent, if unexciting.

Beside it, Mathom, a toffee praline stout from Spanish brewer The Flying Inn. It's pretty much spot on for the pastry stout style: just enough roast and bitterness to balance it, but mostly all about those sweet chocolate and liqueur flavours. There's a definite nuttiness in there too. 7% ABV is light for this sort of thing, and that's no harm. The beer drinking experience probably shouldn't include feelings of relief when the product isn't horribly overwrought, but that's where we are with this.

Next out was Live Transmission, a milkshake IPA from Canadian brewery Flying Monkeys. I expected this would be hazy but instead it's a bright golden shade. Turns out the lees had settled to the bottom of the can. They murked-up my glass on the second pour, though this didn't change the taste. The ingredients list is substantial: orange peel, grapefruit and something called a "soft coconut white tea", plus Citra, Idaho 7 and Mosaic hops. Anyway, out of all that the coconut dominates, leaving it smelling like a girly shampoo. This continues in the flavour, although here there's just enough of a bitter snap to complement the coconut sweetness, meaning it tastes more like a dark Bounty bar than a milk one. The citrus peel lands on the lips at the end, intensely sweet and slightly sticky, like a balm. This isn't bad if you don't mind sweet and have no objection to coconut. The idea of something with so little hop character being badged as an IPA is daft, though.

And then the attractively named Poesiat & Kater Muuke, endeared to me from the shelf with a description of "must wine pale ale". I don't know, must it? It's a clear and lagery gold with a thin head. It's heavily fizzy, with a soft lemon vitamin-tablet bitterness, shading towards soluble aspirin. Where's the grape? Well... there's the vaguely fruit perfume effect of a Muscat, some Champagne-ish toast, but no real grape. A corky funk finishes it off in a way that's certainly wine-like, but not terribly enjoyable. This hits its beats in a rudimentary, lacklustre way. It's fine, but does nothing interesting.

The city's other high end offie is Dorst, where I got Van Haver Tot Gort, a 10% ABV imperial stout from Hooglander Bier. The Dutch have nailed this style, presumably under pressure from the world-class De Molen. This example is spot-on as usual: a big treacle body purveying an assertive liquorice bitterness. For complexity there's a lavender and rosewater bathroom-cabinet seam. I don't know the brewery but I'll keep an eye out for them. Hopefully this is not a one-off.

Right on cue, this was followed by Senning & Sensatie, a De Molen imperial stout. This one has special effects from smoked malt, chilli and cocoa. That has weakened it a bit as it's a sober 9.8% ABV. It achieves a lot with what it has, however, and I was surprised by the bite of iodine from the peated malt at the outset. A chocolate sweetness spreads across the palate after that, the chilli relegated to the very finish where it adds a polite complexity I would have liked more of. Still, this doles out the flavours in fair proportion and an orderly fashion.

Of course, it wasn't all sitting in drinking takeaway beers. Next up: to the pub!