The Twelve Brewers of Christmas 11: Rascals

Circumstances changed the annual release of the Rascals Social Hops Project beer. No jolly night out for the hop growers this year; instead we got a minikeg each of the fruits of our horticultural labours. Social Hops 2020 returns to its roots as a straightforward and sessionable pale ale. It's a slightly hazy autumnal gold and smells crisply grainy: Dublin hops are not known for their aromatic qualities, in fairness. There's a candy and golden syrup base, with a touch of brown breadcrust. The hops are... subtle. An old world bitterness just about manages to balance the sweet side, and there's a slightly oily lemon-skin flavour. A tannic dryness finishes it off. At this stage I haven't had an English brown bitter in quite some time, but this reminded me of that solid, sturdy format. As always, Social Hops is more about the process than the sensory merits of the finished product. I enjoyed my five litres with the appropriate air of georgic smugness.

Something less wholesome to follow: The Candyman, a chocolate salted caramel stout, decked out in the appropriated Wonka-esque branding. Rascals doesn't muck about when it comes to mucking-about beers like this, and the aroma is powerfully sweetshop, packed with chocolate, peanut, coconut and raisins. The first surprise is that it's not thick and sticky, but light to the point of thin. 5.5% isn't an unreasonably low ABV for a pastry stout and I expected more heft from it. Sweet chocolate and caramel are at the centre of the flavour, and quite intense, a bit like how the bitterness turns out overdone in a heavily-hopped but thinly-textured pale ale. The roasted peanut character comes in at the end. It's all a bit efforty. I suspect it's hard to get pastry stouts to work well at this strength; there's a reason that the breweries who made their names on it did so at much higher ABVs. This beer makes a promise of sumptuous luxury which is not delivered upon. 

We conclude with a hazy IPA of 5.2% ABV. Space Hopper is an "interstellar juice bomb" -- sure aren't they all? -- using Galaxy and Enigma. It meets all the New England specs from the get-go: hazy yellowish-orange topped with a tall head, a relatively full mouthfeel, if not quite full-on fluffy, and a strong tropical aroma. Okay, maybe they were serious about the astronomical juiciness factor. To taste, there's more sweet tropical fruit, mango primarily, with a backing of pineapple, passionfruit and guava: all the big-hitters. And nothing from the naughty list: no grit or garlic. That very slight thinness is the only kind-of let-down here. Though the flavour is highly enjoyable, it doesn't last long enough. I drank it indecently quickly, but maybe that's by design. Well played, Rascals.

And with that we're nearly done. See you tomorrow for the big finish. Big.

Home brewing and its consequences

For 2019 the National Homebrew Club moved its annual BrewCon conference from the salubrious surrounds of Smock Alley Theatre to the more bohemian event space of Rascals Brewing. It all worked rather well with lots of interesting talks and demos. The brewery itself is a product of home brewers taking their hobby professional and one of the highlights for me was hearing co-founder Cathal talk about the journey from apartment kitchen to start-up brewery to full-scale production facility and taproom. For anyone in the audience harbouring such ambitions it must have been inspirational.

And of course there was a raft of Rascals and guest beers to work through during the sessions. I began on Gose Suck A Lemon, a beer requiring little explanation. It's 4.1% ABV and a clear orange-amber colour. Simple and refreshing is how it goes, which is fine for a modern interpretation of the style, though it doesn't do much to separate it from modern Berliner weisse: I would like more salt and coriander character. There's a very pleasant light lemon tartness to add interest instead. This is clean fun, and a good choice for the beginning of what was to be a long day's drinking.

The 2019 Social Hops beer was on tap too, this being the fourth year that hops were collected from Dublin's amateur urban farmers for use in a one-off beer. They've gone with something darker than usual this time round: red in colour and red in taste too, the ABV hitting a generous 5.4%. There's a wholesome caramel and brown bread foretaste, finishing on clean tannins with a growing side element of figgy Belgian esters. It's decent but again unexciting, and not really much of a showcase for hops. Still, it's the project that counts, and the end result is far from a disaster.

Lightest beer of the day was the Cherry Sour at 3.5% ABV. Well, light in alcohol anyway. The beer itself is all about the sticky candy sherbet, showing just a faint wheaty dryness. It's definintely not what I'd call sour, coming across very like those super-sweet Belgian fruit beers under the likes of the Floris marque. I did get a slight touch of zingy wine grape behind the sugar, but otherwise this didn't do it for me. More sourness, please.

Hooray, as always, for black IPA. Rascals brewed one called Black Knight: a robust 6% ABV and very much true to style. There's a big big acidic bitterness all the way through: crunchy red cabbage and raw spinach. This intensifies to tobacco and tar while simultaneously lightening up with citrus spritz and and clove or ginger spice. It's all classic black IPA stuff. Maybe a little more hop flavour over the bitterness would improve it, but otherwise it's a wonderful channel back to 2012 when everything was fine.

BrewCon reached a crescendo with Supersplit, a rebrew of the beer which won Phil Smail the 2019 NHC Club Cup. Recreating the Supersplit (a creamsicle to Americans, the rest of you can do your own research) seems to be one of the holy grails of Irish brewing. The modern trend for juicy and creamy IPAs means one that tastes of vanilla ice cream wrapped in orange-flavoured ice is a worthy goal. Several beers over the years have been presented to me purporting to have achieved it; this is the first to actually carry it off. Seville marmalade late in the boil appears to have been the key. I really liked how, despite the vanilla and lactose sweetness, it managed to retain a light texture, making it easy-going and refreshing like, well, a Supersplit. I'm not against novelty beers, it's just they need to operate at this standard to be successful and so few do.

My Rascalling spilled over into UnderDog a couple of weeks later. There there was Green Acres, described as a farmhouse ale with green tea, grains of paradise and citrus peel. That all sounds very involved but on tasting it's just a perfectly constructed saison. Just that. It's a lightly hazy yellow, and refreshingly light-bodied. Though 6.1% ABV there's no heat; it's clean and refreshing with smooth and juicy honeydew plus a pinch of white pepper on the end. I would absolutely assign all of this to the doings of saison yeast, but if Rascals has achieved it with real fruit and spices then so what? There's no novelty or gimmickry to be tasted here, only great saison.

And there was Big Smoke, a smoked imperial stout, albeit a modest one at 7.8% ABV. It was available casked and kegged. I went cask. The smoke is subtle, no peaty punch here, just a mild wisp of iodine in the finish. In front of that is a rich blend of chocolate and coconut, the latter heavily present in the aroma. There's an assertive bitterness running through it too, which I put down to hops but might actually be a rasp from the rauchmalt. Overall, it's very tasty, being a lighter take on those densely calorific imperial stouts, bringing their flavour without the unreasonable strength. I can't help wishing for more smoke, though. And I wonder has some of this dropped into the Rascals barrel programme?

That's all the Rascals for now, but you can expect more taproom specials and whatever else they have out in due course.

Autumn leaves

Just time for a quick catch-up on some Irish beers from recent months, before the list grows too long again.

A snook is cocked at IPA fashion by the new one from Galway Bay, Clear Intentions. That said, they've gone all out for tropicality with the Opal Fruit power combo of Azacca, El Dorado and Mosaic. It's a mostly clear lager-yellow colour topped by a handsome and lasting pillow of white foam. Before getting to the candy you have to punch through a citrus bitterness that playfully punches back: lime chews and lemon cordial. Under that it's gooey and fruity, the 6.4% ABV combining with the slightly-too-warm temperature I served it at to lend it a heavy softness. When the Opal Fruits fade there's a darker liquorice bittering on the end, providing a longer, more serious, finish. A spring onion note creeps in as it warms further. This isn't in any way retro, tasting perfectly modern, just not of diesel and custard. It's a cuddly and cosy IPA, one whose bitterness you can happily settle into.

In addition to a new beer, Galway Bay also has a new bar: the pizza-centric Paddle & Peel on the former site of Beerhouse at the north end of Capel Street. They've done an extensive refurbishment but kept a very decent selection of their own and guest beers. I opted for the new one from Trouble, a take on the low-strength IPA craze that's been sweeping across Irish breweries in recent months, a 2.5%-er called Backstop. This presents a frankly shocking quantity of mango to the drinker, in both flavour and aroma. It's incredibly juicy, at least to begin with, before bringing peppery spices and a burst of citrus zest: all the good IPA features, basically, with next to no compromise. Yes it finishes a little quickly but the texture is not unduly thin. Great work by Trouble, and I'd happily see this replace their Graffiti here and there.

The first fruits of Eight Degrees's acquisition of Pernod Ricard came when the brewers raided the Jameson barrel store and came away with some casks to age a stout in. Phat Phantom is the result. I'm not sure I've ever had a barrel-aged stout at just 5.5% ABV: they're usually a fair bit stronger. I got a lot of crackling fizz when pouring, and detected a medium-strong sourness, suggesting that this one may have been still quite biochemically active, despite being only a few weeks in the bottle. The tang is pronounced enough to lend it a Flanders red vibe, and strip away the rich whiskey and chocolate warmth I was expecting. The oak is definitely present, in a slightly harsh and sappy way, and there's a dark plum and tamarind fruit flavour just peeking out from beneath it. But then the balsamic twang returns and insists on being centre of attention once more. I don't know if this is what the brewery intended it to be but it's most emphatically not the "Christmas pudding magic" promised on the label, and I hope the beer drinker won't end up suffering under Pernod Ricard's rush for Caskmates whiskey fodder.

Of a much better calibre was the same brewery's Hopsfume Brett IPA which I caught up with on a rare visit to the Bull & Castle. This is a bruising 8.3% ABV and a medium orange shade of murk. There's an exotic aroma of cedar and pineapple to draw you in, the first taste presenting a dry and musky perfume, turning to farmyard funk in the middle, with a pithy and waxy bitter finish. The alcohol, indiscernible at first, becomes more apparent as it warms, adding a Belgian note of boiled-sweet sugar, tilting the dial away from IPA towards tripel. This is a balanced and classy number, making great use of its assorted components to create a harmonious combination of flavours.

It was always going to be a tough act to follow, and the job fell to Third Circle's Neon Wilderness, another Brett IPA*, this time at just 5.6% ABV. Where's the funk? It appeared headless and dreggy, tasting of a chalky dryness with a vague lemon finish, but sorely lacking in character. I had a similar criticism for Third Circle's last outing with Brettanomyces, the Blue Sky saison back in spring. Whatever their wild yeast strategy currently is, it could do with a serious overhaul.

That was part of a trilogy of simultaneous releases from the Third Barrel collective. Stone Barrel's contribution was Mojo, a straight-up IPA at 6.1% ABV. This goes for an extreme oily bitterness straight out of the gate, though it all fades away quickly, leaving no hop afterburn. The more subtle notes are there: peach, lime and grapefruit, though also a yeasty burr that does no favours for the overall picture. It's OK and not fatally flawed, but Irish brewers are making much better hazy IPAs these days and this one doesn't measure up. Maybe it just needs time to clear.

As almost always seems to be the case, a beer released under the Third Barrel label trumps the others. No Sass! is badged as a session New England IPA. It's a hazy orange colour and tastes pithy and dank, lacking the soft vanilla and stone fruit one might expect from the designated style, but I really don't miss them. This is only 4.1% ABV and suffers a little from both thinness and yeast bite but the citrus zest and harder bitter finish compensates adequately for that, leaving you with a very decent and drinkable American-style pale ale.

Back at the Bull & Castle, I also caught up with a relatively new IPA from YellowBelly, a collaboration with Dutch brewer Big Belly and called Belly Dance. No ordinary IPA, this has been formulated to mimic the flavour of a pisco sour, via the addition of lime and grapes. It does it quite well too, having a strange sort of salty sourness and a soft soda texture. There's plenty of sharp citrus and even a vague dankness, so it's not all novelty and there's a decent IPA beneath the decorations. It's still a bit busy, overall, and I was getting tired of all the fruity, spicy fireworks by the end of a half pint.

An emergency hop transplant in my garden last winter meant I missed making a contribution to the third year of Rascals's Social Hops project. Maybe next year my plant will be up to producing cones. I caught up with the wet-hopped pale ale in Underdog, finding it a charming clear golden colour. There's a solidly bready base with a sweeter touch of almond and hazelnuts. The hops do make you work to find them, eventually revealing themselves as mild and meadowy dandelion and clover. There's a slightly sterner bitter finish with overtones of lemon, but that's about as hoppy as it gets. Overall it's a soft and refreshing pale ale in a bucolic English style and would make for a great introductory summer beer were the seasons the other way round.

White Hag had a bunch of new releases over the last few weeks. From the can I got Son of the Sea, described as a session NEIPA, being 3.8% ABV and a wan pale murky yellow. It smells pleasingly pithy: orange rind with a hint of vanilla and sorbet. The flavour doesn't quite live up to that promise, turning very watery very quickly: a rapid rush of yeasty spices and then nothing but an echo of sweet lemon-curd citrus and a mild coconut buzz. It's pretty basic and I can see how raising the alcohol base might improve it. This hits the general style points, lightly, but I don't see what it adds to the Irish beer environment: there are better low strength beers and better murky hop jobs. It's unnecessary.

At P. Mac's, meanwhile, there was a red ale brewed especially for the pub and given the name Aw Class! That's something of an exaggeration as this is very much a down-the-line version of the style. It does show the complexities of flavour that good Irish reds often have: hints of summer fruit, a certain spicy piquancy and a faint burnt roast, but it doesn't accentuate the modest malts and hops the way the really exceptional versions do. Still, it's not bland and only 4.6% ABV so could have been a lot worse. I can't see myself ordering another given the usual quality alternatives on offer from P. Mac's taps.

Up the street at Against the Grain I found White Hag's new oatmeal porter, a 5.2% ABV job called Cauldron of Plenty. It wasn't served on nitro (thankfully) but still arrived with a beautifully smooth and creamy texture. The flavour offers milk chocolate to start, then moves on to plump sweet raisins and tangy plums before reaching a crescendo with boozy rum and port. This is perfect comforting winter fare and I look forward to seeing more of it around as the nights draw in.

I hoped for something along similar lines when I saw JW Sweetman Mild land, and hightailed it straight to the Burgh Quay brewpub as soon as I could. I was surprised, then, to discover a pale red coloured beer on nitro, all gloopy with a sickly candy-sweet aroma. Sweet syrup forms the centre of the flavour, with an outlying nuttiness and a tang of spinach on the end. For all that, it's a bit insipid, and it's hard to locate those flavours amongst the gloop. Perhaps it would be better on cask. In the meantime, I'll take my milds dark, as usual, please.

Down on Millennium Walkway, the space that had been branch two of Pitt Bros barbecue has swiftly and with minimum redecoration become branch two of Mad Egg fried chicken. They've made the smart Beer-Nut-friendly move of having an exclusive (eggsclusive?) house beer, ensuring that I go in at least once. It's a 4.5% ABV pale ale called Mad Yolk, proudly wearing its Hope Brewery provenance on the label. This is a sweet and sticky beastie, packed with juicy Seville orange. Low fizz and next to no bitterness mean it would likely be a tough slog for drinking on its own, but placed next to the spice and stodge of a fried chicken sandwich it works rather well. I got a bit of a nostalgic buzz from the flavour, reminding me of Fanta in the 1980s, when it was lurid orange and had never had a real orange near it. If you can stand that level of sweetness in your pale ale, you'll be OK here.

Rascals has marked the change of seasons by giving us a new imperial stout, Straight Up, aged in bourbon barrels and a relatively modest 8.6% ABV. It looks like a bigger creature, pouring gloopily with a tall dark-tan head, and it certainly feels very thick on the palate. There's a lot of heat too: the bourbon is not subtle. Bags of vanilla, raw toasted oak and a sharp spirit burn. Only afterwards is there a gentler buzz of chocolate and coffee as the stout finally gets a word in. I was expecting a mellow and gentle beer but this is a bit rough and loud. I wonder if more time in the can would settle it?

Finally for today, a new release from Larkin's, their first since the Summer Session Saison back in July. Galaxy Quest is a session IPA with a dramatic name but a more prosaic ABV of 3.8%. It's a milky pale orange colour and tastes yeasty and creamy, lacking the expected hop impact. I found a lemon sharpness in the finish, and some notes of garlic, turned to aioli by the texture. More than anything, it tasted unfinished to me, like a longer maturation would have cleaned it up and allowed the hops more breathing space. It was quite a shock to experience this from a brewery that does clean and bright flavours so consistently well. I hope it's not the beginning of a trend.

That's it for this scattergun blast of recent Irish beers. I'll be turning a more focused gaze on one particular brewer's wares tomorrow.

*Well, sort of. I'm told WLP644 is the yeast used here, one which was thought to be a strain of Brettanomyces until genetic testing a few years ago revealed it to be regular Saccharomyces, albeit with very Brett-like characteristics.