Down and up

It's been a while since I've had any Mourne Mountains beer on here. I don't get to do much beer shopping up north and they have only just returned to the shelves down here, so I'm well behind on what the Co. Down brewer is doing these days. Here's two of them.

Happy Trails is an IPA, and even without any further indications on the can I assumed this would be hazy: one just does now. Sure enough it's completely opaque, and quite a dark colour, a kind of sunset orange. The density of appearance leads on to quite an assertive aroma, bringing thick and sweet tropical notes, all ripe guava and mango. The flavour is surprisingly different, having a green and leafy bitterness, primarily offering celery, spinach and damp grass in quite a Germanic way. Despite the thick texture, the hops don't hang around long and it finishes quickly and without fuss. I hoped for better from this. Sure, there are no flaws, which is far from a given with this sort of thing, but possibly its lack of character could be considered a flaw by itself. The recipe needs a lot more hops, I reckon. That ought to be possible in a can costing €4.49.

The same outlay got me a 7% ABV oatmeal stout called Bear Grease. This was much more to my taste, being properly dense and black, with a strong aroma of espresso, dark chocolate and a certain nougat nuttiness. The mouthfeel is appropriately full and serves the principal purpose of delivering the flavour. Said flavour is absolutely bang on for the style, being coffee and chocolate again, with a caramel sweetness and lighter autumnal fruit notes of blackberry and blackcurrant. The aroma's nut side develops into a smooth marzipan paste in the finish. Despite all the complexity in evidence, the flavours are very well balanced and integrated, making this a beer which can be enjoyed on any number of levels: a straightforward wholesome warmer; a properly flavoursome stout; or something a nerd can pick apart in a stultifyingly forensic way. It's all good and I liked it a lot.

In fact, thinking back, perhaps I should have known at the start it would play out like this. Stouts like Wee Honey and Whiskey & Vanilla have been highlights of previous forays into the Mourne Mountains lineup. I'll be looking for more of the same next time.

Down my way

Mourne Mountains from Co. Down is the latest Northern Irish brewery to begin selling its beer south of the border. They have an intriguing range and I've encountered them only sporadically before on visits to the north, so it's great to be able to get a proper look at what they're doing now.

I first tried Mourne Gold when it was very new, on cask, at the Belfast Beer Festival in 2015. I wasn't a fan, finding it hard and heavy with an unpleasant touch of soap. The ABV has since been dropped from 5% to 4%, and I get to drink it cold from the fridge, so a reappraisal is due. It still resembles a perfectly poured glass of cask beer: a pure limpid golden colour. Fruit candy dominates the aroma, in a slightly sickly way, with some added honey and spice. They call it a pale ale but the initial impression was more like the best of English golden ale. Think Summer Lightning. The texture is light, so no drinkability issues this time, while the flavour mixes an oatmeal cookie cereal dryness with bubblegum: definitely a golden ale, with the style's roots in cool-fermented lager coming through in its crispness. A tight grapefruit bitterness adds an American angle without changing the fundamental nature of the offer. It's a characterful flagship, and definitely an improvement on the first draft.

The ABVs take a jump hereafter, and next it's The Wall, a double IPA at 8%. I'm used to these being all-murk nowadays so was surprised and pleased by the west-coast appearance: a veritable glowing golden amber, only dusted with haze thanks to my clumsy pouring. It's still approachable, however: no smack of pine or grapefruit but an enticingly juicy mandarin aroma, with a hint of cordial suggesting weight and warmth to come. The flavour, too, is less extreme than I expected. It's predominately sweet, though not sticky, and the heat level is modest given the strength. The mandarins are back in the foretaste but give way quickly to a spritzy citrus: a little bit satsuma and a little bit marmalade too. I thought it would be fuller flavoured than it is, but I appreciated the gentleness of the whole thing. While rare, it is possible for a double IPA to be relaxing.

From double to triple: presenting Seven Sevens. It's all of 11% ABV and a very dense beast, glooping into the glass, an orangey beige colour. Yum. The flavour is a mix of concentrated orange cordial and some class of children's medicine, with a tang of fennel and tarragon representing the bitterness. I confess I've never really got triple IPA as a beer style: it feels like something invented more for the brewer to show off with than for the drinker to enjoy. Usually they have a clean and almost spirit-like heat, but here they've tried to ally the high strength with the oat-driven soft texture and juicy flavour of the New England style and it doesn't yield a positive result. The beer isn't unpleasant, although the rough grit of bad murk is a feature, but if I were to criticise it constructively I would primarily suggest dialling back the gravity, which is to say don't make it a triple IPA. I find myself less critical of what's in my glass than the thought process that created it. Anyway...

An imperial stout to finish with. Wee Honey lists "natural honeycomb flavour" in the ingredients, and I'm not sure what that means, but the beer itself smells powerfully of Crunchie bars. It's a little on the pale side for 9% ABV, more brown than black, though the head is full and generous. With that comes a fizzy and quite thin texture. I guess it's a mercy that it's not horrifically sticky, because it smells like it should be. The flavour is rather more complex than the aroma. That honey flavour brings in floral heather and tangy beeswax, finishing on a lasting sweetness that's more perfume than sugar. While that's all very interesting and enjoyable, it does come at the expense of the stout side. I was in the mood for a heavy and warming glassful but it doesn't really fit that bill. It's impossible to be cross with it, though. The brewery has given us something genuinely different, and very tasty.

At Mourne Mountains it seems they have no qualms about daring recipes, which is heartening. If the range keeps turning over I'll be buying more from them.