The less exotic

My final post from the 2018 Borefts Beer Festival at De Molen concerns the beers from the brewery, its compatriots, and the others from north-west Europe.

We'll begin with a new binomial stout from De Molen: Different & Unusual. It's a substantial 10.4% ABV but seems even stronger from the thick texture. It has an intense bitterness, all sappy resins, switching quickly to sweeter red wine and finishing on dark chocolate with a nutmeg spice. That sounds charming now that I read it back but it was a bit of a chore to get through, largely because of the density. It doesn't really reward the effort required to drink it.

There were four different versions of De Molen's #3000 black barley wine on the go, and I got to try the Sauternes-barrel one. Cake and wine is the long and short of it. The ABV is 14.6% and a lot of hot sweetness comes with that. It's accompanied by a strong red wine flavour that intensifies to cream sherry and leaves an aftertaste of rum-and-raisin ice cream. Another intense one, then, but much more fun than the stout.

Staying strong, Dutch and barrel-aged, Kees! had a bourbon-aged Caramel Fudge Stout on the go. This was 11.5% ABV and really lays on the fudge in its aroma. Chocolate and coffee are the main feature of the flavour: a rich and warming mocha. The smooth and creamy texture lends it a luxurious feel and gives the overall impression of an Irish coffee. I had been expecting a noisy, jangling pastry stout but got something much more integrated and classy instead.

I made a beeline early on for Tommie Sjef's stall to see what was on before it ran out. The Dutch sour beer wizard had a grape ale on the go, called Cuvée. This is 7.8% ABV and a hazy pale orange colour. There's a very strong lambic component to the flavour profile, a delightful brick-and-nitre spicy cellar dampness. A sweet and sappy raw oak flavour arrives as the initial sourness fades, followed by heavy white wine. I'm not sure the grape component adds anything positive to the picture. I found myself continually looking past it at the lovely geuze character beneath. Still a magnificent beer, though, and much too exciting to photograph in focus.

He had another fruited one called Opal-Jubileum, named after the two types of Dutch plum used in it. This was more like a Flanders red, dark pink and headless, with that uncompromising vinegar tang they often show. After the hard sourness there's a gentler fruit quality -- raspberries and redcurrants more than plums, I thought. A peppery spiciness added a pleasant unexpected twist to the finish. Though a modest 6% ABV it's a little on the heavy side, but the unusual combination of flavours makes it very interesting and enjoyable drinking. Well played, Tommie.

Perhaps surprisingly I had just one beer from Uiltje: the Cucumber Sour. This is only 3% ABV and a pale hazy yellow with a fine foam on top. It's sharply tart and lightly salty without very much contribution from the added fruit. Quenching, I guess, but rather plain and boring, which is not something I normally associate with this brewer.

New to me among the Dutch cohort was Brouwerij de Natte Gijt from Limburg. They had an apricot-flavoured gose called #5. It's a lurid orange colour and has a horrid sickly yoghurt and fruit juice flavour. This is barely recognisable as a beer, never mind as Leipzig's iconic style. Not a good introduction to a brewery's wares.

They also had a session rye ale of just 2.5% ABV called 7e Gijtje. It looked attractive: a deep and warming shade of ochre. The flavour was rather soapy at first, the sharp herbal tang of floor cleaner and urinal cakes. This mellows later to damp grass and lemon zest. The recipe certainly has potential but it was really let down by the watery texture. I suspect they were overambitious with that ABV.

It seems a bit strange that an international beer festival in the low countries would have just one Belgian representative in attendance, and that was Alvinne. Their 12% ABV Cuvée d'Erpigny barley wine was present in a Sauternes-barrel form, making it the second such in today's post. How did it match up to the De Molen one above? There's a deliciously sour and spicy nose, with lots of cedar and sandalwood. The sweet, red-tasting, wine is very apparent in the flavour and is matched by a clean and waxy bitterness, growing in intensity until it becomes a lambic-like sourness. Imperial geuze is born! The richness of a barley wine is missing, making it a very different proposition to De Molen #3000, but no less enjoyable for that.

To the right of it in the picture is something called Sour'ire de Mortagne Smoked Peaches, an 11% ABV Flemish sour ale with, yes, smoke and peaches. It starts off promisingly with a bricky lambic aroma. Peated malt seems to be where the smoke comes in as there's a powerful punch of smoky phenols up front in the first sip, then a long crisp bacon taste. There's no peach that I could detect, the smoke followed by an intense but clean sourness. The two sides of this beer are perfectly palatable by themselves but don't work very well in combination.

Another sour Alvinee beer? Go on then. Naakte Elf is a relative lightweight at 6% ABV and is an unboiled ale with unspecified fruit. I'm guessing something red as it's pink in colour and has a cherry liqueur aroma. The flavour offers a pleasant mix of cherry and raspberry with a touch of marzipan. It's tart but chewy, with the slightly artificial fruit sweetness of throat sweets. A bit of an oddball, this, but I liked it. They got value out of whatever berries they used in it.

Two English beers for last orders. North Brewery were at Borefts for I think the first time, bringing their core regulars and one I hadn't seen before: Island in Space sour IPA. This is a pale yellow colour with substantial haze and is centred on a delicious fresh lemon sourness. It's light without being watery, the ABV a respectable 5.5%. I'm a fan of this sort of thing in general but this is an especially good example, the hops and sourness in absolutely perfect balance and harmony. While it may not be very complex, it really knows how to slake a thirst.

One final imperial stout, then, and it's Wylam's Feasting With Panthers. This has been flavoured with liquorice and they must have really stuffed the bootlaces in there: it's very liquoricey. The thick tarry consistency and 10.5% ABV only serve to accentuate this. The end result is quite one-dimensional, but tasty with it. You get what you're promised.

So ends another Borefts. As I said on Monday, I'm in two minds whether this is still the festival for me, but a decision on next year is still a few months away. I did get to try some more beers on this trip to the Netherlands and I'll cover them off in tomorrow's post.

Look east

Borefts is pretty much the only place I get to drink Russian beer. This year there were two breweries from the Motherland on the roster.

Zagovor is from the capital and they had produced a special version of their Egor imperial stout for the festival. At 10.5% ABV it was far from the strongest one at the gig, but it smelled like it, with its hot Tia Maria aroma. The flavour is an intense mix of that coffee and alcohol with a big bag of bitter herbs thrown in too. Cough mixture, Jagermeister, espresso and liquorice all feature in my notes on it. It's fun and bouncy and loud, and while quite unapologetic about its lack of subtlety is just not in the same league as the more softly spoken and complex imperial stouts available.

The other Zagovor beer I tried was called Sticker, billed as an "imperial gose" and 7% ABV. It's a bright pink colour with a broadly berryish aroma and a flavour distinctly and strongly of raspberries. The texture is thin and it all amounts to a very generic fruited sour beer that isn't very sour. There's not a thing imperial or gose-like about it.

The other Russians were the St Petersburgers AF Brew and they had a bourbon-barrel imperial stout called Lobotomy Frontal. We're going for coffee, alcohol and viscosity in a big way again, this time pushing the ABV up to 12.8%. Unlike bitter Egor, however, this one is extremely sweet. The first sip brought an intense golden syrup taste, gradually flowering into Marsala wine and sweet vermouth before finishing on chocolate sauce. There's no trace of roast or bitterness at any point along the way, which I found disappointing. This is another beast of a beer, as the name makes clear, and too much of a nerve-jangler for my liking.

Eastern Europe was otherwise solely represented by Hungary, again with a pair of breweries in the line-up. Reketye was new to me. I began with their Guaran Ale, an amber-coloured American-style pale ale of 6% ABV enhanced with guarana and goji berries. Despite the dense appearance and substantial strength this is quite light and lagery with a base of crisp grain and a non-specific berry sweetness. It certainly wasn't the novelty beer I expected but there's not a thing wrong with it and down the hatch it went.

There was also a sour stout from the same crowd, delighting in the name of Fuck Mango. I don't know what their problem with mango is. It's 7% ABV and smells of burnt grains. Though lightly tangy it's not what I'd called sour, nor is it full-on fruity. Concentrate and maybe there's a little indistinct tropical fruit pulp behind the charcoal dryness, but not enough to make a real contribution. This turned out rather less than the sum of its parts.

Last up for today is Budapest's Monyo. Afterparty, a collaboration with La Pirata, is a saison with added cucumber and kaffir lime leaves. Cucumber is one of those flavourings that tends to dominate any beer it's added to but I found it quite hard to spot here, only really identifying it once I knew it was there. This pale hazy yellow affair smells primarily of lemon and banana: witbier meets weissbier. It's spritzy and fun, a modest 5.6% ABV, another pleasant change of gear from all the heavy and strong ones.

Speaking of which, we finish on a strong spiced scotch ale from Monyo called The Ginger Unicorn Licks My Bagpipe. What larks! It's 8.6% ABV and a murky garnet colour. The promise of rich toffee studded with sharp ginger was at the front of my mind when I took the first sip but that's not what landed in my mouth. It's hot and sticky with a cloying strawberry jamminess and absolutely no spice. Somehow it also manages to be savoury, grainy and stale at the same time. Nice concept, maybe, but very poor execution.

We bring things closer to home for tomorrow's final Borefts post.

All the way up

There's always a good showing from the nordics at Borefts, confirming that region as an instigator and driving force of interesting beer in Europe. As one would expect, the 2018 iteration of the festival featured some old hands and a few newcomers.

Närke, for instance, haven't missed a Borefts yet, as far as I've seen. A lot of their offer gets repeated but there's often something new. This year that was Husings Skogs-Porter, literally a "forest porter". It's foresty all right: the label mentions spruce, birch, alder, juniper and honey. Despite this it's still a porter all the way through, built on a solid base of milk chocolate, the 7.9% ABV giving it a good foundation. All the fancy ingredients amount to little more than a sticky raisin and blackberry combination. This is offset by a berry tartness but it still tastes like a cake. I'd have liked some more exotic and unusual flavours, yet there's nothing wrong with a porter that tastes a bit like Black Forest gateau. Add more cherries next time.

Iceland made its Borefts début with beers from Borg brewery. Snorri No. 10 caught my eye in particular, described as a herb ale and 5.3% ABV. Arctic thyme is apparently the key ingredient. It's a hazy gold colour with an aroma which calls to mind homemade lemonade and herbed summer cocktails. The flavour is appropriately fresh and zingy: a sweet sugary base but with overtones of citrus zest, white pepper and assorted garden herbs. This is fun and refreshing while also being intellectually interesting in the way the flavours combine and contrast.

From the selection of Borg stouts I picked Garún as the one I hadn't had before. There's no mistaking the 11.5% ABV here: it's very heavily textured, the flavour being a bitter and sticky mix of toffee, liquorice and very strong ristretto coffee. While this is an absolute pounder, it has subtleties too. The flavours are strong, but they're comforting, making it an ideal winter sipper.

The Norwegian beers came courtesy of Klostergården, German and all that it sounds. Their Mint Saison intrigued me: it's not a combination I'd seen before. This turned out to be rather plain fare. Not even a hint of mint comes through to the taste, just vague herbs and an unpleasant rubber note.

Its companion goes by the cheery name of Herbie, a beer brewed for the festival with the nine ingredients specified by De Molen plus one extra of the brewery's choosing. Don't ask me to list them. What they came up with was an unhopped job, fermented with kveik yeast. It's a wan orange colour with a powerful farmyard aroma and then a flavour that is at once candy-sweet and heavily phenolic, strongly implying that peated malt has been employed. There's no smoothness or nuance or blended elements here and the whole thing is just a bit nasty. A failed experiment, I reckon.

Moving from Norway to Sweden, I stopped in my tracks when passing the Beerbliotek stand and seeing their orange-peel-infused black IPA Shakes Fist Angrily: the perfect beer for a certain sort of online beer commentator. It's a stonking 9.5% ABV and looks like a lovely creamy stout in the glass: purest obsidian with a tan-tinted head. Fresh and crunchy red cabbage comes out in the aroma while the flavour is sweet with lots of milk chocolate, laced with candied orange peel. A mild hop acridity finishes it off. There's a classy linear progression through the flavours with each mouthful, none of them building to dominate and with no alcohol harshness. This is smooth, balanced, easy-drinking, and probably very dangerous in larger measures. Hence the name, I guess.

I assume there's some sort of protocol to the 2004 accession treaty that says beer from Estonia's Põhjala Brewery must be present at a certain proportion of international beer festivals in Europe, because they really do get about. The only one of their Borefts range I tried was Leevike, described in the programme as a "spiced winter sour" with honey, cinnamon, hibiscus, and clove. It's a murky ochre colour, and the honey and cinnamon form the aroma: so far, so wintery. Warming cinnamon is most of the flavour but it's not laid on too thick. The texture is light and sparkly despite 6.5% ABV. The baseline sweetness is probably the honey again, and while it's not as complex as the ingredients list implies, it is pleasant and jolly.

My Estonian beer horizons were expanded by the presence of Sori, from whom I tried two beers. Vinum Secale is, as the name explicitly states, a rye wine: 10.1% ABV and a dark chestnut red. It tastes... oily: herbal like retsina with the same juicy red grape and then overtones of eucalyptus and coconut oil. Smooth and a little boozy, it's very sippable and ponderable. This is an unusual beer and one not to be rushed.

I returned to Sori much later for an even stronger beer: Conca d'Oro, This is a wine-barrel-aged imperial stout of 11% ABV. The base beer here is very plain and it lacks the basic profile of a stout. The barrel goes some way to make up for that, throwing out unadulterated grape juice, sweet raisin and plum and a fortified port booziness. Bitter herbs add to the complexity, giving it a pipe tobacco aroma and a finish like Fernet Stock. It's all rather delightful overall and a great finisher for the evening and this post. Sori is a brewer to look out for, it seems.

More from elsewhere tomorrow.

Learn your Latin

The Borefts Beer Festival celebrated its tenth outing in the grounds of the De Molen brewery in September. It was my seventh visit overall, and my second since it moved from casual entry to all-ticket. Maybe the inclement weather is to blame, but it felt more claustrophobic than usual, harder to find space to drink and with frequent queues for beers at certain stalls, even early in the day. I'll see how I feel come next summer, but maybe it's time to leave this event to those more prepared to put the work in for it.

The headline draw this year was three representatives of the brewing scene in São Paulo. The first Brazilian I tried was a double black IPA called Cafuza, from Dogma brewery, a beast of a thing at 9.2% ABV and purest, deepest black. There's a bit of a bathwater aroma: that mix of flowers, herbs and minerals that seems to be unique to the black IPA genre. The flavour leans heavily on roast, giving an intense burnt toast effect. While there's a touch of pine in there, the hops are disappointingly lacking, as for that matter is the alcohol power. That leaves it a decent but unexciting sipping stout, which is not what was promised by the description or the aroma.

Dogma scored better with their Mosaic Brux Brett IPA, shiny gold and tasting as clean as it looks. It begins with fresh and juicy mango and grapefruit, followed by a lavender and bergamot complexity. At 6% ABV it has plenty of body and is beautifully smooth without also being sticky, while a fine fizz scrubs the palate. I liked the balance here: the hops and posh yeast both contribute greatly, but not at each other's expense.

Though Cervejaria Urbana had their own stall they don't have their own brewery, and their black IPA was brewed by, and in collaboration with, Dogma. Chocolate Hopping is the name, 7% ABV and smelling weirdly of wood and bitter herbs. That's present in the flavour too, accompanied by cocoa nibs and bourbon vanilla. The bitterness is too intense, though, and the whole thing is a bit of a mess. Beware the black IPAs of São Paulo, it seems.

The third Brazilian was Trilha. It's a brewpub though does get some beer brewed elsewhere, which has me wondering if these were all in fact Dogma creations. Mémoa is a barrel-aged strawberry wild ale, which is an unusual combination. It pours a dark orange colour and has a lovely tartness from the get-go. The strawberry flavour is mild and comes through without any sweetness but is still unmistakably real strawb. A very slight rubbery note creeps in at the end and is the only off-note in an otherwise daring and well-executed concoction.

Last of the Brazilians was Trilha Gorilla, as much fun to say as it is to drink. It's an 11.2% ABV imperial stout brewed with coffee and (here comes the assonance) vanilla. Black in colour with a tan head, the aroma is a heady espresso, turning to soft and creamy latte on tasting. I'm guessing there's a significant quantity of lactose involved as there's a fabulous velvety texture. So it's not madly complex, and maybe the ABV is a smidge high for how it tastes, but I really enjoyed what it had to offer.

Latin Europe was represented at the festival solely by breweries in what I'm broadly going to call Spain. At least there's no argument about DouGall's, from Cantabria. Their gimmick beer was called Fishman: an imperial stout of 10% ABV, brewed with anchovy and served with an anchovy pintxo topper. It's decidedly ungimmicky and doesn't taste at all of fish, for which I should probably be thankful. There's some light smoke, a little sweet summer fruit, an edge of burnt caramel and some light Turkish coffee spicing, but all is quite muted with nothing really jumping out. This is another that's perhaps a little plain for its strength though is completely without flaws.

One region to the right brings us to the Basque Country, and Basquery was an entirely new brewery to me. I tried two of theirs. Black & Molen was yet another imperial stout, again at the 10% ABV mark. Obviously it was a collaboration with the hosts, and the not-so-secret ingredient is stollen, from which I expected some spice but none came. Instead it's a rich and bitter job, redolent of liquorice and aquavit with a wholesome brown bread crust. Bitterness almost always improves an imperial stout and this was a real notch above the many sugary ones available, some of which I'll get to in later posts.

The other Basquery beer to pass my way was Eskombro, that rarity a brown ale, though given some novelty treatment by the addition of rye bread to the grist. I found it heavy and starchy, the density dulling the flavours. One expects a rich and smooth chocolate caramel effect from this style -- especially one at 5.8% ABV -- but this one just didn't deliver. Shame.

Moving south to Catalonia, another new brewery for me: Poch's, just outside Girona. Another imperial stout, you say? Go on then. Carquinyoli is 10.2% ABV and the elevenses addition this time is biscotti. Once again, however, that's buried under the weight of the base beer which is delightfully bitter, throwing out plug tobacco and green spinach. The texture works well with this, all chewy and gut-coating, and it also exudes a warmth which makes it still enjoyable long after swallowing. Textbook stuff.

My last beer on day one of the festival was Liquid Fear, a double IPA by fellow-Catalonians Pirata. This was a mere 8.7% ABV and quite New Englandy: a pith bitterness overlaid with thick and creamy vanilla with hints of garlic and spring onion around the edges. An unsurprising yeast bite arrives in the finish. Still, this isn't a terrible example of the style by any means and had a lot going for it: the disparate elements don't clash with each other, all carried along in the smoothness. You've tasted it before, though: beers of this nature are ubiquitous at the moment.

That's it for today. We'll stick another pin in the map for tomorrow's post.

A black day

It was International Stout Day a couple of weeks ago. Diageo marked the occasion with a festival of stouts at the Open Gate Brewery, with specials of their own and a handful of guest brewers from home and abroad.

The headline beer was a cappuccino stout called Stoutosphere. Though a full 5% ABV it was quite light and plain. There's a gentle chocolate flavour but not much coffee. The smooth nitrogenation and a light sour tang in the finish meant it bore a strong resemblance to plain old Guinness Draught.

I had a similar thought about 7 Million, another one at the same strength but without the nitro. Apparently the hops are the big differentiator here, with lots of different varieties used, but I didn't get any of that in the flavour. It was thinly textured and the emphasis is on the toasty roasted grain, with that tang again, this time a little more prominent. Not that different from ordinary carbonated Guinness, then.

L-R: 7 Million, Stoutosphere, 2018 Contains Nuts, Chilli

Surely the Chilli Stout would have something more distinctive to say for itself? Boy did it. The first sip offers a pleasing pinch of white pepper and this slowly builds into a dry but fiery mix of spices, catching the throat and warming the belly as good chilli stout ought to. The tongue numbness was a new one, but why not? I loved the complexity in this: not just heat for heat's sake but a multifaceted mix of chilli peppers, pepper corns and herbs, all coming across very clearly yet without interfering with the chocolate and roast of the base beer. I would love if chilli stout of this intensity were commercially viable, but fear I may be the only person who would buy it more than once.

I landed this flight with a guest: DOT Brew's 2018 Contains Nuts, an 8.2% ABV job with toasted pecans. There's a very spirituous aroma, like a chocolate or coffee liqueur. Though it's completely flat and a little thin, the flavour is very full-on: a sweet mix of chocolate and nuts, and the oily quality of pecans in particular. The warmth makes it an excellent wintertime sipper.

I didn't even notice the item called Nitro Stout on the menu board. Of course they'd have a nitro stout at Guinness: it's kinda their thing. This actually turned out to be a non-alcoholic version, or near enough at 0.5% ABV. I assume it's fermented with the same lazy yeast they use for Pure Brew lager. It's quite thin and a little oversweetened but is otherwise OK to drink. There's a pleasant smokiness to the flavour that gives it proper character. I've no idea if they're planning a wider release for this but I'd say there's a market for it.

There was supposed to have been a sweet imperial stout on the roster but a gravity target was missed and we got Sweet Export Stout instead, served three ways. The plain one at 7.5% ABV was rather bitter and astringent with a strong hit of black tea and Balkan flake tobacco, leading to overtones of east European herbal liqueur. It's intense, verging on harsh, but very good. The name is problematic as it's not even remotely sweet, with its palate-drying roast. I liked how serious and grown-up it tasted, a total reversal of the pastry stout trend.

The bourbon barrel version boosted the ABV to a more imperious 10.5%. The bitterness is still present but gets balanced with dessert-like chocolate and vanilla. The hard edges have been smoothed out and I'm not at all sure it's an improvement. There's still enough of the original character left for it to be enjoyable, and it's not drowned by bourbon flavour the way these often are. A modest thumbs up from me, though I can't help feeling the barrel has sapped much of the base beer's character.

And then there's a scotch barrel edition, at 9.2% ABV. This was harshly peaty and the phenols have completely erased the flavours of the stout leaving nothing but acrid burnt smoke behind. I'm generally in favour of peat flavours in stout but there was something just not right about this one.

It was a fun experiment and a definite indicator that barrels aren't always stout's best friend.

Some more guest beers, then, and Emelisse had sent a couple of flavoured stouts over from the Netherlands. Apple Pie Stout is 6.5% ABV and tastes exactly like an apple pie. There's the rich and sweet baked apple, a biscuity pastry effect and just a dusting of cinnamon and brown sugar. Jens, the brewer from Emelisse, was on hand and explained that the secret to the effect is the addition of calvados to the recipe. It doesn't really taste of beer but I'm not too bothered about that, it's such a joy to drink.

I wasn't as enthusiastic about their Forest Fruit Stout which tasted more artificial, like it had been simply doused with a few bottles of Ribena. Some toasted grain comes through from the base beer but otherwise it's just purple syrup all the way.

Yes, hello Steve.

And speaking of syrup, Jens also shared an Eisbock he'd brought with him, based on Emelisse's barley wine but distilled to 26.6% ABV. It's incredibly thick, almost chewy, smelling like a schnapps, with a herbal liqueur flavour which suggests noble hops to me. This intensifies quickly resulting in a bitter green vegetable taste, like the skin of a courgette. It's certainly interesting, but a thimbleful of it was plenty for me.

From the Lervig options I tried the Toasted Maple Stout, the strongest on the board, I think, at 12% ABV. It's another thick one, tasting warming, shading to hot. My throat was burned by the acrid nutty oils while the intense sugariness set my pulse racing. It tastes quite sickly, of too much toffee and not much else. A sip was enjoyable but it became hard work very quickly. I'm glad I was only dealing with a small sample.

At this point I took my leave but dropped in to UnderDog on the way home for one more imperial DOT stout. Cedar Rum Oat Imp Stout is the name and description, a full-on 11.1% ABV. I was surprised to find the main aroma and flavour isn't any of the advertised features but wine; ruby port in particular: that sweet and boozy vinousness. A dark rum quality emerges as it warms, presenting an almost diesel-like sharpness, yet it doesn't upset the balance. This isn't madly complex, and I'm a little put out by the lack of spicy cedar, but it is poised and elegant. Pure class, no gimmicks.

Cheers to the Open Gate team for their hospitality, and a wave to Martin and Steve from the Hopinions podcast who came over to see what was going on, and even seemed to be enjoying themselves.

From the edge

Post Card Brewing Co. had been on hiatus for a while. Its host brewery, Craftworks, moved location and rebranded as Select Batch, and now the Post Card series has had a revamp also, with modern labels and moderner 440ml cans.

Two new releases signalled the return, beginning with The Grand Stretch, a dunkel kristal [sic] weisse, which is a very unusual style for an Irish brewer to tackle. It looks handsome in the glass: the purest shade of polished chestnut. Maybe it's the filtering, but it lacks the richness found in hefeweizen, being quite thin and crisp, with dark toasted grain, finishing dry. There's a hint of green banana and some asparagus-like German hops, but also a cherry sourness which is very out of keeping for a weisse of any stripe. I'll admit the particular sub-style is not one I'm familiar with, but I don't think this quite works, other than the appearance, of course.

A more on-trend style, New England IPA, is represented by the second beer, Hazy Moose. It's only slightly hazy, being otherwise a rather wan and watery-looking yellow. The aroma is superb: freshly sweet pineapple with hints of sharper grapefruit -- balance, tropical style. And that's exactly what's delivered on tasting; annoyingly so, as there's not much else I can say. There's a slight added yeast spice and a warmth from its 6.5% ABV, but otherwise it's real pithy grapefruit buddying up with smooth sweet pineapple in a deliciously tasty way. I inhaled it in quite an indecent fashion and immediately hankered after another.

I look forward to further releases from Post Card v.2. Especially where hops are involved.

Darkness and daylight

This post started out as a quick catch-up with YellowBelly Brewery but their output being what it is, it's now a five-beer mini-marathon.

We begin with the fourth release in their members-only club series. CloisterPhobia came branded as a 7.5% ABV dark abbey beer. Any Trappist notions are immediately extinguished by the fast-dissipating excuse for a head. It smells roasty, like a porter. The flavour has a bit more Belgian about it: hints of prunes, raisins and chocolate, but there's a lack of richness which I assign to the relatively low alcohol. This seems to me like a quadrupel brewed to dubbel strength, so just a little off kilter and lacking in power. While decent, it's no improvement on the Belgian originals.

And if you want on board for the 2019 club, bookings are now being taken.

A pair of new sour beers landed a couple of weeks previously, appearing side-by-side in UnderDog and I'm sure plenty of other places too.

Sunset was 7.2% ABV and a deep orange colour. This piles in the grains, coming across crisp and husky, primarily. The obvious strength lends it a soft warmth which butts up against a curdling sourness, a flavour which is merely tangy at the outset but develops into full-on vinegar by the end. This is a real bruiser, far from a fun and zippy sour beer, more of a serious chin-stroker. As a man of unrefined tastes I found it hard to enjoy.

What do we get with Sunrise, other than an ABV reduced to 7.1%? It's still weighty, and identical looking, but there's definitely more zing in this: a distinct squirt of Jif lemon and some coconut oil, leading to a refreshingly tart finish. It's not all that complex but it is tasty, making good use of dry hopping to add character to a big and blousey sour beer. I still think the strength is unwarranted: the pair of these would have been better beers under the 5% ABV mark, I reckon.

Looks like I'm hard to please when it comes to the 7.x% ABV zone: your abbey ale is too weak and your sour ones too strong. How about a nice Baltic porter, hmm?

Below that line there's Usurper, a blueberry-flavoured ale at 6.2% ABV. Information about it is thin on the ground at time of writing, but it looks the part: a bright and shiny plum colour. The texture is thick, adding a poster paint feel to its poster paint looks, and the first flavour is a harsh, almost burning, yeast bite. There's a syrupy and jammy fruit flavour, more sweet blackcurrant than tart blueberry to me. A dry minerality cleans up the sugar towards the end and might have been a neat finisher were it not for the final throat-burn of dreggy yeast. What should have been a fun beer ended up a bit of a chore to get through.

A second can rounds this one out. The top-tier punnage of the new east coast IPA -- The Crystal Haze -- is offset somewhat by its caramelised malt not making much of a contribution to the flavour or appearance. Oh well. Perhaps it's a little darker than these tend to be but it's still very much in the normal golden-orange NEIPA spectrum. The aroma is very ripe fruit: squashy mandarins, leaning towards solvent. On tasting it's cleaner, thankfully. It starts on zesty orangeade and some sweeter pineapple and mango, before flipping suddenly to savoury garlic and white onion. That was a little disconcerting at first but I got used to it quickly and was enjoying the flavour choreography by the end. It was a relief, also, not have to chew this one. At 5.8% it has the lowest ABV of the bunch, and while there's a certain New England fuzz to the texture, it's by no means difficult drinking.

Quite a mixed bag here, and nothing that seriously impressed. The YellowBelly machine rumbles on...