CorkBillyBeers #29. Craft Lager, a superb quartet from Wicklow Wolf, Kinnegar, Mescan and Lineman

CorkBillyBeers #29

Craft Lager, a superb quartet from Wicklow Wolf, Kinnegar, Mescan and Lineman

**********************

Wicklow Wolf Running With Wolves India Pale Lager, 5.6%, 440ml can

Just like Kinnegar below, Wicklow Wolf are claiming this is a “modern style” lager. It  is brewed in collaboration with Bristol brewery Lost and Grounded and this India Pale Lager is dry hopped with Idaho 7 and Huell Melon to create “a savagely refreshing modern style lager”.

Wicklow tells us, that for the collaboration with their friends Lost and Grounded Brewers, “we took inspiration from their delicious Running with Sceptres, we brewed a single decoction India Pale Lager.”

Yeast used in this hybrid is an interesting one. It is the Hoppin Pils lager yeast that is targeted towards IPL styles and/or dry hopped lagers (as here) and  is commonly used for the brewing of Bock, German lagers, Kolsch, lagers and pilsners

Colour is a light gold (not quite one hundred per cent clear) and there are aromas of biscuity malt, apricot and a citrus sweetness. On the palate, no shortage of flavour as the malts and hops get together to make it a balanced experience right through to the satisfactory finalé.

This single decoction India Pale Lager is Very Highly Recommended..

**********************

Kinnegar #30 Unfiltered Hoppy Lager 4.6%, 440ml can Bradleys

Colour of this unfiltered hoppy lager from the Kinnegar Brewers at Play series is a "foggy" gold. The first impression on the palate is one of refreshment, just like a lager should be. But, reinforced by “a contemporary hop profile”, this has a bit more going for it and should be welcome as the temperatures stay high in the days ahead.

Indeed, the brewers say they made it “to herald the arrival of a warmer beer-drinking season”. I notice they don’t mention summer!

The Brewers at Play series is designed to keep Kinnegar brewers on their toes and their customers on tenterhooks. It is No. 30 in the series which has come up with some gems. This is another one, a superb lager with excellent flavour and that high refreshment factor.

Lagers, they say, are among the most challenging - “and are amongst our favourite beers to brew”. I reckon it was well worth the effort on this occasion.

Very Highly Recommended.

**********************

Mescan Seven Virtues Lager 4.8%, 330 ml bottle

Last Spring (April) in the Mescan brewery, on a farm in the shadow of Croagh Patrick, we started a tasting with brewery co-founder Cillian Ó Móráin with a shared bottle of this lager. After a long enough drive from Cork, it proved remarkably refreshing and made me wonder why so few lagers reach this level of quality.

This may be the answer. At that tasting, Cillian explained that his beers take a minimum of 4 months with the heavy ones getting 6-8 months whereas your normal craft beer takes just a few weeks from start to counter (can vary from brewer to brewer). While the extra time makes the Mescan more expensive, Cillian reckons it is very important for the quality of the beer. And it is indeed a premium product as that little tasting and this more recent full bottle illustrated.

It has the nice golden lager colour and billions of bubbles rising to the soft white head. A bit of citrus and grass (not that grass!) in the aromas. On the palate, it is a bit more than your usual lager - it is after all dry-hopped. But it is crisp and refreshing, easy-drinking. Well worth a try!

They say: Virtues lager was the first in a series of one-off brews. Crisp and slightly dry hopped, a nod in the direction of both tradition and innovation.  Serving Temp 2 - 4 °C. 

Note that serving temperature, somewhat lower than usual.

Mescan always pay attention to matching their beers with food and even invented the Mescan Food-Pairing Wheel, designed to take the angst out of matching beer and food. It’s an easy way to pair each Mescan craft beer with the foods that complement it. It’s available on the website and is easily printable in a pdf format. It was a useful resource for all the home chefs who explored new options in their kitchens during the pandemic.

Check  here to see what goes with this lager. 

Very Highly Recommended

**********************

Lineman Undertone Dark Lager, 4.5% ABV, 440ml can Bradleys

Came across this dark gem first at the Franciscan Well Easter Festival on the North Mall and was immediately smitten, so obviously that the kind lady at the Lineman stand generously topped me up, with a smile. It was a sunny day. No sun as I write but I’m still smiling with my dark Czech lager.

Dark ruby is the colour of this one with a soft tan colour head on top. Chocolate and caramel feature in the aromas. And the flavours give it away - it is a malty lager, underneath the toast-bready, caramel-y camouflage.

A smooth Bohemian style dark lager that delivers delicious toast, chocolate and caramel notes. Unpasteurised, unfiltered, serve chilled. Drink fresh. Suitable for vegans.  All that info on the label.

And quite a refreshing lager. The smooth flavours develop as a result of the use of Munich malts and extended cold fermentation and conditioning. And also a more expressive lager yeast strain that adds its own character.

They say: This unfiltered lager is given plenty of time to condition over the 8 weeks in tank prior to packaging. It's one of our absolute favourites. It's a labour of love.

Yes, Lineman (and me) are fans of Czech darks and dunkels. “Rounder and less roasty than a schwarzbier. Toasty, bread crust, and caramel. Freshly packaged UNDERTONE is making a return with a new look, but still a delicious 4.5% beer to enjoy. We've given the label a makeover and we've tweaked the recipe just a tad. This unfiltered lager is given plenty of time to condition over the 8 weeks in tank prior to packaging."

Used to be 4.2% but the new 4.5% keeps it in the sessional category.

Very Highly Recommended. 

CorkBillyBeers #25. Craft Stout and Porter with Kinnegar, Tom Crean, West Kerry and Dot Brew

CorkBillyBeers #25

Craft Stout and Porter with Kinnegar, Tom Crean, West Kerry and Dot Brew

*******************

Kinnegar Yannaroddy Porter 4.8%, 440ml can Bradleys Cork

Black, more like a Ford Model T than a ripe blackberry on the briar, is the colour here with a tan head that doesn’t hang about. Smells roasty. And the palate is full of those traditional dark roasted malt flavours and, eventually, there is a touch, a sweet one, of the coconut, which is actually listed in the ingredients. 

But it all returns to the more traditional porter characteristics as the long and very satisfactory finish progresses. For me, it is velvety smooth with good acidity on the way to a lip-smacking finish. That smoothness is quite amazing and no nitro was harmed while it was achieved.

Very Highly Recommended 

By the way, the Yannaroddy (based on European hops) is the 2019 Brussels Beer Challenge gold medal winner “whose surprisingly light profile delivers rich and complex flavours”.

Where did they get the name? Sounds Australian to me. But no, they found it in their own little corner of Donegal where they get all the names for their beers. A stone’s throw from the brewery is a field with the intriguing name Yannaroddy.

*******************

Tom Crean Six Magpies Stout, 4.5% ABV, 440ml can, Carry Out Killarney

Magpie black is the colour of our Six Magpies Stout from Tom Crean, Kenmare’s independent brewery, and it has a soft tan head. Gentle coffee notes from the aromas. And that coffee streak runs through the palate with the hops also doing their subtle bit.  Excellent mouthfeel and a fine dry finish as well. 

I’m inclined to think this is the best of the Crean beers, at least is the one that has made the best impression on me. Of course, I’m not the only one, as it won gold in its category at the Blas na h-Éireann awards in 2002.

The brewery: A combination of 6 grain types, but that’s not where the name comes from! A traditional Irish stout, triple hopped and reminiscent of stouts before the addition of nitrogen. Subtle hop presence, perfect mouthfeel and classic combination of grains.

So where did the name come from? Brewer Bill was trying to settle on a name when he heard an almighty racket overhead. Looking up to the trees, he saw a bunch of magpies, six in all. (Brewers are sticklers for detail). He was aware of the old saying about the noisy bird: One for sorrow, Two for joy, Three for a girl, Four for a boy, Five for silver, Six for gold, Seven for a secret never to be told.

Suitably inspired, the brewer christened the beer Six Magpies. And, of course, it went on and won gold!

Very Highly Recommended. The beer, that is, not counting magpies!

*******************

West Kerry Carraig Dubh Porter, 6.0% ABV, 500ml bottle, Carry Out Killarney

This is the brewery’s take: A rich luxurious porter brewed with bags of chocolate malt. This bold heavy porter is laden with coffee and chocolate tones. 

Enjoyed this previously over the Christmas and see little reason to change my notes. Black as you’d expect and it comes with a quickly vanishing head. Aromas coming from the malt are coffee and caramel. The roasted flavours are on the bold side, and really wake up those taste buds. Lots of chocolate malt here but there is also a balance and it never gets too sweet, just spot on. The aromas and flavours continue to make this a superb experience right through to the finalé. They also do a barrel aged version - must sometime try that (as Yoda might put it)!

Their original beer was Cúl Dorcha, a red ale (great with oysters, I’m told); then came Carraig Dhubh a porter “because we like the sound of the word as opposed to stout!” Hard for us amateurs to describe the difference between stout and porter if the professionals chose to call this one porter on the basis of how it sounds!

But agree we can (again Yoda) that this is quite a beer. Smooth, seductive, chocolate-y and there is no letting go as the lingering finish is along the same lines. One to sip and savour, arís is arís. Superb beers like this are making me think I may soon be drinking exclusively on the dark side.

It is bottle conditioned and made from malted barley, hops, yeast and spring water “from our own spring”. Traditional, yes. A bottle (or two) would go down well at the threshings I remember - but not too many threshings on farms anymore. 

Very Highly Recommended

*******************

Dot Brew Spin off Series Dark Side Stout, 4.2%, 440ml can Aldi only

Colour is black, no surprise and the soft tan head reduces rather quickly. There’s a moderate chocolate and vanilla aroma, (the head has vanished by now as I type that). The liquid in the mouth is roasty and chocolate smooth, and a hint of vanilla towards the end which is dry and refreshing. All this at an Aldi price. How bad!

 

Their Instagram says its an approachable stout with a medium body. “Built with Irish pale barley / caraffa special II / pale wheat / flaked oats / carapils / chocolate malt, fermented with a not so traditional low rider yeast, Willamette hops to the hot side with an addition of natural vanilla post fermentation.” 

Yes, vanilla is listed in the ingredients.

Highly Recommended.

Craft Delight With 13 Brewers At Franciscan Well Easter Fest. CorkBillyBeers #22.

CorkBillyBeers #22

Craft Delight With 13 Brewers At Franciscan Well Easter Fest

Busy days for Sean at the Black's of Kinsale taps.

A baker’s dozen of Ireland’s craft breweries set up camp at the Franciscan Well and turned their well and truly revived Easter Beer Fest into a convivial carnival featuring the best of craft over the holiday weekend. Hard to resist some of the stars here, some beautiful pours over the two days, including a debut for the delicious Locavore Spring 2023, a Honey Hefeweizen, by Wicklow Wolf.

I did have a Plan A when I arrived in the busy venue on Saturday afternoon but that didn't last long. Nor did Plan B or indeed any notion of a plan. No seat available but I did get my aging back up against a solid object and relaxed.

Spot the difference? One of these is a lager, one's a stout. Answer at end.

Lots of chats too of course, none of it too serious. We were here for the craft and the craic. Actually, black (rhymes with craic!) was on Plan A and I did get a couple in. Had a good chat with Sean from Black’s of Kinsale. I was familiar with all three of his taps, including the marvellous Red Rye Redemption. 

My eyes wandered to his right and I spotted a dark lager at Lineman. Enjoyed their Schwarzbier last year so I tried the Undertone - a Czech Dark Lager (4.5%), dark with hints of red in the depths, smooth caramel, a touch of toast but all smooth and clean just like a lager should be! The Undertone, a little less roasty than a Schwarzbier, is making a return to the Lineman portfolio and is sure to get a terrific welcome.

That goes on to my shopping list for Bradley’s. In fact, all the beers mentioned here will be going on to that list. Some good weeks ahead then!

My first real black came from Phil, at the Kinnegar stand.  He poured me a glass of their long-standing favourite Yannaroddy (4.8%). Long-standing maybe but you never get tired of class and this rich and creamy porter, made with love, has Donegal expertise in every sip.

Keith McCarthy at the Wicklow Wolf taps and his Lough Gill colleagues.

My second black came later on, the Chocolate Truffle Stout from Porterhouse. This limited edition (4.2%) surprised me - I’m always a little suspicious of nitro - but very few can say no to chocolate. Very smooth of course and delicious but not too sweet at all.

More potential sweetness next, but very well balanced. Wicklow Wolf tell us their Locavore Spring 2023 is “a Honey Hefeweizen brewed with heather honey supplied by our friends at @openhivehoney. The bees worked hard in the Wicklow mountains to gather the nectar to make beautiful heather honey for this brew.” Their 2022 edition, a barrel aged ale, was one of my beers of the year and, being a big honey fan anyhow, I’ll be looking at this one more closely soon! ABV is 6.0%.

Original 7 Red

Had been hoping to try the Cutback New England IPA by Lough Gill but it wasn’t available at the time I called. So I switched to next door to the “home” brewery, the Original 7, who have been expanding their range and availability in local pubs since their relatively recent founding and their Steve Guiney says they will have a beautiful surprise for fans late in the summer.

While looking forward to that, I absolutely enjoyed their Wonderland Red Ale. Quite a mix here, according to their notes - caramel, blackcurrant, raspberry and cherry - but a well judged balance and a lovely red and a truly session-able beer with an IBU of 22 and 4.2% ABV.

So we moved from Keith (at the Wolf stand) to Simon at Galway Bay. Started with their classic Helles, the Slow Lives (5%). Next from the west was the Sister Cities (6.2%), a Sour IPA with citrus, apple, a touch of elderflower and a balancing acidity. Very drinkable indeed and looking forward to a few in a the garden in the better days ahead! Thanks Simon! And thanks to all the people we met and sorry we missed out on a few. Next time!

Pompeii Pizza: Feeding the troops

Picture quiz above: stout (Porterhouse) is on the left, Lineman  is the lager.

CorkBillyBeers #17. Craft Session with Brehon, Kinnegar, Third Barrel, Ballykilcavan.

CorkBillyBeers #17

Craft Session with Brehon, Kinnegar, Third Barrel, Ballykilcavan.

********************************

Brehon Seisún Pale Ale, 3.5% ABV, 500 bottle

The name of this brew, Seisiún, is inspired by the Irish for rousing songs, great drinks, good company and craic.  “We are delighted to bring you this light ale loaded with citrus flavours.”

Colour is a gorgeous mid to dark amber colour with red tints and a soft white head. Grapefruit seeps out of the aromas and leaps out on the palate, a dry and refreshing palate with a clean and dry citrusy finish. Even at 3.5%, this one packs quite a flavoursome punch.

Brehon tells us (and the evidence is here) that pale ales “tend to be lighter than standard beers. They tend to be malty, medium-bodied and are easy to drink. Some say they bridge the gap between dark stouts and lighter”.

Very Highly Recommended.

********************************

Kinnegar Brewers at Play #29 Session IPA, 4.0% ABV, 440ml can Bradleys

This is the first new beer of 2023 from Kinnegar and extends their Brewers at Play series to number 29!

It is a hazy pale gold with a soft white head that sinks slowly. Aromas are of the citrus variety, of moderate intensity. And so it continues on the palate where it is light and refreshingly dry. Very well made indeed, maybe not as innovative as some in the Brewers at Play Series but one that could well outlast some of the others.

They are pushing it as a good one to take us through dry January. But I see it as good company for a much longer period. Be glad to enjoy a few on an easy going summer evening, sun or no sun.

Significantly, it is less hoppy than the Third Barrel and that will suit quite a few punters.

Highly Recommended

********************************

Third Barrel Boom Session IPA, 4.5%, 440ml can Bradleys

Clean, crisp and proper refreshing, this Session IPA bursts with aromas of grapefruit and lime from a heavy does of Mosaic and centennial hops. That’s the intro to this Session IPA from Third Barrel

Colour is a mid gold, hazy, with a white head that stays a bit.  Nose is full of hoppy aromas and you meet the characteristics of Mosaic and Centennial again on the palate. Crisp and clean and happily refreshing, this is one for the short list.

This was the flagship beer “of our founding company @stonebarrelbrewing has now been taken under our wing and given a full Third Barrel makeover”.

Very Highly Recommended.

********************************

Ballykilcavan Millhouse Session IPA, 3.5% ABV, 440ml can CraftCentral

A light refreshing Session Ale, double dry hopped, for maximum taste. That’s Ballykilcavan’s intro to their Millhouse Session IPA.

Colour is a hazy gold, with a fairly short-lived white head. Aromas speak of hop bitterness -it has been double dry-hopped. And that double kick is also to the fore in the flavour and also in the finish. Yet the hops (IBU48) are not allowed to upset the balance too much, the more exotic flavours are tamer than you’d expect, and this flavoursome Pale Ale is a welcome addition to session choices.

Ingredients are Water, Malted Barley, Wheat, Oats, Hops, Yeast. The Barley and Water is sourced from their own farm where the family has been since 1639. The hops used, all from the USA, are Citra, Amarillo and Mosaic.

The brewery say the organic oats from the neighbouring farm, The Merry Mill, are also credited with the “lovely balance”. Oats are usually credited with helping give a fuller body and a silky mouthfeel, traditionally in stouts, but now in other styles as well. Hard to generalise though as there are variations. Unmalted oats - and it seems this is unmalted - are more known as a body-builder component and as potential contributor of some hazy compounds for styles.

Lots of breweries are now watching their environmental responsibilities and Ballykilcavan are no exception. Here are a couple of their alternatives to glass containers when out and about at festivals.

1- Cut out the plastic with this stainless steel, reusable, festival pint cup. Keeps your beer colder for longer and helps the environment at the same time.

2- Our replacement for single use plastic pint glasses for all the events and festivals we attend from now on. Reusable, dishwasher safe and easy on the eye, it's perfect for festivals or camping.

Highly Recommended