A Quart of Ale± #83. On the craft journey with a session of Treaty City, Third Circle, Brehon Brewhouse, Eight Degrees

 A Quart of Ale± #83

On the craft journey with a session of Treaty City, Third Circle, Brehon Brewhouse, Eight Degrees

Treaty City Harris Pale Ale 5.0%, 440ml can O’Briens Wine

Named after Limerick’s most famous film-star, this Pale Ale has a lovely golden amber colour with a soft white head. Aromas are mostly citrus, some floral notes and a modest touch of pine. And it proves itself hop-forward and impressively well-balanced on the palate and beyond. Again the citrus (grapefruit) features strongly in the mouth and so too does the malt. And the combination also provides a very satisfactory finish indeed.

Treaty City, the brew/pub is close to King John’s Castle, say: Treaty City Brewery started in a small two bedroomed apartment in East Vancouver, Canada. After a long night of general debauchery, plenty of merriment and many bottles of bland tasteless beer, we decided enough was enough. Something had to be done. Life was too short to drink bad beer. The next morning, while nursing a spectacular hangover we headed for the local homebrew store and purchased our very first brewing equipment….. 

Soon they were brewing at home and not too long after that they found the real home was calling and, back in the Treaty City, they carried on brewing!

The Harris Pale Ale (suitable for vegans by the way) is one of the brewery’s first and is named after Richard Harris, swashbuckling on and off the screen and a man who appreciated a good drink. He performed in a huge variety of films over a number of decades including The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Field (1990) and Gladiator (2000).

Third Circle Shot In The Dark Coffee & Oatmeal Stout 5.2%, 330ml can Bradleys

About as black as can be, with a soft tanned head that doesn’t rush to depart. Probably more coffee than toffee in the aromas. And the coffee is much the flavour on the palate though caramel gets a look in as well. Pretty smooth also thanks to the oatmeal. Not to sure though that it will wake you up in the morning, might work around lunchtime though. Good but not quite in the Dungarvan league - yet!

They say: “Rich smooth decadent coffee oatmeal stout brewed with the perfect blend of Irish malt and single fair trade coffee.This beer is pure breakfast juice. We teamed up with our local coffee roaster to bring you this beautifully smooth coffee and oatmeal stout. Brewed with oats for that creamy and silky base and then infused with single origin Columbian coffee which gives beautiful aromas of sweet chocolate, brown sugar and black tea. This beer will wake you up!”

Who are Third Circle? Like many great breweries, the foundations of Third Circle lie in homebrewing. Wicklow based Scientist Jon Grennan developed a love and passion for brewing at home while working as a biologist. Third Circle beers are now crafted in Dublin, where Jon's love for both precision and experimentation are feeding the creation of some exciting new brews. 

The company's core beliefs are simple: brew with balance, good taste and curiosity. Third Barrel Brewery was founded in Bluebell Avenue, Dublin 12 in collaboration with friends at Stone Barrel Brewing. 

Brehon Brewhouse Shanco Dubh Porter 8.8%, 500ml bottle Bradleys 

This is a strong and powerful ale that absorbs distinct spirit notes from time spent ageing in old oak whiskey casks. A beer for sipping and relishing. Best served around eight degrees.

It is black for sure with a tan head that doesn’t really hang about. This bottle conditioned beer has robust aromatic notes of dark chocolate, roasted malt and liquorice, plus herbal hints. More of the chocolate on the palate. Full bodied with prominent roasted elements and moderate (yet definite) whiskey notes. And that elegant whiskey contribution takes us right through to the very satisfactory finish with a pleasing sweetness. 

This porter goes exceptionally well with meat and cheese dishes. Which ties in, more or less, with the Beer Club recommendations of smoked meats, oysters, game or extra mature cheddar cheese. 

No shortage of cask-aged at Brehon and this is another excellent one, yet my favourite, by a small margin, remains the Oak & Mirrors.

Eight Degrees Citra Single Hop IPA 5.7%, 440ml can

Mid-gold is the colour of this Citra Single Hop from Eight Degrees, the adventurous brewery. It’s got a white bubbly head. Aromas are, surprise, surprise, citrus with a floral touch as well. The combined fruit flavours come out to play on the juicy palate and you’ll note peach, melon, lime, gooseberry, passion fruit and lychee in the mix with the malt on display. It’s a refreshing beer, with a nicely judged bitter finish. 

Another excellent can in the Mitchelstown portfolio proving, not for the first time, that Citra is more than capable of sustaining a solo run.

They say: Citra, with its fruity, juicy aroma and flavour, is one of our favourite hops. To showcase it, we’ve used a simple, yet elegant, malt body …. This is a beer that is both sweet and tart, with a gloriously juicy mouthfeel.

Geek Bits
2020 World Beer Awards – Gold
2019 World Beer Awards – Gold

Style: Single hop IPA
Malt: Irish pale ale malt
Hops: Citra, Citra and…Citra!
Strength: 5.7% ABV
Bitterness: 62 IBUs

Food pairings:
The bitterness in this Citra Single Hop IPA will cut beautifully through sweet low-and-slow pulled pork served with a chilli-spiked peach relish. The beer also will counterbalance the bold flavours of barbecued chicken wings and play nicely with some grilled spicy fresh Gubbeen chorizo sausages. Try it with a not-too-sweet Key Lime pie for a full-on citrus ending to your meal.

Four Fine Saisons For You in A Quart of Ale± #17

 Four Fine Saisons For You in A Quart of Ale± #17

Moving on over to craft.

Saison.

Glazen Toren “D’erpe-Mere” 6.5%, 33cl bottle Bradley’s of Cork

Jef Van Den Steen, a former professor of mathematics, is a master of saison at De Glazen Toren Brewery. Saison originated in Wallonia, in the French speaking part of Belgium, and that’s where Jef found it and fell in love with it.

Why? “Because of its drinkability - it is never sweet, always dry, refreshing and very drinkable,… a very old style, more than 200 years old.” You can find Jef talking about saison on a 2016 You Tube short.

It is a farmer’s ale, also known as a table beer, brewed in one season (winter) for drinking in another (summer) by the farm labourers. While most saisons now are mid to high abv, the beer then (in the 19th century and in the first decades of the 20th) was much lower so the workers weren’t falling about in the fields all day. 

Because it had to kept fresh for six months or so, extra hops were added to enhance shelf life. “Hops protect beer from ageing and I very much like bitterness. I don’t like sweet. Sweet is good for horses and elephants, not for humans.”

The De Glazen Toren brewery in Erpe-Mere, Belgium, was founded in 2004. Within ten years the initiative of the brew masters Jef Van den Steen and Dirk De Pauw, along with a third partner, Mark De Neef, has grown from a brewing hobby into a successful, professional company.

Colour of this one is a hazy pale gold - no shortage of little bubbles rising - with a big white head. Taste that head - stick your finger in - and you’ll note the bitterness (you may notice it again at the finalé). Aromas yield  a more modest bitterness, hints too of citrus. No extremes on the palate where it all - the aromas and the flavours- come together in a supple harmony,  a refreshing flow. And you remember that refreshment was the aim with Saison. You didn’t want your workers dozing off after lunch. If I were the farmer handing this one out, I think I’d keep it for the weekend!

As ever, the Belgians come up with food pairings:

Smoked trout fillet, salad of beetroot and Jona Gold (apples) with horseradish cream;

Sepia (cuttlefish) with green peas;

Cheese fondue;

Pasta with leek sauce, blue cheese.

They say:  Barley and wheat malts have been used to produce this beer. Liquid sugar too! The beer is brewed according to the old Saison tradition of Hainaut. The beer is not filtered and is pure natural. 

Dupont “Saison Dupont” 6.5%, 33cl bottle Bradley’s of Cork

A former drinking partner used to describe the head on a local stout as “ice cream”. I’m reminded of that remark when I pour, perhaps too quickly, my bottle of Saison Dupont. The head shrinks but slowly enough.

Beer has been brewed here in Belgium’s Hainaut for centuries though it is only in the last 20 years or so that the Dupont Brewery has become a global reference for saison. 

Farm beers of this type – light, rather dry but fruity – were traditionally brewed during the winter, ready to quench the thirst of the seasonal field workers (saisoniers) during the summer to follow.

It is a cloudy mid-amber, fountains of micro-bubbles. Aromas of citrus. Light and fruity, zesty and refreshing, yet no shortage of hearty flavour. Reckon any labourer, even a keyboard one, would be happy with this impeccable beer. Superb finish also with the bitterness now to the forefront. Nothing quirky, nothing extreme other than extremely good. As Michael Creedon of Bradley’s told me “if you don’t like this, you don’t like saison”.

They say: Saison Dupont was first brewed in 1844. This copper-blond beer yields amazingly delicate aromas paired with a pronounced hop-bitterness. The house yeast and the local hard water, drawn from a well, play an important role in the creation of this beer. An in-bottle refermentation makes a major contribution to the development of this complex and highly aromatic beer.

Third Circle “Unsocial Creatures”  Dry Hopped Saison 4.4%, 33cl can Bradley’s of Cork

Pours a golden colour washing up the curve of the glass, fluffy white head not built to last. Hops, with some sweetness, in the aromas. I like to think this is the real thing. It tastes so good. Absolutely drinkable, the hops in every drop making every drop one of hit-the-spot drinking pleasure, jackpot every time. Crisp and fruity and moreish.

They say: We took our old house saison recipe and brought it up a notch. Hopped with Topaz and Cashmere. Expect a crisp, highly quaffable, summertime slammer with notes of white grape and melon.

Third Circle beers are made in Dublin, Ireland. “In collaboration with our friends at Stone Barrel Brewing we have founded Third Barrel Brewery which is located on Bluebell Avenue in Dublin 12, where Third Circle beers are produced. We use a pre-loved 1,100 litre brewery system which, in a previous lifetime, spent many years decocting fine Pilsners in the Czech hills.”

Heaney “Way Over Yonder” 5.7%, 440ml can Bradley’s of Cork

This hazy beer from the County Derry farmhouse brewery pours a gold colour, with a fluffy head that hangs around for a bit. Fruity and slightly spicy in the aromas. Fruity too on the palate, apricots are suggested. “A funky yeast” adds to the complexity of this fruited farmhouse ale.

The label say its a rustic ale but I find it rather elegant and smooth, though I’d better add that I’ve known some rustics who are also quite sophisticated. In any event, it is well made and balanced and an excellent beer. One for the grafters, they say. But, if they were my grafters I don’t think I’d be handing it out at lunch-time with its 5.7 abv. Perhaps keep it for the end of the day.

By the way, I had a few dried apricots (unsulphured) in the house and the pairing with this saison was perfect.

Malts: Pale Ale Malt, Crystal Malt, Wheat Malt, Chocolate Malt

Hops: Galena, Nugget, East Kent Goldings

ABV: 4.2% IBUs: 33 

They say:  We make this beer for “the grafters” and Mrs Heaney is lauded as the original grafter. “For generations our family farm has been a place of harvest and inspiration; in step with the past and striking a new future.”