Radik Ale is the nom de brew of Alain Dekoster, a Belgian gentleman who now lives in Cork. He has ‘gypsy brewed’ a pair of beers that just launched last month. I picked them up in Bradley’s brilliant beer emporium which is also in Cork.
The first one I tried was Hopster, a single hop American Pale Ale. The hop in question is Chinook, which is a winner, if you’re going to just pick one hop make it a good one! It’s not a complicated or fancy Pale Ale but it is very well balanced with Lager, Pale Ale and Crystal Malts mellowing the Chinook bitterness. I really enjoyed it.
Rubenesque on the other hand is Belgian Dubbel, which will certainly appeal to the Beer Snobs of the world. It’s not named after Reuben Gray aka Tale of The Ale, rather the artist Rubens, who was famous for the voluptuous figures depicted in his work. I like the fact that the ingredients are detailed on the label: ‘Lager, Munich and Special B Malts, Challenger, Styrian Golding and Saaz hops’, all fermented with Belgian yeast. This beer is rather more complex but it all hangs together very well. This beer won gold in the National Homebrew Competition back in 2013 and it’s great to see it getting a commercial release. The only problem I had with it was that the 9% Tripel I drank after it suffered by comparison!
After picking up these beers a thought struck me, Alain has been running blind taste tests on Rock’n’Brew on Internet Radio Station Room 101 for a while now, was he doing market research all along? Either way he is a very talented brewer and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next. Sláinte!