There may be some contradictions in this post. Last night I located Black’s Kinsale Pale Ale in Athlone’s Malt House. Their Black IPA is fantastic and this does not let them down one bit. It’s a hoppy Pale Ale and has an abv of 5% so it’d be good for a session. A lovely well rounded beer, ‘Good’ would be selling it short.
As recently as this week I have declared myself to be a fan of Brew Dog’s. I was looking forward to popping the cap off the Jack Hammer since I picking it up in O’Brien’s this week. Now maybe I wasn’t in the form or perhaps it was too big of a jump from the excellent 5am Saint I had before it BUT I didn’t like it. I felt it was slickly oily and there was no malt at all to balance out the overly bitter hops. Does this mean I will get suspended from the Association of Hop Lovers? I have another bottle in my ‘cellar’, but it will be a while before I give it a second chance. Hell, I may even change my mind. For now though, I’m saying it’s ‘Bad’.
I don’t know much about Baile but I am always keen to try new Irish brews. Sadly this is more ‘Oirish’, the label reminds me of the FAI (Football Association of Ireland) logo and that just doesn’t do it for me. I had the beer with a steak pie but I tasted it on it’s own first. In contrast to the Kinsale Pale Ale this lacks bite. It’s drinkable but a bit bland. I think they need to go back to the drawing board with the beer and that ‘Ugly’ label.
Completely agree about the Baile label and the beer for that matter. And like you I found the Jackhammer out of balance it was like they were trying to hard to pack in the hops!
Have you had any of Black’s of Kinsale’s yet?
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