I picked up a few new cans in O’Brien’s and some other places over the last while. I’ll start with the foreign ones and finish with the Irish beers. BrewDog’s Zeitgeist fulfills it’s promise to be an ‘Idiosyncratic Lager’. For starters it’s as black as night, so far, so dunkel. And then it hits you with loads of chocolate aroma and flavour. Colour me confused and happy. If I hadn’t read Lager on the can I would’ve put money on it being a stout. Enjoyable anyway, whatever you want to call it.
Staying strange, check out the artwork on Cuvee Des Trolls. The taste? Belgian meh.
Whiplash’s latest collaboration was with Max Lagers and it rolled of the Irish Craft Canning line on Friday. I was there at the start of the process to witness Alex and JR peeling hundreds of Grapefruit.
I didn’t help or anything, they had already recruited Shane Edge of West and he looked to have it in hand. Keep an eye out for his blog on Whiplash. Difficult as it is to be impartial here, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that this is superlative. It’s pure breakfast juice goodness and I imagine it’s full of vitamin c. It’s lovely and dry and keeps you coming back for more. And it comes once again wrapped in Sophie De Vere’s amazing artwork. Don’t pass it when you see it.
Wicklow Wolf lucked upon some Zoso hops and made a Smash (single malt and single hop brew) with it and some Red X malt. This is the only beer in Europe brewed with these hops. It has a Grapefruit aroma and flavour too but that’s from the Zoso hop. It’s a limited run so pick it up while you can.
We already know that YellowBelly make good Lager. They have a new canning line below in their new brewery in Wexford. Unfortunately this particular can was a little under carbonated, but we’ll put it down to teething problems. They’re putting that artwork on their new t shirts which look deadly.
And finally YellowBelly’s famous Citra Pale Ale. You know you want it. Goes down very easy on one of these fine evenings we’re having. Definitely one of the best Pale Ales in the country. Cans. They’re the way forward. Sláinte!