#385: The Debrief

There's no beerier time for me than Christmas, and few times more in need of beer than the cold and grim depths of winter. In the sweet height of summer I will no doubt believe the opposite is true but from this vantage point with those garden beer days a long way away I can only see the succor of big, dark, strong beers pulled dusty and gratefully from under the stairs. 

Truth be told, there was very little interesting drinking happening here this past summer, as we started a double bathroom renovation that has run from May to, well, present day, but with the back finally broken and the long-overdue end in sight, Christmas came and I was determined to get some interesting beer back on the table. Our own (Eight Degrees) pilsner saw heavy use over 2025, and it is by far my most consumed beer of year. It's up there with my favourites too, being a saaz appreciator, but I definitely won't be writing anything in depth about it or any of its stablemates.

And as an aside, many thanks to The Beer Nut for his call out shout out in this year's Golden Pints, and whose encouragement is appreciated and has helped to motivate me into finally bending some of these drafts into posts.

One of my favourite beers of the past year was Lough Gill's wonderful Tara, so when it reappeared for this winter season it was duly squirreled away, along with a couple of its companion pieces. The last fancy beer I had of this past Christmas break was one such companion, the sherry brandy barrel aged Solera. It pours with ink black intensity and flashes just the briefest hint of marker pen booze, but this dissipates very quickly and the aroma opens out to syrupy date, malted milk and treacle. So far, so incredibly enticing. The bones are the same as in the Tara and while the dark fruit characteristics are quite similar, I suppose it must be assumed that the sherry brandy could be contributing some of this, as I seemed to get a lot of Pedro Ximinez-y character from the Tara. There's also a vinous tang and a shade of oxidation to this that the Tara didn't have, and possibly a spirity edge, but this never interferes with the slick and silky dark chocolate and raisin innards. If I had the constitution for such a project I'd like to do side by sides of all the Lough Gill stouts (assuming they are from the same base beer) to parse barrel influences. 

In all, Solera is another stunner, and gives you full value for its 11.9% ABV. This is the time to make hay, this is the time to put some of these away. I don't even know if this will improve with age - there's already more than enough nuance and maturity here - but I know I'll always be happy to pull one out of the stash.

Trinity is the bourbon barrel aged version of Lough Gill's shape shifter and this time the abv reaches a heady 12.9%. Considering this fact it generates a surprising amount of foam atop its oily texture, though dissipating quickly, while unsurprising is the rush of bourbon that greets you. There's no spirity bang though, as vanillin and dark chocolate round out to genuine mocha smoothness. It's lovely and rich and deftly balanced with coffee-bitter and raisin-sweet elements dovetailing beautifully alongside flashes of hazelnut, or even peanut. There's a final flourish of bourbon at the death bringing spirity warmth but not to the detriment of the complex and fruity intricacy of the rest of the beer. Once again, excellent use has been made of the alcohol content and the barrel. Another benchmark for thumping great barrel aged stouts.

All three (including the Tara) of these stouts are well worth the pickup, with the Tara and Solera being more my sort of thing, but only as a matter of personal taste for their quad-like dark fruit expression. The confidence I have in handing over €6 for a can of any of this range is rock solid, and you can't say fairer than that for an endorsement. Long may Lough Gill continue churning these out.