#122: Bierhaus Miscellany

With college in full swing again, drinking patterns are disrupted, being mainly limited to bottles. However, I present to you here a strange grouping of beers I've found time to explore over the past few weeks in one particular Cork City pub.

First up is Gouden Carolus Classic, this time on draught in the Bierhaus. I thoroughly enjoyed the bottled version, finding it a great investment for the Dubbel or Quad drinker. However, unlike the the Abt 12, which was glorious on tap, this seems to hit a bit of a bum note in it's transition to the bar. The most dominant aromatic element is at first bubblegum. While not necessarily bad (and nowhere near as off-putting as I&G's Winter Treacle Porter or the Floreffe Melior), the sweetness is rather detrimental to the drink. It has just a shadow of the dark malt and dark fruit flavours you look for in a beer of it's kind, and while the experience remains just about positive on the beer-scale, it really scrapes by on it's warmth and relative drinkability. Worth a taste as a curiosity, but any bar serving this is likely to have something more interesting on offer.

And such was the case at the Bierhaus. I had my first true cask experience with London Pride here, and this time there was a much more interesting beer on offer - O'Hara's IPA. Again, a beer I've thoroughly enjoyed from the bottle, and one I was excited to have brought to life in the cask. It pours golden with a creamy slice of head, and produces a gorgeous zesty, sharp cirtus aroma, with hints of a much different bubblegum sweetness. Tropical fruit are abound on the palate, with citrus fruit rinds pushing the malt very much into the back seat. The dry-hopping can be appreciated better here than in the bottled version, and I'd certainly recommend it to whomever gets the chance to try it. With any luck, it'll rear it's tasty head again at the Fran Well's Winter and Cask Ale Festival next weekend.

Finally there's the latest incarnation of Metalman's Chameleon, their shape-shifting limited edition beer. I've had their Ginger before, but this time it's Garnet, an amber ale. Garnet is aptly named, as it certainly pours the shimmering ruby red hues of a garnet, while releasing a lovely aroma that's at once waxy hops and sticky toffee. The taste is more fruit-driven, with red berries featuring prominently over the citrus you might expect to pull from the hops. The finish reverts to the syrupy malts, and the beer as a whole comes together quite nicely, with great depth considering the fairly even balance of flavours. Another recommendation.

Hopefully, this disjointed form of beer-finding will pass soon, and I intend on setting that process in motion at next week's aforementioned Winter and Cask Ales Festival at the Franciscan Well.

Be there, and be with beer.

#71: O'Hara's Light and Dark

I'm going to be completely honest here: I hadf absolutely no idea that O'Haras made such good beer. I had their Curim wheat beer a long time ago, and I'm pretty sure I thought it was 'meh', while their Irish Stout was tasty but uninspiring. As such, I was never captivated by the range, and held off on exploring it for quite some time, despite being very widely available and quite affordable. Now, I realise I've been missing out.

First up is the most acclaimed of the beers, an extra stout with 6.0% ABV and a great Irish name. O’Hara’s Leann Folláin pours pitch black with a nice big foamy tan head, just like my kind of stout. Roasted coffee and smoke are the first notes I pick up on the aroma, and I can't help but think how Irish it smells. Underneath is a warm and smooth layer of caramel, with chocolate and syrup elements dotted here and there too. Bitter notes are offered  by the hops and coffee smells. The taste is beautiful, with a bitter coffee opening and potent hop presence falling away to chocolate and dark fruit, while the finish has a sweetness not unlike the Porterhouse Oyster Stout. Brilliant beer, and thoroughly enjoyable. This will definitely be a regular in the cupboard.

Next is a dry-hopped IPA that I chose over their Irish Red, because to be perfectly honest, I don't really get excited about Irish Reds - the only one that really got me going is the bottled Rebel Red. Anyway, O'Hara's Irish Pale Ale pours a gorgeous crystal clear golden-amber colour, allowing you to enjoy the activity of the sparkling bubbles inside. A small white foam caps it off, and I have to say it looks lovely in it's proper glass. On the aroma, I couldn't help but think someone had squeezed a bit of lemon juice in to my beer - very noticeable juicy citrus flavours hit first, with a nice oily hop aroma that gives off those American peel and pine notes. There are small hints of spice, maybe clove, while the whole thing sits atop a nice layer of bread or biscuit malt. Smells delicious! The taste is great too, with juicy citrus fruit opening with a more prominent peel element this time, followed by a hot pepper and herbal spiciness. The finish warms into a bubblegum-like flavour, while the the bitterness from the start and middle stays around long enough to round the beer out. The body's light without being wimpy, and the whole thing is nicely hop-forward. Great tasting sessionable IPA, one I didn't expect to enjoy this much.