#388: Yearning

Poperings Hommel Bier has appeared just once on this blog, and that just won't do. For the past three years or so it has been an essential purchase whenever I happened by Bradleys, the only local merchant I know to stock it. Recently the supply seems to have dried up, apparently the importing of the brand - at least latterly - was a temporary arrangement, which is of course devastating news if that's the case. Years ago it seemed to be a fairly regular presence, sometimes only in 750ml bottles, sometimes even popping up on draught, so hopefully its absense is not permanent. Let this overdue reappraisal not be an elegy.

There's an initial tangle of spice on the nose, a powderfine pepper and stalky celery splashing out of the glass. Dig through this and you find some familiar and enticing caramel. This caramel character is prominent on the palate, with that sweet cosy core wrapped in leaves of grassy, herbal hops. Lemongrass turns to orange marmalade and then to freshly shaven lemon zest, but all tempered by the honeyed and ever so slightly boozy malt core. A wonderful interplay, a joy. As the beer warms you get to appreciate that it is laced with as much yeast-derived character as it is hommel character, or maybe it's the dance of the two that makes it so enjoyable.

As the Poperings pipeline has more or less dried up it's necessary to scratch the itch some other way, and the way I've been doing it is with another of my favourite beers, also scandalously absent from this blog, De Ranke XX Bitter. A pale, hazy orange, it looks more substantial than the Hommel Bier, despite in fact being a comparitively light 6% to the former's 7.5% ABV. Despite a careful pour it's hard to avoid a bit of sediment in suspension, but this doesn't muddy things at all. A beautiful aroma of mixed noble and new-world hop forwardness, although only Brewer's Gold and Hallertau Mittelfrüh are used. It's juicy in a real grapefruit juice sort of way - bitter, waxy and pithy. This bracing rush is softened by a pleasantly grassy and herbal character with another flourish of citrus peel. Superb, moreish. In spite of the well advertised (and dutifully delivered) bitterness, there is a final little dollop of sugar to keep things fun and fairly balanced, even if that sweetness is manifested as a rather bittersweet and satisfying orange marmalade. 

Look, it's a stunner, I'm obviously a fan. While it lacks the rustic quality, dry spicing and yeast forward character of the Hommel Bier, it delivers instead a more robust bitterness with some genuinely juicy hop flavours, and there's still enough herbal estery nonsense to enjoy for the zymurgists among us.

#92: Franciscan Well October Beer Festival

Cork played host to the annual Guinness Jazz Festival this past weekend, so the city was packed to the proverbial rafters for the duration of the Fran Well's beer festival. I knew the event was popular, but I was completely unprepared for the fighting for standing space activity of the place. Perhaps I'm getting old, but I was very put off by the whole thing. It's difficult to enjoy a night out when you're so terribly antisocial. Anyway, below are the details of my own very short stay at the festival.

I&G Winter Treacle Porter

My first of the night was Innis & Gunn's Winter Treacle Porter, their seasonal for this time of year. I've had mixed experiences with this brewer in the past, but the name of this beer alone is what pulled me in. It poured black as you'd expect with a sugary sweet nose reminiscent of the Floreffe Melior I had a while back. Candy, cloying sweetness was the order of the day but unlike that particular beer, there was a touch of bitterness at the end to spice things up. Alcohol heat was just about noticeable too, but all in all it's a beer for the half-pint glass at most. I like sweet, but when I can't actually taste the malts, things aren't going great.

Poperings Hommel Bier

For the next one I went to the brilliantly selected Belgian bar, and opted for a Poperings Hommel Bier. Grainy, floral hops opens the taste on this one, before a nice sweet malt fullness unexpectedly takes control before returning to the lighter, fruitier characteristics of the beer to finish. Bitterness is lower than I'd expected, and there's an element of the wheaty farmhouse ale to this beer. In fact, I'd place this somewhere between a spicy Belgian blonde and a lovely wheaty Wit.

As I scanned the rest of the taps I spotted Piraat, and I couldn't resist another go. Notes on that beer are aplenty on this blog. Suffice to say it was as gorgeous as ever.

Upstairs, my better half went to try the bottled ginger beer they'd gotten in. Chalky's Bark is an accompaniment to their fennel beer Bite, and true to the suggestion, it was certainly bark rather than bite. There's plenty of nice herbal and spice qualities to the beer, as well as a hint of fruitiness, but there's none of the hot ginger notes you need in a good ginger beer. I was glad of the Piraat in my hand at this stage.

Lindeman's Framboise

By now, the bustle was getting to me, and I decided to throw in the towel. On the way out, though, I bought and sampled one more beer - Lindeman's Framboise. I was very excited about this beer, what with it being my introduction to the style. The first thing I noted was how much I loved the appearance of the thick pink head on top. The taste opens beautifully and not unlike a foamier, thicker version of the blackcurrant cassis popular in the Netherlands. It's very fruity, very sweet and surprisingly refreshing, before quite literally turning sour at the finish. It's not at all a bad taste, in any way, but for the uninitiated it's just weird.

I must stress that the only reason I didn't enjoy this visit as much as I should have is that I'm generally opposed to loudness, merriment and large social gatherings. The organization, promotion and range of beers was incredible, and for that the Franciscan Well deserves some serious praise. I'll definitely be coming to their next festival, and I strongly recommend you do too.

For me, it'll be a quiet afternoon trip next time.