Thursday, October 9, 2014

The Scottish Play (Beer)

Some more beers that I picked in Molloys on the Ballyogan road. They have upped their game recently and now have a very very good range of craft beers. The three below were new to me and  were available for a bargain €9 price, sweet.



Drygate Galdeye IPA 50cl 5.5% abv €3.99* link
Like this. Full bodied with lots of malt. Not a huge amount of hops, so if that's your bag, look elsewhere, but it worked for me. Would I buy it ahead of my favourite American IPAs? Probably not but I'd still recommend it.

Williams Joker IPA 50cl 5.0% abv €3.99* link
For something with such a great name this IPA was a tad underwhelming, especially for something that trumpets "wickedly hoppy" on the bottle. There was nothing wrong with this ale but I found it desperately bland. Not a lot of hops, malt or much else, I'm afraid. It could be that I'm holding it to too high a standard, but that's the great thing about a blog - it's my nickel.

Drygate Bearface Lager 50cl 4.4% abv €3.99* link
Let's also review this lager based on the claims on the label. This says "heavy on the hops light on the tongue clean and crisp citrus hints lager...". Heavy on the hops - there certainly some hops, more than you get in a normal lager; Light on the tongue clean and crisp - yep, it's light , clean and quite crisp; citrus hints - yes, this too.  So far so good, but how does it all work in toto?
Well enough IMHO, a fine summer drink but I'd need a little more; more alcohol, more malt, more something, to round out the flavour. If you like those light Italian lagers thsi will probably work well for you...

**Update**
Just picked up the Drygate Outaspace (sic) Apple Ale 4.7% €3.99  link  and a Harviestoun The Ridge Pale Ale link 5.0% €2.69

The apple ale didn't work for me (or Herself btw), it was a bit of a curates egg to be honest. The Harviestoun was OK, a bit bland but drinkable. I used to love their Schiehallion but the last time I tried it I really didn't care for it, whaddya know?

Here are some other random capsule reviews that never made a post...

Rogue Brutal IPA 66cl €7.79 5.8% link
Underwhelming. Not bad but for nearly eight notes I'd expect to have my socks (or something else) blown (off). Perfectly drinkable but not patch on their Yellow Snow IPA.

Independent Pale Ale 50 cl 6.0% abv - €3.99 - link
Liked this a lot, cloudy amber in the glass, lots of tasty citrussy  hops at the back of the palate and a long lingering finish. Definitely will buy this again, Their Red Ale is pretty damn good too.

Kenmare Irish Pale Ale 50 cl 5.0% abv - €3.70 - link
Disappointing - not a huge amount of flavour.

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