ICB Tasting July 2007: A Brewer’s (and Beer Drinker’s) Perspective.

The long awaited, second Irish Craft Brewer tasting session took place on the 19^th of July, in the Bull and Castle Beer Hall. With almost 30 people in attendance, I am very glad that it took place in this excellent pub and not in my kitchen, like the last one.

This is a great venue and the fact that were were allowed to hold this event there speaks volumes about the management and their commitment to their customers and quality beer.

After the first gathering of the Irish Craft Brewers I was expecting some high quality, craft brewed beer and I can tell you, I was not disappointed.

I, like many others, started the night out with a pint of Blarney Blond, the logic being that Galway Hooker, or any other strongly flavoured beer, would ruin the palate, making the more delicately flavoured wheat beers, up first, seem bland by comparison.

The first beer on offer was my own Weiss Bier. This beer, like almost every beer I brew, was an experiment. I was trying to prove that Brewferm Blanche yeast (a Belgian Wit beer yeast) can be made to produce isoamyl acetate (the ester associated with the taste and aroma of bananas) if you under pitch it. The result was this beer, which did have some isoamyl acetate present, but was generally quite light in flavour, for a 5.2% Vol wheat beer.

Next, all the way from Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, came Cormac (Noby), with his wheat beer. Another brew fermented with Brewferm Blanche yeast, this one weighed in at 5.5% Vol and had a fruity, slightly sour aroma, with just a hint of Vanilla. The flavour was light and fruity, with a slightly acidic/sour finish. Moreish, I must say.

Thom’s (Hendrixcat) Weiss exploded into the evening as four of the six 650ml swing tops gushed on opening. The beer itself was a pale straw colour, with a fluffy white head and massive banana aroma evident before even putting my nose near the glass. This beer used a traditional Bavarian Weissbier yeast and it showed. The flavour was that of a classic Bavarian Weiss, with the malt/hop balance towards the malty sweet side. A very nice beer, which more than one person claimed as their favourite of the evening.

Next we took a commercial break, for a 300ml glass of Erdinger Weiss. The strange thing is that this beer, with which I am thoroughly familiar, tasted grainy by comparison to the beers which had come before.

After the Erdinger we started into the Belgian style wit beers, with the Larkfield Brewery (being Barry (Adeptus) and Kieron (n1mbus)) presenting us with their After Dark Wit, coming in at 4.6% ABV. This beer also used Brewferm Blanche, but resulted in a very unusual beer.

The nose was simultaneously fruity and citrus tangy, resulting in the kind of grapefruit aroma you expect from Cascade hops, even though there were no American hops of any kind used in this beer. The flavour was rich and balanced, with flavours quite reminiscent of Duvel, in my opinion.

Next I brought out my own wit. I brewed this one a few months back and the four 750ml champagne bottles I brought, represented the very last of my stash. These, like Thom’s Weiss gushed on opening, much to my embarrassment.

When I got my taster, I must say I was disappointed. The beer was fine, but it wasn’t the flavourful beer it had been when the rest of the batch was consumed. Wheat beers in general are best consumed young and this demonstrated that fact to me, as the spices and peel, which had been such a feature of the beer I remember, were but faint background flavours.

After that, it was time for our second commercial break, which took the form of a 300ml glass of Watou Wit and food from the kitchens of the Bull and Castle. There were cocktail sausages, chicken wings, onion rings, chips, etc. but I concentrated on the crostini and the crackers, as the Brie used on these was wonderfully mature and flavourful. Yum.

After the food it was time to get down to the serious business of the IPAs.

Three examples of this wonderful style of beer were presented. They were probably brewed as a direct result of the Bull and Castle stocking Galway Hooker and Goose Island IPA, which many of the ICB enjoy a lot.

First was Ken (kenmc) with his wonderful copper coloured IPA. The aroma was caramel malty and hoppy simultaneously, with that distinctive cascade nose. The flavour was a complex blend of earthy, slightly caramelised malt, with a touch of an acrid note, balanced by plenty of hops and a slight astringency.

This was my favourite beer of the evening, but when Barry and I looked in detail, at the recipe Ken supplied, something didn’t add up. There was too little crystal malt to result in a beer that dark. After very little interrogation and only mild torture, Ken broke down and confessed that he may have burned some of the liquid malt extract during the boil. That explains the colour change and the extra flavours in this great beer and proves that accidents are not always bad.

Next up, Niall (Bigears) fielded his surprisingly subtle IPA. The aroma was quite delicate and presented as pleasant floral hops. The flavour was nice and fruity, with a malt backbone balancing the IPA bitterness. A few pints of this would have been nice.

Last of the ICB brews was the Larkfield Cascade IPA (5.7% Vol). This had an in your face American hop aroma, with a rich and malty flavour and surprisingly subdued (for an IPA) hop bitterness. Tannin from the hops was definitely present, adding to the body and flavour of this beer. Another highly enjoyable offering.

At this stage a surprise commercial beer courtesy of HappyAcid, appeared. Brew Moon IPA was sampled, but didn’t seem to impress. The bottles were a couple of weeks out of date, so I suppose we should reserve judgement on it though.

After that, the commercial example was Ireland’s newest micro brew, Galway Hooker, followed by a bottle of the wonderful Goose Island IPA from Chicago.

The night as a whole was great. Both brewers and tasters seemed to enjoy themselves and I got to talk beer geek speak all night, to people who are actually interested. For brewers, the opportunity to compare beers and discuss techniques and ingredients was invaluable.

The only problem was that the time flew and I had to go home, when all I wanted to do was stay, drink more beer and talk more beer geek.