By Jeff Evans, chair of The International Beer Challenge
Cairngorm Lochan, 3.4%
Cairngorm’s range of bottled beers includes the award-winning Wildcat (strong bitter, 5.1%) and Black Gold (milk stout, 4.4%), and this recent addition may well soon join them in picking up medals. As depicted on the label, a lochan is a small lake – or, more precisely, a small loch – indicating the Scottish Highland origins of this clear golden, vegan-friendly pale ale. At just 3.4% it’s a belter of a beer, loaded with fresh and zingy American hop flavours – floral and citrus – from aroma to finish. Grapefruit leads the way in the bittersweet taste before a punchy pine note brings a more assertive bitterness that lingers on the palate in the dry finish. The flavours are generous but so is the body, considering the low strength: it could easily pass for a beer of around 4%. Overall, this is an impressive, refreshing and very satisfying reminder that beer doesn’t need to be strong to deliver the goods.
Tūn Daradach, 4.5%
Irish stouts, in my view, can be rather one dimensional – certainly if you follow the market leaders. But they don’t have to be, as this new creation from Manchester’s Tūn brewery proves. What I particularly like about this deep mahogany-coloured beer – apparently named after a legendary brewing vessel made of oak and bronze in Irish folklore – is the bias towards sweetness from the first sip through to the initial aftertaste but, that said, there is balancing bitterness at all times and a firmly dry and bitter finish to round things off. Flavour-wise, you can expect smoky dark grains, a touch of caramel, some coffee and chocolate but also faint suggestions of blackberry, with more of those charred grains continuing to the end. It’s fresh, it’s clean and, for 4.5% abv, very, very quaffable. Vegan friendly and gluten free too.
Wye Valley Hopfather, 3.9%
When this beer was first released, getting on for 10 years ago, it was presented as a red ale, with notes of toffee and sherbet lemon. It won awards but sales were not so positive. It was decided to keep the name but change the recipe, turning the beer golden and combining a mixture of five hops in the copper. It was sold on draught and in bottles and now there’s this new iteration in can, as the Herefordshire brewery expands its range in small packs (expect more 44cl cans in the next few weeks). A solid, smooth base of malt provides the foundation of the beer, topped with sharp notes of orange and tangerine but also a light floral accent, all coming from the hops which are, thankfully, not too dominant. The finish is dry and eventually pithy-bitter as the zestiness of the hops slowly subsides.
Simple Things Fermentations 1776 Porter, 5.5%
It’s always a treat to discover what brewer Phil Sisson is up to in his Glasgow brewhouse. Whatever comes out next is guaranteed to be interesting and well executed. Sisson’s latest offerings are his annual Belgian Christmas Ale (6.3%), which this year is tart and chocolatey, and this throwback porter – the latest in the Big Ideas series. The interesting ingredient is liquorice, which may put some drinkers off, but I’d urge them to stick with it as the liquorice is very subtle and emerges mostly in the finish where it simply adds a little flourish. Otherwise, the taste falls just on the sweet side and is built on chocolate and smoky, charred malt. There is plenty of body but, at the same time, it’s by no means thick or cloying. Can conditioning ensures freshness of flavour. It’s also vegan friendly.
