Yay! More session ale!

I stumbled upon this in Marks and Spencer the other day. I was very pleased to find it because as I have said before I love session ale but can't get my hands on any of the stuff. As with many other Marks and Sparks products this beer is repackaged for the chain store and distributed to their outlets. I'm very happy they decided that the Irish people would enjoy a session ale and treated myself to a four pack, which was very reasonably priced unlike most English ales that make their way to Ireland. I can't get too excited about this one though, because as I suspected it's a fairly easy going bitter, quite typical of many I have tried from the bottle. It is a little fizzy and metallic but nicely bitter without any hop aroma. At only 3.2% abv and served in the curious (to me anyway) 440ml can this is a superb measure of tasty restorative beer and a most welcome addition to the Irish market.

The can is worth a mention because I rarely drink beer from cans, not because I disapprove of them, but merely because decent beer in Ireland is not generally served in cans. Many people believe that the can contributes a metallic note to the beer, but having studied packaging technology I can assure you that this is not the case because the inside of the can is covered in an inert lacquer that protects the can from corrosion and the beer from tainting. Cans are by far the best form of storage for beer because they are light, sturdy and recycling of them saves far more energy than the recycling of glass due to the massive amount of energy required to purify aluminum from the the ore. Having said all that, I still prefer my beer from bottle and despite all the environmental considerations bottles will likely remain the preferred container for beer in the future.

Ode to ABV

There just isn't enough low alcohol session ale around Ireland. The only draught bitter available at the moment is The Porterhouse's TSB, which for some strange reason I got a freezing cold pint of the other day instead of the usual cellar-ish temperature. It didn't taste the same either, though on a recent Irish Craft Brewer tour of their brewery they did mention a few changes around the place.

Drinking full flavour low alcohol ale is a real joy. I like to be able to put away a few pints, enjoying every last drop and still be in a respectable state afterwards, so I was very happy to come across this 3.2% ABV bitter in the off license last week. Sadly the cost of bottled English ale in Ireland prevented me from grabbing a multiple of it, but it's good to see such beer hitting the Irish shores. I had previously tried Brakspear Triple and found it to be an immensely complex beer with flavours I couldn't hope to pin down. Their Bitter clearly indicates that a specific yeast strain is responsible for this flavour mix because it is as complex as the Triple, but the over all flavour isn't as intense. There is a satisfying lengthy bitterness balanced well with rich malt followed up with a mesmerising mix of flavours and aromas stemming from a combination of English Fuggles and yeast effort. Over all a very enjoyable session ale with a flavour profile you won't confuse with any other.