A few new(ish) Northern Irish brews make the blog this time around. I’m aware it’s heavily County Down based but this will be rectified next time with a write up of brews from the Maiden City. So Derry wans can quit the gurning before you start gurning.

Warrenpoint’s Mourne Mountains Brewery kindly sent me their new 7% ABV double oatmeal stout, Bear Grease. I’ve no idea what Bear Grease actually means but no matter, don’t they say it’s what’s inside that counts?

It pours a lovely jet black in the glass with an appealing copper head. There’s a sweet aroma wafting around and it’s sweet to taste too. There’s that great thick oatiness I had hoped for and the head sticks to the side of the glass as the beer goes down. Superb.

It’s sticky, syrupy, figgy, datey with the merest hint of aniseed and dark chocolate at the back of the tongue. Despite using a chocolate malt, the chocolate doesn’t dominate here. It’s those delicious sticky and sweet front runners that make this a winner.

Football fans of the mid 1990s may remember during Leeds United’s Premier League stint, the sensation that was Tony Yeboah. The Ghanian international didn’t score tap ins. Oh no, he smashed them from 25 yards, usually picking out the top corner. As a devout Liverpool fan, I easily recall the absolute belter he scored against us . YouTube it here, the man was a machine.

 

Anyway, maybe this is why Boundary‘s 10.9% ABV double brown export stout is so called. Floating around the edge of the box since spring 2019, Yeboah is a stunning beer, to be remembered for quite a while. It’s a teeth sticker, deliciously dark and sweet with an air of light blueberry about it, reminiscent of the brewery’s great blueberry double stout You’re Not Getting Any.

Yeboah is a deep and moody brew, like a beery version of other football legends Di Canio, Cantona or Keane. Maybe they would be good beer names too?

Moving on to another screamer, Double Mosaic/Galaxy Milkshake IPA from Beer Hut in Kilkeel. Milkshake IPAs are dividing opinion among beer lovers. I love them if done right and this 8% IPA is done very right. It was first seen at the brewery’s inaugural tap room in mid September then made an appearance at the Portush beer festival a couple of weeks later. That’s where I had the good fortune to cross its path.

I’m a big fan of the Australian Galaxy hop and everyone loves Mosaic, right? So double that = smiles.

Bursts of pineapple juice, peach, mango, even ripe banana in there and all on top of a great piney bitterness that is calling out to be noticed a bit more. But as the style suggests, it’s all about the fruity milkshake. Those aforementioned fruits combine with the oats and lactose (again, love it or loathe it?) to create a wondrously quality beer. It may be too fruity for some, but hey, variety is the spice of life.

And speaking of variety!

Aye, it’s green.

I bet you’ve never had something like THIS before! I sure hadn’t. It’s not even St Patrick’s Day.

Newtownards’ Bullhouse Brewery has released a 4% ABV apple and bubblegum sour beer. I’ll let that settle in your brain for a second. Green Power Sour pours almost neon green with an unsurprising sweet apple and bubblegum aroma – no s**t Sherlock. Mrs W had a sip and said “Yep, it’s definitely apple, definitely bubblegum and definitely sour.” Now see, I was always believing that an apple taste from beer was an off characteristic, so this is melting my head.

It’s really sharp Granny Smith apple to start, with the subtle bubblegum appearing a few seconds later. However the apple’s not great, it’s sweet and synthetic rather than real apple. But then real apple would be cider? I said this was melting my head.

Green Power Sour may have been a fun idea at one point but this tastes of a kids birthday party, far too many E numbers and now a bad idea. Think of liquid sour Apple Haribos.

There’s a line somewhere of when a beer is no longer a beer and this experiment is 100 metres over that line and far away. You may taste and love it but it’s not for me.