The Beer Nut: Heat-resistant spoons

To wit, at The Silver Penny, Hook Norton Haymaker. I’m guessing this pale ale is named for its strength: a whopping 5% ABV. The dark golden colour helps underline its projected power, likewise an aroma which suggests generous quantities of malt, evoking pastry or cakes with a layer of citrus jam. The flavour uses that malt too, but centres more on the hops. They’re English, so I was expecting marmalade and meadows, but there’s quite a new-world brightness to this beer in general. I get a white-wine grape effect, conjuring Nelson Sauvin or, from closer to home, Hallertau Blanc. Add some peppercorn spice and a rasp of leathery tannin and it rounds out nicely. It’s very tasty. Amber-coloured strong bitter can sometimes feel hot and soupy; this one is clean and zingy, refreshing and sinkable, so perfect for summer drinking. I’m a fan of Hook Norton in general, and this is another of their greats.

Green Jack is less of a known quantity. Beside Haymaker was Gone Fishing, an extra special bitter. As a follow-up act to the preceding classic, it would want to be extra special, but I don’t think it is. I actually regret writing about perceived soupiness in dark bitter, because this is one of those. It’s a big ol’ 5.5% ABV, and ornery with it, propelling toffee and red apple aromas, then tasting hot and chewy. The weird individuals who enjoy the constant supply of Greene King Abbot Ale at Wetherspoon will find little to dislike in this; it very much hits the same beats. I’m not into that, however. The experience was saved by that marvellous Wetherspoon cellar, so while the beer tasted a bit on the hot side, it never achieved full soup because it arrived exactly appropriately chilled for the conditions. I can happily write it off as a beer I didn’t care for, rather than an actively bad one. If only those were all €2.60 a pint.

Lost in Mosaic wasn’t the beer I went in for, but with a name like that I wasn’t going to pass by it. It’s by Loch Lomond brewery, 5% ABV, and a pure clear golden with a nicely lasting head through the sparkler. And deliciously cool on a day when outside was like a hairdryer. The name is no idle boast: I’d like to think I would have been able to easily identify the Mosaic hops here, in their tropical/stonefruit glory. Peach and pineapple, mango and apricot, are presented cleanly and juicily. Bitterness is minimal and the malt end serves only to propel the softly fruity hops. I can’t help thinking that keg serve might have given this some bonus extra intensity but it’s very hard to criticise it as a cask ale. It has freshness, coolness, heft and insane drinkability.

Unbeknownst to me when I wrote the above, I had had a much worse experience with the beer in the same pub in 2019. It’s nice to be able to set the record straight.

Lastly, you don’t see much White Stout around the place. They had a moment a few years back but maybe the breweries got too many complaints from pubs with inattentive and annoyed customers. Anyway, Suffolk brewery Nethergate has one, 4.5% ABV and clear golden in colour. I got a bit of chocolate in the aroma, but in an odd way, with a hint of cinnamon or gunpowder beside it. It has a convincingly creamy texture, and the flavour leads on milk chocolate, before adding that spice from the aroma, which sticks around to the finish. Perhaps that’s supposed to represent roast? I don’t really get it. Still, most every other attempt at this illusion has been a sickly mess, and this isn’t. It may be unconvincing as a stout but it’s jolly decent as a beer, of indeterminate style. The flavours (done with cocoa and vanilla, apparently) hold together well, with nothing jarring or uncomfortable. As a once-off gag, it’s amusing, but I doubt it’s anyone’s regular pint.

Cheap, cool pints of cask ale, dark corners and functional air conditioning has made Dublin’s JD Wetherspoons something of an oasis for me in recent months. I’m sure they’ll go back to being that bit less attractive now the weather has turned.