#DungarvanBrewingCo

[warmwaterfreak]

Brew #363: Dungarvan Brewing Co. In The Pink Hibiscus IPA

Abv: 5.8%

Served: From the fridge

Aroma: Light toffee, floral notes, tea

Pour: Dark tea brown with a hint of rose and off white finger of froth

Taste: Some caramel malt upfront before a wash of floral sweetness from the hibiscus and then a bitter hop bite to end on. Lots of pine and lemony tartness with a medium dry kick. This is a good variant IPA, nice balance on the malt and hops with subtle notes of tropics with citrusy afters.

Notes: 500ml bottle, malts - Pale/Munich, hops - Chinook/Cascade/Columbus/Amarillo/Simcoe, hibiscus.

[brewstagram]

Helvick Blonde Ale by duncanblr http://instagram.com/p/cZRQGzTgLc/

[warmwaterfreak]

Brew #244: Dungarvan Brewing Co. Turning Tide Lemon Wheat Beer

ABV: 4.7%

Served: From the fridge

Aroma: Citrus

Pour: Cloudy golden amber with white froth dissipating

Taste: Dry lemon peel wash with notes of metal, grass and smoke. Finishes on a slightly bubbly bite with that dry lemon rasp at the end. A Summery thirst quencher. As it warms up it looses it’s bubbles.

Notes: 500ml bottle, malt - Pilsner, Wheat, Munich, Carahell, lemon peel, bottle conditioned, limited edition brew.

[warmwaterfreak]

Brew #203: Dungarvan Brewing Co. Curious Orange Saison

ABV: 6.9%

Served: Off the shelf

Aroma: Thyme, citrus, wheat, grass

Pour: Yellow and orange tinged amber, cloudy with a skim of froth

Taste: Big herby thyme hit with the zesty orange peel coming in underneath. Much more herb than fruit here which is as you’d expect for a saison but the aftertaste is definitely tangy citrus orange. A lovely “curious” beer with a good taste of morishness off it. I bought three bottles and really savoured them however I wouldn’t say this brew was quite as nuanced as the previous Thai Wit brew they had out.

Notes: 500ml bottle, thyme, sweet orange peel, limited edition brew.

I would be surprised and quite disappointed if the Dungarvan Brewing Co. didn’t get inspiration for the name of this beer from the title of the 1988 album from The Fall, I am a Kurious Oranj, which was a soundtrack to a ballet by Michael Clark based around William of Orange. Anyway I need little excuse to link to a song by The Fall and the late Mark E. Smith:

[warmwaterfreak]

Brew #141: Dungarvan Brewing Company Comeragh Challenger Irish Bitter

ABV: 3.8%

Served: From the fridge

Aroma: Straw, soil

Pour: Clear gold with a finger of white bubbling froth

Taste: Lovely grassy, slightly herby wash with a light dry bite. Fresh and easy drinking, for a summer brew it’s bang on.

Notes: 500ml bottle, seasonal brew (Summer).

[warmwaterfreak]

Brew #70: Dungarvan Brewing Co. Black Rock Irish Stout

ABV: 4.3%

Served: Off the shelf

Aroma: Burnt coffee

Pour: Deep ruby black with a tan froth that bubbles down to a finger

Taste: Roasted barley is upfront in the wash moving into that bitter, burnt middle before ending on a smooth aromatic bite. The bottle says vanilla which sounds right but there’s something else there, I can’t pinpoint it, slight reprise of the coffee maybe. Lovely stout.

Notes: 500ml bottle

[warmwaterfreak]

Brew #161: Dungarvan Brewing Company Gallows Hill Barley Wine

ABV: 8.5%

Served: From the fridge

Aroma: Red berries, tart, treacle

Pour: Cloudy tea brown with no froth

Taste: Heavy treacle and fruit with a sharp bite. Some deep hoppiness towards the finish with an aftertaste of rhubarb. Hefty stuff, heady stuff and heavy going if I’m honest, Like a kind of toffee tea.

Notes: 500ml bottle, seasonal brew - Autumn, Kent hops.

[warmwaterfreak]

Brew #150: Dungarvan Brewing Company Thai Wit

ABV: 6.4%

Served: From the fridge

Aroma: Lime, sweet spice

Pour: Opaque, cloudy amber with a good white froth

Taste: Lime and a hint of lemon upfront, then a warm spiciness int he mid wash. ends back on a lovely citrus bite and the spice is all over the aftertaste. Another bizarre flavoured brew but all the better for it. Reminds me of a green curry and it’s lovely!

Notes: 500ml bottle, palm sugar, kaffir lime leaf, coriander, galangal, cardamon, lemongrass, limited edition special brew.

[warmwaterfreak]

Brew #131: Dungarvan Brewing Company Mahon Falls Rye Pale Ale

ABV: 5.1%

Served: From the fridge

Aroma: Roasted floral malt

Pour: Deep orange amber, clear with a white froth head

Taste: Citrus hoppiness with some lovely herbal undertones in the wash. It goes into a slightly nutty malt mid wash before finishing on a bitter bite. Fantastic aftertaste of hazelnuts.This is a great, perfectly balanced ale that I could drink all day long.

Notes: 500ml bottle, seasonal brew (Spring).

[warmwaterfreak]

Brew #87: Dungarvan Brewing Co. Helvick Gold Irish Blonde Ale

ABV: 4.9%

Served: From the fridge

Aroma: Faint lemon, bread

Pour: Clear yellow with white froth

Taste: Citrus wash with a sweet bitterness finishing on a light dry bite. Pleasant but a bit unexciting. An easy drinking and sessionable beer, grand.

Notes: 500ml bottle

[warmwaterfreak]

Brew #82: Dungarvan Brewing Co. Coffee & Oatmeal Stout

ABV: 4.7%

Served: Off the shelf

Aroma: Coffee, treacle, honey

Pour: Black with nice cream froth head

Taste: Coffee on the wash but there’s a myriad of flavours bouncing around underneath. Porridge, burnt roasted notes all coming back to a biting caffeine finish. lovely stout this, pity it’s only a Winter brew. Those oats are high in the mix as the bottle progresses.

Notes: 500ml bottle

[warmwaterfreak]

Brew #79: Dungarvan Brewing Company Mine Head American Pale Ale

ABV: 5.5%

Served: From the fridge

Aroma: Caramel, malt, citrus

Pour: Opaque gold with a frothy yellowing head

Taste: Lovely melty sweet wash with watermelon and grapefruit smoothing into that cascade fresh citrus bite at the finish. Great stuff, nice balance of sweet malt and fruity hop bitters.

Notes: 500ml bottle

[warmwaterfreak]

Brew #1: Dungarvan Brewing Company & Nøgne Ø Seaweed Saison

WARM WATER:

Abv: 6.5%

Served: Chilled

Aroma: No note taken

Pour: A cloudy, golden amber with good white froth that stayed.

Taste: An initial wash of light sweetness gives way to a bit of fiery heat on the tongue. Lovely undertones of spice throughout before finishing on a salty pretzel hit, the aftertaste of sea air is surreal.

Notes: 500ml bottle. This collaboration between Irish and Norwegian breweries using dilisk (seaweed) local to Dungarvan and a saison yeast was limited to 2000 bottles,a special run to celebrate the 5th birthday of Dungarvan Brewing Company from County Waterford in Ireland. At 6.5% it was a heady brew and with such a unique flavour and limited supply it was certainly one to savour.

FREAK:

So, first post on this new beer blog. I’ve decided to start with something dating back to April 2015 and what was the first scribbled notes I took down of the beer I was drinking. Given the limited edition nature of the brew and the sensational taste I was compelled to pick up a pen to try and describe what I was experiencing. It was this first attempt at a beer review that led down a path ending in setting up this blog. Of course I didn’t know that at the time so the photo I took for posterity is not the best and just shows the bottles label, no nice frothy beer this time! Dungarvan Brewing Co.’s Seaweed Saison was a fantastic, special brew that deserves to be the first review here and this unedited text from my notebook is the real start of Warm Water Freaks:

“Frothy pour, choppy seas and high winds, bubbly sup with initial light sweetness giving way to a bit of fiery heat (reminiscent of the tropics after the high seas). Cloudy golden amber, consistent subtext of spice, turns to salty pretzels on the aftertaste”

*On edit*

I got my hands on another bottle later in the year and took a proper photo: