Quare Black IPA

Pac Man meets Wrasslers..

Dave, from the Wexford Mountains, as previously mentioned managed to score himself a bottle of Black's Black IPA from his local SuperValu and was impressed enough to ask me to do another brew, but this time of a black IPA. I had a feeling that Dave was associating the flavour with the colour, whereas that's not the case. What makes Black's Black IPA so unique (and yummy) is the dank and cat-pissy hops: Citra and especially Galaxy.

I didn't have any Galaxy, so I decided rather than clone Black's brew I'd plough my own furrow. I resurrected a recipe for a porter I made with home roasted malt that was truly amazing (someone, I don't remember who, compared it to bottled Wrassler's, but I didn't get that) and subbed in Carafa III for the the roasted malt. The original had just Mosaic and Summit so I decided to stick with that combination but just up the quantity. I had intended on sticking with my favourite yeast, WLP-644, but I got caught short and had to use some dried Mauribrew 514. I picked up a 500g block of this a few years ago, which has been in the fridge since, and it has bailed me out a few times. One thing I have found about this yeast though is that despite claims (which I can't verify) of attenuation in the 80s, it has never broken the 75% barrier for me.

40 litres

Amount Item Type % or IBU 8.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (5.9 EBC) Grain 80.00 % 1.00 kg Barley, Flaked (3.3 EBC) Grain 10.00 % 0.50 kg Carafa III (1200.0 EBC) Grain 5.00 % 0.30 kg Wheat, Torrified (3.3 EBC) Grain 3.00 % 0.20 kg Corn, Flaked (2.6 EBC) Grain 2.00 % 100.00 gm Pearle [7.00 %] (60 min) Hops 40.5 IBU 100.00 gm Summit [17.00 %] (0 min) Hops - 100.00 gm Mosaic [11.00 %] (0 min) Hops - 1 Pkgs Ale (Mauribrew #514) Yeast-Ale

Dave's batch dry hopped for 5 days with 35g each of Summit and Mosaic My batch dry hopped for 5 days with 40g of Amarillo and 20g Hallertau Hersbrucker

Est Original Gravity: 1.056 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.057 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.016 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.016 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.31 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 5.35 %
Bitterness: 40.5 IBU	Calories: 541 cal/l
Est Color: 53.7 EBC

The resulting beer came out black as expected, and Dave's had a greater degree of dankness, whereas mine was a bit smoother with orangey Amarillo flavour. Surprisingly I preferred mine, as while neither were close to Black's, mine was further from it. One thing I would probably not do again was the flaked barley. This left a silky smoothness that doesn't seem quite right in a beer like this, so I'd omit it if brewing again.

Golden Pint Awards 2015

Better late than never, my take on these popular awards.

• Best Irish Keg Beer: Tough one as it's such a moving target. Some stalwarts have dropped in quality, and at the same time there are some great new entries... but you can always rely on Porterhouse Hop Head. Honourable mentions go to Carrig for Poachers Pale Ale, and Metalman for their once game-changing Pale Ale, which is still a great beer all these years later.
• Best Irish Bottled Beer: That basically throws the whole floor open. I quite enjoyed Black's Black IPA, one of the best black IPAs anywhere, as I did The White Hag's excellent Black Boar imperial stout, and their Beann Gulban (Ben Bulben) sour heather ale. Pokertree's Dark Nirvana is also excellent, and a little different, but I'm giving this one to a new-comer: Kevin Dundon and his King's Bay Irish Pale Ale.
• Best Irish Canned Beer: Not a lot to chose from but the concensus seems to be Black's KPA. I'd go along with that. 
• Best Overseas Draught Beer: We're fortunate in that some of the best new breweries in Britain are getting an outing in Ireland, among them is Siren. While not widely available, it can usually be found in the better bars and it goes to their red IPA, Liquid Mistress.
• Best Overseas Bottled Beer: Boon Mariage Parfait. All day long. Close seconds are similarly sour beers from Belgium that are easily gotten in Ireland: Liefmans Cuvee Brut (formerly Kriek), Liefmans Goudenband, Gueuze/Oude Geuze by Hanssens Artisanaal, Tilquin and Cantillon. Oh, and Siren Calypso.
• Best Overseas Canned Beer: We've had an increasing number of imported canned beers, and Beavertown produced Quelle Saison, I think the only Saison that I've truly enjoyed enough to buy again.
• Best Collaboration Brew: I'm not sure if it's a beer collaboration brew as such, but my buddy in beer Alain Dekoster of RadikAle did Curious Brew with gin botanicals from Blackwater Distillery. Alain is Belgium's premier Irish resident brewer, so it's not altogether unsurprising that he's making great beer.
• Best Overall Beer: The White Hag's imperial stout, Black Boar. Kinnegar's Geuzberry comes second.
• Best Branding, Pumpclip or Label: Brú probably have the clearest and most instantly recognisable branding, but I think Galway Bay go one better with more interesting names, the non-core beers especially.
• Best Irish Brewery: For sheer business acumen, dogged determination in the face of criticism and meteoric rise this has to be Rye River, one of the biggest players in the Irish micro scene. In beer terms this goes to those who will take the biggest risks to brew great beer: Boundary and Simon Lambert & Sons.
• Best Overseas Brewery: It's been a great year for the Brits and I've really enjoyed brews from Wild Beer Company, Buxton, BBN, and Siren this year, but ultimately it goes back to Belgium and Boon takes it as I got to visit it this year and spend two wonderful days at a beer festival there as part of Toer de Geuze.
• Best New Brewery Opening 2015: Going to give this to the small guys, again for showing their willingness to take chances. Boundary, Simon Lambert & Sons, The Old Schoolhouse, and if contract brewers are allowed, RadikAle and James Brown Brews.
• Pub/Bar of the Year: Brewbot Brewbot Brewbot. Brewbot of Belfast. Head and shoulders above the rest. The best selection of beer under one roof in Ireland. Great staff, great food, and all beers available for offsales at a 20% discount. Honourable mentions to the Porterhouse (Parliament St), 57 The Headline and the Beer Market.
• Best New Pub/Bar Opening 2015:  Brewbot. Honourable mention to the Beer Market.
• Beer Festival of the Year: Would you prefer to see your favourite band in Vicar Street or in the 3Arena? Exactly. Out this year were the mega festivals and in were the smaller boutique festivals where the vibe is more important than piling them high. Kilkenny Craft Beer Festival, as run by beer buddy and owner of Costello's Brewing Company, Gerald Costello, pips it. Fantastically organised and run by Ger and his family this was a lovely way to spend a few hours. There is nothing negative I could say about this festival. Close seconds were those run by Simon Broderick and Wayne & Janice Dunne. Overseas festival it would be Tilquin English Beer Festival, so good that it's to be repeated this year... where else could you drink Calypso and Oude Gueuze Tilquin à L'Ancienne under one roof?
• Supermarket of the Year: I'm somewhat reluctantly giving this to SuperValu, for beer selection alone as I find SuperValu to be one of the most expensive supermarkets in Ireland for everything, including beer. A reluctant recommendation.
• Independent Retailer of the Year: Bier Tempel. In Ireland, Drinkstore, with honourable mentions going to Worldwide Wines in Waterford, and Belfast's Vineyard and Lighthouse Wines.
• Online Retailer of the Year: Belgium in a Box.
• Best Beer Book or Magazine: Unusual Railway Pubs, Refreshment Rooms and Ale Trains. Considering every major railway station in Ireland had a "refreshment room" and now only three have (Connolly, Heuston and Belfast Central), this is a reminder of what we could still have.
• Best Beer Blog or Website: Without doubt Milk The Funk, which has lifted the lid on sour beers and increased our understanding of them more in one year than any other website or publication. Though the real value is in the 5,000 strong Facebook group.
• Best Beer App: I'm still using BeerSmith 1.4 almost daily, so I guess that must be it. Honourable mention goes to the mobile app BeoirFinder although it is decreasing in usefulness more and more now that craft beer has become so prevalent.
• Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer: Not big enough of a Twitterer to recommend anyone.
• Best Brewery Website/Social media: Eight Degrees, simply as they are the only brewery selling beer from their website (I'm aware that Galway Bay are also selling via their website, but from what I can work out this is technically off-sales from one of their bars, and not the brewery itself selling direct).