Brehon Brewhouse

Brehon Brewhouse has gone through a little re-branding recently and kindly sent me some samples of the new beers along with some old favourites.

Make your own luck is a 4% kettle sour which contains passion fruit apparently but seems a bit more raspberry to me. That's good since prefer raspberry to to passion fruit. It's nice and tart with just a hint of sourness, sort of like an introductory sour beer to someone new to the style rather than throwing them right into the deep end with a Belgian gueuze. Like most session kettle sours, there's no real beer behind it, I get no malt at all nor do I detect any hops beyond basic bittering but it's damn tasty and a real thirst quencher.

Imagine is a 6.2% NEIPA. This is a big, fruity NEIPA, or almost because of a pronounced bitterness that a NEIPA should lack. It's juicy but thankfully not in a Capri Sun kind of way and that lingering bitterness is just so refreshing. The dry hopping was very strong with this one and it as extremely fresh since the BBF date was 22/1/22 I'm guessing the beer was packaged only a few weeks ago. More of this kind of thing please.

Just Because DIPA is beefy 8.5% and packaged 20th of December by the looks of it.
Unlike the previous beer, this one is clean and clear, you know, the way we used to drink beer a few years go. It's boozy too with a big malt body, with a slight orange marmalade and chewy mouthfeel. If I had one criticism is that there wasn't much in the way of hop aroma or flavours. Really, this is a beer that simply needs more late addition hops to open it up. I reckon this beer should be sipped closer to room temperature rather than just consumed at fridge temperatures as it's not a shouty beer. It's all about the subtle melanoidin notes rather than aggressive hops with a bit of orange marmalade on toast.

Brehon Blonde is a favourite sessionable thirst quencher of mine on draught when I can find it. A 4.3% pseudo lager as we used to call them in the homebrew world. The base beer is a malt forward, biscuity affair with with a hint of dried fruit. It's hopped lager a German lager and to be honest, they call just about call it a Helles and get away with it. The newer canned version seems paler and cleaner than I recall from the bottle and it's been a few years since I had this beer in bottle.

Killanny Red is a 4.5% red ale and one of the better red ales on the market in my opinion. It's very dark and could pass for a dark mild or even brown ale. There's a mild burnt toffee note but never descends in to the sweet caramel that's typical of the style. Instead, it's bitter! With a roasted nut and almost vinous finish.

Shanco Dubh is a big beast of a 7.7% porter. Dark with lashings of chocolate and coffee, another firm favourite of mine when it comes to big porters and stouts. There's a slight burnt wood note despite this beer never having seen the inside of a barrel. There is a barrel aged version of this which I had on cask a few years ago in Cork and that was pretty fantastic. I suppose the only issue I have with Shanco Dubh is that it's not Crann Beatha below.

Crann Beatha is my favourite beer of the Brehon range is a 10% whiskey barrel aged imperial stout. This 2019 release bottle is full of chocolate and cream, a hint of coffee. 

The barest hint of treacle. While whiskey barrel aged, it doesn't just taste like whiskey, something many others suffer from. A bitter dark chocolate, vanilla and wood finish.

Red Right Hand is an 11% barleywine with a nod to Peaky Blinders. 

There is of course a big malty backbone. The body is slightly thin with a bit of effervescence which makes it easier to drink than you would expect.

There's some oxidation which might be expected from this style of beer

Worked nicely with the slightly spicy lamb casserole I had for dinner. There's a subtle red wine, vinous note on the finish.

Thanks again to the brewery for the samples.