Celebrating Indpendents

July 4th is a day of celebration for one of our former colonies, ever one for subversion and puns I've chosen to celebrate Independents Day - for supporting local independent microbreweries.

The new branding

In view of that its a perfect day to post my review of the new Clanconnel (@Clanconnel) Beer-Irish Pale Ale*. Its undergone somewhat of a rebrand (as reported by The Beer Nut): A cleaner, more striking label design bringing the beers into one overall range named after the greyhound Master McGrath. Each beer is numbered with its own distinct colour, the pale is blue number 2. The rebrand is to make the beers recognisable overseas, where a lot of them are now destined, but have no fear they'll be available in the North and RoI and some keg and cask will also be produced.

At 4.4% its a good sessionable strength and like all good session beers builds flavour down the glass so that you're ready for a second almost immediately afterwards. It uses cascade hops alongside traditional English varieties for bitterness and aroma.

Pouring a burnished gold with fluffy white head and fairly aggressive carbonation, in the mouth its not OTT. The aroma is dusty pineapple and lemon pith, it tastes of shortcake with a dry bitter finish. A flavour of lemon cheesecake and a touch of resin builds toward the end of the pint.

I'll certainly be buying these if I see them in the shop and reckon it would be excellent on cask, lets hope Mark finds the outlets to take it!

The fifth beer in the McGrath's Range, White Ale, is out next month, look out for it!

*Mark was kind enough to send me a beer and pint glass in the post.

The rest of the Clanconnel range was reviewed here.