BREHON Brewhouse in Co Monaghan is steeped in history and tradition. Their ethos very much channels the Brehon law which was laid down in the sixth century that every local kingdom have a brewery.
Furthermore, each brewer was instructed to have a “never-dry cauldron” and be ready to welcome any thirsty traveller at any time of day or night. Of course, the times we are in dictate that all visits be subject to the latest level of Covid protocol, but Brehon continue to keep their cauldron ‘never-dry’.
Recently, that has meant brewing beer on their Monaghan farm and canning it to be enjoyed by drinkers around Ireland and further afield. I’ve enjoyed many of their beers over the years but hadn’t yet had the chance to try out some of their canned offerings.
I snapped up a couple last week, one relatively new and the other an old favourite.
Imagine is a 6.2 per cent New England IPA which comes in a 440ml can. It pours a murky amber colour in the glass with decent white head. There are loads of sticky and juicy aromas leaping out of this one. On the palate, there is a slight, sweet biscuit malt before all those juicy, tropical flavours come flooding through.
There are notes of peach, pineapple and mango with a bitter citrus edge throughout. Imagine has a decent level of dankness to it, but there is a bitter bite to it which edges it ever so slightly toward the West Coast variety of IPA.
Still, there are enough of those NE IPA characteristics there – dank, murky and crammed with juicy fruit flavours – to root it in the more easterly category.
The second canned offering I tried was an old favourite. Each time I drank a 500ml bottle of Brehon Blonde, I got something new out of it and the 440ml canned version was no different.
There’s that familiar biscuity malt and refreshing, herbal tinge throughout. The canned incarnation appears to have come with an added lager-like crispness to it, probably as a result of the Saaz hops which are a staple of European lagers.
Perhaps a beer which will be better paired with a bit of sunshine, it’s a good idea to have a few tucked away in the fridge in anticipation of the two-day Irish summer.
