Almost a perfect round.
We’re doing things a little bit differently this edition for brewery number seven and as the title suggests we are in the hands of Simon Roberts the head brewer from WEST in Glasgow, who we tried on the very first brewery in our little journey. (https://insearchofhoppiness.blogspot.com/2021/03/west-brewery-tasting.html)
We arrived at this Brewer’s choice due to issues in Ayrshire and following a previous conversation with Simon he suggested two breweries to me the first of these was Overtone, who I have tasted previously, as such they did not qualify for this which left me with Boundary Brewing. He advised this:
"Boundary - a co-operative (an idea love) who make great beer. "Push and pull" and the export stout are very good. These guys hail from my home city of Belfast and were one of the originators of decent beer in Northern Ireland. I hold them dear for starting the scene back home.”
Sounds pretty good to me! - https://boundarybrewing.coop/
I ordered Mix #67 case £41 (+£5 delivery) which featured 12 440ml cans with 6 varieties. I personally like this level of mixture as it allows me to do tasting notes and then really enjoy the second can, without then getting the urge for a second and then the regret kicking in.
For those that do order after reading this I do have a bit of bad news, it appears that the mix cases change on a monthly or so basis (based on their e-mails I get through) so you won’t get the exact beers that I had, however at time of writing five of the six are still available to buy individually.
As with a number of breweries these day Boundary offer a subscription service based on their core, core and special or just special ranges with delivery every month on top of their Mix cases. I’ll throw in a direct link to their shop below.
https://boundarybrewing.coop/collections/beer
As was mentioned before Boundary Brewing is also a cooperative so in essence you could become a member/part owner of the brewery which is a fantastic little extra I’d not considered before with currently 1400 members.
Excerpt from website re membership.
All members can run and vote for the Board of Directors. As we grow, members may receive interest and an additional dividend. It is important to note that neither are guaranteed, and both are at the discretion of the Board.
You also get 18% off our Online Shop. For life!!
We had an opportunity to establish Belfast as the source of some of the world's best beers. With a brewery that we all own.
Membership currently sits at £100 if it’s your sort of thing. Being totally honest if I wasn’t at the beginning of the beer journey, I would be very tempted by this and it might be or interest to some people. By all means though pop on their website, read through the FAQ’s etc.
I’ve tried to research the individual beers and their awards, but this is a part of the blog that I still need to dedicate more time to, however I have found that since they opened in May 2015, they have been voted best beer and brewery in Northern Ireland. (I only found this out post drinking, so this hasn’t swayed my tasting thoughts).
So, without further ado, lets crack on to the tasting,
firstly however apologies to Boundary for the quality of the photos I’ve taken
this time round don’t reflect the beer in the best light.
I'm not sure if it's just because this brewery has come recommended from the Head Brewer of somewhere I really liked, but I feel there is almost an unfair level of expectation on this brewery from myself.
We're going to start with the weakest of the bunch that is still a decent amount. As you can see from the photo it carries a good head on it which I’ll have to account for after Hog's head brewery beers having no head at all.
I'm looking at the beer I’m salivating as I just know it's got that tropical juice haze to it which is bang up my alley. The smell also is that fresh fruity citrusy vibe to it.
This is everything I love about Citra hopped based Pale Ales, the light coating of fruitiness that plays around the mouth, it's still obviously very much a beer but it's the hops that are pushed through more than anything else here to fantastic effect. The after taste really really lingers a lot longer than I was expecting but it's joyous as it just sits there tingling away.
The bar has been set very high. Hopefully unconscious bias won't kick in as the beers get stronger and stronger, but this has been a wonderful starting point.
Visually another very pleasing beer and again right up my
alley and I’m somewhat intrigued with the notion of a hoppy wheat beer, with
the last few wheat beers I’ve tried being surprise favourites away from my normal go to beers.
I'm struggling to describe this one adequately, what I’ve found with a wheat beer is if you give it a good mouth swill it will really push the main flavour through and out the other side so it becomes all encompassing. This feels like it takes you right to that final point and then the hoppiness takes over, it's like starting on a rollercoaster and ending up on the waltzers, but you're not quite sure when the ride changed.
Whilst I wax lyrical about amusement park rides, this beer is again very very good, a surprisingly light drink which doesn't compromise on strength or flavour, it's a very clever drink and the brewers clearly know what they're doing with this.
There is an awful lot going on which as I’ve tried to explain I can't adequately put into words; everything is dancing around the palate in harmony and for the first time I don't think I’ve a sophisticated enough one to describe everything that's happening here.
To be challenged like this but to also enjoy it how much I am is something quite rare indeed. I think the best word I can come up with is subversive, it leads you down one path and takes you the other way but you're still happy to be on that path.
(QPCR stands for quantitative polymerase chain reaction and is a technology used for measuring DNA using PCR) ...cheers Google, glad that's cleared up.
So I get the impression that this is playing on the name Um Bongo (this level of deduction is why i'm paid the big pennies at work) and the tropical nature of the drink, so immediately I'm very excited. It looks like fizzy tropical juice as well, so you just know it's going to be good, when the beer is so thick (but not dark) that light won't permeate it.
The nose is pretty subtle but you're definitely getting the tropical vibes around it. Let’s not delay any longer I need to taste this.
Aww, I wanted to like this so much more than I do on initial tasting. The fruitiness and tropical vibe are there for sure and it coats the mouth really pleasantly with its aftertaste but strangely it's the initial taste which is the bit I’m struggling a bit with.
The full 8% really packs a punch straight away and seems to pick a spot right on the edges of the tongue to sit and work away leaving almost a slight tingling, the more I drink it's almost ash like which is a bizarre quality and i assume unexpected. I think I’d have preferred somehow a more even spread of beer / tropical ratio. I will say I am now somewhat worried as in the pack was these beers big brother a TIPA sitting at 10%. This is not a light sitting beer but I didn't expect anything sat at 8% to be especially light as it wouldn't fit especially.
Once again, we have a beer that looks absolutely gorgeous to the pour. This one has that subtle fruity note to the smell as the Citra hops are well and truly there, I also notice that Mosaic and Simcoe hops are used as well and that was the magical combination that made GLOW at Tenby Brewing and now all of a sudden, I’m very excited.
"oh hhohohohohohohoohoho" involuntary sound that
just left my mouth there. Imagine Santa all of a sudden very happy and talking very quickly.
Firstly, this is deceptively light, compared to the previous 8% it dances around the mouth coating every tastebud with the wonderful hop combination before flowing down the throat effortlessly.
Beers like this are my hoppy place (do you see what I did
there) and two or three breweries have now confirmed to me that this might be
the magic combination of to me the perfect beer. The subtle fruitiness that
coats the mouth. The strong but not overpowering beeriness that sits and isn't
unpleasant which for some reason the Imbongorific just didn't sit right with
me. This doesn't taste 8% (dangerous territory as you'd be well on the way if
you drank at the speed you wanted). This was another truly fantastic beer.
So this pours a hell of a lot heavier than I was expecting, quite thick really, very little head and just sits there all imposing daring you to drink it. This is so much better than the DIPA. You have a rich flavoursome beer that is just wonderful. You know that this is a strong beer but the flavour is absolutely sensational the tropical that coats your mouth. It's at this point I’m starting to think maybe it was just a bad batch of the DIPA because this is still fundamentally the same beer but stronger but it just sits nicer around the mouth.
This beer is both wonderful and upsetting this is what Imbongirific should have been. Overall, this is just a happy good beer. You can tell exactly how good this is with each taste, but this truly sneaks up on you, I know its 10% but it does still have that extreme drinkability where you could quite happily keep going away at it, but it's properly gorgeous and I know I’ve said....but it's just like why was the DIPA not as good. So, the more I think of this the happier it is just such a tasty after taste just sat there nicely.
Writer note: At this point present Ross would like to apologise to readers and Boundary brewing for the clearly drunk garbling above, this was rectified below.
I decided to have my second can of this the day after as reading the above jumble of thought it's quite clear that I had got a bit merry along the way, but the sentiment really does remain true, focusing a bit more there is a really pronounced and pleasant nose to the beer but the key is the tropical punch in the mouth when you first take in the liquid that just really makes the whole mouth sing. What I was trying to say above is I wish the other beer had tasted this good, but there was something that just did not sit right. I'd be interested to try the single IPA variety Imbongo as well, but this is a crowd pleaser and one which would leave you with rosy cheeks with too many.
Right let’s get this out of the way again, I don’t like stouts
typically but am regularly being proved wrong as I’ve liked five out of six
that I’ve had so far on this journey, so maybe I just don’t like bad stouts we’ll
have to see where this sits on the scale of things. I’ll be honest based on the
other beers; I’m probably going to love it.
This doesn't really give much away with the nose.
I want this to be bold with the advertised flavours really
punching through, I’m not looking for subtle in this drink lets go all in and
really power through with everything that we are expecting.
So, this is interesting. There is the warmth from the chipotle that hangs around after the fluid has gone, I’m certainly getting hits of vanilla as a nice refreshing after flavour. I'm not picking up on the coconut hugely and the coffee is the dominant accompaniment to the general stout flavour.
This is an incredibly smooth and flavourful stout which has that added bonus of a nice warming sensation left in your mouth. For a 12.2% and a stout it's refreshingly light and doesn't sit heavy at all. I wish they maybe had gone a bit more all in with the flavours used. I do occasionally as the drink carries on get slight hints of coconut, I think but it's so subtle if there I might be convincing myself.
Either way I think full stout lovers would be all over this and as someone who is slowly being shown the way I’m really enjoying it as well.
Final Thoughts:
Before I get into my final thoughts, I want to highlight two things that I loved about the cans which I don’t normally do. The artwork on the cans is fantastically eye-catching and really feeds into the ethos of the brewery with all art work done by johnrobinsonart.com, but secondly looking at the can you get an exact break down of the hops used. The photo below is for Body Magnetism, but the same style was carried on throughout which I thought was a fantastic touch and pride in their ingredients.
Almost a perfect round as the title said and if not for the Imbongirific it would have been. I’m honestly not sure if I might have had a bad batch owing to the excellence of the Imbongalicious, but anyway I’m not going to hold that against it.
Any brewery which is capable of making me make involuntary noises when I drink their beer is always going to sit highly with me, a few also made me think and pushed my palate to the point I couldn’t put the beer into words effectively (not that I’m a pro by any stretch).
I know I’ve some friends over in Northern Ireland who are going to be stopping by and picking up some beers based on this blog, so I think you should follow their lead. The beers you could argue are a bit expensive, but I’m a firm believer in paying for quality and that is exactly what you are getting here.
We’re back on the random generator for the next brewery and much more local.
Next County: Cheshire
Next Brewery: Mobberley Brew House - https://www.mobberleybrewhouse.co.uk/