The Badass Beer Advent Calendar: December 13th

Moylander Imperial IPA is (in my opinion) as good as Stone Ruination or Avery Maharaja. Five hops and five malts, 8.5% ABV and 90 IBUs. It’s a big beer.

Kilt Lifter is a malty Scotch Ale, rich and complex, full of the characteristic toffee-like caramelised sugar flavours of a Wee Heavy. Seven malts here but only one variety of hop, and therefore a much lower 25 International Bittering Unit as befits the sweeter, malt-forward Wee Heavy, plus an ABV of 8%.

And then there’s Hopsickle. Like Moylander it’s an Imperial IPA, but whereas Moylander caresses your taste buds with shedloads of American hop flavour, Hopsickle’s 100+ IBUs of bitterness take a shillelagh to them and batters them into submission while sucking the enamel off your teeth at the same time.

Moylans isn’t all about the extreme beers though. Tipperary Pale Ale is, at 5% ABV, virtually a session beer and a very tasty one, and their Christmas seasonal, White Christmas Spiced Lager, is very drinkable.

There’s a Dr Who quality to this beer, having regenerated three times now.

It started off as a bock, then for two years it was brewed as a double wheat beer, a further two years as a Belgian style witbier and since 2008 it’s been a spiced lager, but the wheat theme is continued with the addition of some malted wheat, plus a little flaked rye grain. The spice list is impressive. Apart from the traditional witbier additions of coriander and orange zest, there’s also mace, cinnamon and white pepper. That’s not a beer, that’s a cake!

Founder Brendan Moylan clearly knows his beer, and now he has another enterprise to his name - the Marin Brewing Company. While Moylans is both a brewery and a brewpub, Marin is more of a brewpub/restaurant, concentrating mostly on brewing beers for the menu rather than for distribution. I think I want to go there!

Jim Hughes, Head Beer Nerd, Alamo South Lamar
“If I had all the money I’ve spent on drink… I’d spend it on drink.” ~ Sir Henry Rawlinson