CRAFT beer drinkers often get accused of being smug about their choice of beverage. I would totally refute that allegation – we’re just very assured about the fact that we are drinking much better beer than a lot of other people.
Of course, you can feel good about yourself without straying into smugness. Charity, for example, is, as the saying alludes to, the home-starter activity that will give you a sense of pride and self-assurance.
Oddly enough, the same the place where charity begins is also the location where the vast majority of us have done most of our beer drinking (smugly or otherwise) over the past year or so.
However, when I first picked up a can of Lacada’s 4.8 per cent kveik pale ale Community Of Hope, I wasn’t aware of its philanthropic element. I was initially taken by the striking can art by Sarah Mackay, an artist local to the Portrush-based brewery.
I suppose the name itself might hint at something community-minded and on further inspection (that is, turning the can around and reading the label) I found out that the profits from this beer were being donated to local groups, individuals and projects around the north coast.
So now, as well as drinking superior beer you can also get a sense of self-satisfaction out of helping worthy causes.
But what about the beer itself? Well, it has been brewed with kveik yeast, the Norwegian farmhouse yeast which has become as ubiqutous as Erling Haaland goals or Nordic Noir novels these past few years.
Kveik broadly does two things to a beer – gives it a nice pillowy softness and brings out some fresh, fruit flavours.
Community Of Hope ticks both boxes. There are some nice juicy aromas wafting out of this one. It’s a light amber coloured beer, hazy in the glass with a minimal white head.
The kviek succeeds in bringing that soft, smooth mouthfeel to the beer and there’s a very low level of bitterness. Chuck in all those fruity flavours like pineapple, mango and orange peel and this is a real easy-drinking pale ale. There’s a little bitter bite of grapefruit at the end and a little whisper of spice too.
All in all, a real feelgood beer in more ways than one.
