Tasting notes: secret threesome Tryst

Desktop printer labels outside. Top notch beer inside.

Having recently discovered The Lade Inn's fantastic online Scottish Real Ale Shop I succumbed to the urge one night last week of ordering a mixed case after discovering Tryst Brewery's legendary Carron Oat Stout on the site. (Oatmeal stout is right up my street, you see. There's not enough of it in the world.). Having stuck 4 bottles in the mixed case I decided to fill the other 8 gaps in the case with a selection of more or less randomly chosen ales from Tryst. A brewery at a time is a good way to work your way round Scotland, I reckon. Needless to say, when the case arrived a few days later I had completely forgotten what I'd ordered so it was like Christmas morning when I opened it up. (Full marks to the guys at The Lade for prompt delivery and for clever use of a couple of old copies of The Daily Record and lots of bubble wrap. No casualties at the hands of the courier, I'm pleased to report.)
And now, a week later, I've had a punt at every beer in the case and it's safe to say I'll be back with a new order soon. Every beer is chock full of character with not a dull one among them. They're not all to my taste, which is fair enough, but every one is a wee journey in itself. The labels on the bottles are frankly awful, even by bottled real ale standards, but in its own curious way that only seems to magnify the appeal of what's inside - and at the end of the day that's all that really matters, right?
Tryst Brewery came to life in the early 1990s when John McGarva bought the remnants of the now defunct Berkley Brewery in Manchester and shifted the brewing kit (10 barrel gas-fired boiler, hot liquor tank, 2 fermenting vessels, conditioning tanks, pump and "loads of pipe work") and shifted it up to Larbert, near Falkirk. Since then, the brewery has grown and gathered gongs along the way for its hand made, lovingly turned out ales and for this session I was looking at a couple of them: Carronade Pale Ale, a 4.2% offering made with Washington state hops (the brewery has an interest in more unusual hops), and Drovers 80/-, made to a traditional Scottish 80/- recipe. Both are bottle conditioned.

TASTING NOTES, AFTER A FASHION:
Carronade Pale Ale, Tryst Brewery, pale ale, 4.2%, Scottish Real Ale Shop
An unusual, soft yellowy gold in the glass, it has just the slightest yeast haze and a head of very dense and small bubbles. On the nose it gives off the loveliest reek of soft lemon and lemon-flavoured boiled sweets, possibly even honey and lemon Lockets, which sounds bad but isn't at all - quite the opposite in fact. It's all very gentle and rounded, characteristics that are carried into the taste. Lemon citrus with honey notes again and an underlying hoppiness not quite getting through as well as it might have. The lemon flavours are maybe short of some crispness and bite that would have really lifted the whole bundle, but that's just my taste. The finish is more of the same: lots of soft, lemony loveliness but not enough bite for my taste and kind of tapering into nothing a bit too quickly.
Score: 3/5

Drovers 80/-, Tryst Brewery, heavy ale, 4.0%, Scottish Real Ale Shop
A classic example of the style known in Scotland as heavy, this 80/- pours a lovely dark, nutty brown, rich and silky. Drinking chocolate and molasses and toasty malt on the nose - utterly lovely. Once you get a mouthful, it's off in another direction. Plenty of sweet maltiness, yes, but the almost overwhelming sweetness on the nose is gone and you're left with a rich, deep, multi-layered delight bouncing between more bitter dark chocolate, some coffeee, a bit of orange and maybe some toasted nuts. It's quite light in the mouth at 4% so this plethora of potentially overpowering flavours just ends up filling your tastebuds with really well-balanced flavours. The finish sees an initial hop burst that than fades up against the stramash of flavours before tapering off slowly and leaving a lingering glow. My only very slight issue was a lack of tightness and shape in the finish but this ale is what an 80/- is all about for me.
Score: 4/5

http://www.trystbrewery.co.uk/