Cool Cube for the Craft Curious. The White Hag Mixed 4-Pack.

 The White Hag Mixed 4-Pack. 

Cool Cube for the Craft Curious.

A cool cube that is easy to solve. Just open and enjoy!

Craft curious? Then this White Hag Mixed 4-Pack may be just the job. “These beers best represent our style of brewing, and are almost always available in most great beer outlets.” The neat and very portable ( as well as being very potable) pack contains their wildly popular Little Fawn IPA. All four beers are in 330ml cans.

White Hag Little Fawn Session IPA, 4.2% ABV

White Hag Magic Mist Juicy Pale Ale, 5.0% ABV 

White Hag Ninth Wave New World Pale Ale, 5.4% 

White Hag Atlantean New England IPA, 5.4% ABV

The Little Fawn, known to wander well outside its native Sligo area, may be found on draught home and away. Its ABV is a sessionable 4.2% and it features grapefruit aromas balanced with 100% Irish malt. Clean and fruity (from the Mosaic hops); not too hoppy though as you see from the mild lingering finish. As they say themselves, “an easy-to-drink American-style session IPA” and a good one to start with anytime.

Next up is the Magic Mist Juicy Pale Ale and it comes with lots of juicy tropical fruits and a hazy body. No doubt about it being fruity and juicy, more so than the Little Fawn,  but the White Hag brewers have this burst of fruit pretty well balanced and there’s enough bitterness there and so any tendency towards sweetness is kept in check. Another very made beer indeed that may be included in your session.

Where do they get those names? You may well be asking. The Magic Mist goes back to the Tuath de Dannan who had the knack of enshrouding themselves in a mystical fog that rendered them invisible to the enemy. You can get more on the names of the beers on the website here or on the cans.  

On now to the New England IPA called Atlantean. New England IPAs are beers that are purposely made hazy or cloudy, which can give these brews a smooth, creamy mouthfeel with little to no hop bitterness at the end utilizing hops that impart a tropical, juicy sweetness rather than the classic bitter. 

It is indeed creamy and cloudy. White Hag has used “copious amounts of American hops to add a big, juicy, fruity punch. Oats and lactose ( a sugar present in milk) add a rich creaminess that subdues the bitterness, making this beer similar to a hop shake”. 

White Hag advise drinking this beer as fresh as possible when all the Alpha and Beta oils from the hops are the most powerful.” With a best-before date towards the end of the year, this was probably as fresh as it gets in can and very enjoyable for sure. Yet, if you are starting in craft beers, I would recommend the first two. But don't worry - you can graduate quite quickly!

Finally, we have the Ninth Wave, a New World Pale Ale. It boasts a beautiful tropical character with a light toast finish. It is darker, close to amber, but clearer than the Atlantean (which is the fruitier of the pair). It is “stuffed with American hops, added in different stages of the fermentation” and you can smell that in the aromas and taste it on the palate. It is not devoid of fruit flavour (citrus mostly) and is refreshing and quite a thirst-quencher.