Via Maris is a great session beer, and a real feather in the cap of Galway Bay. It is made from the second runnings of the grains used to bring us Of Foam and Fury. That is taking recycling very seriously.

The malts have given up most of their sugars to make the high ABV big brother to this beer, and what remains, is enough to make a great table beer.

Having a beer on cask is fantastic. It is exciting to see your beer pumped rather than poured.

First Impressions:

Via Maris gushes into the glass, and as it is set in front of me, it is still cloudy, as its head forms. It settles with a thick creamy head, and the beer becomes an clear yellow colour. The aroma is very citrusy, with pine notes, presenting itself as a very worthy IPA – quite hoppy. If you put this under my nose and I didn’t know what it was, I would be expecting a big AB beer.

Second Impressions:

Warm and Flat vs. Not overly cooled or extraneously carbonated is not an argument that I find myself leaning on one side of. Regardless of the side you take, drinking a beer from cask is undeniably a less cold and basically uncarbonated experience. What natural fizz there is from the secondary fermentation produced a stunning head on this beer, and stopped there.

This doesn’t interfere with the flavour of Via Maris though. A well hoped table IPA, with classic citrus notes.

Final Impressions:

Cask beer is an experience of its own, and I will take the good the bad.

I love Via Maris, and it is great to see Galway Bay embracing both cask and sessionable beers.

Also by Galway Bay Brewing Company:

Buried At Sea Chocolate Milk Stout – 4.5% ABV