Once more round the park

The other row of festival bars at Big Grill 2018, you'll be pleased to hear, was smaller than the one I wrote about on Monday. It still had its highlights, though.

I began at the north end with DOT, which had a rapidly rotating selection of barrely specials. Early doors on day one it was Double Down, a 9.5% ABV double IPA given time in a single malt whiskey barrel, from Teeling's, one assumes. I was amazed how the fresh and fruity hop flavour was preserved even when exposed to wood and liquor: it still has a bright lime and apple character, with a touch of herbal coconut, in with the dry oak and slick vanilla. I was also amazed how easy drinking it was, given the strength and complexity. If you saw me wandering around the field looking dazed at any point, the flavour of this beer was definitely the reason.

Returning to DOT the following day, I found it had been replaced by Dainty Wood, a very different proposition at 4.2% ABV, though still barrel aged. The base here is a tart pale ale, spicy and fruity, showing bags of juicy white grape and oily black pepper, with a puckering pinch of sourness and a mild oaky twang on the end. Phew. Quite a workout for session-strength drinking, but definitely my kind of beer.

Moving right we come to Five Lamps and their barbecue special, a crystal wheat beer called Meat Our Wheat. I didn't like this guy at all. The title implied something easy and clean, and the 5.5% ABV isn't excessive. Then it began with a funky aroma, which turned sweaty on tasting, at least at first. This grew in intensity as it went, getting sharper, saltier and nastier until it resembled a flinty Italian cheese. I like flinty Italian cheese but I do not want to drink one. I could do without seeing this beer outside of the festival grounds.

Boyne Brewhouse was turning heads with its Raspberry Sour, revised since this year's Alltech festival, and now even more flamboyantly coloured and flavoured. New for me was another Pilot Series offering, the Belgian Blonde. This is a middle-of-the-road 6.5% ABV, and gently hazy blonde, of course, and serves up all the flavours one would expect from the real thing. Warming fruit esters are a big part of it, though they're balanced by clean and dry vegetal notes: celery and courgette. It's very smooth and easy-going, one for swirling in a balloon glass and taking time over.

There was gold at the Sullivan's stand too: Irish Gold to be precise. This new 4%-er was badged as part of the Kilkenny brewery's taproom series, though was actually brewed in a bigger batch in Boyne, where the red ale is produced too. I wasn't expecting a lot from it, but it was genuinely nice: denser than it looked, bringing in sweet notes of honey and golden syrup. You'd be a long time looking for hop fireworks in here, but it's a flawless version of a clean yet weighty golden ale, and very satisfying to drink.

The Porterhouse marks the end of the line this time, and their latest is Early Ryzer, a rye pale ale at 4.6% ABV. It's no Rustbucket, that's for sure. While there's a touch of fun grassy bitterness, it's mostly quite harsh, the acridity enhanced by a cloying buttery quality. I found even a small sample to be hard going.

Those were all the new beers I could find in the main drinks tents. As always there were a couple of standalone satellite bars as well. At the top of the field, an incognito Heineken pavilion was serving their new "wild lager" H32, made with yeast they found lying around in the Himalayas somewhere. It's 5.1% ABV and has the same estery buzz as its Patagonian predecessor, but with a worty sugary quality that reminds me more of an alcohol-free beer than a proper medium-strong lager. A clean and crisp finish redeems it somewhat, but I think I'd find it just too heavy for drinking much of.

Away at the far corner of the festival, Founders and Lagunitas were standing shoulder to shoulder under the banner of their common distributor Grand Cru. It was the first Irish appearance of Founders Honey Wheat, a beer I expected to taste of honey and wheat, but which includes noisy coriander in the recipe. This really dominates the taste, almost turning it soapy but instead giving it an invigorating bathbomb quality with a refreshing ginger-like spice. At 5.5% ABV it's substantial, yet still deliciously gluggable: well suited to one of the rare days on which it's legal to drink in a sunny Dublin park.

And with that I'll wander off into the sunset after another Big Grill. This used to be the opening act of a late summer double-header which included the Irish Craft Beer Festival at the RDS. I'm glad one of them is still standing, giving us an excuse for a day out. Or two.