Any good breweries?

I'm occasionally asked by a prospective visitor which are the good breweries to visit in Dublin, and I have to explain that breweries as drinking venues isn't really a thing in Ireland the way it is in better-developed beer cultures, largely due to our restrictive licensing regime.

But things are changing, little by little, and a couple of Saturdays ago I set out on what passes for a small-brewery tour around Dublin.

Rascals is probably the nearest thing we have to a brewery and taproom in the city at the moment, and that was my first stop. They had recently added the first beer from their pilot kit, daringly named Pilot Brew 1. It's a pale ale of 4.5% ABV, with added peach, pineapple and mango. It was served exceedingly cold, but even then showed a lovely fresh and juicy apricot and mandarin flavour. It gets bitterer as it warms, an extra pithiness which is at least in part down to the yeast bite. It gets more resinous too, with a certain oily dank in both the aroma and finish. Said finish is short though, leaving virtually no aftertaste. It's pretty decent: simple and no nonsense, with the fruit embellishment keeping its head down and letting the hops do the talking.

Pilot Brew 2 (subsequently titled Brown Sauce, and then Jamestown Brown -- make your minds up, guys) had just arrived and offered a delightful contrast. This is a dark and sticky brown ale, packed with molasses, dark treacle and bitter liquorice. It's an old-fashioned and serious beer, a million miles and a thousand years from milkshake fripperies and DDH IPA TLA alphabet soup. Again it was too cold, but again the texture really benefited from a bit of warming up, becoming chewy while no less bitter. Half way down the pint I was shocked to learn it's 7.8% ABV: there's no heat and no stickiness. A clean herbal bite finishes it off. Great job, overall.

Rascals also brews the local versions of the Toast franchise, adding good oul' Brennan's bread to the grist. The IPA is called Bloomin' Lovely, and the recipe's debt to Brussels Beer Project's Babylone is immediately apparent from the deep ochre colouring. The bread gives it a lovely full texture but the flavour isn't malt-forward. Instead there's a gorgeous fresh hop perfume, all rosewater and honeysuckle. This builds into a full-on Turkish delight effect as it warms, while also retaining a kick of bitterness in the finish. The UK version is a mere 4.5% ABV to this one's 6%, so your mileage may vary if you're drinking that instead, but I liked this iteration a lot: delightfully different to most any other Irish IPA.

Last one from here is Whiskey Sour Stout, a gentle 4.8%-er. The emphasis is very much on sour, with a real attenuated balsamic bite going on. There's a little crisp roast, but that's about as stouty as it gets. The bourbon begins to emerge as it warms, bringing a more rounded vanilla warmth, but it's still all about that sour tanginess. Sour stouts are something of a rarity, and I wouldn't count myself among the style's major fans, but one every now and then doesn't hurt.

From Blackhorse to Connolly on the Luas, and the next stop was Urban Brewing where I met my old mucker Dr John. I hadn't been to Urban in ages so pretty much everything in the line-up was new to me.

John had been on the Mandarina Session Pale Ale but wasn't enjoying it. From a taste I could see why: there's a harsh and cloying perfume flavour; a sting of nutmeg and raw clove. For something that's only 4% ABV and meant to be refreshing, it really didn't work. Points in favour for the happy Fanta aroma; marks off for the mucky yellow appearance and poor head retention. I don't think this was technically flawed, just that the recipe didn't work at all.

I had much better luck with my first beer: Urban's Schizandra & Bergamot Saison. I don't think I've ever seen a schizandra, also known as the five-flavour berry, and I've certainly never tried it in a beer. The result is a beautiful deep golden colour and 5.5% ABV. There's an enticing honey aroma leading to a light, clean and dry saison, one with a massive hit of freshly-crushed peppercorns. I completely forgot it was a fruit beer because it absolutely doesn't taste like one. It's not madly complex, but the one thing it does is right up my alley, flavourwise.

Dark beers are a rarity at Urban, but this time they had a Porter available. Not a very good one, though. There was a lot of metallic saccharine in with the chocolate, making for something simultaneously too sweet and too bitter. On the plus side, the texture was decent, and it had plenty of heft at 5.6% ABV, but that's about all it had going for it.

A Session IPA to finish, sessionier than most at just 3.9% ABV. Like the pale ale before it, it's a worrying shade of orangey grey. The flavour opens well, with tangy citrus peel, but deteriorates quickly into a harshly bitter metallic thing, similar to the Porter, which I didn't enjoy. It is clean, and could even be described as refreshing, it's just not kind. A session would be out of the question.

Urban does seem to specialise in brewing a handful of absolute diamonds in amongst many much lesser beers.

From there it was a short hop along the Liffey to JW Sweetman where I finished my tour with a pint of their excellent porter on cask. Before long we should be able to continue the journey out to the new Porterhouse Brewery, once they're ready for visitors in Broombridge. Dublin has a way to go yet as regards brewery tourism, but it's getting there.