In the big smoke now

It's was great to welcome breweries to Alltech Brews & Food of whom we see little in Dublin: a chance to find out what the rest of the country are drinking; or at least the 3% of them drinking independent beer.

Festivals are literally the only places to find Bridewell beers here, and I like how Harry and Barbara-Anne always have a new one for each event. This time there were two: a contrasting pair created to commemorate the centenary of Alcock and Brown's transatlantic flight which landed not far from the brewery in Clifden, Co. Galway. Both are purportedly American-inspired, using American hops, though not necessarily American-style. That's certainly true of the blonde ale Pilot. My first impression on tasting this 4.9%-er was of a classic English golden ale, all biscuits and bubblegum with a grassy bitter finish and a soft smooth texture. It's very easy going but with enough complexity to be actively interesting. The companion is a brown ale called Navigator. This lacked the sweetness I look for in the style, going instead for dry roast, with an underlying blackberry and banana fruitiness. It's OK, but I'm a tough crowd when it comes to brown ale, and this didn't do it for me.

Kildare Brewing Company is only out the way, but you still have to go to Kildare to find their beer. The range has just had an overhaul with a series of new flagships. There's a 4.5% ABV pale ale called Soldier's Island, brewed with Amarillo and Cascade. It's very straightforward and pintable, almost like a pleasant pale English bitter. I got subtle summery notes of watermelon and peach, with a mild bite of lime rind at the end. Nothing strange or startling, just nice.

The highlight of the three I tried was called Fifty Three & Six, named after the headline digits of the brewery's coordinates. It's a clear golden colour and shows a spritzy, zesty lemon freshness first, followed by a more serious resinous dank. Mosaic is the dry hop and it's doing what it does best. Most impressively it has a properly full body for an ABV of just 3.7%. The pale ale was thoroughly upstaged.

Finally a Coffee Milk Stout, featuring cold brew from local roasters PS. This is pretty straightforward again; a modest 4.5% ABV with sweet mocha roast and a big dollop of cream. Everything a coffee milk stout should be, really.

I got a good chat with Alex from Loudons Brewery in Co. Clare about their ambitions. They're modest ones, and we're not about to see a plethora of Loudons taps around Dublin or the rest of the country. But if we did, they might have their two new beers on them. I began by tasting Loudons Pilsner, an incredibly soft-textured version of the style. A remark about that led on to a discussion of how the brewery uses 100% rainwater as its supply. The wet grass notes of Saaz add just the right amount of bitter seasoning and the whole thing is extremely sinkable at just 4% ABV.

Loudons Irish Stout is at the same strength, and it's rare for one of these to be that low. There's a light roastiness, a fair bit of sweet chocolate and then a tangy bitterness on the end. It's plain and easy-going, though a little too sharp for me.

I thought they had a superior example of the same sort of thing down at Ballykilcavan. Their Blackwell stout was launched late last year. It's a more typical strength at 4.4% ABV and has more of most of the classic Irish stout components. The flavour shows lots of early roast, while the balanced bitterness presents itself in both the finish and, pleasingly, the aroma. Perhaps my favourite feature, however, was the creaminess. That's a bit of a stout cliché, and not something I normally value in them, but it really added to the classic feel here. I think I could happily drink a few of these in succession.

Elsewhere on the bar there was a variety of specials. I thought Line Blocker pale ale was named as a dig the the big breweries' aggressive sales tactics but it's something much more innocent: the obstruction in the brewhouse caused by the excessive hopping employed here. It's a daring attempt at the modern murky pale ale style, going big on the tropical with a juicy aroma and a flavour in which I picked out pineapple, mango and guava. It does suffer a few of the typical flaws, namely yeast bite and a cloying gumminess, and I definitely don't think I could manage pint after pint of this, despite a mere 5.1% ABV. A small glass was pleasant, though, and shows the brewery has a definite daring streak among the safer alternatives.

You can't get safer than a 3.8% ABV lager, like Ballykilcavan's Lager Unlaois'd. Though brewed with Magnum and Saaz it's not terribly hop forward, showing a dry, rye-cracker aroma and lots of sweetish grain in the flavour. I found this quite bland and a little disappointing. Perhaps Ballykilcavan could swap a few notes with Loudons on the makings of lager and stout.

Now Dead Centre we do get in Dublin, though more canned than draught in recent times. There were two new releases on tap at their bar, first on being Wizard of the Sonic double IPA. This is a full 8% ABV and quite a dark copper colour. The malt which caused that also adds a toffeeish flavour. This is set next to an onslaught of resinous US hops: Columbus, Citra and Mosaic doing the heavy lifting. It's a bit loud, in keeping with the name, I guess. Good though.

Bringing up the rear on the Dead Centre range was Sham Maths, an American-style amber ale. It's another big one for the style, at 6.2% ABV. And it's another serious-tasting recipe. There's a heavy hop funk to this in both flavour and aroma. On the malt side it manages to be both dry and caramel-infused, and there's a raspberry flavour I associate much more with Irish red ale than American amber. While I liked the serious bitterness, a little more gentle hop flavour -- some citrus or tropicals -- would have improved it immensely.

The last festival bar for today was actually pouring a Dublin brand, albeit brewed in Co. Limerick and quite limited in its locations around town, namely Persistence. I was disappointed to learn, first off, that the excellent P42 pilsner they did has been discontinued. Damn you, Irish drinkers of poor taste in lager. Replacing it is P45 Lager which is a much sweeter and less hop-forward affair. It's fine, if shading a little to the sickly side. I hope all you haters of proper pils will love it.

Also new to me was P50, described no more explicitly than "session ale". It's a dark amber colour so I thought I was getting something toffeeish. It turned out to be be incredibly dry; full-on astringent, in fact. There's a little blackcurrant fruit in the flavour, and then loads of super-strong stewed builders' tea. I'm really not sure I could do a session on this.

An interesting mix of beers here, and plenty of examples where safe styles don't at all mean bland or low quality. Tomorrow, however, we take all the safeties off.