What's up, Dublin?

Another heaping helping of Irish beers today, gathered from the locality in recent weeks.

I'm starting with DOT Brew, and a pair which came my way at the annual beer-cheese-whiskey sipathon in Teeling's Distillery -- thanks to the Teeling PR folk for the invite. Drinking After Midnight is a foreign extra stout aged nine months in 80-year-old bourbon casks. Unsurprisingly, brown sugar and vanilla are right up front in the flavour, but perhaps not as much as in other bourbon barrel beers. The texture is quite sticky and there's a molasses bitterness to help balance the sugar. The barrels' previous use for Irish whiskey shows up in the honeyish aroma. The finish is quick, making it overall less effort to drink than most 8.2% ABV beasts of this nature, while not lacking complexity at all.

The bar at Teeling's is one of only three places it's possible to buy DOT Light Ale, the others being Beef & Lobster on Parliament Street and Galliot et Gray on Clanbrassil Street. It's very much designed as a beer for food, says Shane, Mr DOT. Funny, I'd have though you'd want something heavier for that but it's only 3.8% ABV and a very pale gold. The recipe is based around pilsner malt and there's an attendant crispness all the way through. The aroma is pinchingly citric, while the flavour is aromatic: perfumed jasmine and apricot notes, hanging around for a long floral finish. I found it very pintable despite the small bottle. Something this light yet interesting deserves a wider audience.

A few weeks later I caught up with DOT's Saison Barrel Aged Blend IV, which is a saison, possibly barrel aged and may have involved blending at some point, I'm not sure. It looks innocent but is a whopping 7.4% ABV. For all the convoluted production it remains a saison: dry and crisp from the get-go, maybe just a little thicker than the standard sort. There's a refreshing peppery spice, a chalky alkalinity and a purely Belgian kick of medium-ripe banana. A similar fruit and spice mix comes from the aroma too. I'd never have guessed it was barrel aged. Looking for it, yes there's perhaps a layer of vanilla in there, but I think it gets mixed in with the esters. Of anything specifically rum, bourbon or Irish whiskey there is no sign. I liked it a lot. It manages to take all the great things about saison and accentuate them without making a mess. Refreshing yet warming is a flavour profile I'd like to see more of.

To Urban Brewing next, the venue for the 2019 National Homebrew Club finals judging. When the morning's work was done it was time to hit the commercial stuff. Urban Brewing Belgian Wit was served with lunch. It's an excellent example of a style that can be very hit and miss. The fruit level is low, with just a spritz of lemon, but there's a plenty of peppery spice, headlining the flavour without upstaging the other acts. A clean finish gives it the all-important power of refreshment, again not overdone so it isn't watery. It's not a clone of the classic wits; it's is own thing and excellent for it.

A Dry-Hop Pilsner came next: 5.3% ABV with Mandarina Bavaria being the last hop in. This handsome fellow certainly looks like a pilsner: pleasingly clear for a beer dispensed directly from the secondary fermentation tanks. The texture is quite heavy but it does retain sufficient clean crispness to stick to the style guidelines (nothing like a homebrew judging session to bring that to mind) and there's lots of Saaz-like grass. Only at the end does it turn any way unorthodox, with a pinch of grapefruit and an odd tannic buzz. Another good twist on a classic style here, then. "Creative" brewing doesn't have to involve lactose and maple syrup.

The odd whiskey barrel doesn't go amiss, though. The second (I think) beer in Urban's wood-aged series is the Whiskey Barrel Red. This was only on the bar downstairs and not on the blackboard menu in the main bar, so you may need to ask for it. And ask you should. There's a delicious Flanders red sour vibe here, with a sprinkling of juicy autumnal blackberries. The colour brings its own pleasure: a deep black-cherry red. At 6.1% ABV it's quite reasonably strong. I noticed on the day that the still-excellent golden sour ale they made last year is beginning to taste a little tired. The same fate may befall this one too, in time, but you have a few months yet to try it at its best, stocks permitting.

I can't remember ever enjoying this many Urban Brewing beers in a row. The streak had to end, though, and it did so with the Simcoe IPA. It wasn't offensive or flawed in any way, just profoundly dull after all the fun stuff that preceded it. It's a middle-of-the-road 5.5% ABV and hazy gold in colour. I expected the fresh and herbal resins of Simcoe but instead got just a heavy cloying bitterness and no more than a token scattering of citric pith. I was in the mood for some hop aggression but this didn't deliver.

I didn't get it at JW Sweetman either, where the after party kicked off soon after. The Burgh Quay brewpub was serving the sole barrel of a different homebrew competition's winner. This 6% ABV Lemon Saison was created by John Reilly and won the pub's own competition last year. It's one of those boozy and thick saisons, but justifies the heft with plenty of flavour. The lemon is intense and concentrated, more like lime, and there's a an almost oaky spice, bringing notes of fortified wine. The pint took me a while to get through, but I enjoyed the cocktail vibe as I was drinking it.

The Five Lamps Brewery wraps up this post with two beers and an enigma. The company has been wholly subsumed into C&C but I don't know what that means for its beer range or its Dublin facility. The colourful range of warm-fermented beers with the fun local names isn't around as much any more, while this generically-badged couple have cropped up like weeds next to the Tipperary-brewed flagship lager. I've no idea if they too come from the industrial brewery in Clonmel, but I suspect they might.

Five Lamps Light is the awe-inspiring name of one of them. It's 3.8% ABV and a very sad, pale, cidery yellow. I found it jaggedly -- almost painfully -- fizzy. I'd guess they were aiming for a bland flavour but have missed that with the prominent hit of banana and toffee. It's really not very good, and if it is made at their big lager plant they'd want to get their processes looked at. Sensory issues aside, I have to wonder who the market for this is. The ABV isn't low enough to grab the drinkers who don't want to drink, so I don't see who wouldn't trade up to the full-size lager that's always going to be next to it. Is there someone daft enough to believe it's some kind of diet drink? It won't be missed.

A more orthodox choice next: Five Lamps Red. Mind you, this is C&C's third recent attempt to make an impact with a draught nitro red ale. Roundstone clings on where they have a sizeable tap presence already; Caledonia Smooth was chased out of town years ago. Now what? This is also 3.8% ABV, dark garnet in colour, and has a very heavy texture. The flavour is powerfully sweet, even for something of this style: I got a not-unpleasant buzz of tinned strawberry, followed by what I took for milk chocolate. Someone later pointed out to me that the beer is lousy with diacetyl and I went back to check. Sure enough, with that in my head, it is full of butterscotch. I think it works in this style, as long as you don't mind the slick sweetness. Overall I give this a pass. If it's taking aim at Kilkenny then more power to its buttery elbow.

That's it for now. More Irish beers soon, of course, including what was pouring at the Franciscan Well Easter Festival this coming weekend.