Wait for it

During the summer I made a couple of outings to brewery taprooms-to-be just ahead of the beginning of production.

Treaty City in Limerick was one such. The main production brewery is, and will remain, on the outskirts of the city, but they've recently opened a visitor centre in town where there's a small pilot brewery. Since it all fits in one room guests are treated to not so much a tour as a performance by the charismatic owner Stephen Cunneen. There's a bar too, serving special edition Treaty City beers.

Brand new on when we visited was an Azacca Pale Ale, one of a series of single-hopped releases. It's 4.8% ABV and a medium amber colour. I associate Azacca with juicy tropical fruits but this had a very serious bitterness: a hard kick of lime rind from the get-go. That doesn't linger and it finishes quite quickly. The beer's texture is noteworthy, being full-bodied and almost creamy. That's unusual for a pale ale but quite welcome here. It's not the most exciting beer, suffering from the lack of complexity that frequently besets single-hopped ones, but it's very decent.

Following that comes Sarsfield Stout. This one was a work in progress, intended to be nitrogenated but hadn't been yet. As a result it was quite flat which didn't do anything for its thin texture. The flavour is mostly a rich dark chocolate though I got a slight hint of mushroomy umami as well. At 4.2% ABV this is clearly designed for the session. It certainly has potential but was in need of further tweaking, something the new brewery will doubtless be useful for. The nitrogenated version made it to the taps in Limerick this past weekend, if you want to know how the experiment finished up.

I also paid a second visit to Dead Centre in Athlone where the tiny pilot kit is operational but the main one was still awaiting the OK from officialdom. Most Dead Centre beer is still brewed at St Mel's, however, and that's likely to remain the case for the foreseeable future, with all of the beer produced in-house staying to be consumed in-house.

New on the day I visited was Dead Pixels, because you have to have a lager in a taproom. It's a nicely done one too: purest clear gold in colour, full-bodied and crisply flavoured. The malt sweetness is the main feature, bringing a golden syrup effect, with just a gentle dusting of spinach-like noble hops. At 4% ABV it's very easy drinking and is completely without flaws.

It's good to see Ireland's beer tourism offer improving this way. Both breweries will be a credit to their home towns once they're up and running fully.