The Twelve Brewers of Christmas 4: Rascals

I hadn't been to the Rascals taproom for a while before the Beoir Christmas Party so there was plenty new to try. I began on their new helles, Jailbreak. Though only 4.2% ABV it's a weighty one, showing a golden syrup quality more akin to a Czech dvanáctka pivo than bready helles, but top quality regardless. A balancing note of celery from the Hallertau Mittelfrüh is as bitter as it gets, but this is really all about the malt. I will continue to pine for Rain Czech, Ireland's greatest ever lager, though this will do to be getting on with.

For the weirder stuff I thought a flight would be more appropriate than a pint. I began that with a Peanut Butter Brown Ale, a beer which demanded it be taken in the spirit it was offered. If you wanted balanced and calm you came to the wrong tap. Now the aroma, I'll grant you, is objectively horrible -- an off-putting damp paper effect. Its flavour is beautiful, however: big and buttery, with elements of toffee, coffee and cream liqueur. Amazingly it's only 4.5% ABV, and I shudder to think how thick and sweet a stronger version would be. Anyway, this is definitely built for the flight. A snifter as dessert is plenty.

They got the name right on the nose for the smoked doppelbock: Dragonator. The ABV not so much: this is a tiddling 6.1%. It's the right shade of red-brown, though, and nicely lager-clean. The smoke is very prominent without turning acrid, just like in Bamberg's finest, and it overlays a malt sweetness and a mild noble hop tang. It's a brave style to take on, given Schlenkerla's international reputation for this sort of thing, but it's absolutely at the races and warrants a larger measure.

L-R: Black Horse, Peanut Butter Brown Ale, Dubliner Weisse, Dragonator

The second in the Rascals Dubliner Weisse series is Elderberry, and it's much better than the raspberry, lactose and vanilla first edition, because it doesn't taste of lactose or vanilla. This one lets the sourness through satisfactorily. It's no lip-curler, just nicely refreshing, as befits a contemporary Berliner weisse. The fruit side is an easy-going cherry-juice effect. I found it simple, pleasant and thirst-quenching. You can find it in cans.

That left the stout on the end: Black Horse, named for the local Luas stop, named for the defunct pub beside it. It presents as a very ordinary 4.4% ABV session stout but has some really interesting characteristics, including smoke, caramel and lots of heavy dry roast -- building to an almost tarry bitterness. It's still perfectly pintable but adds an extra dimension that few plain Irish stouts, even from the microbrewers, manage to offer.

Finally, for the season that's in it: Ugly Xmas Jumper, created for Molloy's off licences though sneakily available at the taproom too. It's an oatmeal pale ale, hazy orange in colour and 4.5% ABV. There's a suitably Christmassy tangerine aroma, though a background dryness as well. It tastes sweet, like hard candy, the orange intensifying to lime and then weed. Despite the oatmeal, the texture is a little thin and the taste has a certain hollowness as a result. While I'm complaining, that initial dryness I detected in the aroma becomes a savoury caraway aspect in the flavour as it warms, though not a strong one. Nevertheless, the jolt of hops this beer delivers is deliciously invigorating. This is one to have on hand to intersperse with all the strong and dark stuff you'll doubtless be drinking in the coming days.

Rascals ending a big year on several high notes, then. I'd be very happy with more of the same in 2020.