The beagle has landed

BrewDog Outpost Dublin opened its doors in December. This long-anticipated addition to the Dublin beer landscape has chosen a daring location, at the very far eastern end of the south quays, where the city is still very much developing. They're clearly hoping for a high enough concentration of wealthy young tech and finance workers to keep the large pub/restaurant/brewery in business. But this blog isn't where you come for speculation on the economic ins-and-outs of the local on-trade. This is where I talk about beer.

The line-up on opening night was pretty standard for a branch of BrewDog: their own headliners, spiced up with some specials and rarities; a smattering of local guests, and some other representatives of UK craft beer, brought over directly.

L: Sweet George, R: Mashtag

I began with one from English brewery Buxton, a collaboration with Eindhoven's Van Moll, called Sweet George Porter. Sweet is right, though not in a sugary way. Instead this piles on the floral perfume: all the violet and rosewater. What I didn't realise at the time was that they've done this using chai spice mix. It's charming to begin but turns a little too intense after a while. What saves it is the light texture -- it's only 5% ABV after all -- and a growing coffee warmth. I think this is one of those beers that survives in spite of the novelty ingredients rather than because.

I owed my admission on the evening to Reuben, who was drinking Mashtag 2019. I hadn't had an example of this crowd-sourced recipe since 2015. Last year the chosen style was a 9% ABV red double IPA, and I guessed the latter part from the big fresh-hop aroma. It was a dark beer, though, and the flavour was much more malt-forward, based on sticky treacle and hopped malt extract. Still, it managed to stay mellow, the big hops and big malt coalescing after a minute or two into a smooth and genteel sweet vermouth effect. Red IPAs aren't usually my bag but somehow they've got this one spot on.

The other new-to-me BrewDog beer on the night was Cosmic Crush Peach. After ordering it I immediately felt regret in anticipation of another over-sweetened supposedly-sour fruit beer, but no: this is properly sour. That starts with an aroma like cap-gun smoke, leading on to an invigorating bitter tartness: peach skin meets gunpowder. There's more than a hint of lambic about this one, certainly compared to most breweries' sour efforts. It's mouthwatering, complex and, above all, fun. A little severe, perhaps, but very interesting with it. There's an excellent lesson here in how, if you must have fruit syrup in your sour beer, it should complement the acidity, not drown it in sugar.

The next BrewDog beer to come my way was a couple of weeks later in Shelby's, the new Peaky Blinders theme pub in The Hague. It has Punk and a rotating BrewDog tap, which on this occasion was pouring Origami Outlaw, a 5% ABV pale ale with hibiscus and yuzu. It tastes like an apricot smoothie, though not too sticky, thankfully. There's a spicy jasmine perfume quality, which I'm guessing is down to the hibiscus. This is tasty and unfussy; close to being the sort of over-sweet novelty beer I dislike but successfully avoiding it with a deft lightness of touch.

We'll finish with a couple of cans acquired closer to home. East Coast Crush is a New England IPA, a very unAmerican one at 4.8% ABV. Still, it walks the walk at session strength. Cloudy and yellow, it smells of fresh late-added hops: lime and grapefruit with grassy overtones. Fans of vanilla and garlic flavours in their IPAs will find their needs met in this, and there's even a hit of alcohol heat in the finish. Dankness and more citric qualities also feature. Pour carefully from the small can, however: it doesn't get better with the soupy dregs added. Sure, it's a little samey, but isn't that the point of a beer style to some extent? There are no off flavours; no thinness or compromise: here is everything NEIPA in a tidy little package.

Another one promising on-trend craft idiosyncrasies under a medium-strength flag is the 5% ABV Zombie Cake "praline chocolate porter". And again you pretty much get what's promised. Chocolate is front and centre, sweet and milky with a little salt, and this is balanced by a gentle roasted bitterness. That's about it. It's understated for a novelty and I think needs something else. A little chilli, maybe? As-is, it's accessible and uncomplicated but still provides a respectable level of interest.

A decent bunch, this. BrewDog, for me anyway, continues to shout about how outrageous they are while making steadfastly reliable and well-engineered beer.