Corporate gigs

Everyone's favourite UK pub chains, JD Wetherspoon and BrewDog, brought simultaneous festivals to their Dublin branches in October.

For BrewDog it was the first CollabFest since they opened, shortly before the pandemic shutters came down. By the time I got there only the local collaborative offering was left: Tuck Shop Mafia, a lemony sour beer, brewed with Hope, and a big one at 8% ABV. It was an appropriate hazy yellow in the glass and smelled of bathroom cleaner, so full lemon points for that, I guess. Lemongrass is one of the ingredients and that's the first thing I noticed on tasting, that slightly dry and green rasp. Bittersweet lemonade arrives behind this, forming the main feature: the lemon peel gives it a classy, posh-lemonade feel. An oily citric resin marks the end. While the sour-beer side of the equation is missing, it's otherwise a delightfully clean-tasting job, so perhaps that's where the sour culture contributes. Why it needed to be 8% ABV I do not know: it's a cleansing and refreshing chappie, the sort of beer that should not leave me concerned about the alcohol load. 

It's a bit of a trek out to BrewDog -- it's called "Outpost" for a reason -- so more than a zingy half was needed to justify the trip. I had yet to try any beers from the in-house brewery. As it happened there were three on so I ordered three thirds.

Beginning in the middle, that's Saison & On, a down-the-line 5%-er with no silly additions as far as I'm aware. There's a lovely fruity aroma here -- ripe oranges, just on the edge of turning funky. The flavour expands on that with a mixture of pith and straw, finishing on a peppery piquancy. This is really well done, and shows off all the things that saison is supposed to be. Where it differs from the classics is in the texture: there's an almost creamy feel instead of saison's usual dry and sharp quality, and that helps spread the flavour even further. This is a level above what I would expect from a miniature back-of-the-pub brewery on the quays.

Hazy IPA is next, inevitably. Opaque Lake is what they've called it, and it hums of garlic. I genuinely thought it had warmed to room temperature from the smell, but the first sip showed it was perfectly cool. It just smells like hot food. Garlic completely infuses the flavour from start to finish to aftertaste. You get a little contrasting vanilla with that, and a chalky dryness, but nothing good. Where's the juice? This sort of gag-inducing stomach-churner belongs back in the early days of the haze craze before anyone outside Vermont knew what they were doing. As such, it can get in the bin.

The final one, left of picture, is intriguingly random: a double IPA at 9.1% ABV, brewed with grape juice. I was sceptical going in but could not resist trying it. The aroma of deep orange Vinal Tap is weirdly sulphurous, like match heads. That translates to a saltpetre spicing in the foretaste, followed by an intensely sweet fruit candy, mixed tropical breakfast juice, and a big boozy napalm burn. This is no subtle Italianate grape ale; this is BrewDog Hardcore with the bitterness dialled back and given some extra fruit. It's all rather fun. Unlike with Tuck Shop Mafia, one is made very aware that it's a strong beer. There would be a risk of cloying were it not for that dry and spicy side. If this was an experiment, I think it paid off.

With that, it was back inland, up the quays to The Silver Penny. Time was I'd do a full tour of the Dublin Wetherspoons for the festival but the apps were showing precious little festival beer on the menus so I made do with the city centre branches.

It's a number of years since any Irish brewery featured on a Wetherspoon festival list, but BRÚ planted a flag this year, with a cask Brown Ale. It's a genius move, because whatever your opinion on Wetherspoon, everybody loves a cask brown ale. This is 4.5% ABV and a clear dark garnet shade topped with old-ivory foam. The aroma is a gorgeous mix of floral and caramel, with a waft of pipe tobacco for the full oul-lad effect. It tastes plainer. There's a toasty dry roast, a crunch of chocolate biscuit, and then a faint dark berry tang on the end. All of that passes through quickly, leaving no more than a vague chocolate aftertaste. This is a drinking beer, not a tasting beer. I wasn't there to quaff pints, but it would have been ideally suited.

There were two other festival-listed beers on offer but the only one new to me was El Camino, a golden ale from Conwy. It's clear, it's golden, so full marks there. The aroma is dry and waxy but the flavour expands that into a more comfortable honey and golden syrup effect. There's a spicy bitterness which suggests English hops more than the billed Americans to me, and while it's a light 4% ABV and very easy drinking, there's a lovely depth and complexity of the sort cask ale does better than any other format. This is unfussy but absolutely delicious.

Stopping in at Keaven's Port on the way home, I snagged Hogs Back Citrus pale ale, an amber coloured 4.5%-er. This goes big on the chewy fruit candy, all Starburst and Refreshers. Lemon and lime set on a slightly sticky honey base with added pear zing. I guess it's an attempt at blending smooth English cask ale with pointy American hops, and as such it works brilliantly. There's no edge, it's all rounded and easy, but the hop flavour is firmly pronounced in a way one doesn't expect from cask ale normally. Beautifully done.

Nevertheless, I hereby pronounce a saison and a golden ale as the joint winners of this craft-beer/cask-ale face-off. The presence of UK chains in Ireland remains a controversial subject for those who believe our native pubs serve the drinkers well enough. Me, I love to see things mixing up, especially when good beer is a result of it.