The lagers of west Dublin

It had been a while since we last had a new beer from my local brewery, Four Provinces, but we got one in February. It's a tribute to/collaboration with the Shamrock Rovers podcast Tales From the East Stand and they've called it Green Ribbon. Though badged as a pilsner, it's a big one at 5.5% ABV. I called around to the brewery's pub to give it a spin.

As expected, it goes big on the malt. Served crystal clear and ice cold, the initial flavour is a very Czech-style honey or golden syrup effect set on a full and almost chewy body. It would run the risk of being sickly were it not for the hops: a peppery rocket effect that holds it in balance. While the carbonation is very busy to begin with, it settles after a few minutes and is a better and more rounded beer once given time to warm up and flatten out. It's not one of your crisp and thirst-quenching pilsners, but is impeccably clean and suits taking time over. Süffig.

Meanwhile, over in Rathcoole, Lineman's first new beer of the year is a schwarzbier called Schadenfreude. I'm a bit fussy about my schwarzbier so this had a bit of work to do to impress. Once again the strength is on the high side for the style -- 5.9% ABV this time -- and there's a little bit more sweetness than normal as a result. The aroma is closer to the caramel and liquorice of a Munich dunkel, but that doesn't follow through to the flavour, thankfully. It's properly dry, if a little lacking in the burnt-toast thing that I particularly enjoy, and is what makes Köstritzer the archetype for me. The gravity gives it a smoothness as well, making for a beer which is exceedingly easy to drink; dangerously so, perhaps. I had to restrain myself from draining the glass before the review was done. So, while not classically constructed, this is a beer of outstanding quality, and very much the sort of thing Lineman excels at. It deserves to be quaffed by the pint mug wherever good beer is quaffed.

It seems that west Dublin is the current centre of strong(ish) lager brewing in Ireland. There are worse things to be famous for.