A long way from summer

Summer 2022 saw festivals return to these parts. One that I didn't get to attend was The Big Grill in Dublin. The Porterhouse, unusually for them, had two special edition beers made for outdoor warm-weather drinking. The leftovers went on tap at their Temple Bar pub afterwards, where I missed the passionfruit IPA, but I did get to have a pint of Porterhouse Lime Lager.

"What is it," I asked. 
"It's a lime lager," the barman's reply. Fair enough.

I figured they had simply whacked some syrup into one of the house pale lagers, and maybe they did, but the result was much better than expected. The soft texture is that of a very good Helles, while the crisp cracker base flavour is quality pilsner. Except, instead of grassy noble hops on top, there's a subtle and real-tasting essence of lime. It works wonderfully to boost the beer's refreshment power, which I'm sure was the point in the first place. I bet it went down a storm in Herbert Park last August.

And so we tear pages off the calendar and go Around the Clock. The Porterhouse's huge annual winter stout is in its fourth iteration in 2022. I haven't enjoyed any of them as much as the first one, but maybe this is the year they nail it again.

AtC4 is the usual 12% ABV and of course the brewery's sister distillery, Dingle, provides the ex-bourbon barrels. There's not much beyond sweet bourbon-y vanilla in the aroma, and the flavour certainly puts that front and centre, including a big dose of raw wood. There's some nice complexity alongside it, however, bringing black pepper, dark chocolate, vegetal hops and a certain savoury soy-sauce umami. It works, overall, but as in previous recent years it still tastes a bit raw and unfinished. I'll be picking up another to see how it mellows.

The brewery doesn't have the busiest of turnover as regards new beers, but it does seem that careful consideration goes into what they design and release.