On the town

Late last year I mentioned that The Porterhouse had created two summer festival beers but that I only got to try one of them back at the pub. It turns out that either there was an overlooked keg of the other, or it was deemed good enough to be rebrewed, because here it was in late December: Passion Fruit IPA. After the fun of the lime lager I was ready to be impressed. I was not impressed. Although this is pleasingly and unfashionably clear, the fruit syrup is laid on thick and dominates the foretaste making it seem like an alcopop at first. Later that switches to quite a harsh leafy bitterness, so I guess it does at least qualify as both a fruit beer and an IPA: not everything claiming to be one does. But it's very basic and I think would work much better in the less critical environment of the al fresco festival rather than mid-winter in the pub.

The reason I was out in the first place was the opening of Fidelity, a new joint venture pub from Whiplash and The Big Romance people. They've done a thorough job of tarting up the grotty former Dice Bar on Queen Street and created Dublin's second high-end beer bar, a short stagger down the tram tracks from the first one.

The location by James Joyce bridge and the house from his story The Dead seems to have suffused into the beer menu, and my first here was itself called The Dead, a Whiplash porter that tends to get exported more than sold in Dublin. It's a callback to head brewer Alex's time in Guinness and is designed to taste like an old porter from there, made from the closest thing available to diastatic brown malt, given decoction mashing and some oak ageing. It's 5.5% ABV and wears chocolate up front; dark at first, then developing a caramel sweetness with dark fruit character: red grape or raisin. An additional character comes in the form of a mildly phenolic iodine smokiness. I thought I was in for something basic and accessible but there's a lot going on in this and it's well worth taking time over to explore.

Before departing, a glass of Telemachus, a 10.5% ABV barley wine aged in Marsala barrels. There's a strong liqueur aroma leaving no doubt about that strength, as well as burnt caramel and dark sherry. The texture is fantastically smooth while the Marsala dominates the flavour so intensely it almost doesn't taste like beer at all. There's lots of luscious soft grapes, loads of booze and a slight chocolate sweetness. This is definitely one to finish the night on, warming the belly as it coats the palate.

Fidelity is a most welcome addition to Dublin's beer scene. I'm envisioning regular two-stop crawls between it and UnderDog in 2023.