JR Mahon's: an appraisal

This is part three in the ongoing saga of 1-2 Burgh Quay, Dublin, as relates to beer and brewing. Anyone who has ever crossed O'Connell Bridge with a thirst on them will know that between 1998 and 2013 the building was the Messrs Maguire multistorey brewpub. Then, following the economic crash and a change in ownership, it became JW Sweetman. I wrote about the first incarnation here, and the revamp here, with plenty of posts about the other beers they released in between. Then at the end of 2022, having not quite made a full recovery from Covid, it was sold again. The new owners re-opened it under their own name, so it's now "JR Mahon's". They've done a substantial refit of the interior, although the first casualty of that was the groundfloor brewhouse, unceremoniously yeeted out the front window. Sensibly they have retained Rob Hopkins as the house brewer, and he now has his own set-up not far away in Smithfield, from which he supplies three beers for the pub. Let's have a look at them.

In the Sweetman days, the house pale ale was a dark and resinous affair, often to be found outside the pub under the Barrelhead brand. I assumed it would be getting another lease on life as JR Mahon's Pale Ale but on my first visit in April that's not what I found. The beer was lighter, fruitier and altogether more modern tasting with a touch of tropicality about it. The brewery says the recipe has "evolved" and now uses whole-flower hops, which wasn't possible with the Burgh Quay brewhouse. I was quite pleased with the evolution. And then a couple of weeks later I was back and drinking the pale ale again. And this time the resin was back too. I could be imagining it -- different palate, different day, different mood -- but it is possible that two iterations of the pale ale are on the go, both good, but quite different from each other.

JR Mahon's Red was the most disappointing of the three. It's wan and murky looking but doesn't even have the character strength to taste dirty. Instead it's very plain indeed; thin and fizzy like Diageo's mainstream Irish red brands. That does mean full marks for tasting true to style, but most Irish microbreweries play with the basic specs a little, raising the roast or the hops above the industrial lowest-common-denominator level. Not here, more's the pity. This is a beer for those who like their red ale to be unchallenging, even by the standards of red ale.

Now the JR Mahon's Stout was challenging. There was a choice of two versions on my last visit and the straightforward kegged version was absolutely packed with diacetyl. A little mild caramel shows up afterwards, still sweet, and there's a tiny hint of charcoal cracker in the finish, but other than that it's big butter all the way through. Sensitivity varies but I found it quite intrusive, taking away drinkability from what should be a sessionable stout at 4.1% ABV.

Redemption came from the handpump. There was also a version of the stout which had been dry-hopped, presumably in the cask from which it was served. The result was staggeringly different. First of all, the gooey, sickly butter was gone without trace. Covering it up was a fresh burst of American style citrus, occupying the foretaste then giving way to toasted grain, providing a different sort of bitterness. This was much more like it, and I didn't mind a jot that the overall picture resembled a black IPA much more than an Irish stout.

So I won't be rushing back to JR Mahon's for the house beers, and at €7+ a pint, they're charging above the odds for independently brewed beer in central Dublin these days. But that little bit of variation is promising. Cask fun and special editions will get me back in the door in due course.