Garden party

It has taken them a while. Almost eight years have passed since the Smithwick family opened the Sullivan's Taproom in Kilkenny, a brand home for their contract-brewed beer which would one day be a full-sized production facility. It's getting there now and the block-built infrastructure is in place at the rear of the building. Also back there is a good-sized and well-laid-out beer garden where, for the last two years, Sullivan's has been inviting guest breweries to set up their bars for a weekend. I went along to the most recent iteration.

Of course, it was also a chance to catch up with some new beers from Sullivan's itself, since I don't see them very often. Earlier this year they introduced a pilsner called Na Boii, named after the Celtic tribe after whom, in turn, Bohemia is named. It's the appropriate clear golden colour with a soft texture and plenty of sparkle, and the 4.7% ABV is appropriate too. The appropriateness ends there, however. The fermentation isn't up to snuff and the beer is full of esters, tasting primarily of green banana with a different sort of marzipan or cake sweetness alongside. I expect grassy Saaz hops, and would even forgive a smear of buttery diacetyl, but neither features here. There's nothing distasteful going on, and it's OK to drink, but if I were marking it to style it would fare poorly.

Sullivan's Pale Ale is rather better. It exists in bottled form, so I'm guessing it's produced by the main contracting brewer, Dundalk Bay, rather than on the on-site pilot kit in Kilkenny. That might explain why everything is dialled in better. It's a dark-ish amber colour in the glass and smells delightfully zesty. The hops soften on tasting, into the apple and grape of a fruit salad with a sparkle of lemon sherbet. That's balanced by a cornbread malt sweetness, making for some nicely satisfying drinking at only 4.7% ABV. Rather like its Sullivan's sibling, Maltings Red Ale, this is a well-made take on the style, accessible enough for the mainstream but with plenty of interesting character too.

The host had also tried their hand at imperial stout, and barrel-ageing it too, to create Tri-Capital. Information about it is near non-existent so I can't tell you why it's called that, nor what it was aged in. The tap badge does say it was barrel aged for nine months, with another handwritten note on the bar telling us it's 8.5% ABV. Dundalk Bay has a bit of experience in this space, creating the fantastic 8% ABV Romanov in 2019 and a 9% ABV imperial stout in 2021. Happily, this has more in common with the first of these, taking very dark chocolate and caramelised sugar and adding in a heap of boiled green vegetables for a very grown-up bitter stout flavour, just how I like it. The barrel aspect is understated, adding quite a subtle layer of vanilla to proceedings, and a little cheeky spirit heat. Fans of the kind of strong and dark beauties produced by Brehon Brewhouse on the regular would like this one too. It deserves a wider distribution than the Taproom.

And so to the guest brewers. I began at Hopfully, with their new Floatinghome Belgian-style pale ale. This is a tricky style to get right, and American breweries have tended to be better at it than European ones, in my experience. Hopfully has made an excellent go of it, however, holding back a little on the fruity hops, showing only some apricot and star anise, but going big with the Belgianesque herbs and spices: bitter marjoram and dill plus a kick of incense and exotic peppercorns. It's heavily textured for 5.1% ABV but retains a cleansing sparkle as well. Like the imperial stout above, it's great to find this too-rare flavour profile in an Irish beer.

The second Irish hopfenweisse of 2024 came courtesy of Lineman, called Organised Fun. I said in the context of the Eight Degrees one that the style is rarely to my taste, but this one very much was, and I think the hop choice was crucial to that. It's BRU-1 and Hallertau Blanc, the latter of which brewer Mark described as "poor man's Nelson". I can see why too: this beer has very Nelsony notes of flinty minerals and juicy Chardonnay grape. What's even better is what it doesn't taste of: clashing banana esters. There is a softness and sweetness that tells me it's not simply a thinly-disguised IPA, though I fully accept that I may simply prefer hopfenweisse when it's not brewed entirely to style, or when it's brewed by Schneider of Kelheim, who are still making the original.

That leaves just Dead Centre, who had two beers new to me. There was a New England-style pale ale called Tweet Into The Void, 5.5% ABV and hopped with Citra and Strata. That offered a very straightforward kind of decency, from the sunny opaque yellow colour to the zesty yet tropical aroma of lime and pineapple, to the juicy mandarin flavour. If I'm picking nits, there's maybe a little too much of the oniony, savoury side of the hops in the immediate foretaste, and right on the very end, but far from enough to spoil things. It doesn't do anything you haven't tasted a hazy pale ale do before, but I think I'd be perfectly happy with a pint of this in its native environment, down by the Shannon.

Another barrel aged imperial stout to take us out: Solar Eclipse, at 10.7% ABV. There's a slightly odd, but not unpleasant, charcoal aroma, then a flavour centred on chocolate and caramel but with sidenotes of oaky cork and a little umami-laden autolysis as well: soy sauce or shiitake mushrooms. The charcoal flavour becomes a tang of burnt grain in the finish. That sounds a bit off, but again it's a very good beer for the most part, the highlight being a hugely rich and creamy texture, making it for sipping only. It's ambitious, and certainly characterful. While the like of Lough Gill and The White Hag have really mastered this kind of beer, you have to start somewhere and I hope Dead Centre will be trying its hand at more.

With all the ticking done, pints followed, including excellent cask versions of Ballykilcavan's Cobbler's Castle and Wide Street's Plush pale ales. And after that there was tasty barbecue food down at Paris Texas before the train home. It was a fun and easy-going festival in a beautiful venue. Thoroughly recommended for next year, when there might even be a shiny new brewery to see.