And we're back

After an extended winter hiatus and the third major refurbishment in nine years, the Guinness Open Gate Brewery re-opened to the public last month. I detect a change in more than just the furniture; it all seems much more casual and pub-like than before. The requirement to book was gone with the last iteration, but now they've also dispensed with the host who would show you to a table and inform you that your welcome would last for two hours maximum. Now you can simply walk in off the street and sit anywhere, including at the bar where the stools have been reinstated.

Otherwise the ethos is the same: Diageo Ireland's core beers are permanent fixtures, but there is also a range of one-off experiments created by the Guinness brewers primarily for the place, though they occasionally show up at the Smithwick's museum in Kilkenny too. A few hours after the doors opened I wasn't expecting many customers nor much on the menu, so was surprised to find the place packed with tourists and off-duty staff, and a full set of new beers to try. Better get the flights in, so.

One definite retrograde step is the loss of the big screen menu, which provided useful information on the beers. Now there's a sparse retro split-flap display board and a printed menu, which weren't in agreement on details like what the beers were called and how strong they were. It's all very well to dream in beer but occasionally you need to wake up and do your proofreading.

Watermelon Spritz, for example, was a lager on the board and sour on the menu. It didn't really have much in common with either, being a lurid pink colour and tasting strongly of artificial watermelon candy. No surprise there, really. I also got a very generic raspberryesque pink flavour, ramping up the sweetness to the level of bubblegum or fruit chews. There's very little sign of the base beer -- sour or lager -- under this and it seems to be largely a syrup delivery system. Finding Peter the head brewer a few stools down from me, I learned that it is brewed with real watermelon and fermented on champagne yeast, no less. I'm not sure they got their money's worth out of that process. There are plans to serve it with sparkling wine, hence the name. I had a certain appreciation of its silliness, and it's fine if it's taken in the unserious way it's presented.

To the left of it on my initial flight, Crane Street, the first indicator of a new effort at giving meaningful names to Open Gate beers, Crane Street being one that runs through the St James's Gate complex. It's either a pale ale or a New England IPA, depending on which source you believe; 5% ABV on the printed menu and 6% online. And it's clear. I got a raw and leafy hop effect from the flavour, a hint of fried onion and then a rasp of what I think may have been oxidation. It has a modicum of refreshment power when cold, but otherwise is a bit of a lacklustre performance, as is generally the case with Open Gate's IPAs. And yet they persist. This was listed among the "Dublin Classics". Reader, it is not one.

On the end of the paddle is Rye Reserve Stout, an 8% ABV job made with chocolate rye malt and aged nine months in an Irish whiskey barrel. It has the wheaty chocolate aroma of a delicious but unhealthy breakfast cereal, then the foretaste is an epic struggle for supremacy between raw sappy oak and a kick of bitter hops. I was enjoying that spectacle when the warring parties were suddenly joined by a little smooth chocolate and a steaming great mug of fresh coffee. None of the aspects dominate the beer in the end, and the result is beautifully balanced while also loud and bold: exactly how a stout like this should be.

I began in the middle for my second flight too. That hazy yellow chap is Brewers Table, a non-alcoholic IPA. Those are usually bad enough generally, but in the hands of Open Gate's IPA brewers? Eech. So I was absolutely astounded to find it's really rather good. The trick seems to be piling in the hops, and those make themselves felt right from the start with a gorgeous mandarin and fresh lemon aroma. To taste it's a little harsh, and Peter agreed that the bitterness could stand to be dialled back, but there's bags of more subtle hop flavour too: a herbal dankness and zest for days. This delivers something that I don't think I've had from a non-alcoholic IPA before: a taste of real beer.

The clear amber beer on the left is Narrow Gauge, described as an American amber lager, but I'm not sure about that, as it's not especially hoppy. To me, it tasted like a straight-up Vienna lager, and a very very good one at that. It's exceedingly crisp, with only a tiny caramelised edge to the dryness. There's just enough of a green-vegetable noble hop character to complete the picture. This is the sort of understated beauty that Open Gate has always excelled at, and I'm very happy to see that the standards are still being kept up as regards classic lager.

And lastly for this flight, an unattractive murky brown fellow down the end. That's Royal Mess, a wheat beer brewed with yeast from the old Guinness brewery at Park Royal in London. They don't give specifics or intentions, but I would call this a dunkelweiss, with its banana and toffee aroma, smooth texture and brown banana flavour. I'm not normally a fan of the style but this, if it is one, is a better example, balancing the sweet ripe fruit against a degree of roasted-grain dryness. It's not very exciting, but maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I knew the full story behind its creation. Guinness weren't telling.

I almost didn't have the Open Gate Nitro IPA, which completed the new season line-up. I'm very much not a fan of the normal Nitro IPA that Guinness makes for foreign parts, and needed assurance that this isn't the same beer. It's not, and is a percentage point stronger, for one thing, at 6.8% ABV. It's paler in the glass too: golden rather than amber, and doesn't have the dreadful artificial perfume effect. Instead, it's lightly lemony, like a jolly piece of hard candy; mostly quite sweet, with enough of a bitter tang to taste close to real lemon. The nitrogen still has a deadening effect on the flavour so there's not much else to say about it, only that it's inoffensive-tasting, quite approachable, and rather dangerous given the sizeable strength.

It feels a bit like order has been restored to the universe with this fixture re-opening. I will continue to stop in at Open Gate whenever I'm passing and check what's new. Until next time, then.