House!

I'm sure I'm not the first beer commentator to make this observation, but dark lager should be a lot more common than it is. Just like its pale counterpart, when made well it's clean, accessible and pintworthy, with the added bonus of some extra flavour complexity from the dark grains. As such, it should be reaching the same sort of audience as mainstream session-strength stouts, if it weren't for the fact that drinkers there care more about the brand than the liquid. Although Diageo did make a lacklustre effort at it some years back, there's no national brand of dark lager, which is a disgrace given how many pale ones there are.

Of course, high-end pubs can create their own solutions to this problem. Brickyard in Dundrum has, commissioning one from Third Barrel and putting it out under the Two Sides brand. It's called Black Betty. At 4.7% ABV it is appropriately pintable, although the mouthfeel is quite dense and there's loads going on in the flavour. Soft treacle forms the background, balanced by a black tea dryness plus subtle notes of beechnut and cola. A growing peppery spice effect arrives as it warms.

If I were fitting it into a specific style I would say it has more in common with chewy Czech tmavý ležák than crisp schwarzbier or herbal Munich dunkel. Regardless, it does all the things that a house dark lager should, including creating a desire for another pint of the same straight away. I hope it's selling well at Brickyard because it should be there, and everywhere else, all the time.