Lager season

It's nice to see breweries and pubs making a bit of an effort around seasonality, and Oktoberfest time brought multiple opportunities around Dublin to drink appropriate lagers.

That said, I've had Sun Spots from Outer Place Brewing sitting in my fridge since the summer, which has been far too long. They describe this as a West Coast Pilsner, although there's a haze on it which calls to mind the other sort of IPA. I take it that the description is meant to imply hops, and it certainly has those, smelling like fruit candy and tasting extremely zesty with a sweet backing, like cloudy lemonade or lemon drizzle cake. That's down to the presence of Citra, Mosaic and Idaho 7. I know there aren't any real lines between hopped-up pils and cold-fermented pale ale, but for me this falls more into the latter. The fruit character doesn't leave room for pils crispness, and without that I don't think it can claim to be a pilsner. Regrdless, it's a lovely beer. 5.2% ABV is perhaps a little on the strong side for something so refreshing and thirst-quenching, but if that's what it took, that's what it took. Outer Place doesn't have a core range, that I know of. This beer is a better candidate for any hypothetical one than all of their haze.

It was nice to see The Porterhouse leaning into its new status as a contract brewer by flagging that their seasonal Festbier was brewed by WhiteField. It shouldn't be a mystery and WhiteField is a trusty brewer of traditional European beer styles. So, I would love to say that this is a good example but -- oof! -- the diacetyl. There are those who say it isn't necessarily a flaw. Pilsner Urquell has a substantial fanbase, after all. After the initial shock of big butterscotch, I did begin to adjust. It's a sweet lager, bringing hints of brown sugar and fruitcake. I guess, as a party beer, it's meant to taste bigger and bolder than the norm, but it needs hops to balance the all-in malt, as any Urquellite will tell you. It's also not especially strong at 5% ABV. I'm really not sure whether to flag this as flawed or simply not to my taste. Either way, I wasn't feeling the need for a full litre.

More autumn lager is a bonus. Nobody said they had to be precisely to style, however.