The Dublin comeback

The September beer festival at the RDS in Dublin was a fixture on Ireland's calendar between 2011 and 2017. A later move to other venues was less successful and it all wrapped up before Covid. This year saw a tentative return, on a smaller scale and in a different part of the venue, but still filling the remit as required. 20 Irish brewers and a handful of international representatives took stalls in the Ring Hall for two days. I only made it in on the Friday evening, and here's what I found.

I began at Lineman, who had a new IPA called Supernature. This is brewed with a little maize and is lager-fermented, though the brewery has opted not to badge it as a cold IPA. It does pretty much meet the specs, however. The hops -- Citra, and BRU-1 -- have been given an extremely clean and clear base to work from, showing a very dank and piney aroma but with a surprise fruity twist in the flavour, all Skittles and blueberries, lacking any of Citra's more pungent lime and pine. It's 6.4% ABV so is one to take time over, and makes for enjoyable sipping. A perfect antidote to haze, should one be needed.

The same can't be said for Eight Degrees Cumulus Lupulus, but at least it makes itself clear (figuratively) from the name. The brewery released a beer with the same title back in 2017, in the first flush of the haze craze. The new one has been extensively revised, reducing the ABV to 5.2% and making it a showcase for that most showcase-worthy of hops, Nelson Sauvin. And yet, despite the branding it's not particularly hazy, being quite translucent. Furthermore it's not really juicy either, giving instead a punchy bitterness, all spiky and herbal, suggesting nettles or dandelions to me. An assertive pith character is as fruity as it gets, brimming with lime and grapefruit. I really enjoyed it, but mostly for its West Coast flavour profile, which I'm sure wasn't the point of the exercise.

The other festival veteran which changed hands recently was Dungarvan Brewing. Alas the new owners didn't get the memo that Dungarvan's job at these gigs is to bring cask, and they were all keg on the day. Their festival special was a Cherry Imperial Stout, which sounded like it would be right up my alley, but I was disappointed. Although it's all of 9.5% ABV and has bags of warm cherry character, it was lacking on the stout front: inexcusably thin and missing the complementary chocolate notes I was expecting. I like cherry flavours, but I like imperial stout even more, and this one didn't have the goods.

The cask mantle was taken up by another Waterford brewery, Hopfully, who had a porter called Waterford Dark on the handpump. The only criticism I have for this one is that it's not really festival material, at least to this sipper of halves. This is a plain-spoken, no-nonsense porter, of a modest 4.5% ABV. The flavour is dry, emphasising the roasted grain. I would have like a bit more of a chocolate side, but can't argue with the specs and would very happily have consumed two or three pints of this on the trot in different circumstances. It shouldn't be a festival special and I hope some worthy pub takes it on. Looking at you, Tully's.

I tend to think of Hopfully as a brewery that operates very much in the "craft" space, pushing out endless hazy IPAs and fruited sour concoctions, all with their self-conscious bespoke artwork on the branding. So I don't know why they're suddenly into classic styles. Also at their bar, for example, was a Munich Helles. It's maybe a smidge on the weak side at only 4.8% ABV, but otherwise it's absolutely perfectly executed: silky smooth and subtle; low on hop character, though what's there is classically German, and with the light spongecake sweetness that is the style's signature move. This was another one to make me regret my no-pints policy.

And to go with that, Hopfully also had a Munich Dunkel. I often find these to be a little too bitter for my taste, owing I guess to the combination of noble hops and roasted malt. This one didn't go that way, and I enjoyed it all the better for that. The bitterness quotient is no more than a little red liquorice, accompanied in the flavour by some crispy brown sugar and plenty of soft and rich caramel. That isn't allowed to become oversweet by being set on a pristine lager base. It's well-balanced and satisfying drinking, and not too dangerous with only 5.2% ABV. 

Killarney Brewing was a pleasant surprise to find at the gig. We only get their core range in Dublin, and I know they have a busy turnover of specials and one-offs in their two Kerry taprooms. I tried Il Cielo D'Irlanda, collaboration with Birrificio Italiano and presumably referencing haze and Irish weather in the name. It's a rye pale ale, which creates certain expectations of spice and colour, but it was surprisingly pale and not all that hazy. And I couldn't taste the rye either. It's properly bitter, with a lovely zesty cleanness, but I was still looking for the peppery effect that, for me, is the whole point of rye beers. I think they didn't use enough. Still that's a minor complaint, and it's a lovely beer. A major complaint is that I wasn't even half way through my half when someone knocked it over.

A replacement beer was very kindly offered by Brehon Brewhouse, their cold IPA called Standstill. It's a very good example of the style and doesn't have any of the unpleasant green-onion effect which tends to plague them. This is still clean and lager-like, and 5% ABV, with a strong resinous aroma and classic new-world hop flavours, of lemon and grapefruit. This punchy bitterness is balanced by a gentler herbs or salad side, suggesting celery or melons. As with Lineman's Supernature above, the hop flavours come through beautifully clearly with no interference from anything else. I haven't always got on with Brehon's IPAs, but this is some of their best work.

Unfortunately I can't say the same about their gluten-free lager, Light & Bright. It is indeed both of those things: 4.2% ABV and a limpid pale gold. The flavour seemed a little off to me, however, with a kind of musty sackcloth graininess and a surprise banana sweetness. Maybe the aim was to make an almost flavourless lager, but if that's the case, it hasn't worked (and why would you bring it to a beer festival?), falling foul of some quite commonplace pale lager problems.

I had one last Brehon beer late on in the evening, a sour one called Sloe It Down. I've become quite accustomed to fruit beers like these not being sour at all, so it was a very pleasant surprise to discover that this one is. It's a golden colour, not really tinted by the fruit, and I'm guessing real sloes have been used. They have almost completely fermented out, leaving no more than a vague echo of unspecified berries: gooseberry and redcurrant, perhaps. The real joy of this 3.5%-er is the tartness, which is deliciously mouthwatering and refreshing. It might make a good base for some other fruit, if they felt like it.

The offer from Lough Gill was a little disappointing: lots of beers but mostly ones that are in regular production. It's a brewery where one might expect an outré festival special of the sort they used to bring to the Alltech extravaganza in years gone by. Here, it was nothing more exciting than an Amber Lager, itself not the most exciting of beer styles. It was on the pale side of amber but tasted much darker, with notes of caramel, fruitcake and a mild toastiness. The whole thing is convincingly retro; a reminder of times when discerning beer drinkers were more easily pleased, perhaps.

It's not often that I get to drink Outer Place beers on draught, and their latest was a pale ale called Atoms. This, I would say, is another beer style that rarely gets anyone's blood pumping, but this is a superb example. It's hazy, as is the Outer Place way, and they would like you to know it has been double dry-hopped with Exclipse and freezy Citra. The result is an absolute fruit bomb, tasting of a mélange of tropical and citrus, with ripe mandarin being most prominent. It's sweet too, creating an effect that reminded me of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum, although that's something I haven't tasted for real in decades. Despite the murk, it's light-bodied and very refreshing. A class act all round, I thought.

Some stouts to go out on. Kildare brewpub Dew Drop was a welcome addition to the line-up: their draught is largely confined to their own premises and even the cans are hard come by. Among the regulars, they brought a stout I hadn't seen before, called Turnpike. You can very much tell that this is aimed at the mainstream Irish stout drinker, with its 4.1% ABV and nitrogenated serve. The aim isn't to do anything fancy, and it doesn't. Instead, it's a plain and well balanced example, emphasising the dry roast in a way that makes me suspect there's only that and pale malt in the grain bill. There was an interesting parallel with Hopfully's porter which, though similar, was aided by the temperature and texture of its cask format. I confess, I'm not a huge fan of this kind of stout. They tend to seem like something is missing, be it chocolate, coffee, hop fruit or alcoholic warmth. I suspect that anyone making them, who doesn't have their own outlet like Dew Drop, is on to a loser, because the big brands are popular because they're big brands. This drinker wants a point of differentiation in his microbrewed stout. 

And here's a case in point. One brewery had brought a beer that could almost have been designed for me: Rascals, and Holy Molé. This is the second version they've done, though I never tried the first one from their pilot series. For round two they've decided to reduce the ABV slightly, from 5.5% to an even 5. There's an excellent milk stout base, with all the sweet creaminess you would expect. And then it has been spiced up significantly, giving it a big kick of chilli flavour and heat which hits the back of the throat before settling snugly in the belly. Somehow it manages to stay blanced and drinkable with that, though perhaps my tolerance for such things is more than most. Not many Rascals pilot beers get the upgrade to full-scale production and packaging, but I'm very glad this one did. I will be back for more when the cans arrive, which they probably have by the time you read this.

And that's your lot. I did miss quite a few new beers at the gig, and the entirety of the imports, but I may get to catch up with some of those in due course. For the moment, it was lovely to have the festival back in the RDS, and although that particular part of it is due for demolition, I would love to see it elsewhere on the campus next September.