About time

There was a gap in the initial line-up from Changing Times brewery, Dublin's newest, when I reported on it last year. Tap lines had been set aside in the brewery's partner pubs for Clockwork, a stout. But true to their word, the gap was filled before January was out, and I duly trooped along to give it a go.

Based on the previous two releases I had a fairly clear idea of what it would be and I wasn't wrong. We're talking the basics: hints of coffee roast on the nose, a medium-creamy mouthfeel from the nitrogenated dispense, and a fully dry flavour dominated by dark toast. A tiny hint of the coffee reappears in the finish, but there's nothing else by way individual character to mark it out. I would need a side-by-side to be sure, but it strikes me that at least two of the country's industrial nitro stouts have more complexity than this. Beamish drinkers may find it an acceptable substitute, however.

I'm being harsh, and perhaps unduly. It's a fine beer which I'm certain isn't being pitched to the lad writing tasting notes in the corner of the pub. But I'm also a stout enthusiast, and there was an opportunity here to make an exceptional, unmistakable one, and they've chosen not to. I had thought we were well past the days of Irish microbreweries mindlessly aping the output of the multinationals, but it seems to be alive and well when the brewery is funded by mainstream pubs. Full marks for that glass, though. Have a pint before they all get stolen.