Fresh start

Here we go then. The new beers of 2026 start at the Rascals taproom at the beginning of February. Or rather, outside it. The bar and pizzeria in Inchicore was doing a roaring trade on bank holiday Sunday so I had to make do with a perch outside. That they're doing well in these straitened times gave me enough of a warm glow to offset the chill.

The long-running Pilot series is largely what we're about. Pilot #146: Belgian Dubbel is a little on the light side at just 6.8% ABV. It's pale too, more amber than the expected dark brown. First sip indicated that they've missed some targets here, and the gravity in particular. It's inappropriately thin, lacking malt weight and alcoholic warmth. The Belgian yeast did its job, however, delivering lots of esters, with red apple to the fore, followed by tannic raisin and sweet grape. It's a near miss. While not a bad beer, it offers so much of dubbel's fruity fun but without enough substance to make it properly enjoyable. But that's what pilot breweries are for. Hopefully somebody else noticed what went wrong and will fix it should they choose to scale up the recipe.

You wait forever for Dublin 8 to produce one pistachio stout then two come along at once. Open Gate's landed late last year, and here's Rascals with Pilot #148: Pistachio Stout. This is 6% ABV and quite light with it, plus I'm not sure there's any identifiable pistachio. Nuts, yes: there's a slightly earthy, peanut-butter effect, and a degree of hazelnut crunch, but with lots of vanilla too. Pistachio ice cream, maybe? I had hoped for a hefty, creamy stout, and this isn't that. But it's tasty. If you like your novelty beers low-key, and you should, this fits. It doesn't even need to be relegated to dessert, even if it's technically a smidge strong for session drinking.

Last up on draught was Bullseye Export, a supercharged version of the session-strength stout Rascals launched in 2024, boosting the ABV from 4% to 6.5%. Although that's only a tiny bit stronger than the previous beer, this one had the satisfying density that the other stout lacked -- and that's despite it being served carbonated rather than nitrogenated here. Its heady booze vapours added to the sense of something luxurious, and maybe a bit naughty. There's roast aplenty too, of the savoury, meaty sort. I was ready for a smack of old-world hop bitterness from the flavour, but it didn't go that way, unfortunately. In fact, it's quite sweet, giving further hazelnuts and lots of toffee and butterscotch. That turned it a bit cloying, and I think I dodged a bullet by not having nitro gloop to contend with as well. I'm sure it will have fans, but I'm not among them. It's not a bad beer and isn't offensive per se, just not how I prefer this kind of thing to be done.

Other commitments meant I didn't have time to finish with a glass of the new Mosaic IPA but I picked up a can before leaving. This is actually a 2025 release, having been around since August, apparently, but this the first time I've seen it. The Italian text on the can suggests it may be primarily for export. It was fresh, showing a packaging date of December and smelling magnificently of fresh fruit salad, which is exactly what I want when I see "MOSAIC" writ large on a can. The flavour follows logically from that, but intensifies it considerably. There's a powerfully punchy bitterness, more pith than flesh, finishing on a very west-coast rasp of pine acidity. In front of it, the pineapple and passionfruit are still there, albeit briefly. The bigness of the flavour is doubtless aided by its 6.3% ABV. It has a certain amount in common with that other Irish Mosaic showcase, Little Fawn, lacking that one's accessibility but making up for it in poke. It's clear and pale too, so is recommended to all the west coast revivalists out there. Since it seems to be in regular production, it would be nice if it were more available locally. We could do with a few more beers like this in circulation.

Is this the year my allegiances change from stout to IPA? That seems unlikely but it's still early days.