Bar flying

In between bottling three batches of beer and brewing another, as well as giving my regular lecture at The Beer Club, I managed to fit in a fair bit of pub time over the long weekend. In a life consumed by beer it's important not to lose sight of the important things, dontcherknow. As I mentioned at the time, it was national Farmhouse Cheese and Craft Beer weekend so of course I nipped in to the Bull & Castle to give their tasting platter a go. Wherever Geoff had been buying his Cooleeney it was far superior to the one from my tasting, with none of the waxy harshness. The match with Buckley's hop-forward golden ale was excellent, and the Hegarty's cheddar fitted wonderfully with all four beers, though in different ways.

Before heading off I snaffled a bottle of Rothaus Tannenzäpfle, on special offer at the moment. This is another pils from the cult Black Forest brewery, robust at 5.1% ABV and heavily laden with the nettley German hop flavour I usually struggle with. Here, however, there's just enough of a malt profile to hold it in check, keeping both the beer and this drinker appropriately sweet. Enjoyable in small doses, but 33cl was enough for me. (Edit: I'm reliably informed by Barry in the comments that this is the same beer as the Pils, reviewed here.)

Down the hill in Temple Bar I dropped in to Farrington's, a hitherto quite plain and unremarkable Dublin boozer (formerly The Norseman, to any ex-pat Dubs who don't know where I'm talking about -- they used to have really nice runic lettering on the sign). Farrington's has, for want of a better term, gone craft. The usual macro keg fonts still line the two sides of the bar, but they're interspliced with those from Galway Hooker, Carlow Brewing, Metalman and the like. There's also an extensive bottled range -- local and import -- at least according to the blackboards.

What dragged me in was the promise of some Sink the Bismarck! and on Sunday evening a bottle from Farrington's cellars was procured, opened and offered round. I have two contradictory opinions on this 41% ABV freeze-distilled IPA: a) it's quite nice, and b) it tastes like an eastern European aperitif. The concentrated hop bitterness comes through as a sort of herbal, fennel flavour, which sits assertively atop the unctuous cough mixture body. Despite the super-dense texture there's a very faint fizz to it, and that helps soothe any intense alcohol burning, warming the insides rather than scorching them. I thought it worked great as a pre-dinner sipper. Nice beer; shame about the name.

Our hosts also had a bottle of Tactical Nuclear Penguin on the go. It still tastes like cheap sherry mixed with lighter fuel. Nice name; shame about the beer.

Onwards across the Liffey and upstream, to dinner and the antipodean delight of a pie floater at L. Mulligan. Grocer. The main draw here was a one-off cask of Trouble Brewing Pumpkin Ór. As far as I know this is Ireland's first and only pumpkin beer, and a one-off cask at that, pending a larger batch next year. It could have stood to be a degree or two cooler on serving, especially since the pub was heaving in the run-up to the Sunday night quiz, but it was still nicely smooth and perfectly drinkable. There's no fruit as such -- there rarely is with pumpkin beer in my experience -- but the blend of spices works beautifully, adding gentle warming cinnamon notes and a background hint of almond. I reckon solid, simple Ór makes quite a good base for throwing in interesting ingredients and I definitely look forward to seeing this spiced pumpkin version more widespread next year.

Irish homebrewers who fancy mucking about with their own interesting beer ingredients may be interested in entering Trouble's Trouble Maker competition. This time round they've asked specifically for unusual recipes. Reinheitsgebotniks need not apply.

A weekend well-spent there, I think. Hurrah for pubs!

Of hops and smoke

As I mentioned last Wednesday, Ireland's breweries have been in overdrive recently, resulting in lots of new beers coming on the market now. Pale ales seem to be particularly popular among the brewers and at the weekend I sampled the second one out of Carlow: O'Hara's Irish Pale Ale. It's a bit of a heavyweight, this. 5.2% ABV with a massively full body that demands your full attention while you get stuck into it. Not that it's a malt bomb or anything: it has been hopped extensively with more of the no-nonsense varieties found in Buckley's. There's a waxy bitterness at the base of the flavour while the high notes are herbal and grassy. Fruit, citrus or otherwise, does not enter the equation. I'm not sure that it's really to my taste, but I'd certainly be willing to give it another go.

It was, of course, at the Bull & Castle that I tried it. They've also taken a big forward step in their promotion of Irish beers on cask with the introduction of polypins from the Hilden brewery now and again. Among the first to be tapped was Gael Rua, a new red ale. It roughly follows the biscuity caramel lines of Irish red with one major diversion: the inclusion of lots of peat-smoked malt. The result isn't going to be to everyone's taste but it hit the spot perfectly for me. The sweet smokiness gives it an aroma akin to incense, and the flavour is all bacon and toffee. If there was a Schlenkerla pale ale, I'd imagine it would be something like this.

Lots more new Irish beer to come. I'm in Galway next week for the Irish Blog Awards and hope to squeeze a return visit to The Salt House in there. The following weekend it's off to Cork for The Franciscan Well's Easter Beer Festival incorporating the Irish Craft Brewer Beer of the Year Awards. With the diversity currently in evidence in Irish beer it's going to be a particularly interesting gig, I reckon. And don't forget The Porterhouse's annual Independent Irish Beer & Whiskey Festival starts today across their estate in Dublin, Bray and London. Once again they're running a competition among the beers on offer -- beers from themselves, White Gypsy, Hilden, Whitewater, Galway Hooker, Carlow and Franciscan Well. As with last year, when Cuilan's MM Bock took the grand prize, Laura and Séan are on the judging panel. Stay tuned for more from this event too. Interesting times all over...

Buckle up!

I had hoped I'd get a sneaky taste of the long-awaited new edition of Porterhouse Celebration stout in time for St. Patrick's Day, but it looks like I'll have to wait until next week for that. I'm told Carlow have a new stout brewed for Easter and of course there's White Gypsy Vintage almost ready for release, so there's lots on the horizon for the coming weeks, but sadly I've no new Irish stout to offer you on this our national day.

There is one new native beer, though. The Bull & Castle commissioned Carlow Brewing to come up with an exclusive pale session ale for them, and Buckley's -- on sale since the weekend -- is the result. It's a clear amber gold with a surprisingly full body for only 3.9% ABV. It's nice to know Irish breweries can do keg ales at this strength without them coming out watery.

Hoppiness was part of the spec, and the brewer seems to have opted for the earthy British variety rather than the fruity American sort which, I suppose, would have made the end product too similar to Galway Hooker. So you get the aroma of a hoppy English pale ale and a sharp bitter bite at the front of the palate before this fades to a dry and grainy -- almost lagery -- crisp finish.

My only criticism is that it's a bit gassy for my liking. In fairness, my first one was quaffed swiftly so I probably felt it more than if I'd taken my time over it, but I still think that this sort of session beer should be very easy to drink, and that includes lightness on the fizz front. I'll be very interested to try it on cask, should that ever be rolled out in my vicinity.

It's quite an exciting time for Irish brewing at the moment. In addition to Buckley's, Carlow have a new IPA in the pipeline, and Franciscan Well's new pale ale is apparently on its way to Dublin. Meanwhile, Clanconnel has completed its move to a new purpose-built brewery and will shortly be expanding its portfolio, while down Waterford way Dungarvan Brewing is under starter's orders, with its first three beers due for release in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully Kildare's Trouble Brewing won't be far behind. For some background on how far we've come in recent years, have a look at my guest post on Irish brewing at The Brew Club today.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Dublin. Don't forget to punch your local Diageo rep.