Unseasonals

I did a little bit of a go-around of the Dublin Wetherspoon pubs before I left town for Christmas. At Keaven's Port they had two new ticks for me.

Well, sort of. The cask of Oakham Below Zero ran dry before my half was poured but I still got a decent sized taster. It's lovely too, a bright and lemony pale ale with zingy notes of sherbet and zest: an impressive depth of flavour for just 4.1% ABV. Alongside a bonus tannic dryness there's a very slight soapy character in the finish which prevents it from being stellar, but I would have happily necked this by the pint had that been an option. 

Also pouring was Vale Brewery's Gravitas, a honey-coloured pale ale, single-hopped but with what we are not told. As the name suggested, it's an alcohol powerhouse, up at 4.8% ABV. Careful now. The flavour is a strange one, being highly floral and perfumed, blending lavender sweetness with a jasmine spice. I guessed it was an English hop variety, but research revealed that to be not quite right: it's Cascade, of English ancestry but resolutely American, normally. Here it's missing its citrus tang and savoury earthiness. Technical details aside, it's a good beer. Once you're accustomed to the sweetness it's very clean, and like the above beer there's just enough tannin in the finish to enhance the drinkability.

Meanwhile, over at The Silver Penny they had one of those lovely art nouveau Brewsters pumpclips on display and, mirabile dictu, were actually pouring the beer it was advertising: Decadence, a golden ale. Kiwi and passionfruit are promised, though it begins on a slightly artificial fruit-flavoured chewing gum aroma. There's a certain amount of realistic tropicality in the flavour, passionfruit and mango for sure, though lacking the bitterness of kiwifruit, I think. There's a fun piquancy too: a little bit sulphur or pink peppercorn, but not to an excessive degree. This is another very decent affair, well designed and well kept.

Any of these would make for excellent summer beers but were equally welcome in the depths of winter.

Random cask

A recent bicycle trip homewards along the south coast  of Dublin Bay brought me past the two JD Wetherspoons situated there, both at convenient points for stopping off to rest the legs a bit before the final push. Stopping for a pint or three was only common sense.

Just one new beer for me on the taps at The Forty Foot in Dún Laoghaire: Cairngorm Black Gold. Thirsty on a warm afternoon I wasn't really in the mood for a dark beer but I went with it anyway and grabbed one of the last remaining tables on the upper terrace. One sip dispelled any doubt that this was the beer to choose: the texture is wonderfully light and smooth lending it enormous refreshment power. Then there's all the lovely complexities typical of dark cask ale: dry cocoa, sweet blackcurrant and then, as it warms, touches of salty caramel and butterscotch. I took my time over it, enjoyed it thoroughly, and headed on to Blackrock in a good mood.

Looking for something with more of a sunshine-in-a-glass quality when I got the The Three Tun Tavern (two years old today!) I opted for Gravitas by Vale Brewery in Buckinghamshire. It certainly looks the part: clear and cool and bright pale gold. But alas it's just too heavy to do the job required of it. The mouthfeel is sticky and the flavour a sickly, overly-floral perfume thing, with a surprising amount of alcohol heat for just 4.8% ABV. There is a little bit of nuance which comes into play after the first few mouthfuls: melted tropical fruit ice lolly and a sharp but fun lemon bitterness, but they're not enough to make the beer fully beer-garden compatible.

It was May so I felt obliged to do my bit for international mild month by drinking a valedictorian pint of same, since the management had been good enough to put one on. Mary's Ruby Mild was the name, from another home counties brewery, Nethergate. It didn't look the best when I got it: ruby, yes, but with a suspicious brownish haze through it. It didn't taste clean either, having a salty putty earthiness over the top of crunchy cereal and sweet strawberry. The heavier sort of Irish red ale is what it reminded me of and it certainly did not offer the light quaffability that I'm after in a mild, especially outside on a late spring day. Perhaps I was unlucky and got the tail end of the cask: I don't think I've had a single complaint or concern over the way cask beer is handled in either of these pubs and if this was a bad one then it's a rarity.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting to find as many different British cask ales on tap in these pubs as I did, and it was a pleasant surprise even if only one out of three was any good. I might have better luck the next time I'm pedalling through.