Stout mask replica

When Dublin City Brewing first graced these pages, I mentioned that their intended line-up included "Parnell Porter". That never materialised but they do have a new dark beer, simply called Irish Stout. The blurb on the back still has a bit about Parnell, though, so I suspect a last-minute name change. I still have no idea if this is brewed at the Parnell Street brewery, which remains all boarded up from the outside, or if it's contract brewed at Dundalk Bay. I suspect the latter.

Anyway, to the beer. I expected quite straightforward stuff from a 4.2% ABV stout, and I pretty much got it, but that's not a criticism. The body is attractively smooth and black, and there's a decent but not excessive amount of rocky foam. It smells sweet and roasty and this unfolds on tasting into caramel, liquorice and well-done toast, with the sweet side maybe a little more prominent than is ideal, especially in the finish. The mild roasted side helps balance that and there's even a little green squeak of vegetal hops. Its best feature is the drinkability: no trace of stickiness and no hard edges or odd twangs means it slips back very easily and is pleasingly refreshing. Perfect summer stout, wherever they brew it.

Backyard Brewing is a new operation, based in Tullamore but currently availing of midlands solidarity and using the facilities at Dead Centre in Athlone. Their first beer is a Cascade Oatmeal Stout. It's 5.5% ABV and looks very proper: an even jet-black with an old-ivory-coloured head on top, every inch the wholesome and old-fashioned glassful. The interloping American hop hasn't been overdone and there's a mere pinch of zest in the aroma, plus a little more in the flavour. The initial grapefruit settles to a weighty dankness in the finish. This is entirely complementary with the smooth dark chocolate and dark toast notes. Overall vibes are not far from Sierra Nevada's excellent hop-forward stout. Its mouthfeel could maybe stand to be a little fuller given the oatmeal, but otherwise I have very few criticisms to give: it delivers very well on the promise of the name, tasting at once traditional and modern, but always a proper stout. I hope this is a flagship rather than a one-off, because nobody else is making beer like it in these parts.

Before we get into the properly strong stuff, a gateway export stout from The White Hag, called Balor. This is 6.5% ABV, the recipe boosted with brown sugar. There is a certain molasses sweetness in it, rubbing up against an espresso roast and some significant hop bitterness, this time of the more traditional sort -- metallic and vegetal. It's not a beer for the soft pastry crowd, showing a robustness that's not in fashion which I enjoy scouring my palate from time to time. Again, though, the texture isn't quite right and it's a little thin for 6.5% ABV, with a knock-on harshness. Maybe I'm softer than I thought. Anyway, it's a jolly decent stout, full of flavour, if maybe a bit of an acquired taste.

Something big to start the wrap-up with. Cask is a collaboration Lough Gill did with Faith American Ales, and the can bears the signature of Faith's frontman, Kelsey Grammer, off of the telly. It's a coffee-infused milk stout which has been whiskey-barrel aged for the full Irish coffee effect. Not an original idea, but one that turns out good results more often than not. Honey is the quintessential Irish whiskey flavour for me, and this has plenty of it: a sticky honeycomb or honey-nut cereal is the centrepiece. Though 12% ABV it's not especially hot, though it is as creamy and full-bodied as one might expect. Other flavours include hazelnut, milk chocolate and a lacing of espresso in the finish. It's enjoyable, but I felt it all could have been dialled up a few notches. Beer like this shouldn't be as easy drinking as this is. Make me work a bit harder.

Perhaps the answer is Sixty Ships Down. This is another 12%-er, brewed by Galway Bay in collaboration with La Pirata. They've added vanilla and tonka beans, calling to mind, to an extent, one of the special versions of Two Hundred Fathoms they released in 2020. The first impressive feature is the head: deep brown, looking like a chocolate milkshake, on top of a velvety dark brown body. The cinnamon and brown sugar of tonka dominates the aroma, as it tends to in all beers where it features, and there's a complementary note of chocolate behind this. So far, so churro. The texture is fabulously smooth, and only a somewhat assertive kick of spirituous alcohol prevented me from slurping the whole thing down indecently quickly. Luckily the complexity builds as it goes along, and what starts as mere pinches of dark chocolate, pipe tobacco, cinnamon, nutmeg and ristretto coffee, become properly bitter and properly spicy within a few mouthfuls. By the half way point it had switched from a lush liquid dessert to a serious sipper. At €10+ a can, it's not cheap, but while I might not be rushing out for a second tin I very much enjoyed the one I had.

It's nice to see such diversity, even just in Irish stout. All of these have a welcome place in the drinking ecosystem.

The quarter master

This was a surprise. I've been watching on the socials how busy Limerick's Treaty City brewery has been with its limited-edition and special-occasion beers. It seems to have graduated beyond just making a core range for a conservative local market, which is pleasing to see. "Local" has always been of paramount importance, and the latest set pays tribute to four of Limerick city's quarters -- it has a fifth: Market Quarter was a Treaty City beer I enjoyed in Limerick a few years ago. That's not the surprise; the surprise was a box of the new set being sent over to me by the brewery -- much appreciated!

Culture Quarter is first up, a blonde ale and lightest of the bunch at 4.1% ABV. It was looking a bit flat at first but eventually formed a very fine white head over a pale golden body. From the aroma it's obvious that they're trying to hit lager style points: it's clean and lightly biscuity, but also a little lacking in character. Ale yeast to the rescue, and the flavour brings more fruit: cantaloupe, honeydew, kiwi: all the water-filled ones you eat cold from the fridge for refreshment. Not that the beer is watery -- there's enough substance, while staying clean. Microbrewed blonde ale is always a bit of a gamble. There's a lot of space for off-flavours to creep in, while also running the risk of creating something bland and flavourless. This deftly dodges both obstacles. It's a hearty, wholesome and characterful bottle-conditioned ale, while also crisp, clean and easy drinking. Earlier this week I was impressed by Heaney's efforts in this space. This doesn't have the complexity of their effort but still does a good job of being accessible yet interesting.

I liked having an excuse to break out my Hoegaarden bucket: witbier by the half-litre is too rare. Georgian Quarter is the name, a bit of a pounder at 5.3% ABV. It's the right shade of hazy, sunny yellow, though the head formation was a little lacklustre. A farmyard-funky aroma harks back to witbier's origins as a wild-fermented style while an added hint of lemon reminds us how the big corporations have tamed it since. Those two sides fight it out in the flavour. There's a pristine citrus zest with a candied-peel sweetness, and then a rougher, funkier element; spicy gunpowder but also a harsh burnt-rubber effect. I imagine it's quite a divisive beer. A lot is going on and not all of it is good. Happily it all fades quickly with a minimal aftertaste, so it's still enjoyable even if some of the details are not to your taste. As well as that funk, I would ding it for the carbonation too, which is lacking. A beer like this needs proper spritz; flatness is fatal. On balance, I'm glad to see an Irish brewery offering a witbier, but at the same time this style has been perfected by The Establishment so it needs more of polish to compete on those terms.

The pale ale is called River Quarter and is 4.6% ABV. It's what I regard as the standard hazy orange shade of bottle-conditioned Irish small-batch pale ales. The aroma is dank, shading to funky: a little bit growhouse, a little bit pub cellar in need of a good scrub. That set me up to expect a powerful flavour but it's actually rather gentle with a clean pale-grain sweetness backed by mild root vegetables and a mug of sweet tea. This is easy-going and unchallenging to the point of being a smidge boring. I guess it's pub fare and ill-suited to a time without pubs. Unless you were expecting fireworks it's hard to complain about, being rock-solid and completely without brewing faults. Needs more hops, perhaps, but nobody will take offence from the way it is.

Stout is not neglected amongst all this. Medieval Quarter claims to be "US style", raising immediate hopes it'll be like Sierra Nevada's hopped-up classic. It certainly has similar substance, a full 5.6% ABV and pouring out thickly with a classic deep-tan head. Proper old-man stuff, in the best possible way. The case for it being American-ish is overstated. Yes there's a hop profile, but it's quite traditionally bitter and vegetal, not bursting with citrus. The hop side complements well a different sort of bitterness from dark-chocolate and espresso roast. Though nicely weighty on the palate, it's very much a dry beer, hitting that sweet spot of being both filling and refreshing. An echo of the hopping survives into the aftertaste and calls perennial favourite Porterhouse XXXX to mind. It doesn't have quite the same wallop but is constructed along similar lines. This is a magnificent beer and I wish more Irish breweries tackled this sort of thing.

I'm pleased with this bunch, while very aware I got them for free. I can assure you if there were actual stinkers in the set I would say so. The stout is a stand-out and pushed my 20th century buttons in a big way. The brewery gives us a rare glimpse behind the scenes by saying this could have been part of their core range. It should have been.

Beer in the park

I've been going to Taste of Dublin for the last three years. It's an annual highlight on my calendar and generally involves a large group of friends and some superb food. I don't think it's just my perception that the event has been getting beerier -- appropriate, perhaps, given that the venue was once the Guinness family's back garden. As with previous years, many of the country's big importers were there, but there were some interesting new additions. The Porterhouse were sporting their new design livery, plus a bigger range of beers than before: I was very happy to be able to get a pint of the marvellous Wrassler's XXXX. They also had some very cool looking mocked-up bottles on display, a hint that we may not have to wait much longer for bottled Porterhouse beers? None of the other Irish micros had a presence, though I did meet Kay and Seamus O'Hara from Carlow Brewing, there in an unofficial capacity.

The biggest beercentric event was the Beer Naturally Academy, organised by the macrobreweries' campaign to promote beer and food matching. They had flown in beer guru Marc Stroobandt to run the half-hour seminars, and he did a pretty good job of it, especially considering the tasteless materials he had been given to work with: Carlsberg, Heineken, Paulaner, Smithwick's and Guinness, matched with cheddar, chili prawn, smoked sausage, cheese tartlet and Belgian chocolate tart, respectively. Thom gives a full run-down of the gig here. It's easy to be cynical at this sort of thing, but there's a lot to be said for driving home the message of beer and food, and the emphasis on cheese and chocolate was particularly welcome. Stroobandt knows his stuff and is well able to deliver it in an entertaining way.

I missed getting to taste the Mexican chili lager one of the stalls was enthusiastically pimping, but I'm sure I'll get round to it eventually. It looks horrible. Instead, I hot-footed it from the Jaipur stall to California Wine Imports and announced "I have curry; give me beer!" Jonathan presented me with one of his newer arrivals: Black Diamond Amber Ale. "British Inspired" it says on the label, which explains why it's not as incredibly citric as the likes of Speakeasy Prohibition, say. What the English hops lend it is a gentle, tannic, very slightly metallic bitterness, sitting on a beer that's very much malt-driven: smooth, big-bodied and well-balanced. Jonathan also gifted me a jar of Sierra Nevada Stout Mustard, something else he's bringing into Ireland. I look forward to trying that -- it sounds brilliant. He also raised the possibility of adding the Stone beers to his range. That would be nice. Very nice.

And that was Taste for another year. Thanks to Jim and Liam from the Porterhouse, Dan from Beer Naturally, and the California Wine Imports team for their generosity. The variety of beers available was truly heartwarming, and here's hoping for even more beer goodness next time round. Perhaps another Irish micro might want to take a stall?

Sierra, bravo!

Sierra Nevada Stout is made "in the 'old world' tradition", whatever that means, but like any American take on a British style I was expecting overcarbonation and a consequent dryness from this beer. Boy was I mistaken.

Yes, it did fizz out quite aggressively, forming a thick but short-lived head, and the slight aroma is bitter rather than roasty, but once past the lips this stout does wonders. There's a fabulously full mouthfeel, with just a prickle of gas stopping me from describing it as "silky". It has more than a hint of creaminess, however. Flavourwise, it's to hell with old world and let's get some hops in there: big west-coast buggers hitting the back of the palate with a tangy vegetal bitterness. Just detectable behind them is a rather sweet roasted malty flavour, presumably deriving from the big 5.8% ABV.

This stout is a true American and not really like anything I know from Europe. It's also streets ahead of the brewery's own rather lacklustre Porter. If you like your stouts hoppy, and can't get hold of the marvellous O'Hara's Celebration, here's an excellent second choice.