On with the on-trade!

And lo there came the Great Reopening. Or not. Since the beginning of last week pubs in Ireland have been able to operate as restaurants and, despite a few reports in the media of rules being flouted, it looks like uptake on the new arrangements has been gradual. For my part, I wasn't gasping for a pint or anything, but I did make a point of heading to my local brewery taproom as soon as they pulled up the shutters for sit-ins. Rascals HQ was very much food-led normally so not a huge amount has changed in the way they do business.

Most pleasingly, a suite of taproom-exclusive beers were ready from the get-go. They didn't go in for packaged new releases much during the lockdown so it was especially pleasing to get back on board with what they do.

My first was Summer Sour, 4.4% ABV and a medium hazy yellow colour. It's a simple affair -- fresh and zesty in both aroma and flavour, with a balanced tartness and lots of lemony zing, a bit like a soluble vitamin C tablet, including the slightly chalky texture. We didn't really have the best weather for a thirst-quencher like this but I appreciated it anyway. It's just the sort of accessible yet interesting beer that should be a staple of every taproom.

The darker one beside it has the enigmatic name of Raspberry Tipple. My bald assumption was that it's the same as the above with a squirt of raspberry concentrate. Nope. This has a crazy jam-and-candy aroma and a big thick texture, much more than you'd expect at 5.6% ABV. That dense and dessertish fruit sweetness had me thinking of yoghurt, in particular. According to the official description, which I eventually got round to reading, "raspberry and white chocolate cheesecake" is the intended effect. I get the chocolate OK, and I'm not sure I want to know how you do cheesecake beer. The contrast with the other beer couldn't be more stark. While this is unusual and fun, if a bit silly, it cloys quite quickly and I don't recommend a full-pint serving.

I finished with a coffee. Well, a flat white. Well, a white stout called Flat White. I've yet to be fully convinced by these gimmicky attempts at imbuing a pale-coloured beer with the characteristics of stout. This one wasn't even that pale -- an opaque dark amber colour -- though initially all was going according to plan. Coffee is included in the ingredients, and it dominates the foretaste with a dry burnt roast that I could believe is mistakable for dark grain. The illusion falls apart soon after, however. There's a rising sweetness coming from the use of lactose and cocoa nibs, and maybe they thought this would turn it into a fake-out pastry stout, but it's more like sugary powdered drinking chocolate. Rather like the previous beer, it ends up being something quirky and creative, but it's not a substitute for actual stout. Luckily the house dry stout and Baltic porter were on the menu for anyone feeling gypped.

I mentioned that the brewery has been quiet on the packaged beer front, though they did release this one shortly before the taproom reopened. Hazy Days is based on the core Happy Days pale ale, keeping the ABV at 4.1% while adding a lot of eggy-looking murk. Rascals has form for releasing supposedly-juicy beers that turn out quite savoury (Judge Juicy and Ugly Xmas Jumper, to name two), hence I was a little apprehensive on approaching this. And again, juice doesn't really feature. The hops are intense all right, but it's a mix of garlic and pith, which is OK, just not juicy. The alium effect brings quite a harsh burn, and there's a rough grittiness included with the full mouthfeel. In short, the haze adds nothing. It's good that a cleaned-up version of it exists, if only to demonstrate my point.

So that's Rascals back in action, with all of their beery eccentricities. I feel some small part of normality has been restored.

The Twelve Brewers of Christmas 4: Rascals

I hadn't been to the Rascals taproom for a while before the Beoir Christmas Party so there was plenty new to try. I began on their new helles, Jailbreak. Though only 4.2% ABV it's a weighty one, showing a golden syrup quality more akin to a Czech dvanáctka pivo than bready helles, but top quality regardless. A balancing note of celery from the Hallertau Mittelfrüh is as bitter as it gets, but this is really all about the malt. I will continue to pine for Rain Czech, Ireland's greatest ever lager, though this will do to be getting on with.

For the weirder stuff I thought a flight would be more appropriate than a pint. I began that with a Peanut Butter Brown Ale, a beer which demanded it be taken in the spirit it was offered. If you wanted balanced and calm you came to the wrong tap. Now the aroma, I'll grant you, is objectively horrible -- an off-putting damp paper effect. Its flavour is beautiful, however: big and buttery, with elements of toffee, coffee and cream liqueur. Amazingly it's only 4.5% ABV, and I shudder to think how thick and sweet a stronger version would be. Anyway, this is definitely built for the flight. A snifter as dessert is plenty.

They got the name right on the nose for the smoked doppelbock: Dragonator. The ABV not so much: this is a tiddling 6.1%. It's the right shade of red-brown, though, and nicely lager-clean. The smoke is very prominent without turning acrid, just like in Bamberg's finest, and it overlays a malt sweetness and a mild noble hop tang. It's a brave style to take on, given Schlenkerla's international reputation for this sort of thing, but it's absolutely at the races and warrants a larger measure.

L-R: Black Horse, Peanut Butter Brown Ale, Dubliner Weisse, Dragonator

The second in the Rascals Dubliner Weisse series is Elderberry, and it's much better than the raspberry, lactose and vanilla first edition, because it doesn't taste of lactose or vanilla. This one lets the sourness through satisfactorily. It's no lip-curler, just nicely refreshing, as befits a contemporary Berliner weisse. The fruit side is an easy-going cherry-juice effect. I found it simple, pleasant and thirst-quenching. You can find it in cans.

That left the stout on the end: Black Horse, named for the local Luas stop, named for the defunct pub beside it. It presents as a very ordinary 4.4% ABV session stout but has some really interesting characteristics, including smoke, caramel and lots of heavy dry roast -- building to an almost tarry bitterness. It's still perfectly pintable but adds an extra dimension that few plain Irish stouts, even from the microbrewers, manage to offer.

Finally, for the season that's in it: Ugly Xmas Jumper, created for Molloy's off licences though sneakily available at the taproom too. It's an oatmeal pale ale, hazy orange in colour and 4.5% ABV. There's a suitably Christmassy tangerine aroma, though a background dryness as well. It tastes sweet, like hard candy, the orange intensifying to lime and then weed. Despite the oatmeal, the texture is a little thin and the taste has a certain hollowness as a result. While I'm complaining, that initial dryness I detected in the aroma becomes a savoury caraway aspect in the flavour as it warms, though not a strong one. Nevertheless, the jolt of hops this beer delivers is deliciously invigorating. This is one to have on hand to intersperse with all the strong and dark stuff you'll doubtless be drinking in the coming days.

Rascals ending a big year on several high notes, then. I'd be very happy with more of the same in 2020.