#222: Franciscan Well Easterfest 2014

Three weeks later, I think it's right about time I digest the goings-on of the Franciscan Well Easterfest. The blogging hiatus that followed was brought on by end-of-year college activities that are pretty much unavoidable, but henceforth I should be devoting more time to the important business of beering. What better way to kick off a summer of beer than to recap an Easter beer festival? 

Well, there are plenty of better ways, but que faire, that's life. 

My beer festival M.O is generally to appear early doors on the first day and get all my work done before the atmosphere gets too jovial for my liking, but fate conspired that I wouldn't be able to show my face until the ungodly hour of 8 o'clock. By now the place was a heaving pile of humans and I wasn't much in the mood, so I went for a quick half of Hugo's Pils from JJ's Brewing Company in Charleville, which I found at first to be decent and balanced between grainy, biscuity sweetness and a tingling floral bitterness but ultimately my mind was wandering before I'd finished the glass. To avoid some of the crowd I ventured into the upstairs bar, where Sharp's were hiding away. Both the 6 Hop and Sharp's Special were incredibly, offensively bland and watery, and represented a genuine waste of time and money.

Totally disenchanted and still jostling for space, I decided to head for the Bierhaus, where I knew I would be able to find some of the festival fare.

Everything new from 8 Degrees piques my interest and the Full Irish was no exception. Nor is it exception to the rule that most of what they brew is delicious. It's fresh and intensely hopped, shoving plenty of pine needle and orange and lemon zest into your face, while the sweet malt base remains very much in the background. Loads of grapefruit to the fore and marmalade in the back, this is a true Irish-American that leaves astringent fruit notes on the sides of your mouth for yonks. 

Next up was Unite, a collaboration brew for International Women's Day that's been brewed the world over; a brilliant idea, whereby each individual brewery puts its own stamp on the 4% pale ale recipe. This was brewed at Metalman by Gráinne (Metalman), Adrienne (Beoir Chorca Dhuibhne) and Sarah (N17), alongside other brewsters on the day (as far as I can tell). It's all bright, bitter Cascade with an assertive biscuity, grainy base and a good fist of bubblegum sweetness. Good stuff, though it probably suffered from following the Full Irish, with its palate-ravaging power.

I couldn't pass up the chance to try Helvick Gold from the keg, and I wasn't much disappointed. Sure, it's not as bold as the Unite or Full Irish, but I was delighted to find the same light, bright citrus highlights and woody undertones as in the bottled version.

Fortified with hops from the Full Irish, as well as optimism from the other two, it was time to head back to the festival proper. Once I'd returned, I followed some sage advice from Bierhaus resident beer geek Ronan to try the Independent Pale Ale, my first from the Connemara outfit. It is class. Potent hopping delivers plenty of bitter citrus fruit rind on a meaty enough body. Sweetness is there for balance and doesn't much figure in the grand scheme of things. Look out for this in bottles. 

Following this was another pale ale and another new brewery for me, more specifically, UCC's Specific Pale Ale. This was not unpleasant at all, but quite weird. Green apple-flavoured Hubba Bubba was the keynote speaker, with everything else a rabble of sweet fruitiness that does well not to cloy. 

It's been a while since anything that Trouble Brewing have made has impressed me as much as their delicious Dark Arts, but they seem to be knocking out winners at the moment; by all accounts their menu of an IPA, saison, brown ale, rye red ale and wheat beer (alongside regular Deception) was top notch. Unfortunately, I only got to try the Lazy Sunday Saison, but boy was it delicious. Tart lemon curd, dry cereal grain and loads of fruity goodness. The lingering grain and yeastiness is accessibly farmyardy. This is incredibly refreshing stuff, and it compares favourably with the also-delicious Clementine and Rosemary Saison from the Franciscan Well.

The final beer of the evening was Cotton Ball's Indian Summer, a beer pieced together from their lager malts, ale yeast and American hops. Strange and beautiful, with its bright fruity and herbal highlights fighting back a toffee and biscuit malt backbone, it remains cool and refreshing, while never threatening to blow one's mind. 

All in all, the festival was as ever a huge success, with my Beer Of Fest™ a toss-up between the Full Irish and Lazy Sunday. Track both of these down, it will be worth it.

#117: Copper & Gold

The Dungarvan Brewing Company is well established nowadays, and have just re-branded their products this winter. Everybody interested in Irish craft beer will likely know the stuff inside out, so why don't I? I drink their Black Rock Stout regularly enough and sampled their winter seasonal recently, but my only venture into the rest of their regular range was a disastrous cask offering of Helvick Gold that I refused to accept as being the norm for that beer. To celebrate the trendy new art-deco labels (and to pair them with the similarly styled Metalman glass), it's time to give Helvick a chance to redeem itself.

Before we come to that, though, we have Copper Coast. This red ale is indeed copper, and like many reds I've had in the past, it offers an aroma of rather boring balance. Woody, nutty and slightly bitter, it could be anything. Things don't change much on the taste, although it does develop some nicer toffee, caramel and fruit notes as it warms up, but by then it's watery body and lack of depth in the malt or hop profiles will have worn your attention span fairly thin. 

Not one I'd come back to.

Helvick Gold is once again aptly named, because aside from being gold in colour, it immediately seems to be worth much more than the copper. Citrus and tropical fruit hops announce the aroma, with underlying hints of bubblegum cropping up here and there. Your tongue picks up on this thread, with the pleasant juicy fruit flavours unfolding to reveal a quiet malt character, before a quick kick of bitterness finishes things off, leaving a lasting nutty aftertaste. 

I'm immediately thinking of the Metalman Pale Ale, and I reckon this is one of the best bottled pale ales in Ireland. I'll be returning to this one, hopefully on tap too.

#82: Dublin - Round 1

The Irish Craft Beer Festival took place last weekend in Dublin, and I sadly couldn't make it. However, I had planned to go to the capital in the days after anyway, so I tried my best to get some nice beers in to nurse the disappointment. Here they are. Oh, and you can read a nice account of the actual festival here.

Staying near Temple Bar, we decided to keep it local. We only had two days and a lot of time and walking was to be spent on non-beer related tourism. Luckily, with a hotel on Dame Street we were right in the middle of two great craft beer pubs, each a 3-minute walk from our lodgings.

On the Temple Bar side is the Porterhouse, the place I was most determined to see of the many good craft beer joints in Dublin. The have all their own on tap, with one on cask (on this occasion Hop Head), and around three or four guest taps. One of those was housing Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and for me there was only one choice to make.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

This Sierra Nevada Pale Ale pours clear amber with a tiny white head and slow carbonation. The nose doesn't surprise, but it delivers lovely fruity hops, the piney bitterness you'd expect from Sierra Nevada and a slight hint of caramel malt underneath. The taste is nothing short of excellent. It's got loads of citrus, grapefruit and bubblegum, as does the bottled version, but with a surprisingly more pronounced woody malt character. The beer signs off with a nutty finish.

To compare it more to the bottled version, I'd say it's got a bit more balance, but that doesn't take anything from the hops in this beer - you still get the gorgeous sunny refreshment from the fruit and floral notes. Lovely stuff, and one I'm coming to appreciate more and more as my standard Pale Ale. I wish I could get this on tap regularly.

The next day, we had just over an hour to spare before we made our way to the train station, so it was back to the Porterhouse to say goodbye. Really, I love pretty much everything about this place, what I would give to have one in Cork!

Galway Hooker

My first was a pint of Galway Hooker, something I should have tried a long time ago. Hooker pours a nice bronze colour, with a small film of a head. The aroma is amazing. Bubblegum and candy sweetness scream from this one, with hops lending the appropriate fruit high notes and big slabs of toffee underneath. Really, gorgeous stuff. The taste took me by surprise, with loads of chopped hazelnuts and peanuts interspersed with malty toffee, grapefruit and bitter apple.

It's a delicious beer, and more malt driven than I'd expected, with a lovely aftertaste that lingers for ages. Another good choice.

My last in the Porterhouse was a treat I decided to award myself. I usually never buy bottles in a bar because of the huge mark-up, but seeing as I was having trouble finding this one in my local off-licences, I decided to take the plunge.

Salvator

Paulaner Salvator is supposedly the original Doppelbock, a style I've fallen in love with. Keep your hop bombs, I'll take an atomic malt assault any day. Salvator pours a dark copper colour with a very small head. I'm not sure how people are 'supposed' to serve doppelbocks, and each to their own and all that, but I definitely prefer mine off the shelf, if you will. This was right from the fridge, and the aroma was fairly subdued. I did pick up the massive sweetness, offered by brown sugar and dark oily malts. The taste follows suit, with loads of brown sugar, golden syrup, marzipan, toffee and a hint of alcohol to finish. This is my kind of beer, but not in my kind of way. These are flavours that need to be enjoyed at room temperature (or just below), and the ice cold serving only adds to the harshness of the drink that in the end, I couldn't finish.

The higher alcohol content didn't seem to be the problem here, rather it was the way the stuff sat on my already iffy stomach, and the way you can almost feel scratchy grains of sugar siding down your throat. It's all just perceived, I know, but really the best word to describe the beer is harsh. I still loved the taste, so I expect to someday try this again on my own terms, and not immediately after a pint, which may have compounded the problem.

In between those two visits to the Porterhouse, we managed to do a couple in the Bull and Castle, also extremely close to the hotel, but in the other direction. I love the look of the place, and it offers a very nice craft beer selection, so I was happy as soon as I took my seat.

Helvick Gold

 They had Dungarvan's Helvick Gold on cask, so I went for the half pint. What a disappointment. I know I make such a fuss about cold serving temperatures, and now I feel like Goldilocks, but really this was just too warm. It pours golden-copper hue, and offers very little on the aroma. The taste is woody, grainy and malty, and with a horrible and potent soapy finish, where it gets it's bitterness. Lemon might be hidden in there too, but really, it's the chemical taste that dominates the whole mess. Warm, flat and tasting like washing-up liquid, a massive disappointment.

They have lots of good stuff on offer in the Bull and Castle, including four Irish taps for €4 a pint. Metalman Pale Ale and Galway Hooker were among them, but I opted instead for something I knew I wouldn't be able to get back home.

Buckley's Golden Ale

Buckley's Golden Ale is contract brewed by the Carlow Brewing Company for the F.X Buckley bar/restaurant collection. It pours a pale golden into the lovely Bull and Castle glass. The aroma doesn't give off too much, with sweet lager-like malts enticing the drinker. The taste is where things start to go downhill. It's tangy. Really tangy like the terribly off Paulaner Hefeweissbier I once had in the Crane Lane. Maybe the tap here was having the same problems, and I hope so, because otherwise this is just a very bad beer. It's lightly hopped and once again imitates a lager with a nice grainy finish, but nothing can cover up the tangy bite that all but ruins the beer. It's quite gassy too, and I ended up leaving half the pint behind.

It's a shame my only two drinks in the Bull and Castle were duds, as the selection was fantastic and the setting perfect. I can't help but feel I just go t a bit unlucky.

Nevertheless, there's plenty to encourage me to return to both of these bars, as well as to explore more of Dublin's craft beer credentials. Perhaps when I have more time.