#266: Easterfest 2015

It seems like aeons ago now, but this year's Easterfest was another good'un. This despite the notable absence of an Eight Degrees stand, though there were plenty of worthy breweries to take their place, and a few first-timers to the festival too.

Seaweed Saison

I started with one of the regulars though, who had brought one of the most irregular beers of the festival. Dungarvan Brewing and Nøgne Ø teamed up on Seaweed Saison, with the Nøgne Ø head brewer Kjetil Jikiun travelling to Dungarvan for the brewday. The beer is (obviously) a saison with added Dillisk seaweed, and it was served here on cask. It comes a cloudy yellow with a nice slice of foam and immediately announces itself as nice. It's smooth, full and fluffy in texture with a sort of light waxy bitterness throughout, an odd salty tang in the middle and a round, softly sweet lemon curd thing to finish. It's excellent, really, and the first few pulls are beautiful, fresh and invigorating. However, it just isn't that drinkable; I was glad I'd settled for the half pint of this, it's just not the sort of thing you could take too much of. That said, as an example of creative and delicious brewing, I do advise you pick up a bottle, just don't expect to be downing it in one.

Equinox

Between this and my next purchase I was handed a half glass of Black Lightning, the latest from 9 White Deer. Stag Bán doesn't do much for me, and I was pleasantly surprised by the relative richness of Stag Rua, a beer in a style that has a lot of explaining to do, so I was intrigued to hear the Ballyvourney outfit had opted for a 6.5% black IPA on this one. Just as well too, because it's the best beer they've brewed to date by far. A decent whack of bittersweet citrus fruit plays off a light roasty backbone - this is BIPA by the numbers - with a touch of pith here and juicy, orangey stuff there, all remaining very drinkable despite the strength. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this and more like it from 9 White Deer.

Next up was Metalman's Equinox, the latest in their shape-shifting Chameleon series. It's a wheat lager of 4.6% and does exactly as you'd expect; it's a lean, clean, belch-inducing, summer quenching lemon machine. Lemon and orange are added to this, alongside coriander, but for me there's only evidence of the former, and it does a good job of scrubbing the tongue and refreshing the palate before I move on to bigger, bolder things.

Fixer

Not quite yet though, as I opted then to try the third 'funny ingredient' beer of my visit, Bo Bristle's Wild Irish Ale. Hold your horses though; this ain't no spontaneously fermented farmhouse ale, rather it's a simple 4% pale ale brewed with the addition of elderberry, hawthornberry, ginger and rowanberry. It's a better palate than mine that can find each of those ingredients expressed in the mouth, but it does offer up plenty of husky, herbal and vaguely floral effect if that's your thing. It wasn't for me.

O Brother were one of the festival newcomers and I opted for their Fixer, billed an American Red. I certainly wasn't expecting a punch of burnt, bitter coffee and scorched malt, and was further surprised with the follow of red berries and citrus peel. Decent, but nothing special. I missed O Brother's Bonita, a 7.1% black IPA, which is a shame, as it appeared to be one of the beers of the festival. Oh well.

Before I moved on to the big guns of the festival, I decided to try some palate cleansers; Killarney Brewing Company were newcomers to the festival too, and brought with them some nice branding and Devil's Helles and... something else. I'm a sucker for Helles lager so that was my pick. It's a hazy one, all vegetable crunchiness with a cool, herbal hop character. It's close, but no cigar for me; there's none of that cool-fermented cleanliness that I prefer in the style. I'll be keeping an eye on these guys though, their leaflet had a good smattering of styles that I'll be looking forward to trying.

Seasoned festival-goers White Gypsy were also pouring a Helles, and this seemed to be even further away from the goal than the Killarney version. It's yellowy-orange and hefty in the mouth. So far so good. A flash of citrus surprises me, before things really unravel with a bit of weird cheesy off-ness at the finish. Not good. 

Model T

Much better was their Scarlet, a sour of 5.2%. It's an amber-brown affair that gives plenty of sherbety sour raspberry but with a good roundness too. An unsophisticated sort of sour, perhaps, but it makes for a decent refresher.

The final leg of my festival began with a long-awaited glass of Black's Model T. It's only 6.5%, but has more flavour than it has any right to. Hazelnut chocolate greets the nose, while the palate gets a wash of full, milky, smooth chocolate - texture is a big player here, and it wins. Creamy vanilla and chewy toffee just about make the cut. Excellent stuff, and one of my highlights of the festival.

UCC's pilot brewery had pUCCa, a 5.5% pale ale that promised a good fist of citrus and apple on the nose, but performed less than perfectly on the palate, with tropical fruit juice and candied pineapple and mango lost under way too much sweetness. A touch of bubblegum finishes it off.

Thankfully, the students also brought Innocence, a 9.5% quadrupel that, going by the pUCCa, could have been a disaster. Thankfully, it wasn't. There's nothing innocent about the shit loads of dark fruity chocolate to the fore, being a far-from-perfect-quad but still quite enjoyable. It's sweet to finish, and while decent enough, it never approaches the shadow of the Belgian masters. Bonus points to UCC for also bringing pretzels, the essential beer festival snack.

Stonewell Tawny

The final purchase of the festival was, as is becoming a tradition, a cider. Stonewell blew my mind with their casked medium-dry a couple of years ago, and this year they were pouring Tawny, a 15% cider from the keg. Shit. It is exactly the kind of thing you'd expect; thick, slick, tart cider with vinous, boozy overtones and an everlasting buttery toffee finish. I can still vividly remember the taste, and my taste buds tremble. It's bold and puckering and absolutely not taking the piss, a proper finisher...

...that is, until I passed the Bierhaus on the way back. I knew they were pouring one of curiosities of the festival, Trouble Brewing's Hop Priority, an 11.1%-er they've decided to call a triple IPA. Well then.

It's got heaps of tropical and citrus stuff, namely grapefruit and mango, and whets the appetite for some searing bitterness. This doesn't really come, but it does scorch the tongue a bit. Underneath it all there's a solid sweetness that goes through phases of caramel, toffee and alcohol heat. I'd be willing to try this again, but on the day it was a bit harsh. Not terribly bad, not great. 

TL:DR I drank beer.

#136: Dublin - Round 2

I was planning on posting during the past week but I just didn't have the time. Thankfully, my time was all filled up with drinking and eating in Dublin.

Chocolate Truffle Stout

First stop in the capital is The Porterhouse Temple Bar, especially considering it's stone's throw distance from the hotel. It's always quiet early in day and it's a great place to sit for a couple of hours, especially if you're trying their seasonal Chocolate Truffle Stout. This nitro stout pours thick and black with a tell-tale creamy head. The nose promises plenty of roasty goodness laced to death with cocoa powder, and on an empty stomach, I start to feel like it could be a bit much. However, it's quite the opposite. It's very light, and the chocolatey character doesn't really take off like you'd expect. More interesting are the vanilla and hazelnut notes in the finish, and it's certainly a beer worth trying. For the all-out chocolate stout experience though, it still has to be Brooklyn for me. 

Vienna Lager

The beer on offer was their Winter seasonal Vienna Dark Lager, so I went for a pint. Slightly roasted malts and a generic sweet lager graininess roll off the aroma, with just a hint of a sharp hop bite. Things are better rounded in the tasting of the beer, with grassy hops and even a touch of smoke highlighting a lovely, lightly sweet malt backbone. This is actually quite delicious, I went back for seconds later in the trip. 

On cask was Pure Gold, from Purity in Warwickshire. It's nice enough, if a bit boring. Grainy and inoffensive, with a woody, nutty finish that just about prevents you from falling asleep mid-sip. I'm all for the balanced session beer, but this just takes you a bit too close to blandness. 

Purity Pure Gold

A short stop in Porterhouse Central later in the trip yielded some Hop Head on cask, something I think everyone should try and get if they can. Having only tried the bottled version, I never fully appreciated the power of the hops as I did form the cask, while never feeling the beer was any bit unbalanced. 

Finding ourselves up Capel Street, we decided to see what The Black Sheep was all about. In the end, it was a bit of a mixed experience for me. The tap range is great, and my Voyager NZ was beautiful. It's loaded with tropical fruit on the nose, with a hint of the underlying candy-like sweetness betraying the balance to be tasted later on. Those strong, fruity hops take centre stage, but there's plenty of the chewy malt backbone to keep them under control. Lovely stuff, highly recommended. I wish the venue was as good, but I'm afraid I found the atmosphere - and welcome - a bit cold, like I wasn't supposed to be there, not to mention the very expensive drinks. I thought the Galway Bay beers at least would be reasonable, but I still paid €5.50 for a pint. As far as I can remember, nothing on the beer list went below that €5 mark. I'd intended on visiting twice, but it was hard to justify those prices and a 10-minute walk when the Porterhouse, Bull and Castle and Czech Inn were all on my doorstep (or at least, the hotel's). 

Speaking of The Czech Inn, we decided to pop in for a late evening drink while everywhere else in the Temple Bar area was packed to the rafters. Here, we found a pretty empty bar and a cosy seating arrangement for a quiet one. Mine was a pint of Zlatý Bažant, a fairly bog-standard lager from Slovakia that has a drinkability and light sweetness that had me quaffing faster than I'd planned. My beer may be average, but I do recommend The Czech Inn. The bar consists of the usual Irish pub suspects, the slightly less usual golden Czech suspects, along with the lovely Kozel Dark and, of all things, O'Hara's IPA. So, there's something for everyone, especially if you're avoiding the Temple Bar crowd. That's the only disadvantage the area has - Farrington's looked a lovely place, with Chimay Tripel and Gouden Carolus on tap (the only Belgian taps I'd seen for the entire trip), but nothing kills the mood like a guy with a mic and guitar singing 'I'll Tell Me Ma' to a packed pub. No doubt there was some dodgy Irish dancing at some stage.

The Bull and Castle isn't exactly quiet, but it's big, dark and sensible, so you can take your drink and be left to it. Seeing some interesting Irish taps I'd not had before, I went for a four-beer platter. The Franciscan Well Hopfenweisse was my first of the style, so I was puzzled by it's mix of typical hefe fare with strong waxy bitterness. Interesting, but not an instant hit. I'd heard much about Sabotage's shortcomings in the hop department, and I must say that I agree. It's very fruity and has a nice sticky malt backbone, but while the hops are there and tasty, there's just not quite enough to take it into memorable IPA territory. Once that get's sorted though, I think it'll be a very good beer indeed. I hadn't seen Rower's Red around before now, so I said I'd give it a go. Unfortunately, like so many other Irish reds before, it just fails to get me excited in any way, with it's toffee and nutty characteristics ranging from bland to, at times, plain unpleasant. Finally, Metalman's Equinox, an incarnation of their Chameleon range. It's got a nice, refreshing biscuity graininess to it, with highlights of citrus and even a champagne-like touch of fruit. Strangely enough, I found it rather bland at first, but after the second and third sips grew to love it. Of the four, it's the only that I would drink a pint of, and I now regret that I didn't. Hopefully it'll be around Cork for a little while.

L to R: Fran Well Hopfenweisse, Sabotage IPA, Rower's Red, Equinox