South Dublin Brewers Tasting Event at The Dark Horse, Blackrock

 

Thanks to everyone who attended Wednesday’s tasting event hosted by The Dark Horse on behalf of the South Dublin Brewers. Special thanks to those who travelled from further afield to show their support. With a whopping 14 beers to be tasted, we had our work cut out. There was a wide range of styles on show, from Shiny’s refreshing blonde ale to Rossa’s smooth American stout.

Plenty of medal winners present too – Tube’s excellent Bramling Cross hopped Imperial IPA and Paddy Bubbles’ Imperial Amber hopped with Cascade and Summit. Two big, hoppy beers at opposite ends of the malt spectrum. AndrewL attended with no less than 3 medal winners (!) including a saison flavoured with black pepper and a robust porter aged on fresh raspberries. My favourite beer of the evening by far though, was Andrew’s wonderful black IPA. Just the merest suggestion of roasted malts and a huge blast of citrussy hops. You could definitely pick up the tropical notes of Citra in both aroma and flavour.

Shanna was good enough to bring along the Sierra Nevada kit clone he made as part of the Capital Brewer’s first brew day back in December. This beer understandably scored highly in the competition and consisted of a Coopers Australian Pale Ale kit, hacked with Cascade hops and some steeped crystal malt. If someone tells you that good beer can’t be made from a kit, point them towards Shanna’s recipe.

Next up was Damo’s excellent coconut stout, “dry-hopped” with a bag of toasted coconut. Fantastic stuff, the coconut playing nicely with the chocolate and coffee tones in the stout. Someone described it as being like a “liquid Bounty”. Surely not a bad thing!?

There were another few great session ales in the lineup like Irish_goat’s American amber, Padraic’s APA, Paddy Bubbles’ Mild, Damo’s Irish Red and an extract-based Boddington’s clone from Shanna, hopped with Fuggles and EKG. Special mention to JohnC for bringing along a rather provocative smoked wheat beer. This unusual 1.4% ABV ale certainly divided opinion and provided for some big discussion on the night. There was a huge “bacon” nose on this slightly tart and light-bodied wheat beer. It was pronounced by several people as being great for a barbecue.

Several diligent souls were making use of the flavour wheels and BJCP scoresheets on hand, giving the assembled brewers some great face-to-face feedback on their beers. Massive props to Cara, Padraic and Rossa for this.

Of course, the chat wasn’t all about the beers being tasted. Some of the topics up for discussion included boilers, BrewDog’s Dead Pony Club, CAMRA, the Galway Bay Belgian competition, stainless steel taps, the legal implications of refurbishing brewery kegs and how Dempsey is going to kick everyone’s arse in next year’s competition with his “Nut Brown Ale”. We shall meet on the day, sir! 😉

Thanks again to everyone for attending and to Paddy & Carl in the Dark Horse for their support. Stay tuned to the South Dublin Brewers forum for details of future events.

– Paddy Bubbles