Or… Part Four: Porterhouse Days, Porterhouse Nights
We left Paul and Marie’s late on a soggy Sunday morning (actually, we left twice – some idiot forgot to pick up his mobile phone charger so ten miles out we had to turn around and go back) and headed South. With a break for a cup of tea in Newcastle (that’s Newcastle, County Down, obviously) and an ice-cream (despite the rain, because we were at the seaside, dammit, so ice-cream had to be done) we made good time down the A25 via Rathfriland and Newry to the A1, which then became the M1 (or the E1 across the border) and got us into Dublin in the late afternoon.
We’d picked our guest house for the next couple of nights for its proximity to two locations: the National Botanic Gardens (which we visited on the Tuesday morning before setting off for the return ferry – photos will be appearing on my other blog at some point if that’s your sort of thing) and Porterhouse North.
Jo and I are both big fans of the various Porterhouse beers, having sampled a range of them a couple of times at their Covent Garden bar. So we were determined to sample as many of them as possible while we were in Dublin – why travel all this way and settle for less? – and it didn’t take us long (about an hour or so) to settle in, sort ourselves out, gather our appetites and then head around the corner to see what delights they had in store for us.
Porterhouse North turned out to be a large, single-room bar split into a few seating areas on different levels. It’s got a great atmosphere and while we were there on the Sunday they played some pretty great music as well (Bob Dylan, The Kinks, The Beatles, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, assorted 60s and Motown hits on the stereo and then a live set from a chap called Colm Lynch, who played a mix of recent covers and 70s rock tracks. Good guitar work, good voice… the lad’s definitely got talent.) and, of course, they served us some great beer.
The Porterhouse Brewery produces nine regular beers – three stouts or porters, three ales and three lagers – as well as occasional specials (speaking of: I noticed on the rolling video screens that they’ve got a new beer coming out – Vienna Dark Lager will apparently be available from December 10th). Jo started with a Plain Porter – a 4.3% ABV rich, smooth session porter with a distinct chocolate and coffee flavour and a dry biscuity malt finish – whilst I plunged right on in with a Wrasslers XXXX Stout, which is 5.0 ABV and blessed with some wonderfully robust flavours; plenty of coffee and a distinct liquorice note on the finish, very dry indeed, with a long, long bitter finish. They were both delicious and the perfect accompaniment to the what turned out to be the best roast beef dinner either of us had eaten in a long while.
I stayed on the Wrasslers for a couple more, interspersed with a couple of pints of Oyster Stout – a little lighter at 4.8%, and with an even richer and smoother mouth-feel than the Plain Porter, more chocolate and less coffee than the Wrasslers and with a distinct dollop of double cream on the tastebuds. Gorgeous. Needless to say, Jo and I had a cracking night and rolled out of the place having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, with plans already made to eat there again the next night.
On the Monday we took the bus into Dublin and did cultural stuff. Jo wanted to see the Book of Kells, so we joined the throng of fellow tourists, made our way around the exhibition and then craned our necks to catch a glimpse inside the glass display cases containing the precious manuscripts. I was genuinely impressed with how incredibly intricate the penmanship was, especially considering the tools with which and conditions in which the scribes who created the volumes would have been working. Well worth a visit, but again: get there early. We walked straight in round about 11 a.m. but by the time we left at 12.30 or so the queue was at least a hundred people long, with more coach trips arriving all the time.
Next on the agenda: lunch. I’d actually done my research, reading through The Beer Prole’s Dublin Travelogue (based on recommendations from Irish beer champion The Beer Nut) and I’d made notes and printed out locations for a couple of likely-looking places. Then, of course, I left the notes in the folder in the car and couldn’t for the life of me remember what any of the recommended pubs were called when we were in town. So, instead, we asked directions from a friendly security guard at Dublin Town Hall and he pointed us in the direction of Porterhouse Temple Bar.
This branch is much larger than North, spread over at least three floors and much closer in size to Porterhouse Covent Garden, with a very similar aesthetic: lots of wood, brass and huge glass cases along the walls full of of vintage beer bottles. Once again: great atmosphere (even though it was quiet on a Monday lunchtime), great beer (they have a much more extensive beer list than North) and great food as well.
Having done the stouts the night before, I decided to try one of their ales. I opted for Hophead, which on draught is a 4.7% dark amber-red cask ale (I think I’m right in saying their only regular cask offering It’s not their only cask offering, they also do TSB in cask, see The Beer Nut’s comment, below) with a frothy, bubbly head. It was a bit on the cold side, to start with, but that didn’t stop the flavour flooding through: a big whack of berry-fruit hops up front, with a dry-sharp finish. I could clearly taste Seville orange marmalade, with a touch of toffee or dark honey on the side. Very good indeed although given the almost US IPA-like bitterness, maybe one of those beers you’d only want to have the one of at a time, unless of course, you really are a proper hop-head (the clue’s in the name, after all). And while I drank I ate my way through a crock of fresh mussels cooked in vermouth cream sauce with thick-cut chips: fantastic.
We spent the afternoon trying to get into the National Museum (we couldn’t: it’s closed to the public on a Monday, which we probably should have checked up on in advance) and settled instead for the National Gallery, which was… okay, but not as impressive as I’d hoped. On the way back to the bus we stopped off at a rather excellent organic / veggie café whose name unfortunately escapes me, but they had a gluten-free chocolate cake which turned out to be awesome, so if I remember what the place was called, I’ll add the name in at another time.
After our sight-seeing day in the City Centre we headed back to base for a cuppa and a sit-down before nipping back around the corner to Porterhouse North for another session. The place still had a great atmosphere even on a quieter Monday evening, although someone else had clearly gotten to the MP3 player first: the music was a mix of 80s, 90s hits with a bit of indie rock thrown in for good measure. We ordered food: meltingly tender spare ribs with a ginger and scallion marmalade glaze as a starter and then for me: pork loin stuffed with black pudding on baby potatoes and buttered cabbage (which, dammit, I thought I’d had at Balloo House on the Saturday… darn my dodgy memory, I’ll have to get Jo to correct me) and settled in for a gentle session (what with a return trip to Manchester in the offing the next day and all).
With the aforementioned gastronomic delight I enjoyed a pint of Porterhouse Red, a 4.4% session keg ale; dark copper-coloured with a thick white head and plenty of malt sweetness – lots of toffee and brown sugar up front – but then with a pleasantly dry, bitter finish that kicks in a couple of seconds after swallowing and then hangs around well into the next mouthful. Very quaffable indeed. After that I thought I’d better try one of Porterhouse’s three lagers while I was there, if only to get an idea of what they’re doing in that direction, so I opted for the Hersbrucker Pilsner (Chiller and Temple Brau being the other two). I just had a half, but I was glad I made the effort. It was a very good lager indeed, with a very solid malt base and a big dry-hoppy finish crisp, sharp & refreshing without the dreaded lager gassiness.
And then to finish I had a half of the An Brain Blasta (or just ‘Brainblasta’), Porterhouse’s strong ale, which I’ve had a couple of times since I first tried the bottled version back in November last year. A cracking beer, this one; dark chestnut in colour, with big strong, sweet, treacle flavours followed by a bitter-grapefruit hop finish that became more and more strident towards the end of the half. Despite the same ABV, the draught version somehow seemed a fair bit more potent than the bottled version I enjoyed a few months ago. Powerful stuff – a more intense version of the Hophead, perhaps? – and a great way to finish off a fantastic few days in the Emerald Isle.
Oh, except for the takeaway bottles we brought home with us, of course. Three Plain Porter for Jo, a Wrasslers XXX and a Celebration Stout (Porterhouse’s bottle-only Imperial) and, at the insistence of the barman in North, a Hophead as well, which he assured me was “excellent in the bottle”.*
So, there you go: Ireland. Great country (this wasn’t our first visit and definitely won’t be our last) and although the vast majority of pubs and bars are dominated by Guinness and the usual lager-suspects, there’s still some very good beer indeed to be found, if you know where to go looking for it. Up North, if we’d been a bit closer to Belfast, we might have found a few more beers from Hilden or Whitewater and I know from reading The Beer Nut‘s regular news updates and tasting notes that there are other good breweries to be found, if you’re either lucky or in the know. I’m already looking forward to the next time we can head on over there and start searching.
Previously on Travelogue Ireland, July 2011: Day One: North Wales, Day Two: Drogheda and Days Three and Four: Good Times With Good Friends.
Photo Credits: All images in this post shamelessly nicked from The Porterhouse website…
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