The Dwan Brewhouse
DWAN'S is the most stylish of the brew pubs, a lean, lovely lab of modernist design just down from the Square in Thurles. Bill Dwan's family has been involved in the mineral-water and beer-bottling business since 1921, when Dwan's grandfather, W.J. Dwan, set up a business eventually sold in the 1980s.
Davy Jones is the brewer, and his recent brewing background has encompassed Bruce's Brewery in London as well as, in recent years, Scandinavia - in both Oslo and Ostersund. From his small brewhouse, visible from the bar, he makes five brews, with recipes created by Brendan Dobbin and Bill Dwan. Dwan's An Dubhain is a strong stout, using black malt and roasted barley, and it releases its flavours very slowly and smoothly, making for a stout of great length. The second stout, Black Pearl, is lighter, but has strong notes of coffee and excellent balance between sourness and sweetness and, again, it is an exceptionally full flavour.
There is a pair of lagers - Silver Frost, a thirst-quencher which uses the cascade hop to give freshness, and Cool Amber, a pilsener style lager using the German lager hop Hallertau Perle. It is fermented dry, and thus is very foodfriendly - I would like to try some calves' liver with this. These two are also available in bottles.
But, the cream of the crop has to be Rich Ruby Country Ale, which won the gold medal in the ale category at the Stockholm festival. This is styled like a English ale, and I found it wonderfully hoppy, with notes of toffee in an ale which is full bodied but not at all cloying. Davy Jones doesn't pasteurise any of the Dwan's brews: "There is no need, and anyway pasteurisation robs flavour. Beer must be fresh, and we have such good control here that we like to brew little and often."
Dwan Brewhouse, Thurles, Co Tipperary, tel 0504 26007
Emerald Brewery
This is the newest of the craft breweries, and the only craft brewer in Connaught. Karl Behan is the Emerald brewer, and his career has included helping launch the No 1 Brew at the Irish Brewing Company in Newbridge, Co Kildare: most recently he has worked in Cerveceria San Angel, in Mexico City where, along with lager, he made red ale and stout. He also devised theme beers, such as chilli beer, citrus beer and fruit beers for Valentine's Day.
The repertoire of Emerald beers will include Emerald Gold, a pilsener-style lager, a stout - Connaught - and a red ale - Rua. All will be available in bottle form and later in kegs, and all will be unpasteurised.
Emerald Brewery, Racecourse Road, Roscommon, Co Roscommon, tel 0903 25737
Franciscan Well Brewery, Cork
This Leeside-pub (and it is almost literally Leeside, being set just in an entrance on the beautiful North Mall, the last strip of Leeside quayside to the west of the city) opened just before Christmas, and is still being completed. It's a stylish, minimalist bar, with gleaming, copper holding-kegs immediately behind the bar. Five brews have been created by Russell Garrett, an American who has previously worked in the Chelsea Brewing Company in Manhattan.
Interestingly, his American background and training have led him to make a wheatbeer which is American in style, rather than German, and I found the Franciscan Wheatbeer to have terrific pungency and freshness, a truly distinctive brew.
Of the four other brews, Rebel County Lager uses German and Czech hops and - despite announcing itself as an American-style brew - was much more interesting than the other light beers being made by the other craft brewers, and it has a fine crispness and rich maltiness about it. The Blarney Blond is made in the North German Kolsch style, too sweet for my tastes, with a considerable assortment of fruit flavours, but again very well made, and original.
The Round Tower Red is an excellent red ale which uses crystal malt, while the Shandon Stout is very much a Cork stout: creamy, light, but with a toasty bite at the end.
Franciscan Well Brew Pub, 13b North Mall, Cork, tel 021 393434
Hilden Brewery
SEAMUS Scullion established the Hilden Brewing Company back in 1981, which makes it the first of the craft brewers. "Brendan Dobbin was the first brewer and this was his first job," Scullion says of the man who has since assisted many of the newer craft brewers - including the aforementioned Dwan Brewhouse - to set up. Hilden arrived at a time when there were other brew-pubs just beginning in Ireland - Dempsey's, Harty's in Blessington, the Herald in Coleraine, the Maidenbank and the Down Royal - but it is the only surviving member of that troupe. "We couldn't compete head-on with the big brewers, so we decided to offer distinctiveness," says Scullion. "Plus, it's a family business, so we aren't dependent on external investment." Today, Scullion brews three beers: Hilden Ale, a dry pale ale at 4 ABV (alcohol by volume), the Great Northern Porter at 4.2, and a red beer, Molly Malone, at 4.6. All are draft beers, sold in the Hilden Brewing company's premises just outside Lisburn, and they are available in some local pubs, while about half of the production is exported to the UK. They are fine brews, and Roger Protz praises the Great Northern Porter as a "deep-tasting and highly complex beer with a bitter coffee and hops aroma . . . and a long, dry and hoppy finish".
Hilden Brewery, Hilden, Lisburn, Co Antrim, tel 0801 846 663 863
The Irish Brewing Company
Paul Tynan began this Kildare-based company two years ago, and John Horan is the head brewer. Today they are best known for the excellent No 1 Brew, a fine, unpasteurised pilsener-type beer, which is one of the few bottled micro-brews available all over the country (thanks to the fact that Marie Cooney's Tipperary Water company now owns part of the Irish Brewing Company, and consequently they can use Tipperary's distribution).
The brewing is done in a unit on an industrial estate outside Newbridge. Horan uses Irish malt and Liberty hops from the Yucama Valley in the US, "an aroma variety, more than bittering, and they create the signature. Also, the Newbridge water is good, it's very soft, it's extra soft."
The beer is fermented for seven days, and lagered for a full month. "We don't do rapid ageing, and the long process gives smoothness and delicacy.
"The big brewers brew for the accountants and the marketing department," Horan claims. "What we try to achieve is balance - sweetness balanced with bitterness. It's all about balance."
The Irish Brewing Company, Newbridge, Co Kildare, tel 045 435540
Messrs Maguire
Messrs Maguire is the newest kid on the block, a smartly designed pub with a brew house set just yards from Dublin's O'Connell Bridge. Christopher Reid is the brewer, producing two excellent stouts - Plain and Extra - both of which are abidingly impressive and expressive of good brewing. The Extra is a double stout with a faint, chocolate tang and a sweet finish, and the Plain is brusquer, more bitter and slightly more refreshing.
There is also an American-type light lager - Yankee - and a classic pilsener, Haus, with fluent, floral notes. Rusty, Messrs Maguire's red ale, is just as well made as the stouts, and all told this is an impressive quintet of brewing, the various styles unified by brewing expertise. There are plans to feature the beers in the cooking of the upstairs restaurant.
Messrs Maguire, 1-2 Burgh Quay, Dublin 2. Tel 01 6705777
The Porterhouse
Kieran Hughes and Liam La Hart's Porterhouse is the most significant pub to have opened in Ireland in decades.
Their decision to include a brewhouse in their Temple Bar development when they opened in 1996 has been perhaps the major catalyst in terms of opening people's eyes - not to mention mouths - to the possibilities and pleasures of craft brewing.
In a city that served you one style of stout from various brewers, here suddenly was a revolutionary drink - Oyster Stout - which blew everything else out of the water when it arrived.
"Oysters without all the work - just serve it with brown bread," were my notes when I took part in that very lovely experience which is the Porterhouse tasting tray. Here is a beer with a slightly fishy afternote, with a slightly saline bite and with a vaguely smoky note as well.
Peter Mosley, the head brewer, makes eight brews in all. Chiller, the American-style light beer, is a good, refreshing drink, while the pilsener, Temple Brau, is clean, and very well defined with a hint of sourness. Their second pilsener, Hersbrucker, is nutty and aromatic and I found vanilla icecream notes here: this would be a great beer with food.
The Plain Porter starts off rather bland compared to stouts made by other craft brewers, but then surprises you with a long, roasty aftertaste.
Wrasslers 4X Stout is made to a recipe which Deasy's of Cork used in the early 1900s, and this is an impressive drink - full-flavoured, though I thought the body of the stout could be a little more complete.
The Porterhouse Red is a fine ale with lots of complex, lingering notes of caramel, slightly more complex than the other brews and very expert, while the legendary An Brainblasta, which weighs in at a merciless 7 per cent ABV is simply too strong in alcohol for my tastes and lacks balance, though it is extremely well made.
The Porterhouse, Parliament Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, tel 01 6798847; also at Strand Road, Bray, Co Wicklow, tel 01 2860668