35,000ft. one last time...

Well tonight is my last night in Dublin, and it has been quite the incredible journey over these past four months. Some of my best memories come from here and I somehow narrowed it down to a top ten list. Top ten beers and top ten memories.

Beers:
10. Crean's Lager

I had this beer as a part of my taster in Killarney, and I absolutely loved it. This beer was exceptionally drinkable and had a much nicer body than most pale lagers. This beer along with Pilsner Urquell have given me a much better appreciation for lager beer and have showed me that they can be done right.

9. Galway Bay Black Forest

I had the opportunity to try a bunch of the Galway Bay beers, but this one stood above the rest. It had a great fruit character that complemented the chocolatey notes without becoming overpowering or too dominant at all. I highly recommend it if you can get your hands on it.

8. Foxes Rock IPA

This beer from Northern Ireland was my favorite hoppy beer. It had an awesome aroma, but had a nice firm bitterness to it with the kind of body I appreciate in an IPA. Although this is more similar to a pale ale in terms of strength, it is still one of my favorites and is a great example of how I like my hops.

7. Muhlen Kolsch

The authentic Kolsch experience in Germany was an incredible experience and shortly you'll hear about it again as it cracks my top ten memories. This beer is the epitome of drinkability and and one I will cherish for a long time. Although if you want the authentic experience you'll have to head to Cologne to truly understand how special it is.

6. Einstök Ölgerð

This is the beer Becky brought me back as a souvenir from Iceland, and this toasted coffee porter did not disappoint. It was incredible, super drinkable, yet still had all the dark flavors I love. It was also cool to have a beer all the way from Iceland!

5. DOT Brew Session Rye Ale

I am personally a huge fan of rye beers, and this one is a great example of why. It showcases all the interesting flavors the grain has to offer, and really puts a lot into a small package. This beer tastes way bigger than it is, which I find to be one of the hardest things for a brewer to do.

4. Southwark Potter's Field Porter

Of the cask beers I tried, this one was by far the best. While probably too intense for most, this beer again packed an insane amount of flavor into a roughly 4% ABV package. This was the best beer I had in London and really showed me how awesome cask ale can be.

3.Whiplash Farami Stout

If you didn't realize it from the review, I absolutely loved this beer. Its coffee character was incredible and showcased what real coffee tastes like, not the burnt tasting, old stale diner coffee taste most attribute as a coffee flavor in beer. Whiplash is my favorite Irish brewery and this beer is a huge part of the reason why.

2. Orval

This Trappist ale was phenomenal. Its aroma and flavors were both so complex, yet still so drinkable. I got to try a few different Belgian beers, and while I loved most of them, this was something special indeed. Belgium itself was an incredible experience, especially for a beer nerd like myself who loves Belgian styles more than any other.

1. Westmalle Dubbel

No much can be said about this beer other than that it is truly remarkable. Everything about it blew my mind, and of all the beers I have tried over these past four months, making this one number 1 was an easy decision. To me it is perfect, and I hope that some day I will get to have it again, but enough about beer, here is a list of my top ten memories of this wild adventure. I'm just going to list them, but if you want to hear more about them in depth, feel free to leave a comment.

Memories:
10. Kiraly Baths
9. Bruges Canal Ride
8. Dingle Peninsula
7. Pislner Urquell Tour
6. Craft Beer Tour for my birthday from Becky
5. Koln Bierhaus
4. Lake Lucerne
3. St. Paul's Cathedral from the top
2. Villa d'Este
1. Private tour of the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel

Well that just about wraps it up. I hope you all get an opportunity to travel abroad and see all that Europe has to offer. While they use too many coins and language barriers were tough at times, I can truly say I've had the time of my life living here and traveling for the past 4 months.
Slainte!

Home-Black Donkey Beyond

This RyePA pours a deep orange, coppery color with a strong lasting off-white head. It has a nice hoppy floral aroma with spicy rye, a mild fruitiness, and sweet breadiness also coming through well on the nose. The flavor starts out with a graininess that develops into a rye spice flavor mixed with some nondescript hoppy flavor. The mouthfeel is nice with a medium-full, slick body, and starts with a voluminous head that is hard to crack. It is well balanced with almost no perceivable bitterness with a medium-dry finish. Overall, this is a balanced drinkable beer without too many aggressive flavors. This would go well with food, but if you are looking for a beer to blow your mind, I'm sure there are more flavorful beers, but this one is still very nice.

Well the semester is almost at its end, and I have my last exam tomorrow. It has been an amazing ride and I will always remember my time at UCD. Even though that chapter is ending I do still have a little bit more time abroad. Luckily, I will be able to go to Italy next week with Becky and have a couple more days in Dublin before flying home. I should have a couple more posts for you all, and at the end I will be sure to post a finale, ranking all my beers from last to first and detailing my favorite stories and adventures from this incredible 4 journey.

the Gasworks-Galway Bay Black Forest

This cherry porter pours an opaque brownish black with a firm 1 finger brown head. The aroma is of coffee and dark chocolate. There is also a hint of cherry in the aroma, not a tart cherry, but rather a thick syrupy cherry covered in a rich chocolate. The flavor follows similarly, but has a lot more depth. The cherry character also comes through much more aggressively and dominates much of the flavor. That flavor lends a bit of sweetness with maybe just a hint of tartness to back up some of the chocolatey roasted malt character. Lastly, as the glass progresses there is a distinct wine-like oakiness or woodiness. It is very similar to the woody character you might find in some deeper red wines. Overall this beer was tasty and definitely does fruit right. It adds flavor without becoming overpowering or undrinkable and really adds something to this porter.

ONeills-O Brother Brewing the Chancer

My parents made their way out to Dublin this past weekend and we decided to go out for a nice Irish dinner at ONeills Pub. What makes this place unique is that it has a cafeteria style line serving carved meats, stews, and many other traditional Irish foods. This gives the place a bit more of a casual atmosphere and it was very busy this Friday night. The place also boasts a great beer list with a number of good taps.

This American-style Pale Ale poured a straw color with a thin white head, which held up fairly well. The aroma is nice and fruity, tropical, with hints of pine and a bit of dankness too to round out the fruity hop aromas. The flavor is similar too, starting with a creamy mouthfeel and a burst of fruitiness similar to peaches or other stone fruits. Then there is a bit of pine, which stays fairly clean, followed by another round of tropical fruitiness mixed with a biscuity and grainy flavor. The beer is not overly bitter and has a nice roundness to it before finishing slightly dry.

Home-Whiplash High Cotton

Well I couldn't resist getting another Whiplash beer and this time it was their Grapefruit Belgian Single, High Cotton. It pours a hazy dark straw color with a thin receding white head. The aroma is an intense grapefruit bomb, especially the juice with a subtle grassiness and a strong Belgian yeast spice component as well. The beer has a lively carbonation on the tongue and starts out with a slightly grainy crackery taste. This is quickly followed by a tart and bitter grapefruit punch. Further in the flavor their is also that Belgian yeast flavor. It finishes fairly dry, but does have somewhat of a lasting grapefruit bitterness that sticks in the mouth. The addition of grapefruit to a Belgian was interesting and made it a little more bitter than most Belgian beers, but overall it was still well crafted and tasty.

the Gasworks-Thornbridge Wild Raven

Well, back at the Gasworks, but with an impressive tap selection like theirs, it's hard not to. This time I decided to go with one of the guest taps and this Black IPA from England didn't disappoint.

It pours a deep brown almost black color with garnet edges and a 1.5 finger tan head. The aroma is licorice and lots of berries with a hint of grapefruity citrus and a little bit of spice. The flavor comes across quite differently than the aroma. It has a piney resiny hop flavor with just a hint of dark malts, but not roasty at all. This was a delicious Black IPA. What makes it so good is that it was dark and had some darker flavors, but lacked any roast astringency that when mixed with the high amounts of hops can become very overwhelming. This beer avoids all that, maintaining drinkability and lots of delicious hop flavor.

Home-Bru Rua

This Irish Red Ale pours a crystal clear orange-reddish color with a half finger off-white head. It has a surprisingly complex aroma for the style of raisins, biscuit, caramel, and even a hint of spicyness. The flavor starts with a caramely sweetness bordering more on the burnt sugar side, followed with a nice malty and toasty character. The beer ends with a slightly grainy, slightly bready medium finish. This was a really enjoyable red ale, which was much more complex than a lot of the other offerings here on the Emerald Isle. Another tasty beer from Bru, very drinkable and would pair very well with lots of foods.