THE PORTERHOUSE BREWING COMPANY PRESENTS FOR YOUR DELECTATION...
October
Good evening.
The nights are drawing in. As I dictate this months note from my Rumpoles stool. I think back on September.
The ninth month was all about us. We got shiny new badges on our taps and a shiny new tap. Well it’s an ‘Andpump’ really. A pump one pumps by hand. We have had the Red ale, An brain blasta and Hop Head on it. One can catch the nimble beer elves clambering about on the bar brandishing mallets and the like setting up the gravity cask too.. A fresh pint , Fresh ! from a fresh barrel, frothing fresh and spilling down your fingers …
We kick off our Oktoberfest during the second week in October just in time for the Ireland Vs Germany World cup qualifier. Frikadellen and Eisbien, of course there is also the sausage plate. German soakage, to soak up the Good German beer.
Our magic beer elves have brought in several different styles of beer including Bock, Keller, Landbier, Kolsh, Smoked and Pils. An explanation of these can be found on the Porterhouse Facebook page Via a link to the German beer institute.
On draught we have Fest, heffe, pils and dunkle. We also have a seasonal beer for your edification, a black lager using a special yeast from the Weihenstaphaner brewing academy at 5%. The PHD ( Porterhouse dunkle) Mmmmm !
All this ends on the 25 Oct which brings us to the Halloween weekend.
Wo sonst wurden sie gehen?
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER
Howdy folks.
Blog time again. Last months effort , written in invisible ink, well, not one of my better ideas.
So to re-cap on August. Well it rained some. Well it rained a lot. In fact , not to bore ye all with numbers but 64.4 mm of rain fell on our head here in the city. 164.5 fell in June, Still, it’s always nice and warm in the pub.
We had the Olympic games. A full pub watched Katie Taylor win Gold, hell of a moment that, and congrats too to our other medallists for the ridin and the fighting.
The month ended with an invasion. Notre dame Vs Navy got their season of to a pretty good start, playing their season opener in the Aviva stadium, The town was flooded with Americans. And a bunch of good eggs all. They filled the pub from Thursday night till Sunday night. A better natured bunch of folk I don’t recall. The occasional ( cringeworthy) “ U S A … U S A … “ chant aside, a great bunch.
I hope they come back again.
Anyway, September. Ahhh September. Back to school for the young’uns. Luggin that huge bag of books in the rain and the wind, doubled over, wet , cold. Ahhhh September.
Course now, September is also when the Oktoberfest kicks off in Germany.
After the Belgian fruitiness of August. Oh, my, the lovely lambics!! We are waiting in anticipation of our own Oktoberfest brew. Last years Hersbrucker Oktoberfest at 6.5% was the single tastiest beer EVER!, but my god, after the third or fourth pint …This years batch is in the tanks, and he magic beer elves are hard at work making it. I for one cant wait. Mmmmmm !
Between the sport and the Beer and the good food … Oh…. I nearly forgot.
Saturday September the 15 is a night to put in your calender. The mighty Deloreann are performing a show for us. It promises to be astoundingly Eighties. Sweatbands, aviators and denim shirts abound.
Sure where else would you be going?
July, boys and girls. Aaah, July. What a month june was. The boys in green sang there way through 269 minutes of lame football. Who woulda thunk Sean St. Ledger, Irelands top goal scorer? The green army charmed Poland, and the world, and finally, other nations get “ The craic”. It took twenty thousand Irishmen and women to explain it in sunny Poznan, but the point was well made.
Although the football is over for a short while till August, there is still the G.A.A championship, the Wimbledon thing and the Olympic games too.
Eyes shift from east to west this month as we highlight American craft beers.
From Colorado we have The left handed and Odell’s breweries. The left handed are new to us and we have two of there beers; their Sawtooth ale, their first effort and their most popular, and the 400lb monkey, an English style bitter with an American style 7%. Ex Colorado, now Maryland, the flying dog brewery make many wonderful beers all wrapped up in beautifully adorned bottles.
The east coast is represented this month by the Victory brewery, the magic hat and Brooklyn. Victory’s Hop devil has been in for ages and is now joined by their Golden monkey, a golden Belgian style ale. Then its out west to the great state of California. The Anchor Brewery, Anderson valley and the Sierra Nevada breweries all show well this month, with the sierra boys supplying us with barrels. The pale, Bigfoot, summerfest and southern harvest reserve all on draught this month. Mmmmmmm!!
Must not forget the cask in rumpoles. June saw” The Williams brothers” brewery from Scotland up. Some delicious beer that was. I await, breath bated and lips a quiver for whatever the beer elves bring next. Rumours of “Fullers” have been floated about. We shall see.
Well that’s the beer sorted, what else?
Well the Band line up this month has many highlights but the one that has me excited is Mick Heslin. Playing his guitar on Wednesday 11th.
Sure where else would you be going.
Excirah and delirah boys and girls.
The summer has arrived, at last. So our beer elves have brought us in plenty of light beers to try for the month of June. Blond ales and Wheatbeers from close to home and further afield. The Irish contingent are the Franciscan wells “Friar weiss” and “Blarney blond”. The Carlow brewing company are sending in “O Hara’s Irish wheat” and the Dungarven brewing company will have their “Helvic blond” in a cask, and if it is as good as the last time, it’ll not last long at all.
Not since that immortal day I first saw snooker on a colour telly has ANY telly gripped me like the last day of the Premiership and the Champions league final. There were grown(and not so grown) men in tears. Both joy and despair, heartache and elation. Both games had the pub enthralled. With a T.V now in the top bar too, and with the Euros coming ? The Porterhouse temple bar has become a real good venue to watch Irelands matches in Poland. Bodhrans and inflatable bananas and Ole Ole Ole !!!
Of course the entertainment doesn’t stop after that. Our regular house bands will of course be lashing out the tunes.
10,000 hours, with Brian, Tommy and Andy(waterline)Mann every Monday.
Tuesdays we have; Pat Farell, Colm Lynch and Coup de grace.
Wednesdays in June; Steve hogan’s band, The goods and Rolly and Roman.
Thursday it’s Woodsy, sometimes with Paul Fairclough, sometimes not. Always awesome.
Fridays have The usual suspects AND Sliothar.
Saturdays in June promise to be fantastic. The welcome return of “Sweet corn riot”. “The hitmen trio” get a Saturday night on the 9th. “ Fitzafrenic” do Saturday 23rd. With Ditch Cassidy judging us all on the 16th and 30th.
Sunday is all about the Mighty Sliothar. With “ The goods doing the bank holiday Sunday till one.
All in all folk, where else would you be? Drinking with the sheep?
May already boys and girls, yes it is. Where does the time go eh?
Some new faces to look at in the Porterhouse and one noticeably missing. Good luck to Keith Blackmore, starting a new life at his age won’t be easy, but his wife and kids will look after him.
Plenty of new beers have turned up too. A blanche from our friends at the Lefevre brewery in Brussels, a few different weiss beers from Schnieder, including the limited edition Tap X. 7.5% Weiss bock in a 750ml bottle. Mmmmm! The man that brewed this beer was in last week. He has never tasted the bottled beer, your opportunity is still available. The Hilden ale is in the Cask at the minute, a superb pint from Irelands Oldest independent brewery. Clean and crisp with a wonderful bitterness. One of the best of the guest cask beers we have had in a long time.
The April stoutfest went well, The Shandon was the best for me, from The Franciscan Well brewery in Cork, with a tip of the hat to The Carlow brewing company for the O’Haras stout. Alas the 8degrees stout never made it in; I was looking forward to that one.
May is all about the I.P.As, Irish pale ales that is, not Indian. If the aforementioned Hilden is anything to go by, May’s line-up should be good.
For the Indian pale ale lovers, well, at the floral end of the scale, the White hawk I.P.A. is good, and at the drier end of the scale the Jagged edge is also super stuff.
Warm evenings + cool crisp beer = Heaven.
May’s music line-up is fantastic, as always. Plenty of familiar faces, but some new faces too. Each Saturday this month sees a new band filling our stage.
Don’t forget, May 29th, Champions league final; the atmosphere in the pub for both semi-finals was electric, bring on the final.
Hello folks, how ya’ll doin?
April is upon us boys and girls and the weather is getting better. Cloudy, sunny with chances of rain. Just as it should be. Tis an odd month is April, Paddies day is gone and the hangover has slid away into the background.
The champions league is tearing to its climax and this years Premiership run In is shaping up to be another cracker; Dan’s Nottingham forest, languishing in the championships basement. Man United fans are a hoppin with glee, others are not so gleetastic. With Villa under performing, Blackburn and Liverpool below par, the banter is flying.
The G.A.A is starting up too.
Rumpoles, Pint, paper, deadly.
We are highlighting stouts from some of the smaller craft brewers about the country, from Cork to Carlow this month so why not come in and sample other people’s stouts.
O’Hara’s stout, Trouble Brewing’s Dark Arts porter, Shandon stout, from the Franciscan well in Cork
We still have our usual three, but for this month, also we gots the Chocolate back. The chocolate truffle stout is Five percent of chocotastic stout ale. A wonderful pint.
Of course, with the Plain in such good nick … well.
Next month, being May of course, the sun will be a shining on us as the summer rolls in, so we’re gonna move off the stouts and Highlight I.P.A’s. The Hop Head will be back and other hoptastic beverages will be online to satiate even the most ardent hopaholic. MMmmmmmmm !!
As always, the bottle selection will be changing towards the end of the month, some eagerly anticipated. Schneider X, a once off, limited edition brew from the Schneider brewery, will be making a brief appearance.
Of course, the music is awesome this month too.
Our Monday night band are terrific, half acoustic and half plugged in rock’s roll. Tuesdays are all acoustic, with Colm Lynch (one time winner of the best sideburns in music), and Coup de Grace taking turns on alternative weeks. It ramps up then on Wednesdays with The Hitmen Trio, more acoustic brilliance, and The Goods, making Wednesdays swing again.
Thursday has a unique flavour, with The Bunko Brothers doin their thing and the mighty Woodsy also doing his thing. Friday sees the best cover band in town, Hell the best LIVE band in town, The Usual Suspects, blowin away cobwebs, for your perfect start to the weekend. Saturday sees the welcome return of Ditch Cassidy, also The Mix Tape and the Lo riders. Deadly !!
Saturday afternoon has Sliotar doin a few hours, warming up before their all day Sunday set.
All in all, where else would you be going?