...also seen in the Ale Street News!

ALE STREET NEWS

knows about beer!

...There are new tasty beers, too. I greatly enjoyed the firm-bodied, textured, lightly smoky D'Arcy's Stout, from the Dublin Brewing Co., whose products recently had a showing in New York. Much as I dislike the term "suds," I must record that this brewery, established last December, is in a former soap factory. It is in the Smithfield area of town, once known for whisky distilling.

D'Arcy's Stout takes its name from a product made by Dublin's Anchor brewery, once owned by the patriot Daniel O'Connell. The revivalist micro also has a lighter counterpart to an Irish Red Ale, a dryish, citric, cedary, bronze brew called Beckett's. I tasted both in the stone-floored guest bar at the brewery, and again in the Palace Bar, an old literary tavern on Fleet Street...

They're new, they're young and they had the brass to set up their David of a brewery straight across Dublin's River Liffey from the Guiness Goliath. Since the brewery opened six months ago, the micro has garnered plenty of newspaper clippings welcoming the new David to Ireland's brewery ranks, most of which are foreign-controlled.

On July 10, Dublin Brewing Co. managing director Kieran Finnerty and head brewer Liam McKenna were in New York to throw around pints of Beckett's Beer and D'Arcy Stout at the Swift Hibernian Lounge. It was a homecoming of sorts. You see, the Dublin brewery was actually conceived at the Swift-Hibernian.

Two years ago Finnerty decided to move from Manhattan, where he dabbled in music industry publishing, back to his native Dublin. What kind of business, his entrepreneurial mind mulled, could he launch? His American experience had taught him about microbreweries and he well knew that in his native land "drinking is the main form of entertainment." Bingo!

One of Dublin's partners is Manhattan-based D.J. Edgerton of Underline graphics - another reason for the July party. His company is responsible for all of Dublin's logos, labels and design.. Another (bigger) partner is a college friend of Finnerty's who is a swiss-based accountant.

With financing in place Finnerty found space in an old soap factory in industrial Smithfield, former home of Ireland's famous whiskey distilleries. He installed a 30-barrel brewhouse then ran an ad in American Brewer: "Brewer wanted with imagination and flair to move to Ireland." Of about a dozen responses, McKenna had the right stuff, including a Gaelic enough background. An Ontario resident since age 4, Mckenna's ancestors had moved from Ireland to Scotland in the days of famine. His brewing experience came by way of Connors Brewery in Toronto.

McKenna said he is currently brewing "once or twice a week" as Dublin builds its clientele. When the beer goes on sale here later this year, it'll be in half-liter bottles. New York will no doubt provide plenty of drinkers who will appreciate a taste of home and an alternative to mass-Produced by beer.

The brewery's two beers are session beers, designed for quaffing as was amply evidenced at the Swift-Hibernian. Beckett's, named after Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, is an amber beer with a beautifully soft malt plate and adequate hop aromatics. The D'Arcy's is a dry but creamy, full-flavored, but suprisingly drinkable stout.