'tis that time of year, when promises of spring hang in the air and we all start looking towards the pride of Ireland: The Dry Irish Stout. We've brewed a traditional Irish stout to a lower ABV, fermented it dry, and then did something we've been clamoring to do for a while - hit it with nitrogen. Shake your can well and pour hard, you'll get a beautiful foam head, a famed reverse cascade, and the experience of a pillowy soft, delicious stout made for unpredictable late winter & early spring weather.
What You’ll Love About It
It's an accessible stout! While it gives the aura of heft, it's actually a light and bright sip, built on to a blanket of nitro that makes it like drinking a cushion. If cushions were drinkable.
How It's Made
Unlike our usual base malts of two row or pilsner, we went with a British malt known as Golden Promise here, backed with roasted barley, malted oats, and a touch of midnight wheat. We introduced a new British yeast strain to the brewery for this one, one harvested from Rick's favourite brewery found along the River Thames.
Why Is It Called Dublin Bay?
Let's call it an homage - the body of water closest to where the world's most famous dry Irish stout was first made, and is still made today. We all love Arthur's brainchild here at SITW, and we wanted to pay it some credit with a beer of our own.
How to Enjoy It
Enjoying a can of Dublin Bay is unique, thanks to the nitrogen: First, gently shake the can to rouse the nitrogen from its rest at the top of the can back into the beer. After 5-10 seconds you can open it up, then pour aggressively into the glass. We recommend pointing it straight down. Once it reaches the top you'll notice the reverse cascade as the beer settles to its pitch black self. Enjoy at 6-7 °C in your best pint glass.
Did You Know?
We needed to create an entirely new process at the brewery - including our first time playing with actual canisters of nitrogen - to launch this first beer canned on nitro instead of CO2. While nitrogen costs more than CO2, and our canning day required a unique tool known as a doser, we felt the juice was worth the squeeze. Hope you do too.