Social life in Dublin pubs

Well, it is high time to talk about Dublin’s dark side. Not everything is great in Dublin. For example, if you Google the number of licensed and registered pubs in Dublin, on many sites you’ll get the frightening answer: 666!

Well, if you are deep in numerology that definitely is the dark side. 🙂 If you are interested in going out, it can be “dark side” because of numerous places where you can spend your money. 🙂 Still, if you Google a little bit better, you will quickly find out that 666 is not a definite number as it does not include clubs, bars, restaurants… so there are many more places to have fun here.

Let’s stick to the pubs, shall we? 🙂

Pubs
Among 666 pubs in the city, and God knows how many there are on the Emerald island you should be able to find appropriate place for yourself. Pubs are not places where you just get out and drink. There are all different sort of pubs. Some pubs are heavily oriented as sport pubs, where you can watch live sports on big TV screens, other are more intimate places to sit and talk with friends, some are more quiet places where you can read a book and enjoy your pint of beer or whiskey. Or both. 🙂

Pubs can be small, but usually they are quite big. And when I say big, imagine a huge church turned into a pub. Can you? Well, If you can’t, here here… a picture of one extraordinary pub called simply – “The Church”. 🙂

OK, “The Church” is pub, bar, restaurant, discotheque “all in one” place, but I need it for the story. 🙂

Some other pubs, even though they resemble to the churches are very similar to our “konoba’s” where you can enjoy some delicious food.

Some pubs are so big and well known as small theaters, where you can watch different kind of shows, musicals or music concerts, while enjoying your pint.

But, they all have one thing in common, ordering drinks!

So let’s start, let’s order something to drink! 🙂

Ordering beer

According to my experience and material available on the Internet, there are some rules that you should know if you are visiting Dublin, and you did not experience proper Irish or British pub so far. One of the biggest differences is how beer is ordered. If you just sit and wait for a drink, like you would do in Croatia, you could grow gray hairs there. 🙂

Irish (and British) pubs are organized in a bit different way. You can get food in many pubs, and if you sit down that means you will order some food. If you sit and try to order drink you could be asked to go to the bar on your own. You could be served, but in most cases if you are in for a drink only, you should go to the bar, order your beer, pay it right there and then walk around, sit and drink. In case that you are alone or searching for a drinking partner, just stay on the bar. Within few minutes you will be chatting with a random person. Don’t get too enthusiastic that this is because you are special. 🙂 That’s pretty much standard here, and people in pubs like to talk.

Getting your pint
There is one important thing that you should know. Beers in Ireland are filled in pint glasses. (OK, you could ask for half-pint, but WHY?) Saying that, I want to inform you that “pint” is a full glass of beer. All the way to the top. So, in case that your pint of Guinness is on the bar, and it is not yet full, don’t grab it! Yeah, there were some “foreigners” grabbing the pint before it is served. First of all you might look silly, but even worse, you will loose a few sips. Most of the stouts are prepared in two steps, first more or less until 3/4 of the glass is full, then the beer needs to sit for a minute or two, and then you get your last quarter.

Besides that, it is good to know that there are many places with many different beers, most of them are above average, so if you get beer that is not good in Ireland most likely something is wrong with you. 🙂 In general, there are 4 main beer types.

– Lagers – those are once we call a beer at home. Well known Irish lager is Harp
– IPA – Irish Pale Ales (Indian Pale Ales) – my favorites, beers made from high quality and aromatic hops with fresh scent and taste. (Well known Irish IPA beer is O’Hara’s
– Ales – Less aromatic and a bit more bitter – Well known Irish ale is eg. Cream Ale – Kilkenny, or red ales such as Murphy’s & Smithwick’s
– Stouts (Porters) – Dark beers with rich taste of roasted barley, usually stronger and quite heavy. If you are used to lagers only, it can be either a fantastic change, or a big no no, as those beers are really different.
Well known Irish stouts are Guinness, Smithwick’s, Beamish, O’Hara’s, Murphy’s…

So when in Ireland, try all of them!

Craft Beers

As you could figure out some beers are named by their brewer, and you can find different beer types under the same name. So if you say “O’Hara’s”, make sure to say which kind of O’Hara’s beer you would like to taste.

Besides main and well known beer brewer, Dublin and Ireland have numerous small brewers which produce so called Craft beers. Well, to be quite honest, it seems that there is a very blurred line which defines what is a “big” brewer and what is a “small” one, as e.g. Well known big brewer’s “O’Hara’s” is considered as crafted beer. Still, among crafted beers you will find all different sort of beers. For example, one of the best known places with crafted beers is the “Porterhouse” pub, and in it you can taste Oyster Stout. Beer which had oysters dipped in it during the brewing.

Somehow, It tasted just as regular stout to me, most probably coz I just ended my oysters. 🙂

Besides the pubs that offer only crafted beers (and yes, you can’t get Guinness in those kind of pubs but in other 600+ you can 🙂 ) there are craft beers beer-fests, where you can taste all different kind of beers, enjoy some local food and even meet brewers.

Last week we were on such beer summit, and we tasted many different products. (Number well known by editor 🙂 ) Besides all others we had a chance to try Kentucky Bourbon barrel beer. It is a beer that is brewed in the barrels that were first used to produce finest Kentucky Bourbon. Those beers are a bit stronger (8% alc.) and have a strong bourbon taste. Besides tasting such a great beer, I had an opportunity to meet the person owning the brewery and distillery.

I was not able to find a name or a photo of there brewer, so it may be that some local funny guy made a fool out of me, but I doubt it. 🙂 The “old man” knew too much about brewing process, but what impressed me even more, he knew a lot about ex Yugoslavia and Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia today. Yeah, he mentioned that lot of eastern Europeans work in his distillery, and that this variety of people from around the globe is the biggest strength of his company. He also asked if I could write something on their Twitter or Facebook. Well, here I am, writing it on my blog! 🙂

And in case that you get the opportunity to try Kentucky Bourbon, try it as well as their beers! They are really great! 🙂

Beer prices range from 4.20€ to 5.50€, and lagers are usually around 3.80€. Still, all pints can be bought for 3.50€ in pubs that have special student night offers. (And it is not required to be student :P)

Food in pubs

In most of the pubs you can eat and in fact, you should eat! 🙂 As “spare ribs” are specialty in the Netherlands and in the US, chicken wings and seafood chowder are specialty here in Ireland, as well as oysters and mussels.

I still didn’t try mussels, but oysters were delicious! 🙂

Be advised that most frequent pubs in the Temple Bar are so packed during the weekends that waiting 30 minutes to an hour for the table is nothing unusual, so don’t come to a pub starving and then nervously waiting for the table. 🙂

While waiting for your table, enjoy the pint of great beer!

Till the next time… slainte! 🙂

Balky