The trials of public transport in pursuit of good beer.

Last night, I had a Yelp event to go to. It was held in Against the Grain, one of my favourite drinking establishments so I had to go. Emily, the new yelp community manager was hosting the event to say hello and greet whoever wanted to show up. Drinks were on her so it was a pretty good night. A number of yelpers discovered the delights of Irish Craft Beer as well as the likes of Left Hand's milk stout.
An American woman from Northern California fell in love with Galway Hooker. I told her it will be similar to Sierra Nevada PA.

The public transport scenario, always fun when going to Against the Grain proved interesting.

First off, the train in to the city centre was packed like a Tokyo subway. Everyone was off to the match at Lansdowne road. I got off at Pearse and jumped on a Dublin bike to the top of Stephens Green. ATG is just a short walk away. I did pretty well I thought.

Getting back proved much more difficult and probably not helped by a few beers, though only 4 or 5 which for someone my size is not a lot.
First problem was the Dublin bike station being empty as was the next one. I was going to then walk to O'Connell street until I decided to detour to Dawson street and see if I can get a bus there. I could get the 39a but that bypasses Blanchardstown village itself and heads directly to the shopping centre so I decided to get the train and perhaps stop off at brewdock while I was waiting. So I got a bike at the next station and headed across the river only to find the Talbot street station full so I could not park the bike. Plans ruined I cycled to O'Connell street to get the bus, only to see I had a 38 minute wait. I debated walking back towards Brewdock and getting the train but then decided to try my luck on the quays and get the 39 which is a shorter ride.
Well the story ends with me on the bus home and realising it's not going in to Blanchardstown village. I had jumped on the 39a by mistake so I had a 20 minute walk from the shopping centre back home. Doh!

Still, it's a much better scenario than the time the Citylink left me stranded in Dublin and unable to get home to Westmeath where I lived at the time.

Anyway one of the beers I picked on Emily's/yelp's dime was the new Sabotage IPA from the wonderful folks at Trouble Brewing.
There are mixed thoughts on this beer but the consensus I was getting is that "needs more hops" was the phrase of the day for this beer. It feels like it hasn't finished fermenting. The finishing gravity must have been higher than expected and it overpowers whatever hops are in there. If sabotage was classed as a strong English ale (5.5%) then it would be better, but from the description of the beer, I should have been assaulted with hops and had a bitter finish. Instead, it's a bit of a caramel bomb. A nice beer in its own right, just not what was expected. Still, I expect they will fix the problem in the next batch and I can give it a proper review.
I also had Wallonia from Thornbridge last night. It's a saison and a rather nice one too. Sorry, no tasting notes or pics of either beer, I wasn't in that sort of mode.