WEST KERRY BREWERY, PORTER, DINGLE PENINSULA, IRELAND EU 3.99: EU Austerity Drinking Tour #39

Pints from the Franciscan Well Brewery warm our walk back to our homestay.

We stumble upon ruins of a distillery

Once great spirit flowed from here.

We also visit a militant penitentiary:

Impressive and hollow.

Soon evening shades the port of Cork, Ireland. Punks chase each other. Couples mouth each other in parks. Restaurants turn into clubs.

Then Bradleys stops our tracks:

Yes.

It looks like a Quikie-Mart. But we reach the back and find beer-topia. We find every beer since our journey began two months ago. Beers from New York, Connecticut, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Iceland, Scotland, North Ireland, and Ireland sell here.

Celtic gibberish.

I can’t choose. Then, a plain bottle emerges from the clown-car of colored labels.

WEST KERRY BREWERY’S PORTER:

Now we never made it to Kerry’s Dingle Peninsula. Really, France calls us (and we couldn’t afford a rental car in Ireland).

With a night left in Ireland, and Kerry’s Dingle a mere two hours west, our stay in Cork is close enough.

Poured into a wine glass, this porter looks a gorgeous deep garnet with super fine, slow fizz, and a cream colored halo of foam.

Aromas echo through the room with dark cocoa, espresso, sea salt, and mint. It is dry, with medium hits of acid, tannin, alcohol (only 5%), and body.

But then flavors reminiscent of red apple pie, black tea, and a lovely bitter, charred coffee trounce my mouth. The length lasts forever carrying this creamy, super fruity, apply beer and me to the harsh, wind-swept west coast of Ireland. West Kerry makes a very good (4 of 5 points) Porter.

Lovely garnet porter.

With that we pack our bags, pet Yuki one last time, and sleep. We fly to the continent, to France, to wine and five more months of our EU Austerity Drinking Adventure.