The Pintmen of Dublin

July 22nd - Brewing Beer at Brú

We got into Dublin late but had to start our day early on Saturday. We booked a beer brewing experience through Airbnb and had to travel north of Dublin to the town of Navan. We got a quick coffee and scone and headed to the bus station. Dublin has a transit pass system similar to London, named the Leap Card, but does not have a nice subway system like London does. Luckily there was a bus that took us right to Navan. We hopped on and an hour later we were outside the pub, Brú House Navan.

There were about twelve of us in total there to brew beer. Most had received the experience as a Father's Day gift; we were the only ones who booked it through Airbnb (and the only Americans). Our host, Kev, was an awesome guy who is very experienced in brewing and brews lots of interesting beers for Brú. We went through all the steps on a pilot sized brew line. I've been home brewing for a while and am all too familiar with the process but getting hands on on a larger system was really cool. We mashed in by adding milled barley to hot water and stirred it into a porridge. The grain has to mash for an hour so we took the time to taste some beer made by Brú. once the mash was done we began to sparge and transfer the wort to the boil kettle while we ate lunch and tasted some more beers. It took some time to get up to boil but we were finally ready to add hops. The wort boiled for an hour with three hop additions while we tasted some more beers. Finally, once the boil was done, we sent the wort through a heat exchanger to cool it down and sent it to the fermentor.

       

            Kev, our host, stirring the mash

Adding hops to the boil

       

We had such a great time brewing and drinking with everyone that we ended up staying long after most people went home. We missed the bus we were intending to take which just let us hang out with our new Irish friends longer and enjoy one last pint.

July 23rd - Dublin Castle

We got a slow start to Sunday morning, a day of drinking with the locals will do that to you, but eventually we were up and got breakfast at probably our favorite cafe of the whole trip, the Cloud Cafe. We liked it so much we visited every day while we were in Dublin. After our amazing breakfast we wanted to head into the city to see some of the sites. We attempted to wait for a bus only to miss one by not flagging it down (which you have to do or they won't stop) and we had to exit early on the next one because we had insufficient funds on our Leap Cards. Traveling to Navan the day before was a bit more pricey that we thought. We reloaded our cards and waited for the next bus...and waited...and waited...until we finally just decided to walk to the city center. Dublin - get it together with your busses. We eventually had better luck with the busses but with the understanding that they will never be on time.

After our bus fiasco we walked through the campus of Trinity College. Trinity was a surprisingly popular tourist spot for a university. From there we headed to Dublin Castle and took the self guided tour. The castle dates back to when Ireland was part of the United Kingdom and features many portraits of kings and queens but it also has modern uses such as hosting state dinners and St. Patrick's Hall where the president is inaugurated.

St. Patrick's Hall

Table setting for state dinners

After the castle we walked around and found our way to both Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Both were closed at the time for an afternoon mass so we unfortunately didn't get to see inside either. Outside St. Patrick's is a park where a local concert band was performing so we stopped and enjoyed the music for a bit. On our way back home we got on a bus we thought would take us a five minute walk to our Airbnb but ended up going off on a totally different route, continuing our public transit woes. We ended up walking about 20 minutes to get dinner before heading in for the night.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

July 24th - Guinness Storehouse

We woke up early on Monday to beat the crowds at the Guinness Storehouse. One of the most popular attractions in Dublin, the Guinness Storehouse goes over the brewing and history of Guinness. It's a very impressive building with a lot to see all leading up to the Gravity Bar on the top floor where you can enjoy the view of Dublin with a pint of the black stuff. We opted to pour our own pints and the satisfaction of seeing your pint fall into place makes it taste that much better.

                  

 

"A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"

The Storehouse was nearby to Ireland's oldest pub, The Brazen Head, so we headed there for some lunch. We stopped by the old Jamison distillery for a cocktail after lunch and walked around the city for a bit. We walked down some popular pedestrian streets and across the Ha'Penny Bridge and eventually found our way to St. Stephen's Green. After a long day of walking we headed home to catch up on the latest Game of Thrones episode. The GoT theme continued at dinner, at another Brú pub nearby, because whoever was making the playlist was throwing in the show's soundtrack in between pop songs. It did set the mood: drinking pints of ale by candlelight while plotting to take the Iron Throne.

July 25 - Howth

While we couldn't get to the western coast of Ireland, we still wanted to see some cliffs that the country is famous for. Luckily, there is a little town called Howth just a little north of Dublin that has some amazing views of the Irish Sea so we decided to spend the day up there. We took the bus (successfully this time) to Howth and walked along the pier that was near the bus stop. After the pier we ventured up the hill and along the cliff trail which leads around the penninsula high on the cliff. It's a little scary walking along the narrow path that high up but the views of the cliffs and the sea were amazing.

After our hike we had lunch a the Summit Inn and headed back to where we got off the bus. Once back in Dublin we relaxed a but before getting dinner at a pub recommended to us by Kev from Brú call The Whitworth. We probably ate at more pubs in Ireland than any other city but it was hard to get tired of the food, beer, and atmosphere that a good pub has.

Our last day was mostly spent traveling but we made sure to visit the Cloud Cafe one last time before leaving. Ireland was a lot of fun and we met some amazing and friendly people. What Dublin lacks in reliable public transit they make up for in hospitality. Now we are off the Amsterdam, our last major stop before heading back to the U.S. It's crazy to think of how fast our trip has gone while at the same time how long ago it feels we were in London and Spain. Amsterdam is also our longest time in one place, a whole week in one city!