THANKS to the newest local brewery on the scene here, you can now follow that line from the Van Morrison song and "stop off at Ardglass for a couple of jars...". However, Van the Man’s jar was filled with mussels then, and accompanied by some "potted herrings, in case we get famished before dinner".
The spoken-word track Coney Island is perhaps better known for its final line "Wouldn’t it be great if it was like this all the time?" It describes a car journey Van and his mates take down the east coast of Co Down, taking pictures and birdwatching along the way.
For years, thanks to this tune, I thought that Lecale was pronounced La-call, but that was just Van’s broad Belfast take on it. The locals call it Le-kale or Le-kal and one such local is Michael Howland who only started brewing beer in the Lecale Brewery in Ardglass in September.
In that time, he has managed to brew three different styles and get them into off-licences. The beers have names associated with the area – Legbiter Irish Ale, White Knight Lager and Three Saints Stout.
Michael very kindly sent a couple of bottles of the stout my way, which were the perfect antidote to the recent cold weather. Three Saints refers to the fact that the graves of the saints Patrick, Brigid and Columcille all lie in nearby Downpatrick.
The stout pours a lovely jet black colour and has tan head. There are lots of lovely roasty aromas with a hint of dark chocolate in there too.
On the palate, and you get all those roasty flavours, with the dark chocolate, a hint of coffee and I got a little bit of licorice lingering there too. It has a nice level of hop bitterness that you don’t always get with a stout and definitely benefits from being only very slightly chilled.
It’s a straight up and down solid Irish stout and might help wash down those mussels and potted herrings that Van gleefully stopped off for in Ardglass. Indeed, wouldn’t it be great if it was like this all the time?
