Bar manager Oisín Kelly has done some interesting, taking a divisive little pub habit and turning it into a cocktail: Barrelling By.
There are people who add blackcurrant to Guinness, and people who react as though you have proposed replacing the harp on the glass with a Minion. At The Sidecar, the cocktail bar inside Dublin’s Westbury hotel, Guinness and blackcurrant become a house-made sorbet, served in a coupe with Crémant, Móinéir Blackberry Wine and grated white chocolate.
This could have become a joke drink very easily. Guinness ice cream. Hotel bar. Photograph it before it melts. But Kelly and his team built a drink on sound cocktail logic, taking one idea from the Black Velvet and another from the Sgroppino.
The family tree
The Black Velvet is a beer cocktail made from a combination of stout and white sparkling wine. It’s been putting these unlikely bedfellows together since the nineteenth century. The appeal lies in contrast: dark roast against bright acidity, creamy stout beneath sharp bubbles.
The Sgroppino is a Venetian invention based on sorbetto al limone with Prosecco, sometimes with vodka added. It sits between cocktail, pudding and palate cleanser. Fizz loosens the sorbet as it melts, changing the drink’s texture.
Barrelling By takes the stout and sparkling wine structure of the Black Velvet, then freezes the stout element in the manner of a Sgroppino. Guinness and blackcurrant are not merely mixed but fused into a cold, slow-melting centre around which the rest of the drink moves.
The name belongs to Kelly’s wider Dublin Unfiltered menu, which pairs 18 drinks with archival photographs of the city. Barrelling By recalls the barges that once carried Guinness along the River Liffey, taking the drink from working Dublin to a coupe in a five-star hotel.
What happens when Guinness becomes sorbet?
The Sidecar’s sorbet begins with Guinness, blackcurrant cordial, glucose and vanilla extract. The stout is heated briefly before the remaining ingredients are added and dissolved. Once chilled, the mixture spends 30 minutes in an ice cream machine, then goes into the freezer to set. Heating helps drive off carbonation and may remove some alcohol, though how much depends on the temperature and duration.
Glucose isn’t just a sweetener. It controls the formation of large ice crystals, producing smoother sorbet. Blackcurrant cordial supplies acidity, sugar and the flavour of the original pub order, while vanilla connects dark fruit to the stout’s chocolate and malt.
Freezing suppresses aroma and our perception of sweetness, so the sorbet initially tastes darker and less sugary than it would at room temperature. As it warms, the texture softens, blackcurrant emerges and the drink grows richer.
Why every ingredient is there
This is where the Crémant earns its keep. Poured halfway up a large scoop, it restores some of the liveliness lost when the Guinness was heated.
The final 15ml of Móinéir Blackberry Wine is an 11% ABV, off-dry fruit wine made in County Wicklow from Irish blackberries. Ribena blackcurrant sweetness is eschewed in favour of the tartness and depth of actual berries.
Then comes grated white chocolate. It provides visual contrast, while its milky vanilla aroma softens the stout’s roast and helps bridge berry, malt and wine.
Barrelling By is difficult to file neatly. It has the brightness of an aperitif, the cold lift of a summer drink and enough sweetness to stray into dessert. That uncertainty is part of its appeal.
The Barrelling By cocktail
Barrelling By recipe
Ingredients
- One large scoop of Guinness and blackcurrant sorbet
- Crémant, to top
- 15ml Móinéir Blackberry Wine
- Freshly grated white chocolate
Method: Place the sorbet in a coupe. Pour in enough Crémant to reach halfway up the scoop. Float the blackberry wine over the top and finish with freshly grated white chocolate.
