The Festival of Ullage

The annual autumn beer festival took place across the JD Wetherspoon chain earlier this month. The three central Dublin branches kept the special edition beers fairly turning over, serving between two and four of the 30 at a time, changing every couple of days. Given how little interest there is in the cask beers of Dublin Wetherspoons, and especially unfamiliar ones, I dread to think how much of the beer is disposed of before the cask is even a quarter empty.My shift began, as it often does, at The Silver Penny. Just the two festival specials were on at the beginning, which is unusual for this branch. First up, Coastal Coconut from Salem, the craft-ish Batemans sub-brand. The sleight of hand with this golden ale is that there's no coconut but there is Sorachi Ace and Sabro, hops famed for their coconut flavours. And, indeed, they deliver. The light and pale 4.2% ABV base gives free rein to the hops and the oily, creamy, aromatic coconut effect is the beer's entire deal. There's…