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Breakfast of champions
I understand Grand Cru Beers pulled off a bit of a coup, acquiring quite a lot of Founders's annual release of KBS ("Kentucky Breakfast Stout", though it doesn't say that on the label)for Ireland. At...
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The resurrection men
The Session turns 100-months-old today. I've only written posts for 95 of them so can't claim my merit badge. And I've only hosted once: Reuben is on his third. The theme he has chosen is very much of...
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Toøled up
Tobias from Danish gypsy brewing outfit To Øl was in Dublin recently, at an event organised by Four Corners and hosted in P. Mac's. He told us the To Øl story and introduced us to three of his beers....
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One tin saison
There's something quite intriguing about a traditional Belgian brewer like St Feuillien putting its Saison in a can, and dry hopping it to boot. But so it is, and four for a tenner in Redmond's too....
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Market rates
I mentioned The Beer Market in passing a few weeks ago. Dublin's first ticker-friendly beer-only pub has been open a while now, serving mostly pricey exotic imports from well-reputed breweries in the...
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A walk in the park
June Bank Holiday, as usual, brought the Bloom in the Park festival to Dublin. I hadn't been in several years but organisers Bord Bia very kindly sent me a couple of tickets so on the mostly-sunny...
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To the Kingdom
Ireland got a major new addition to its beer calendar this month with the first Killarney Beerfest, staged by the experienced events organisers of the Irish National Entertainment Centre at the...
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Birthday treats
My previous post covered the new (to me) beers available at the Killarney Beer Festival at the beginning of the month. But obviously any big international gathering of beer nerds like this is going to...
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Another look
It's three and half hours on the train from Dublin to Killarney. For the journey I brought some beers that had been sitting neglected in my fridge, to combine leisurely train-drinking with putting a...
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Next to godliness
This was intended to be a general round-up of some recently-released Irish beers, but as I've put the notes together I've noticed an unfortunate theme linking them. Folks, we need to talk about yeast...
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Double Scotch
Scotch ales (by which I mean nothing more than beers designated as such by their brewers) are rare in Ireland. I guess the standard Irish red already covers a lot of what Scotch ale is meant to do. It...
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All about the content
Everything but the beer is the preferred topic for The Session this month. Host Jack is asking us to look at the odds and ends that go with: beermats, bottle caps and the like. One brewery with a very...
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Northern brewers
You'll only find one entry on RateBeer for my home town of Armagh. Hardly surprising as whatever the opposite of a beer Mecca is, Armagh is one. There isn't even a brewery in the county, though quite...
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Brittany's beers: one more time
It has been a while since I've written about beer from north-western France but I'm prompted to do so again by this pair, kindly donated by Mark from his trip there last year.I quite enjoyed the...
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Trust exercise
On a number of occasions Richard has said that Lagunitas is one of the breweries he trusts enough to buy their beer without knowing anything about it in advance. And, in general, I trust Richard. Or...
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Bags of flavour
It's been a while since my last Belgian beer. Thankfully the Brown Paper Bag Project is there to scratch that particular itch with Aul Bruin Bagger, one they brewed at their usual Belgian outpost, ’t...
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Siren call
There are more Siren beers coming into Dublin than I can keep up with, a phenomenon which delights me. The importer is also the management of The Beer Market so that's where I've encountered most of...
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Shaking my confidence daily
Gluten-free beer seems to be where it's at these days. More and more brewers appear to be going after a slice of the intolerance dollar and, whereas once gluten-free beers were very much a compromise...
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Beers without borders
You have to admire the international outlook of Carlow Brewing. Following on from a Japanese-themed Sorachi Ace IPA earlier this summer, two new beers produced in collaboration with brewers from abroad...
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Firestone Walk With Me
I'm slightly surprised there wasn't more of a fuss made about the arrival of Firestone Walker beer in Ireland a couple of months ago. By all accounts it was quite a coup by Grand Cru beers to get them...
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