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Some corner of a foreign pub
According to Mark last weekend there are still a few beers from the latest JD Wetherspoon International Real Ale Festival knocking around, even though the two-week gig ended on 1st November. So it's...
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Downsizing to trade up
Saisons; single-hopped beers; 750ml bottles: all things that give me pause when I'm out shopping for beer. I've no direct issue with any of those factors, but each one has a certain risk attached which...
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Explorations
I'm looking at some German beers today, ones that are a little, but not too much, outside of the normal run of things for brewers there.Störtebeker Atlantik-Ale offers no explanation as regards a...
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Hard graft
It's quite a few months since Rye River announced they were making two new beers especially for Dunnes. "Easy," I thought, "I'll just swing by Dunnes and pick some up." And I did the first bit, several...
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Brussels brewing
In Brussels for the Autumn 2015 EBCU meeting, I didn't mean to visit every operating brewery in the city. It just kinda turned out that way. I trod a path similar to the one Steve did here during the...
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A few days in beertown
I left you last time in Moeder Lambic Fontainas, Brussels's ticker heaven. The other beer I had there before moving on to the cask Cantillon lambic, was L'Amer des Moeders, brewed for the house by...
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Two nights at The Headline
Dublin's premier destination for beer Irish beer launches™, 57 The Headline, staged special nights for two breweries on consecutive Thursdays recently. Both involved beers I'd never had before so of...
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Toon haul
In Newcastle over the summer I was keeping a special eye out for Mordue Brewery's Workie Ticket. Back when beer blogging was new, this dark ale was cooed over and given awards by those in the know...
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Christmas for home brewers
The Session's co-founder Jay Brooks takes the helm for this month's outing, and the theme is "Holiday Beers" (he includes a nice little historical note on the use of the term in that post). As it...
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What Arthur did next
The Guinness glasnost initiative has gathered pace over the last year and a bit, from a handful of nosy parkers being shown round the pilot brewery last September to now: the opening of a dedicated bar...
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Straight from the States
Halloween afternoon was spent at Brian's house, watching the Rugby World Cup final and filming an episode of the Irish Craft Beer Show. There was beer too: Brian had a haul from a recent trip to the...
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Partying against the darkness
Quartiere in Fermento, Dublin's Italian craft beer festival, was back on the Millennium Walkway last month. It was getting late on a blustery Sunday night when I got there but the party was in full...
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A coastal tour
It's been a few years since I was last at the Belfast Beer Festival run by CAMRA, but the recent accelerated growth of the Northern Irish brewing scene was enough for me to book the Friday off work...
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Festival leftovers
A postscript to the 2015 Belfast Beer Festival to mention, to begin with, a couple of English beers I tried in what was otherwise an all-Norn Iron session for me.Hawkshead Windermere Pale Ale...
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Sibling rivalry
The lovely people who do PR for Aldi invited me to their Christmas drinks preview event thingy last month, which involved showing up to the swish function rooms at Fire on Dawson Street and wandering...
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Tiny rebels
Work threw up a quick day's work in Cork last month and, emerging into the twilight afterwards, my first stop was at the Rising Sons brewpub to see if they had anything new for me. Turns out they did....
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Brace yourself!
Christmas is nearly here and if you haven't already shut yourself in for the festivities to come, there's still time to get some last minute supplies in. If you're seeking beer inspiration, here's a...
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Next year's beers
Chef Kevin Dundon and Head Brewer Kieran BirdAt the beginning of November I wrote of being charmed by the King's Bay beers from Arthurstown Brewing Company. The brewery's official launch happened a few...
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Gold and brown
And just like that the year was over and it was time to hand out the Golden Pint Awards for 2015. This is the seventh year that bloggers have been invited by Andy Mogg (and formerly Mark Dredge) to...
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Stainless and hoses
New York brewery Community Beer Works seems to be conducting a bit of market research via this month's Session. The somewhat needy theme is Are Breweries Your Friends? posing questions about whether...
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