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Draught picks
Time for an overdue look at some of the random stuff showing up on tap around Dublin in recent months.We'll start with Galway Bay, and their Solemn Black double black IPA has been at large for a couple...
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Once more unto the pub
On Friday I posted one of those long and rambling round-ups of random Irish beers I'd found in the pubs of Dublin. It had been in the drafts folder for quite a while and by the time I had it scheduled...
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IPA tarted up
I'll never be one of those trend-chasing fanboy beer geeks, lauding what ever it is the rock stars of the brewing world have decided was a good idea to do to beer that week. But I'm far from being a...
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Clinical pils trial
Pils nut Velky Al is helming this round of The Session on the topic of... pils. "A few, " he requests, "compare and contrast." I haven't done a blind tasting in ages so I was well up for some of that....
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Styling it out
I covered the first pair of Grafters beers, brewed at Rye River for Dunnes Stores, late last year. The range has now doubled in size, rounded out with two beers, this time not from the hop-forward side...
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Unpainted desert
It's a pale one, is Sierra Nevada Otra Vez: a wan and weak looking straw yellow in need of a hot shower and a good meal. The can tells me this is a "Gose-style ale ... brewed with cactus and...
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Three out of Four
Three tins from London's FourPure Brewing Co. today, all promising hoppy delights, albeit in somewhat different ways.We begin with American Pale, which is obviously far too street to put the word "Ale"...
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On the dot
DOT Brew is a new Dublin start-up, a single-handed operation of brewer Shane Kelly currently in the process of fixing its abode near the Coombe and utilising Craftworks across town for the initial...
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What's your 20?
"Untimely" is a word that got used quite a bit in the reporting of Oliver Hughes's death a couple of weeks ago, and with good reason. Not only was he still in the prime of life, and the distillery he...
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Going pink in the sun
Around here you can die of thirst waiting for a sunny day on which to drink a summer beer. When the opportunity finally presented itself I grabbed two that have been waiting in the fridge since...
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A taste of steel
My annual summer work visit to Britain brought me to Sheffield this year, a city which has recently laid claim to the title of England's Real Ale Capital, nay "World's Best Beer City". (You needn't add...
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"Huddersfield?"
"Where are you going after here?" my fellow conference attendees in Sheffield would ask, always followed by "Huddersfield? Why Huddersfield?"Beer was, of course, the answer.The large town near Leeds in...
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The last crawls
Sadly, when we arrived in from Huddersfield, Zak had better things to be doing than showing me around the pubs of Leeds and left me with just a slew of recommendations. I began with a detour to a...
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Simply the dogs
We're not quite done with my trip to northern England last month. I also got to tick off three of BrewDog's pubs, in Sheffield, Leeds and Manchester, and I thought they would fit together more...
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In a barbie world
Now a regular feature on the beer calendar, The Big Grill barbecue festival took over Herbert Park in mid-August once again. And, once again there was a fantastic range of Irish beers available with a...
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Lagered up
It's possible we're in a bit of a golden age (wahey! puns!) for Irish lager. There are a lot of good ones around at the moment and brewers seem less afraid of adding them to the roster. This post is...
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Beerbliography
The Session for September comes to us from Barcelona's top beer blogger Joan Villar-i-Martà and the topic he's picked for us is "The Role of Beer Books".I don't have many beer books and very rarely buy...
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Round Ireland with a thirst, part 1: Sligo
It's been a busy summer of beery events, one which has brought me out of my usual haunts in the capital on several occasions. The first trip was in late July, to The White Hag Brewery.I don't think I'm...
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Round Ireland with a thirst, part 2: Belfast
After a bit over six years in office I stepped down as Beoir's treasurer at the beginning of last month. It was pleasing that my valedictory annual general meeting was held in Belfast, a city that's...
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Round Ireland with a thirst, part 3: Galway
Once a year, presumably for some dodgy tax write-off reasons or bizarre sexual kink, the Galway Bay Brewery fills a coach with its Dublin customers, drives them to Galway and, against all reason,...
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