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Cheeky cans
Today I'm looking at the initial three packaged beers sent to me by one of Ireland's newest breweries, Lough Gill Brewing, in Sligo town. It's the creation of entrepreneur James Ward, who previously...
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Bucharest and relaxation
I spent a week over New Year in Romania, exploring what the capital has to offer. I think I managed to put a decent dent in the local beer offerings, which I'll be recounting over the next few posts....
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Middling to fair
Continuing my exploration of Romanian beers, today we move on to the bigger independents and contract brews.Zăganu is the nearest thing to a mainstream craft brand, popping up in supermarkets and a...
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Grin and bear it
This is the last of my posts on beer in and from Romania, and it's about the mainstream macro brands. I have some experience with these, having tasted a couple of the dark lagers in this post. I was in...
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Start as you mean to go on
Dry January? The chance would be a fine thing. Dublin's pubs have had plenty of new Irish stuff on the go for this supposedly quiet month. Here's what I managed to get hold of.I paid my first and...
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Still winter
I have a bit of catching up to do with regard to the winter beers I have in stock. I don't want to be drinking them as the evenings are getting noticeably longer, when they're plainly intended for the...
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Koselig
Since we're all sick to the back teeth of hygge at this stage, I went looking for the Norwegian equivalent for the title of this post. Now you know. The subject is a couple of beers that were kindly...
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The Yanks in the pub
You've just missed the American beer festival at the Porterhouse. It ran for the last two weeks until yesterday, though there might be a few of the specials knocking around in some of the bars still. I...
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Monkey shines
The newest (I think) addition to the busy brewery scene in Co. Cork is Clonakilty Brewing Company. I hadn't expected to see their beers up here so soon but they landed recently in Drinkstore and the...
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Once you go brown
The announcement of the topic for this month's Session came just a day after one of the most sublime experiences of my year in beer so far. Our host is Joe at The Fatal Glass of Beer, and his topic is...
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Caskstravaganza!
Franciscan Well's winter festival returned with a bang in late January. Now titled Cask Ales & Strange Brews, the 2017 iteration was bigger than any previous one, almost competing with the Easter...
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Black mystery
An addendum to Monday's post about the recent Cask Ales & Strange Brews festival at Franciscan Well. Three beers from Black's of Kinsale had been kept back in growlers for the competition judging,...
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The loneliness of the long distance ligger
I was invited along to the launch of the revamped Milano restaurant on Haddington Road the other week. I went because, hey, free pizza, but I wasn't expecting to get any blog content out of it. Chain...
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None more Belgian
Sorry, that should read "some more Belgians" because this is another cross-section of Belgian beers, as picked by my wife from Brussels off licences.De Poes has a pretty label, which is presumably why...
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Stay woke
We only get a limited range of Magic Rock beers in Ireland. "Just what the brewery has available" the importer told me once. I was pleased when Common Grounds, the Magic Rock coffee porter, showed up,...
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Ameri-cans
Three beers from the US today, with nothing in common other than their importer and the fact that they're canned.I'm not entirely sure what the deal is with Sierra Nevada Nooner. The name was...
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Look busy!
Alltech Brews & Food is back in Dublin's Convention Centre from Thursday of this week. There will be much new and exciting beer to occupy my time all weekend so I figured I should try and make some...
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A sequel to the prequel
Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.Monday's post was a sort-of preview of the Alltech Brews & Food Festival which opens tomorrow in Dublin. I finished writing it on Sunday,...
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Here comes the rain again
We don't see much Cloudwater beer in Dublin. The once-off tap takeover at The Beer Market last summer was pretty much the height of it, until last week when a selection of bottles and cans from the...
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Piled high and sold cheap
Three large format bottles of French beer for under a tenner? Yes please! I spotted this lot stacked up by the tills in Lidl and figured they'd be worth a go. Two are badged as coming from "Abbaye de...
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