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The blackest day
I confess that I have been most remiss in my marking of International Stout Day up until now. 2017's iteration would likely have passed me by also, were it not for the invitation from Diageo to attend...
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International dark young thing
Guinness was currying favour with the geeks when it set out an impressive array of guest beers for its International Stout Day celebrations at The Open Gate Brewery last month. Eight beers from three...
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All the double ladies
IPA may be dead, but Ingrid lives on. BrewDog has released a new set of hacked double IPAs, following on from 2010's cloudberry-laced Hello My Name is Ingrid and the many sequels it has spawned over...
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Bad sugar
Don't Gose Towards The Light! is possibly the most egregious example of that commonplace non-pun for gose names that I've encountered. It's used by To-Øl as the title of this one from their range,...
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American sour story
Two American sour beers today. Well, sour-ish. Neither seems to be going all-out for the pucker, both being from sane and established breweries with European capital helping them do their thing.Dark...
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From under the tree
Merry Christmas! You should be at least three sheets by the time you get around to reading this. Perhaps you're just taking a breather in a cool and quiet corner somewhere while the holiday rages...
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Boxing night
Another seasonal post for all you Christmas shut-ins, this one with a particular dark and wintry theme.Only one side of that equation applies to JW Sweetman Winter Saison. Though certainly darker than...
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Most urbane
I noted, about a month ago, that things were on the up at Urban Brewing. I've been keeping an eye on progress since then and am pleased to report that matters continue to advance. I have a total of...
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Dash away all
I didn't really set out to do a full week of Irish beer reviews, but it looks to be turning out that way. Strap in. I'm trying to clear my backlog of 2017 releases ahead of my final decisions for this...
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Gold stars
As usual, the last post of the year brings the Golden Pint Awards, begun by Andy Mogg and Mark Dredge back in 2009 and celebrating the best of the year's beers and beer-related places and events.And as...
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Black ice
I picked up these three Icelandic beers on a quick sweep in Bierkoning in Amsterdam in September. "These will be good for some dark and stormy night in," I thought. So here we are.We start with Myrkvi...
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The Hopping Order of St Joseph
I admit that that's a somewhat sarky remark about Trappist IPA which signs off my review of Spencer's first beer. And when I unexpectedly encountered the real thing in a beer shop in Bruges, I felt I...
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And now this
The Brewers & Union beers from Bavaria have been around in Ireland for several years now, but I've only written about one previously, which won't do at all. On a visit to the newly refurbished...
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Express delivery
The Sierra Nevada Fresh Hop 12-pack was boxed up on 31st October 2017, around the end of the hop harvesting season, I guess. It arrived in Ireland five weeks later and I was lucky to get to try a few...
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A yeast by any other name
If you've got it flaunt it. Brussels has a strain of Brettanomyces named after it so it makes sense that the city's number one non-lambic brewery has made a beer with it as the centrepiece.Brasserie De...
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New zeal
Reuben brought a collection of Kiwi beers back from the Lions tour last year. We gathered in Brian's to film us drinking them for The ICB Show, because apparently some people like watching that sort of...
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Haag-stravaganza
I escaped Christmas and New Year this time round, to hide out at my friend's place in The Hague. It was a very relaxing few days, largely spent indoors with a waxing and waning stash of beers which...
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Choosing freely
A week of posts on my winter break in The Hague continues today with a look at the city's better off licences.Free Beer Co. is a poky little corner shop with a single set of shelves offering a small...
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Essential groceries
There was an Albert Heijn supermarket conveniently across the street from where I was staying in The Hague over the Christmas break. The beer selection was small but with a few interesting options. I...
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Further Hoopla
It looks like the Dutch brewery with a sister in Dublin, Hoop, has been busy. The beer was much more widely available on my last trip to the Netherlands than it had been earlier in 2017. And there are...
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