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Gardening leave
The mid-June weekend saw The Harbour Bar in Bray host its first Brewha Festival, billed as a celebration of Co. Wicklow's rich brewing heritage, though throwing in a couple of Dublin usurpers with...
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Summer specials
Time for another round-up of random Irish beers that came my way in recent weeks.Lough Gill joined the line-up in Aldi with Native IPA, brewed to celebrate the Lakota heritage of head brewer Tony. The...
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The big 3
I was not aware that ubiquitous French beer 3 Monts was one of a series, but it turns out there are loads of them, including 3 Monts Grande Réserve.For some reason I was expecting this to be dark,...
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Drygate gate
I will freely admit that the packaging is what sold me on these two Drygate beers. Specifically, how breathtakingly similar their design is to that of Beavertown. Well, it's nice to have an angle for...
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Mass market Mikke
I've never been a fan Keith Shore's artwork for Mikkeller. I'm not a fan of that naïve-art look generally and I've always thought it cheapened a brand that did so much to build a reputation beforehand....
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Exotic species
Well this was odd. Taking a shortcut through a central Dublin Spar, I glanced at the beer selection and spotted two unfamiliar stubbies. On stopping to inspect, they turned out to be from Finnish...
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Not just here for the beer
O'Brien's off licence in Blanchardstown held its first ever craft drinks festival one sunny evening at the end of June. 15 suppliers took over the front of the shop, handing out samples and hawking...
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Crashing the party
Back in February I booked a one-nighter in Manchester on a whim and a hotel voucher. I didn't realise at the time that the dates in early July would be at the end of 2018's Manchester Beer Week, nor...
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Mancunian way to go
On Monday's post we were leaving the Temperance Street Party at Beer Nouveau in Manchester and heading back towards the city centre. A slight detour took us by the Cloudwater Barrel Store, a satellite...
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Rolling with it
Rounding out the beers I found on my quick trip to Manchester last month, today it's the happenstance beers, the ones found in places I hadn't particularly chosen to go but ended up drinking in.I...
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Royal progress
No sooner was I back from Manchester than it was off again to England, this time for a work gig in Bristol. I was staying around the corner from pub-centric King Street so was well able to nip over...
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Bristol odyssey
Quite a few of the pubs for which Bristol is famous won't be mentioned in this, my second post from a recent visit. My guiding principle when I went crawling was places I hadn't previously been. And...
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Late Gate update
It's over a month since I last dropped by the Open Gate Brewery to see what they were turning out these days. It was still the height of summer so I was happy to see Open Gate Summer Ale on the taps....
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New on deck
A couple of weeks of travel posts mean I'm way behind in my Irish beer round-ups. Let's see what there's been in the pubs recently.Eight Degrees dropped a new flavoured Berliner Weisse for summer, a...
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Can you taste that?
It's the bane of the beer critic's life: liver disease sensory uncertainty. Can you trust your palate when you think something's amiss, and is it worth the risk of writing it down? I have no training...
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North-westers
Ahead of Hagstravaganza, on which more later, The White Hag released the third iteration of The Púca. This time the dry hopped lemon sour [beer] has had lime, mint and matcha added in. It's still 3.5%...
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From far and wide
The White Hag Brewery in Ballymote Co. Sligo celebrated its fourth birthday at the end of July with the second outing of the Hagstravaganza festival. Like last year I was up and back on the same day so...
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The beers less travelled
Part two of my run through Hagstravaganza 2018 concerns itself with the Irish brewers who were there. The hosts, White Hag, had a couple of collaborative beers brewed abroad in the line-up. One was...
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The fillums
Three movie-themed offerings from YellowBelly today, all variations on IPA.Underdog was pouring the draught-only special Hazing Saddles: a take on the New England style, of course. It's an orangey...
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The Sierra inversion
Back in January I reviewed a set of Sierra Nevada fresh-hop beers recently arrived in Ireland. The world turns and now the brewery has released a parallel set of southern-hemisphere-hopped beers and,...
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