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Autumn leaves
Just time for a quick catch-up on some Irish beers from recent months, before the list grows too long again.A snook is cocked at IPA fashion by the new one from Galway Bay, Clear Intentions. That said,...
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Labour of love
There was a rare opportunity to sample Land and Labour beers in Dublin at the Black Sheep last month. I missed it, but was along to scoop up the dregs a few days later.First out, Assemblage, a...
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Lidl goes shopping
Lidl unleashed a plethora of independent Irish beer in an autumn windfall of generosity last month. I picked up the ones I hadn't tried before, of course, including relative newcomer 59 South Pale Ale....
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Not the Belgian Guinness you know
L-R: Wit, Saison, Dubbel, Tripel, Lambic & StoutWell this was a surprise. Though maybe it shouldn't have been. Both Diageo and John Martin have been throwing shapes in the new and evolving world of...
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Simply not cricket
We the drinking public were saved the horror of a year without the Irish Craft Beer Festival via the good offices of the Leinster Cricket Club in Rathmines. The event which had been hosted in the...
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Et bonjour!
I spent the first two weeks of September this year travelling through Quebec and Ontario, overnighting in Montréal, Ottawa and Toronto, and getting a bit of a sense of the beer situation there, in both...
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The sky's the limit
What do you do on your first full day in Montréal? Visit the Dieu du Ciel! brewery, of course. If the day happens to be a Saturday you probably shouldn't as the place was packed, with a queue out the...
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The Crescent
Day three of blogging about beer in Canada, coinciding with day three of the trip itself. It was an early start that Sunday, to catch the All-Ireland football final at Hurley's Irish pub nearby. It's...
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Montréal beyond
Time was running short in Montréal and I still had some places on the list I wanted to visit. Who's up for a turbo pub crawl / death march?We begin at Isle de Garde, a long linear brewpub in the north...
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Arrivals, Departures
Our one daytrip from Montréal took us up the St Lawrence to Québec City. It's a solid three and a half hours by train so obviously I brought train beer: a handsome half-litre bottle of Sour French Kiss...
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Whistle-stop Ottawa
Ottawa did not match my expectations of it. There's something about capital cities which aren't their nation's largest that makes me believe they're all humdrum administrative centres, devoid of local...
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Toronto: Go!
Our journey ended in Toronto. As Canada's largest city there was plenty to explore, but as usual it was just a skim of the surface over the course of less than a week.As it happened we were staying...
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Pump it!
We're taking a break from exploring Canadian beers in Canada to mark the date. And drink a couple of Canadian beers I brought home with me. Both are from Great Lakes Brewing in Ontario.The ordinary...
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The high end
In Tuesday's post I covered one of the few Toronto beer bars I'd heard of before I began the research for this trip: C'est What? Another was Bar Volo, which closed in its original location in 2016 but...
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The last blast
Last Friday I mentioned the horror that comes with discovering you can't drink your own beer on a Canadian train. The disaster is partially offset by the fact that trains do serve beer, and in first...
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American macro
A postscript to my Canadian wanderings of the last fortnight: indulging my curiosity about mainstream US beer brands, and recording my impressions here, conclusively.Miller Lite comes in a white can...
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Ticking casks and taking names
On a determinedly damp Saturday morning last month I set off for Dún Laoghaire and the Wetherspoon 2018 Autumn Festival, hoping desperately that the beers available would be worth the drenching. There...
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Running to catch up
The Irish beer backlog has filled up so needs to be emptied now. Open wide...I've only just caught up with Boyne Brewhouse's summer special, Jigs & Reels, created as a tie-in with the Fleadh Cheoil...
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Melvined
I knew I'd heard of the brewery, but couldn't think where. That's what got me to buy these four, quite spendy, cans of beer from Melvin Brewing in Wyoming. When I got home and looked it up... Oh. Not...
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Dragon energy
Maybe I'm just not paying sufficient attention, but the beers from Cardiff's Tiny Rebel brewery seem to no more than trickle in to Ireland, showing up in random places without consistency or logic....
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