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Black Seoul
They don't sell themselves short, the Koreans. I got an immediate smile from the name of the Amazing Brewing Company of Seoul, via this can of Shocking Stout, kindly gifted by Padraig. Shocking in a...
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The tale of the three brothers
Over the last while, O Brother has been less a beer maker and more one of those machines for training tennis players, launching lager after IPA, after saison, after IPA, relentlessly. I've been...
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Teen gone wild
Today is this blog's 14th anniversary and I'm celebrating with some as-live blogging, something I almost never do. To mark the occasion I pulled a beer from the stash I'd been meaning to drink shortly...
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Not the Toer de Geuze
The 2019 Toer de Geuze is coming up this weekend. I'll be returning to Belgium for it, but before that I need to clear the notes from my last trip a few weeks ago, for the spring meeting of EBCU....
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Seef and sound
This year's spring meeting of EBCU was hosted by the Antwerpse Brouw Compagnie at its shiny new brewery and restaurant in Antwerp's renovated docklands. The company was founded by a former director of...
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How things change
Looking at the list of beers for this post, and at lots of beer lists in Belgium during my last visit, I was struck by the international dimension. It's not that long ago that the only beers I found in...
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The Easter sunny
Last year's Franciscan Well Easter Festival got postponed due to snow. There was no chance of that this year: it was a glorious sunny weekend for the festival's 20th birthday outing, and as usual I...
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Day drinking
Rye River celebrated its 5th anniversary with a festival last month, bringing a couple dozen Irish breweries, a handful from Britain, and two cider-makers to their headquarters in Celbridge. They very...
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Half of everything is IPA
Post two from the recent Rye River Rising festival is all about the pale ales, and variations thereon.Hopfully ran a couple of pilot beers through its tap, beginning with a Hybrid Micro IPA at 2.4%...
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Life's rich pageant
My drinking life isn't all festivals, though it might seem like that on this blog lately. I do manage to fit the odd pint or can in between them. Like this lot, for example.I don't know what it is...
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Peanuts and Cracker Jack
Baseball season was ending as I was packing up to leave Toronto last September. I'm guessing that's the reason Left Field Brewery's Sunlight Park grapefruit saison was in the discount basket near the...
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Gate renovated
Open Gate Brewery has had a makeover, but not a severe one. There's a new kitchen and the museum artefacts on the walls have been replaced with more generic taproom signage. The format remains the...
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Inchicore blimey
With the Rascals brewery, taproom and pilot kit going full tilt these days, it's an endless game of catch-up for me. The cliff-hanger last time was Das Beaut kölsch-a-like. It was half of a set with...
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Milling pints
The third annual Indie Beer Week begins today, an opportunity to shout a bit about the small-and-independent brewing scene across the island of Ireland. A press launch event was held a couple of weeks...
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Clouded issues
A couple of offerings from Manchester's Cloudwater Brew Co. today.Cairde Gan Teorainneacha ("Friends Without Borders") is a collaboration with our own White Hag brewery. It's a black IPA, the...
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Geuze Bus Tours II
I mentioned unfinished business off the back of the 2017 Toer de Geuze: the two participants I missed out on last time. This year's Toer, earlier this month, was a chance to resolve that. The bus...
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Acid party
My second post on the 2019 Toer de Geuze begins at Lindemans. This brewery, more than any other, brings a carnival atmosphere, with a wheel of fortune, two bouncy castles and beer sampling conducted 50...
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The other stuff
On the periphery of the Toer de Geuze there was a modest amount of pubbing done in Brussels. Here's what came my way therein.Our hotel chain, Thon, has its own house beer, a refuge from the otherwise...
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They go low
If low-to-no-alcohol beer is going to be the coming thing in beer -- and it seems to be -- that ought to be reflected in these pages. Here, then, are a smattering of that genre being given the usual...
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Wegbiere
Even though there aren't many Wetherspoon pubs in Ireland they still come in useful as places to grab a quick pint on the way to somewhere else. Two such in today's post.I could have sworn I've had...
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