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Hope darkens
A couple from Hope today, where darker styles appear to be the preferred vernacular at the moment. You will of course remember that the official winter seasonal this time round was a black IPA and now...
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Back at it
I'm trying a new strategy for 2020, cutting down on the giant round-up posts in favour of shorter, more frequent ones. Let's see how that goes. Today I'm covering off the random Irish beers I found...
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This. Isn't. Sparta!
Thanks to Bermondsey brewery Spartan for quite unexpectedly sending me a box of their canned IPA Polemarch. Though badged as English-style, it's a full 5.5% ABV: no Greene King clone here....
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Mama we're all hazy now
I am forever sceptical when I hear complaints about the ubiquity of any particular beer style. "You don't have to drink it," I sigh, "there's always something else." So I had to bite my lip when I went...
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As above...
At the beginning of the month it was off down to Cork for the first festival of the year, Cask Ales & Strange Brews at Franciscan Well. As usual, before I could enjoy any of the beers, I had to...
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... so below
Following on from Monday's post about the Francsican Well Cask Ales & Strange Brews Festival a couple of weeks ago, here are the beers from round Cork and Kerry way.Franciscan Well itself had a...
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The festival fringe
Today's post is an addendum to the previoustwo this week, covering a pair of beers from the UK that I met on my visit to Cork for the Cask Ales & Strange Brews Festival at Franciscan Well.I caught...
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Elle surprise
I have been chasing Lambiek Fabriek Brett-Elle for quite some time, and my most recent trip to Brussels included my second quest through the city to find it. Turns out it had been hiding in plain sight...
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It's Hell, up north
An unexpected new Helles arrived on the local off licence shelves here a couple of months ago. "I'm having that," I said. It's important to grab these things when they're available as you never know...
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Brown is the new whatever
A new brown ale on the Irish market is always a cause for excitement. So steps up Ballykilcavan, with their newest can: Bambrick's. They claim American influence, and the ABV checks out at a sizeable...
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New meat
A new month, and time to look at some new beers from across the Irish brewing scene.Kinnegar's rebooted Brewers at Play series reaches number three with a low-alcohol offering. Such is the brewery's...
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How did that get there?
I'm sure someone out there can explain this one to me, but from where I'm sitting now it's an oddity. Last Spike is a brewery in Calgary, specialising in making beer for other people. But like many...
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Old man yells at Claw
A change from your regularly scheduled beer reviews today. I shouldn't know what hard seltzer is. It shouldn't be part of the beer discourse, any more than wine coolers or pre-mixed cocktails are, but...
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A little rain must fall
It's been a while since I last wrote about any Cloudwater beer, though it still trickles into Dublin on the regular. When there was a bunch of them on at the same time in UnderDog I figured I'd take a...
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Dark roots
This is one of those shameful back-of-the-fridge beers, transported home from Croatia last September and semi-forgotten about. It's no kind of life for a black IPA. The Austro-Croatian operation Bevog...
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Trouble again
Once one of the busiest Irish breweries with regard to new releases, Trouble has settled into a groove in recent years, offering a solid core range with only occasional bouts of playfulness. Today's...
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Grabbin the 'Hut
Beer Hut is one of the exciting new wave of Northern Irish breweries. My previous experience of them was only a share of a can suitcased down by Simon. At last, however, a selection has arrived in...
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Arthur in Africa
The Nigerian version of Guinness Foreign Extra Stout is a beer I had been looking for, casually, for some time. When I'm in Britain I check cornershops and minimarkets in search of it. The quest...
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IP eh?
The "IPA" designation gets stretched past breaking point with this pair from Larkin's.First up is Elements double IPA, less than a year since fellow Kilcoole brewery O Brother used the name; is there a...
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No counting for taste
I liked the original Brew By Numbers naming convention: two digits for the style then another two for the iteration. You knew where you were, especially if you were methodically ticking through them,...
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