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Tall tales
Steve is hosting The Session this month and has picked Beery Yarns as the topic. I'm by no means averse to a long and rambling anecdote and could easily qualify for the national Pub Bores team, but...
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Ten beers and four provinces
We're travelling the country but mostly staying in for this new Irish beer round-up. Galway Bay are, of course, an exception, with their Chinook Pale Ale arriving on keg in the tied pubs. From the...
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The wild geese
As the Irish beer market continues to grow, it's inevitable that contract brewing forms a big part of it. Of the Irish breweries who facilitate other brands, Eight Degrees in Co. Cork and Hilden in Co....
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Horses for courses
The Alltech beer and whiskey extravaganza will be returning to the Convention Centre in Dublin this February. The American multinational specialises in animal nutrition but runs a brewery and bourbon...
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Rule Bretagne
I've not had the best of luck with Breton beers, and the cartoony packaging of this mixed sixpack from La Coreffe in Carhaix had me expecting more murky crap. Best to get it over with.I started with...
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Atonement
I swiped these three from Hardknotts Dave and Ann when they were in Dublin last summer and I've been feeling guilty about them ever since. Not because of the theft, but because I haven't taken the time...
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The Four Pubs and One Offie of Christmas
The 2013 amateur drinking season has been somewhat ameliorated by the arrival of some new seasonal Irish beers. Only one of them has gone all-out Christmassy in its branding, and that's St Cuilan's...
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Time gentlemen
It's hard to believe we're already on year five of Messrs Mogg and Dredge's annual round-robin beer awards thingy, The Golden Pints. As with all regular awards programmes, it's hard work striking a...
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Start right
2014's beer reviews begin with an American classic: Hop Rod Rye from Bear Republic in northern California, recently arrived on these shores with its stablemates Racer 5 and Red Rocket. I'm a new covert...
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Into the sunset
My wonky palate is no stranger to WTF reactions: beers I like that nobody else does; beers I can't be having but which are lauded far and wide by those in the know. It rarely bothers me, though if the...
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Crushing hard
What are those people with the exploding stockpots up to? Why are they so terrified? As usual with Brasserie De La Senne the entertainment starts before the cap comes off.Crushable Saison was brewed in...
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Panning for gold
Sometimes there are wonderful things to be found in the bottom of the Brew Dock €4 bargain bucket. Fishing beside me, Richard came up with a bottle of Adnam's Broadside. My own lucky dip yielded...
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Waifs and strays
I should really have covered this Sainsbury's American Pale Ale back when I wrote about its sister IPA in October, but to be honest I didn't notice it was even in the fridge. Once again it's from North...
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The Walking Deid
Zombier from Fyne Ales is a 6.9% ABV porter based on an award-winning homebrew recipe. It pours a dense, dark, opaque brown-black with just a thin layer of ivory foam on top. Disappointingly for a...
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Cheer up
I don't know what the deal is with the rather Van Klompian artwork on Nello's Blond. Neither the boy nor his dog look particularly pleased to have been immortalised in label form. The beer inside is 7%...
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Canned corn
There's more than a hint of duplicity about this pair of lagers from the Konzum supermarket chain in former Yugoslavia. "EXPORT ONLY", the suspiciously English-language livery proclaims. Reading the...
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Breakfast for bastards
Maybe it's just me, but 8.3% ABV seems a bit strong for a breakfast beer. So it is with Founder's Breakfast Stout, however, a viscous affair of the deepest densest black hue. It gloops out of the...
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Cottoning on
The Cotton Ball pub sits on a street corner in the sprawling Cork suburb of Mayfield, and has done long before there was any sprawl. The Lynches established it in 1874 and it has remained in family...
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Three pints of lager and an absence of crispness
Andy Murray was still half an hour away from winning Wimbledon and I was sitting at the bar of the Prince of Wales pub in East Molsey with one eye on the game and another on my watch. We had a flight...
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A nod and a wink
There's a definite air of retro about the label of Seef. The reassuringly brylcreemed man sends the message that this is reliable, trustworthy beer. It's a 6.5% ABV blonde and a darker shade than most,...
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