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Some stouts
Just because it's high summer doesn't mean you can't drink stout. Here's two that came my way recently.The first is a chocolate oatmeal stout from Lineman, called Smudge. It looks full-bodied to begin...
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Roger says
A warm bright summer's day lay ahead and Hertfordshire was my oyster. I picked St Albans as my destination on the grounds that, as CAMRA is headquartered there, it must have some very nice pubs with...
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Peripherals
Today it's a mopping-up exercise after Monday's pub crawl around St Albans: other beers I drank while spending the weekend in that corner of England.I arrived, late-ish on the Saturday evening, in...
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Beach ready
Sunny summer beers, all pale and sessionable, are today's subject. Who better than a brewery named after a beach to provide them?We start at Low Tide. This, or a version of it, began life as Kinnegar's...
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UpDog
It's not "UnderDog 3" or "New UnderDog" or anything else, it's just UnderDog, capital U, capital D, no space. Paddy is insistent. In late June, Dublin's only independent specialist beer bar took up...
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Weighty matters
It was still May when I drink Hope's Maibock, just about: a lovely sunny evening at the end of the month. Good lager weather. This lager, the 29th beer in Hope's Limited Edition series, is a dense and...
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White-collar beers
Oooh, don't these look posh, in their slim cans, their understated artwork and *gasp* gold-coloured pull tabs. Brewski is out to impress. I'm honour-bound to say it's what's inside the can that counts,...
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The seven eleven
DOT Brew celebrated seven years in the brewing business in May with a tap takeover at Against the Grain. Seven beers were on offer, of course, of which five were new to me. Flights of four seemed to be...
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Don't tell me what to do
I have Mr Thomas Carroll to thank for this can of Helles, the first and, so far, only beer under the Tilt & Pour brand out of Belfast. It was brewed at Heaney in Bellaghy and is 5.2% ABV. Any...
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Post-gluten
It's another Post Card post, concerning beers brewed in Kildare but named after places in Dublin. Both of today's are gluten free, a new move for the brand.First it's a lager, called Samuel Beckett...
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Lithography
I surprised myself with the discovery that I had never had any beer from the Utenos range, despite having once been to Lithuania and regularly being in Dublin's east-European supermarkets. It's a...
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In the Mayne
It apears to be Dublin beer's best kept secret, that Arthur Mayne's in Donnybrook is owned by Benny McCabe and is therefore affiliated to his Rising Sons brewery in Cork city. It certainly carries the...
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Jersey, sure
Craft Central offers regular flurries of brightly coloured American tins at exceedingly high prices, largely made up of hazy IPAs in the way that beer these days generally is. I have little interest...
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Pale in the sun
Time for a summer round-up of new Irish pale ales and IPAs. Here's what I've been drinking when the hop mood takes me.First, a brand new brand: Sesh Beers, the brainchild of Brian of Craic Beer...
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Einsiedler? I hardly know her!
We've had a gradual trickle of beers from the Saxon Einsiedler brewery, all in resolutely typical German styles. So far there's been a Helles, Weissbier, Schwarzbier and Böhmisch, and now they've sent...
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The Devil went down to Aldi
Unexpected summer lager is today's theme: one beer each from two breweries whom one does not find in Aldi regularly.We don't see Whitewater at all in these parts any more. It's a bit of a shame because...
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The Hag beckons
It's Hagstravaganza season again, with the fifth festival of the name taking place at the White Hag brewery this Saturday. To maximise my time drinking the guest beers, I made a point of going through...
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Hop soup
Three new ones from the busy brewers of Galway Bay today: yellow and hazy IPAs, because summer, I guess, and all at largely the same strength. The similarities don't go much further.Sister Cities is a...
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Four beers from three brothers
Four beers from O Brother today, a brewery which seems quieter than it used to be but is still turning out the product, and across a range of styles too.First up, a sour ale brewed in collaboration...
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Shakesbeer
Work landed me in Stratford-upon-Avon for a couple of days in July. It's a town, quite a small one, most famous for something else, but I was intrigued by how many different genres of beer outlet it...
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