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The Twelve Brewers of Christmas 6: Wicklow Wolf
Two things we like here at TBN HQ are black IPA and Pink Floyd references, and Wicklow Wolf has us covered for both today.First it's the black IPA, a modestly strong one called Whirlpool Galaxy, at...
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The Twelve Brewers of Christmas 7: Original 7
An impromptu trip to Cork a few weeks back gave me the opportunity to catch up with the draught beers from Original 7. As mentioned when I reviewed their Christmas special last month, this is the...
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The Twelve Brewers of Christmas 8: Hopfully
Hopfully expressed its Christmas spirit this year with two new draught pale ales.The hazier of them is Trumpet, which is 5% ABV. Lemondrop, Mosaic and Strata ought to give it plenty of fruit, and...
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The Twelve Brewers of Christmas 9: Kinnegar
The Brewers At Play series from Kinnegar reached 33 with a Hazy IPA. There's nothing especially creative or exciting about this one, at least from this drinker's perspective. The brewer tells us...
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The Twelve Brewers of Christmas 10: O Brother
The end of the run is in sight. I hope you have all your shopping done. Today's brewery is O Brother, beginning with a couple of IPAs.First is part of a series they've been doing with Bierhaus in...
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The Twelve Brewers of Christmas 11: Galway Bay
Our penultimate brewery, Galway Bay, released a new IPA called Dream Awake last month, double dry hopped and including Nelson Sauvin, Idaho 7 and Strata. Nothing to be afraid of there, but I wish I...
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The Twelve Brewers of Christmas 12: Whiplash
We've reached the end of the series and, oh, there's been a lot of new Whiplash stuff while I've been distracted by being elsewhere. Here's a rapid catch-up where the oldest beer was drank in...
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Thirteenth night
Coming off the back of the 12 Brewers of Christmas sequence which finished two days ago, 12 more breweries which didn't make that (completely arbitrary) cut.Dundalk's Mo Chara pub / event space /...
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Time and tide
Another year over. Time to wrap up, take stock, award meaningless prizes for things I thought were good. It's year fifteen of this, and I may be the only person still keeping to the old ways, as set...
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DOT as you mean to go on
For the second year running, in 2023, I drank more beer from DOT Brew than anyone else. It's a prolific operation, in fairness, operating mostly from two host breweries in Dublin while using its own...
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Cockles unwarmed
While we're still in the season of Christmas, here's an actual Christmas beer, acquired in SuperValu in early December. It's from Austrian brewery Stiegl, distributed in these parts by O'Hara's, and is...
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Bear back in time
Today's notes have been sitting, unfinished, in the oul' drafts folder for a stupidly long time. With apologies to Crafty Bear, I hereby give them a polish and present them to you.We begin with another...
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Little and large
We had a jolly time of it one Thursday night in early December. Sierra Nevada's co-founder, Steve Grossman, was in town, prompting a night of revelry and €5 pints at UnderDog.One of such was...
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Decaf
"Affogato" is a descriptor I regularly use for dark and sweet coffee-like beers, but this is the first time I've seen the brewery make it part of the spec. Planina is from Zagreb's Garden Brewery, a...
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Guests at the Bullhouse
Two beers from Belfast's Bullhouse brewery today, both created in collaboration with someone else.The first is described as a "bramble sour" and is the latest in the Ár gCairde series that Mo Chara in...
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Quelle surprise
Bordeaux was not as I expected. My assumption was that a city so closely associated with one particular product, one which has an arcane and highly-specified quality control procedure, would be a bit...
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Butterflies in the stomach
In Monday's post, I mentioned the fine selection on offer in Bordeaux beer bar Le Sure Mesure. One of them was L'Effet Flamande, a collaboration between Bordeaux's own Effet Papillon and Brasserie du...
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Les étrangers
Am I a bad beer tourist for going to France and being interested in beers from abroad instead of doggedly sticking to documenting the local scene? Yes, probably, but there's nothing you can do about...
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Spontaneous enhancement
Today it's one of the regular check-ins with what they're up to at Oud Beersel. While it's a fine blender of good lambic, it seems to be becoming best known for the creation of draught versions with...
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From the grape state of California
A random pick from the bargain fridge in Stephen Street News today. Well, for a very craft definition of bargain, at €6.99 for a 355ml can. It's from California brewery The Bruery, part of their...
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