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Only shallow breathing in stereo after dark
An appreciation, first of all, for the top-tier customer service from Whiplash. After I enquired about an out-of-stock recent release, I got a personal heads-up when it was available to order again....
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So it's come to this
It has been an exceptionally quiet January for new release beers. The general sluggishness of the Irish market at this time of year has combined with this week's radical change to the rules around...
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Your actual Baltic
We are joined once again by Mr Engelman and one of his handsome full-pint cans. I'm not sure I've ever had a Lithuanian Baltic porter before, which is a shame, what with it being on the Baltic and...
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Always Christmas and never winter
The Scandinavians provide today's beers, both Christmas specials which were still haunting the fridges at Stephen Street News in January.The first is a Vienna lager from To Øl called Crispy Christmas....
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Bavarians at the gate
Every once in a while I happen across a well-known classic beer which, inexplicably, I've never taken the time to try. I blame the absence of Augustiner Heller Bock in my repertoire on the excellence...
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Sneaky phonecall
En Stoemlings of Brussels has been on a journey since I visited their miniscule first brewery in 2015, the latest news being the closure of their full-sized production facility and reversion to...
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Sunshine from the Garden
A couple of weeks ago I attended the first launch event for Irish beer in 2024: a tap takeover in UnderDog by Wicklow Wolf, presenting two new additions to its core range. On a dismal winter's evening,...
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Animal tendencies
The role of animals in the branding of English beers is a fine, and often parodied, convention. I've been in Wetherspoon again, inspecting the menagerie.Devon's Otter Brewery is first up, with Otter...
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Heart of ice
Not every day, but I like an eisbock now and again. I tend to see the method as a means for making big imperial stouts even more warming and sippable. Frosty is the first ever one from Polish brewery...
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The French disconnection
French beer has been something of a theme on this blog in recent months. It's in no way intentional, and today's first beer was an unexpected gift from a traveller in parts Breton. It's from the...
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Geopolitical beers
The beer and breweries of Ukraine don't get quite the same attention as they did a couple of years ago, even though I'm certain the businesses are experiencing the same problems. Today's three are...
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Some bang off that
Sierra Nevada's Hop Bullet double IPA featured on this blog in 2018 and didn't impress me much. Solely to get my attention, they've released a supposedly improved version with an even more macho name:...
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The culture war
There were a couple of new beers from Galway Bay Brewery. I dropped into The Black Sheep one afternoon to see what the story was.Celestial Floods (or "Fioods", as the badge has it) is a double IPA of...
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Got your Bax
When I visited Groningen in 2022 I remarked on the virtual absence of the area's most famous beer brand, Grolsch. There was also no sign, that I recall, of the colourful local micro I'm looking at...
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A thin slice of liquid bread
I'm all for breweries giving us classic European styles, but there's something wrong about putting them all in 440ml cans. The presentation of Hope's Limited Edition 32: Belgian Dubbel reminds me a bit...
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Beer 2, oxygen 0
The prologue to today's beers is that they were both recalled from the market. A problem with the can seamer meant that not all of them were properly sealed, running the risk of oxidation. Craft...
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Early hop shoots
As we head into the third month of 2024 we see a resurgence of new beers from Ireland's breweries. Today I'm looking at an assortment from the hoppy side of the house.We'll start without the alcohol,...
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Go fish
Lough Gill features regularly on these pages. It's a brewery which turns out a lot of product, and one which appears to have an eye on the US as its target market. As such, it tends to go big:...
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UnorthoDOTs
2024 for DOT Brew's beers began with a tap takeover at UnderDog and three brand new offerings. A bold move to start: Micro Oak Fruit Thingy, reflecting the brewery's commitment to established beer...
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Pick and Mikks
It's a source of some bemusement to me how the breweries and beer brands which were bold and exciting, (if never actually revolutionary) a decade and more ago have become part of the mainstream, when...
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