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For the sake of completion
Among the supermarket beers I encountered in São Paulo were three from the Prius contract brand. The selling point here, which may or may not be unique, is their use of sake yeast for fermentation,...
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Two lost gauchos
When I visited Argentina in 2011, I encountered the Patagonia beers, brewed by AB InBev as their arty premium brand. A lot has changed in beer since then, but Patagonia is still going, and largely...
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Ask if it's glass
The UK beer media doesn't talk much about the Premium Bottled Ale category. To an outsider, it can seem like it doesn't exist any more, but small British breweries are still turning out beers in half...
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Cold and colder
One of life's greatest pleasures is going to exotic beer shops and browsing for strange and intriguing beers. Today's pair came from no further abroad than Melger's of Haarlem where both made me want...
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The invention of tradition
Beer blogging's big brother Alan is attempting to revive The Session, a cross-platform themed event last seen in these parts in 2018. His chosen topic for us is perhaps an obvious one for such a...
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Wolf haul
By the end of last year I had accumulated a growing stash of Wicklow Wolf beers which I hadn't taken the time to drink. When better than the January lull, when not much happens in Irish brewing, to...
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Strange meeting
I was quite surprised to see O'Hara's having done a collaboration with De Molen. Not for any good reason, it's just that the two breweries occupy very different spaces in my beer awareness. One thing I...
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Les animaux
Breton beer hasn't had the best of notes when it has featured on this blog over the years. Today's set were kindly supplied by a family member who holidayed there over the summer and I wasn't in a huge...
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The rough with the smooth
Ballykilcavan is one of the few Irish breweries with a brown ale in regular production. In 2023 they had a go at barrel-ageing one, using bourbon casks. Late last year, they did it again, this time...
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About time
There was a gap in the initial line-up from Changing Times brewery, Dublin's newest, when I reported on it last year. Tap lines had been set aside in the brewery's partner pubs for Clockwork, a stout....
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Fully on board
Today in backlog clearance, I have the winter specials from Hopfully, and big fellows they are too.The lightweight is daintily named Dancing Shoes, a barley wine of 11.7% ABV. It's a lovely dark red...
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Bull in a candy shop
A new selection of Bullhouse beers arrived in Dublin in the last few weeks. I don't buy everything of theirs I see, but I do like to check in now and again. Let's see what we have here.The first I...
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A lesson in lager
I was very sceptical going in to Franciscan Well's latest collaboration, with their Molson Coors stablemates, Staropramen. I'm not even sure what the name is: the badge says "Franciscan Well Docklands...
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Global conflict
Sensing there's just too much peace and harmony in the world these days, Rascals has taken it upon itself to shake things up with its first two new releases of 2025. "North vs South" is the theme,...
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Peaks and troughs
Skiing has never appealed to me, so a brewery that seems to have made it its whole thing was always going to be a tough sell. Beer is more important than branding, of course, and even though I hadn't...
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Eternal return of the same
Today's beers were released late last year by Galway Bay Brewery but strictly speaking they're not new ones. They were brewed and sold as versions of The Eternalist sour ale, and bottled about three...
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A Thorny question
I'm taking a punt, and a liberty, with this month's Session topic. Boak & Bailey are hosting and have asked about "the best beer you can drink at home right now". Though an inveterate ticker, I do...
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Lunar ticks
I have a whole new brewery for you today: Moon Lark, from Poręba in southern Poland. I have no idea by what means their cans ended up in Dublin shops, but witaj! regardless.IPA features heavily, so I...
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More of that
I got my hands on the first Sierra Nevadas of the year last month. They're two IPAs, so very much what the brewery is good at, if somewhat disappointingly unoriginal. We already have several IPAs made...
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What've you got?
The off licence shelves were festooned with a plethora of gaudily-hued Tiny Rebel cans. This Welsh brewery hasn't exactly been a favourite of mine over the years, and has received a degree of...
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