Golden Pints 2013 - A Year in Review

Shamelessly hotlinked from Beermack

Talk about leaving it to the last minute - I've only been blogging really for 6 months but have been consuming craft beers a long time. Its been a great year for the Irish Breweries, some fantastic innovation and product out in the market. Its great to see. 

Ok, so here goes, I personally found it very difficult to whittle the categories to winners, so i've bottled it and am going to list my favourites! 

Best Irish Keg;
The obvious choice would be Of Foam and Fury by Galway Bay, Jason and Chris really have upped the ante with their beers. It is of course an unbelievable DIPA. However we saw some great other beers, 8 Degrees had 3 Standouts this year, Amber Ella, and the Northern vs Southern Hemisphere Hop off of Cyclone and Hurricane. Since its debut at ICBCF Amber Ella was sensational. Also a shout out to my local Brewery, Bru, with their cascade hopped Red Ale, Rua, after some initial carbonation teething issues, this has gone from strength to strength. Blacks of Kinsale also impressed with their debut Kinsale Pale Ale and their Black IPA. So for me, after all that Amber Ella just shades it.

Best Irish Cask
As others have mentioned, there hasn't been a whole lot of Irish Cask, but there are some stand outs, I haven't tried many, but I enjoyed Coffee Porter by Franciscan Well on a recent trip south. The lads in Bru managed a Cask version of Rua, which when I tried it it was a bit young. Metalman Pale Ale on cask never disappoints, but the standout for me was Galaxy Pale Ale by Trouble Brewing - pulled with a sparkler - a rarity over here, was smooth and kept a lovely creamy head all the way down.

Best Irish Bottle
I normally stick to draught however I have some great bottled beers this year from our breweries. 8 Degrees with their Back in Black series late in the year rocked in with Zeus Black IPA was very good. Dungarvan's traditional winter seasonal Coffee & Oatmeal Stout was once again superb. But I really enjoyed Mountain Man's Hairy Goat

Best Pub
Being based in Dublin means i've some great bars to choose from, the Cottage Group is strongly represented in Dublin, and I must say The Brewdock has regained my favourite status, after a lull midyear, the management team was tweaked and the place is bouncing again. It would be remiss of me not to mention Against the Grain which is capably run by Paddy, however its just the wrong direction for me on my trip home. Also have been very impressed by WJ Kavanagh's and their 5 cask taps, and their great food. We also had a great time in Cork, the Bierhaus, and Abbotts Ale House were both fantastic. So it's the Brew Dock this year.

Best Off License
This is where it gets more difficult. Drinkstore in Stoneybatter, has an unparalleled range in what is an Aladdin's cave of beers from around the world. They also have a great online store with reasonable delivery charges. My favourite in Dublin for 2013 though is Probus Wines on Fenian St. Not only does Paul carry a great range of world wines and beers. He also has a knock out deli on site. There are regular tasting events, which are ran each week and are suitably themed. A special shout out must go to The Winehouse in Trim, ran by Alan & Rodney attached to the Malt House Pub, this is a veritable treasure trove in the royal county, and people come from near and far - mainly to snaffle the Rua in Bottles! 

Best Tweeter
I've got to say, @thebeernut and @beoirfinder both have great dry sense's of humour. Andrew usually makes me chuckle. Even when taking the mick out of me. Keep it up in 2014. Also special mention to @taleofale, and @beermack_

Best Blog
I really enjoy reading Alex's blog - Beermack Blog as he always has a wide range of beers for review. I also really enjoy Beernut's Blog and Tale of Ale blogs. I'll give the not to John and the beernut blog.

Food and Beer Pairing
I matched 8 degrees Howling Gale with Smoked Salmon Parcels on Christmas Day, and I must say the citrus matched the cream cheese salmon pate beautifully. 

Alltech International Craft Brews and Food Fair - February 2014 - A sneak peek.

This Tuesday just gone I was fortunate enough to be invited to the official launch of the upcoming Alltech International Craft Brews and Food Fair, which will be running in the Convention Centre in Dublin from Thursday 6th February until the Saturday 8th February. The website is www.alltechbrewsandfood.com 

As we all know this will be the second Alltech event following on from a very successful showing in July of this year. There are some differences for next year though, which will be great to see, more brewers hopefully, more sensory space and lots of artisan food to go with that crafted beer. And thus this was the theme of the night - matching craft beer & spririts with food.

Upon arrival we were greated by the great Alltech team there on the night with a little present, a nice bottle opener, and handed a glass of draught Kentucky Bourbon Ale, much nicer on draught than in bottle form I found. Matched with a 28 Day Old Ribeye from the Boyne Valley. I went with pepper sauce! Personally I felt the Bourbon ale dominated the succulent flavour of the beef. But there was mixing and matching fun to be had this night.

The traditional combo of hops and spice was demonstrated well, when the Kentucky IPA was paired with Garlic and Chilli Prawns. A very natural mix, and was very tasty.

We were also fortunate on the night to have a whiskey, Pearse Lyons Reserve matched with a gubbeen I believe, and a Bourbon, called Town Branch matched with Bellingham Blue Cheese and Guinness Bread.  I confess to being a recovering cheese phobe, but the combination of the sweet bourbon and strong cheese worked well.

For desert we had a Bourbon Barrel Stout with Chocolate Brownie, both very tasty. We mixed them around, and found that the Reserve whiskey went great with the steak, and i liked the bourbon with the brownies too. It just goes to show how peoples tastes can vary. 

My highlight of the night was definitely the Reserve Single Malt, its great to hear they are starting to produce whiskey in Ireland and hopefully they'll open a distillery in Dublin in the near future. The Bourbon, and Reserve are available in Celtic Whiskey on Dawson St, and Kentucky Beers are widely available nationwide.

We can expect more of the same come February. I can't wait.

But the night wasn't over, Ashling Worth of Alltech gave us a demo of a new take on a liquor coffee, only this time, hold the coffee? No I haven't gone mad, we were also treated to a bottle of Bluegrass Sundown, a Bourbon Liquor infused with coffee and vanilla. You take a measure, add hot water, and cream, and you have a liquor coffee drink with out the trouble of brewing a pot of coffee. You could really taste the coffee with the sweet bourbon, definitely a sweeter option for a winter warmer, or even a post christmas dinner pick me up!

All in all it was a great evening, and the hospitality from Ely Gastropub was second to none, the staff were great, and those little morsels of food were extremely tasty. Not only that, they've over 50 craft beers available too.

To Maeve, Ashling and the rest of the team, thank you, and I for one am really looking forward to February.

Tickets will go on sale on Entertainment.ie in early January, priced at 15 euro each which gets you a souvenir glass to keep, and four tokens to try some beers while you are there. Keep your eyes peeled on their twitter account @alltechbrews for updates.

The Session - My Introduction to Beer - By my parents!

The year was 1999 - I was turning 18 years old, and becoming legally old enough to drink. That is not to say i'd not partaken of alcohol before then, but being a teenager more interested in Playstation at the time - beer held no lustre for me.

It was a bit of a rite of passage, my father and I went out on the night of my birthday, it was midweek, to have my first legal pint and a game of pool and darts. The pint, was Budweiser (I shudder now) but even then i thought it was horrible, not for the informed reasons I do today. Our local pub had a Jeckyl and Hyde Landlord, some days he'd be your best mate, others an animal. My dad ordered and he duly ID'd me. I was delighted handing over my passport. I sipped it. Even now it was horrible.

But the real eye opener was that weekend, my parents had got one of those rent a keg deals coming down for the weekend, the saturday night, we also hired a PA, and Decks and pretty much, me and all my classmates tore it up. The keg was budweiser, 80 pints between 20 odd people. But it was one of those nights that was wild. Did i mention the house was rented (i doubt the folks would do it with their house) and we'd some guard's living next door. They were sound blokes. 

The party was in full swing and we noticed one of the lads was missing and there was an unmistakable whiff of weed coming from the back garden, not my kind of thing, but a couple of lads were at it, so what, but one of the lads couldn't handle it and chugged up there and then, and 20 minutes later we found another lad in the fetal position under my dads desk in the office. Many shots of sambuca and other stuff later the party wound down and we sprayed down the puke with the hose and the few that were staying at the house went to bed. Never before had I had so much to drink, but that hangover will stay with me for ever! 

In the intervening years my palate has developed as i've gotten older. I shudder at the thoughts of the stuff i drank as a teenager. Like a fine wine my taste is maturing nicely.