(Of Ireland, Likes Beer, Sometimes a Snob)
In this latest episode of the Irish Beer Snob podcast, Janice & Wayne are joined by Marcus Robinson, of Reel Deel Brewery.
Coinciding with their beers launched in cans we drink 3 from the core range
You can find Reel Deel on the socials, links are below.
Facebook – Twitter – Instagram
So give them a follow.
You can find our episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Stitcher Radio. Just search Irish Beer Snob and your app will download.
Sláinte
In this latest podcast, we are delighted to have been joined by Carla & Sean from Widestreet Brewing in Ballymahon, Co Longford. In what is one of our longest podcasts in ages, we have a good old chinwag about how the came into being, and how they’ve become part of the community in Ballymahon. We also need to speak about what Sean said.
While chatting away we enjoyed the following beers
You can find out more about Wide Street here, you can buy Widestreet beers on Beer Cloud, and follow them on Social’s on FB Twitter and IG
You can find the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio and direct link here
“What does an American Craft Beer Ambassador do?”
Well, we are delighted to have the lovely Lotte Peplow from the Brewer’s Association to talk all things beer, and her journey in Beer. We have a good old chinwag.
What are your American Craft Beer memories? Let’s face it, in Ireland we do look west for inspiration quite a lot.
You can download the podcast directly here, we’re also on Spotify, Stitcher Radio, Apple Podcasts.
With beer, a Flagship is the beer that defines a brewery. It’s the one that you immediately think of when you hear the brewery’s name, the one that most people associate with the business. In most cases, it is their best-selling beer and often the one that outsells all their other offerings by a wide margin. A good flagship also allows a brewery to be able to afford the seasonals, specialty beers and the other one-off beers in their lineup.
flagshipfebruary.com
As we hurtle towards February, thoughts turn to Flagship February, an initiative brought to us by Stephen Beaumont, Jay Brooks, Porter Hughes, and Eric Warner, where we remind ourselves of THE beers that made us fall in love with certain breweries, Whether it’s Punk IPA, or Anchor Steam, each brewery has a flagship beer. I threw the question out on Twitter for Irish suggestions. So here are some of the standout Irish Flagships, in no particular order here they are. (I was happy to see some of my favourites were mentioned more than once!)
Trouble Brewing – Ambush (Juicy Pale Ale)
Mentioned more than once, and a beer that’s got the ultimate catchphrase, “Lads, I’m Back on the Ambush” courtesy of the legendary John Coote. While this wasn’t one of their original core beers, it’s got to be a flagship now as it’s widely available, and is always in tip top form!
Hope Hop On Session IPA
Lamenting the lack of airport travel in 2020, my usual trick of picking up a pint of Hop On – Hopes delicious session IPA, in the Marquette bar before my flight. However, as a core beer this beer is always widely available and does exactly what it says on the tin. Refreshing, Bitter, and crisp.
Kinnegar – Scraggy Bay
Donegal’s Kinnegar have a great core range and regularly release great specials, one of the most consistent brewers in the country. Scraggy bay was always a beer if i saw it on draught anywhere, i’d have it, then when they canned it, it became a staple in the fridge. Delicious IPA. Though some would argue for Crossroads, I feel this is a suitable beer to call a flagship.
O’Hara’s – Leann Follain
Straight up OG Stout from Carlow Brewing Company. Rock solid, dependable, and blooming tasty as. A beer that reminded me how good a stout can be. People might argue for O’Hara’s Pale Ale, but this is a much better beer from their stable imo. Widely available and very good value for money also.
McGargles – Big Banging IPA
One of the great Irish IPAs, easy to forget it’s been around a while now. But this is a great IPA, widely available and part of a great core range that includes a great session IPA too.
Thankfully we are totally spoiled for choice nowadays, we’ve got saison, IPAs, Pale Ales, Stouts, and Sours that form part of breweries offerings, and in some cases are infact show cases, such as Black Donkey’s Sheep Stealer, Yellowbelly Castaway, Blacks of Kinsale KPA, Stone Barrel’s Boom and many many more
Remember, the beauty about flagship beers are they are there all the time. Let’s take a moment to appreciate beers that have laid the foundations for brewers to go nuts experimenting with styles, additions, and techniques. You will be able to get these in your local independent bottle shop / off licence, even in your supermarket when you’re picking up the groceries. Give some Irish Beers a chance, and you’ll never go back.
Get involved in the twitter thread that i’ll keep pinned to my profile for the month of February 👇. Sláinte
So, as is the trend in January, human nature. We step on the scales, and think. Oh. Born from that is a trend that ordinarily would see 1000s of people sign up to gym memberships that people use for a month then don’t use, and normally tied in for 12 months. Personally, for me, it’s a combination of covid, Christmas, and a change in my circumstances.
I’ve gone from having a 25 minute walk from the train station to my office, to driving pretty much door to door. Combined with golf clubs being closed, my regular game of five a side binned, and general levels of lethargy has led me to move to a lower carb heavy diet. Beer is liquid carbs. Let’s not forget that. Not exactly compatible with a beer centred podcast and blog! 😆
Thankfully, with a number of US brewers beginning to churn out low cal / low carb beers, so I decided to pick up a couple and give them a whirl.
These beers were purchased from the sound folks in Craft Direct.ie
First up, Firestone Walker – Fly Jack Hazy IPA.
The can tells us that there is 96 calories, and 5g of Carbs in each 355ml cans.
The Firestone Website, lists the hops as follows Kettle: Cascade, Callista. Dry Hop: El Dorado, Chinook, Mosaic, Strata, Sabro, Idaho 7
Appearance – as you can see, it’s a nice straw hazy body. Thin white head, that dissipates quickly
Aroma – Faint hints of grapefruit zest and tropical fruits
Taste – Bitterness, and citrus comes through on the taste. Crisp dry finish.
Mouthfeel – As is expected in beers of this ABV, it is a little bit thin, but forgivable as they’ve packed a good amount of flavour.
Overall first impressions, i’d drink this again for sure. Knowing it’s not going to damage my carb intake too much, it’s a very nice change from drinking spirits with sparkling water or slimline tonic!
Next up, Oskar Blues – One y IPA
100 calories, and 5 grams of carbs
Dry hopped with El Dorado, Comet and Citra
Appearance – lighter in body shade than the Firestone beer, with a slightly better head, which too dissipates quickly
Aroma – Faint citrus on the nose, small amount of biscuit aroma.
Taste – Quite bitter, a little unbalanced actually, needs sweetness to balance this, but seems to be too much bitterness going on
Mouthfeel – as above a light body, which is to be expected.
Overall, i preferred the Firestone beer.
Now, I’ll admit, I poorly researched this choice, I had assumed that because this was a lo calorie session version of Cigar City’s Jai Alai that it would automatically be a low carb beer. There is 11g of carbs in this can, and when I drink it, this is very apparent. I CAN TASTE THE CARBS PEOPLE!
Here we have Jai Low by Cigar City which is a session version of their world renowned IPA, Jai Alai. The brew team in Cigar City cite their inspiration being British Bitter, and this evidence from the appearance of this beer.
Appearance – darker than the other beers, very reminiscent of an English bitter.
Aroma – Orangey aromas with a hint of malty biscuitness
Taste – Orangy citrus carries through to flavour, balanced with a bready sweetness, with a familiar bitterness.
Mouthfeel – Those extra carbs do add body, and this finish less dry than the previous beers, but it is a nice weight of body for it’s ABV
Overall – this is a suitable little brother to Jai Alai, familiar notes, with a lot less ABV, and more drinkability.
So i’ve learned a valuable lesson there, low cal does not equal low carb. Low Carb does tend to be crisp dry finishes. This must have something to do with the Final Gravity being as low as possible. The Cigar City beer stands out just because it tastes like a low abv beer brewed without the compromise of low carbs there. But at 11g grams of carbs, it’s a literal treat as a few of them would smash your low carb limit if you were following a moderate low carb diet.
So 2020 eh? What a year that was! Looking back to January, now seems like such a long time ago. Personally speaking for me, it was a new job in the new year, and sadly it wasn’t what I expected, and took the not to easy decision to move on from it after just under 3 months. Little did I think that Covid 19 would have such an effect on both my job hunting and of course our way of living.
It’s not my intention to write this post as a lament of 2020, but more so to highlight how it makes you grateful for the little things. Things we took for granted during our everyday lives, in the pursuit of professional and personal satisfaction. Yes. It would be remiss to say that 2020 wasn’t without its challenges, but I would like to think there has been some learning gleaned from it all.
It didn’t seem like I was out of the work force for too long, I picked up work in Logistics thanks to my Dad, a truly temporary gig, but it kept the lights on, even though it meant being in the UK three days a week doing the long run down from Holyhead to London Heathrow. This job allowed me a full reset and consider where I was going, and what I wanted professionally. It also allowed me to bring home copious amounts of Keller Pils.
Opportunity comes from the strangest places. It wasn’t long before I was having conversations with my new employers, the dance so to speak, and after a few zooms the deal was done. I’ve been there just over 6 months now, and it honestly has been like a breath of fresh air for me. It’s also helped me with my ennui, professionally, and to a certain extent beer.
Obviously the loss of keg volume has been catastrophic due to the continual lock down pretty much of hospitality, as well as loss of exports as much of Europe went into lock down. We’ve seen a massive pivot to small pack, cans especially, and also mini kegs from most breweries, but is it enough to keep the lights on? Some brewers embraced the B2C model, of engaging directly with their end customer, others kept the B2B model they’d worked with before, and in many cases for a long time. Some did a hybrid. From chatting to one or two brewers there was a huge demand earlier in the year while the weather was great and that people were stuck at home, and it went through peaks and troughs then for the rest of the year. But it was refreshing to see them up their game across the spectrum.
I thought the horse meat scandal a few years would have highlighted the need to know the provenance of what we’re buying. However, this was different, you weren’t able to travel far for food, so it put a renewed focus on local. We saw breweries across the country brew up different styles, sell multipacks and keep things ticking over. We saw one brewer become an off licence selling beer nationwide. Crisis breeds ingenuity.
Is 2020 the year that independent, small breweries finally make that breakthrough to mainstream consumers?
Anyhow, here’s a brief look back at some of my beery highlights of the year, in an abridged version of golden pints.
Beer of the Year 2020
Crushability, drinkability, flavour, sessionability, plus the fact that I bought loads of it, it has to be Ace of Haze by Black’s Brewery in Kinsale.
Honourable mentions to Four Provinces Dark Mild, Stone Barrel / Third Circle Conglomerate Centurion, Hope Beer Seasonal Red IPA.
Brewery of the Year
Third Circle / Stone Barrel / Third Barrel of Bluebell. I’ve bought a few cases of beer from them over the year, the quality and variety of their beers has shone to the fore. It also helps that they’re a sound bunch of lads too. Definitely doesn’t hurt they’re only 10 minutes from my office! My brewery of the year
Honourable mentions to Hope Beer, Blacks, Kinnegar and Whiplash.
Best Pub
Not that we’d been out a load of times this year, but I’ve popped into 57 The Headline for takeaway beers, or got them delivered. But for that brief period we could go out an visit, we had a lovely sunday lunch back in September, felt really safe, and the food was delish! Only needed a few Yorkshire puddings too.
Locally, we visited Larry & Nora’s and had a lovely dinner in the beer garden, they also serve Bru on draught which is a nice bonus too with some tasty food. We also visited Cross Guns Gastro Pub on the outskirts of Navan, for a lovely dinner. They also serve Bru in Bottles.
Best Off Licence (Bricks and Mortar)
Given the restrictions this year, we’re not blessed in Navan with a great variety of off licences, only really O’Brien’s carry any kind of range, so the majority of my spending this year was with The Winehouse in Trim. Roddy runs a lovely off licence, his staff are super helpful, and they have a great range of beers, wines and spirits. The range of beers mightn’t be as wide as others, but the range is always turning over, to ensure you’re getting fresh beer.
Best Online Off Licence
I can’t really award this to one over the other, having also ordered direct from breweries, we generally got most of our beer from the aforementioned Winehouse in Trim. However, kudos to Craft Central, Beer Cloud, and Martins of Fairview who all shipped us beer promptly and safely during the height of lockdown. They’re all doing a great job.
Best Beer Twitterer
I have to give this to Brian of Craic Beer Community. Brian started doing virtual beer festivals, with a curated box during the height of lockdown. Working so close with Beer Cloud made for a great event. He’s also started doing mystery beer tastings with Craft Central. But most importantly, he’s helping curate a community that has participants joining from outside the bubble, and this is what we need, to spread and champion our local producers. Fair play Brian.
Best Beer Blog
This has to go to The Beer Nut, I know the boak and bailey nod means a lot more, but John’s posts have been comforting in their business as usual with feck all pandemic talk. We were delighted to have John join us on a recent podcast where we discussed the merits of canned rheinbacher versus bottles.
Best Brewery Social Media
I’ve said it before, and i’ll say it again, I just love the Instagram feed of Ballykilcavan, it’s just gorgeously curated, and you feel like you’re truly joining David and his family on their journey of being a functioning barley growing farm to a working farm with a brewery on site.
Best Podcast
Ours! No no, I kid. You all know i’m a huge fan of Martin & Steve on Hopinions, but i’m going to give the nod to Eoin & DJ of The Snugcast who we had the pleasure of being on earlier this year. We had such a hoot, and the post session pints were awesome. But what swung it for me was their amazing Candemic Series. Well done lads and really looking forward to your output in 2021.
Over the next few months we are looking forward to bringing some new content to you via the podcast and the blog.
Irish Beer Snob 