Category: Craftbeer

2015, Beer, Brehon Brewhouse, Craftbeer, CraftBeerChannel, Eight Degrees, Galway Bay Brewery, Hangouts, Hopzine, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, O'Haras, Youtube

Spreading the Message about Irish Craft Beer

by irishbeersnobLeave a Comment on Spreading the Message about Irish Craft Beer

Friends of mine have long joked about my passion for craft beer, and how proud I am of the blossoming Irish Craft Beer Scene. However one of my mate’s monikers for me, Beer Baron didn’t really stick. Until Now.

For those unfamiliar with the reference, I only need to refer you to that fateful episode of The Simpsons, where Springfield reintroduces Prohibition. Homer becomes The Beer Baron vs Rex Banner 


Those of you know who may know, Janice and I have been involved with The Beer O’Clock Show Podcast, who have been featuring Irish Craft Beer in Season 6. Along with Ian of 11pmsomewhere and Sarah of 5 Mins of Finney we have guest appeared on the show a number of times over the season. Be sure to check out their thoughts on the Irish Beer Scene. We also partnered with one of Ireland’s leading Bottle Shops, Drinkstore to help UK listeners obtain the beers in one convenient place. 

Anyway, it doesn’t stop there. Other UK based reviewers were beginning to get in touch to see if we could help them out. First up, the boys of The Craft Beer Channel got in touch as they wanted to do a video of Alternatives to Guinness for St Patrick’s Day. They asked me to pick some stouts for them and send them over. So i’d the tough choice of whittling down to Four Stouts, in the end we went with Bru Brewery Dubh, Brehon Brewhouse Shanco Dubh, O’Hara’s Leann Follain, and the almighty beast that is 200 Fathoms by Galway Bay Brewery. Thanks to all the brewers for making the beers, but I truly felt like the Beer Baron bringing the packed box to be shipped to England! You can check out the video below


Not long after, Rob from Hopzine.com got in touch to see would I like to take part in his monthly roundtable discussion on Youtube, entitled Hops, Malt, Yeast and Waffle where a panel of beery types hangout on Youtube, and chat while supping some beers. What could possibly go wrong? Well it was a couple of hours of good beery chat with people from all over the UK, and we’d a couple from Europe, with Nitch in Paris, and Peter in Denmark. All in all it was good fun, and am looking forward to doing it again. You can watch it below here too. 

That’s not all either, we’ve also been on Today FM Sunday Lunch Show – showing off some great Irish Beers to Aingeala Flannery – the link to the podcast is here on The Today Fm Website and the good folks over at Entertainment.ie interviewed me recently too – you can read it here
So it’s great to be helping to spread to a much wider audience the great things that are going on in Ireland at the moment. Sometimes we focus way to much on the negative, but look at all the good things that are happening at the moment. 

Janice and I are going to look to host something similar in the future – if you’d be interested get in touch with us and we will rock the place.


Also, my feeling like the Beer Baron continued this week, when I shipped bottles to Steve from Beer O’Clock Show – included in his batch this time, 2 Mega Fresh Of Foam and Fury, 2 Bottles of 200 Fathoms, and 2 Bottles of Eight Degrees new IPA Polar Vortex. He’s gonna love them. 

We will be on this week’s Beer O’Clock Show – reviewing Bru Brewery Rua. Huge congratulations to Steve and Mark who reached 100 Episodes, you’re both an inspiration to us and glad to call you friends! 

#Brewsweplate, 2014, Cassidys, Craftbeer, Eric Heilig, Irish, White Gypsy

#Brewsweplate – A beer & food odyssey with Eric Heilig & Floriane Loup

by irishbeersnobLeave a Comment on #Brewsweplate – A beer & food odyssey with Eric Heilig & Floriane Loup

On Sunday 23rd March, in Cassidy’s of Westmoreland St, myself and a select number of people were treated to the first #Brewsweplate event. The brains behind this foodie and beery special are Eric Heilig and Floriane Loup. 

The setting in Cassidy’s upstairs area was entirely fitting with Eric’s philosophy. Fittingly captured in the mission statement.

“The white table clothes and silver service are things of the past. We cut it down to the very essential. Great Irish Produce, amazing Craft Beer and an unforgettable night that just asks for more”

The brewer of the night was White Gypsy, and we were fortunate to have their latest recruit Declan Nixon there to talk us through each the matched beers to each course. Floriane announced each course as they came along.

As an aperitif we were served a delicious Hendricks Gin & Tonic, with cucumber and freshly foraged seaweed. Served in those industrial sized tins were various breads, the standouts for me personally was the treacle and porter brown bread, and the rye flatbreads. Served with a sensation wild garlic butter, and also a tomato butter.

The Amuse-Bouche

Our amuse-bouche was shredded pork with a wild garlic aoili – interestingly the pork was raw and was almost cerviché like in the way it was prepared. With a nice crunchy piece of pork to go with this to add a textural element. The flavour was intense and deliciously tasty. 

1st course – Scallop with Blonde

The first course that came out then was matched with White Gypsy Blonde. A typical German style Weiss beer with those familiar banana and clove smells were matched with Scallop, with roasted banana, coriander, lime and dried Goji berries. The scallop was perfectly cooked and matched beautifully with the components and the beer. 

Hen’s Egg, Brioche, Chicken Heart – with Belgian Brown Ale

Next up, matched with White Gypsy’s Belgian Brown Ale, was Hen’s egg with Leek, Jerusalem Artichoke, pear, brioche and chicken heart. This dish had a lovely earthy feel, very agricultural, reminded me of time on my grandfathers small holding when I was a kid. Matched perfectly with the beer, taking on the beers characteristics and matched on the plate.

The Pork – mmm pork! 

The piece de la resistance for me was the next dish, the perfectly cooked Pork, which I thought was cooked sous vide, however Eric confirmed after it was lightly seared and very slowly cooked at low temps to achieve what can only be described as the most silky smooth piece of pork i’ve ever eaten. This dish had amazing small squares of crackling, celeriac puree, pink grapefruit, almonds and grapes. The matching beer was my favourite White Gypsy beer, the american pale ale. 

The dessert

Last but not least, was the most sumptuous dessert. A rich dark chocolate ganache with with duck yolk ice cream, with sea salt, sweet potato cream, and rye. The matching beer was White Gypsy’s Doppelbock, which had a great complimentary sweet flavour.

All in all this was a fantastic experience, the creativity involved in matching with each beer, and the hospitality was second to none. I love a meal that is nicely spaced out and this was just that. Plenty of time between courses to speak to our table mates and it was a great table if I do say so myself. 

The synergy between the food and beer was exceptional. Eric and Floriane have set the benchmark now, and I for one can not wait to see what they come up with next. 

2014, Alltech, Beoir, Craftbeer, Dublin, Ed Hick, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Independent, Ireland, N17, Rascals, Sarah Roarty, Windsor & Eton

The 2nd Alltech Craft Beers & Brews Festival #alltechbrews Dublin February 2014

by irishbeersnobLeave a Comment on The 2nd Alltech Craft Beers & Brews Festival #alltechbrews Dublin February 2014

2014, it promises to be a great year for Craft Beer in Ireland, and the 1st major event in Ireland was the Alltech Brews and Food Festival at the magnificent Convention Centre Dublin. It is also confirmed that this even will return in 2015 bigger and better.

This was my first time, I missed the 2013 event, meaning I had no point of reference, but this wasn’t going to stop the enjoyment of it. Part festival, part conference there was a great blend with the conference sessions, The Pub Series which I attended and the Sensory Courses. 



This was truly an international event, I bumped into pub owners from around the world, and perhaps more surprisingly there were a lot of Irish Publicans here. Maybe the penny is dropping. There were some great speakers, Dr Pearse Lyons, President of Alltech gave a rousing and very inspiring talk before my friend Reuben Gray gave a talk to 300 eager to learn pub owners and managers. As you know Reuben is an avid blogger also, but he is currently the Chair of Beoir. 

The themes of the talks were of a broad but practical nature, simple things like if you have bottles and they can’t be easily seen, have a menu. I expect a lot of people took something from each of the speakers. One of the more interesting topics was when Dean McGuinness from Newstalk & Premier Beers gave his definition of Craft Beer. But for me one of the best was the panel that features some standout publicans from the Irish Craft Beer scene, Seaneen from L Mulligan Grocer, Jason from Galway Bay Brewery and Geoff from 57 The Headline. An open forum Q&A session where they told a very attentive audiences about their businesses and what works for them. 



Once the talks finished I went down to the main expo area which was really well laid out, and this time afforded me to the opportunity to speak to some great brewers from all corners. I particularly am thankful to Paddy from Windsor & Eton who talked alot about their beers, of which 2 feature in the 1001 Beers to Try Before you Die. I sampled the Republika Pilsener, and Conqueror 1075 Black IPA, both extraordinary beers, but I also enjoyed their Kohinoor, an east Indian Pale Ale with Cardamom, Coriander and Jasmine. I really hope someone picked them up for distribution to the ROI. 

In an Irish context there were some Irish Debutants here, we’d Rascals, N17, Independent Brewing, Stone Barrel. N17’s Oatmeal stout was sensational, as well as the Gold Winning Rascals Chocolate Ginger Porter. Both medallists in the Dublin Cup. The full list of winners is here, but the Irish Winners are here; A special well done to all the medal winners, but Ireland is once again punching above its weight in the international scene. Long may it continue.


The overall winner from Denmark, was the Coisbo No 4: A Small Batch Russian Imperial Stout, thankfully i’d sampled before the announcement and the resultant scrum. Not only that they’d a very interesting Pale Ale with Elderflower too. Really hope they’ll be in Ireland soon. Also I was very very impressed with Spain’s, Molta Birra Revolution IPA from Catalonia. 

But perhaps for me the story of the festival was the launch of N17, which has been launched by Sarah Roarty whose whole philosophy of total production means that even bye products such as the spent grain is repurposed into Granola, and Dog Biscuits. There are some oriental mushrooms to follow too. But not only did Sarah come to the show with a lovely Rye Ale, but also a fantastic Oatmeal stout, thankfully this was noticed by the judges and Sarah was awarded Bronze. For a Debut Beer, this was sensational! I also have the infamy of being the person who told her she’d won, while she was pulling a drink, it was a fantastic moment, and extremely well done. It must also be noted that Independent from Carroroe also won a medal on their festival debut.



We’re blessed with some fantastic food producers here in Ireland and they were well represented here, Ballymaloe, Ed Hick, Sheridans Cheeses, Carrigaline, Bretzel Bakery and many more. It was maybe a slight pity that there was only little morsels of these fabulous products available to us rather than say a Ed Hick Sausages on freshly baked Bretzel Bread? 

The atmosphere at the three evening sessions was fantastic, and kudos to the organisers for putting on a fantastic event. Can’t wait for next year already. Maeve, Tara, Ashling, Holly and Tracey were all fantastic and a credit to Alltech, the hospitality was fantasic. Thank you so much. 

Next Up for me, next weekend is The Winter Ale & Cask Festival @Franciscan Well Cork, then next month we have the Irish Craft Beer Fest in the CHQ Building in the IFSC.



Alltech, Bourbon, Convention Centre, Craftbeer, Ely, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Whiskey

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

by irishbeersnobLeave a Comment on 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.

Bray, Bru Brewery, Craftbeer, Dungarvan Brewing, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Kilruddery House, Meath, Mountain Man Brewing, Orpens, Trouble Brewing, True Batch Brew, White Gypsy

Winter Craft Beer & Cider Festival – Kilruddery House Bray

by irishbeersnobLeave a Comment on Winter Craft Beer & Cider Festival – Kilruddery House Bray
The bar in the Marquee.

On the weekend of the 2nd November, Kilruddery House in Bray hosted along side its regular weekly farmers market, a Craft Beer and Cider event. 

I was piggy backing in with the lads from Bru Brewery, but also in attendance were Mountain Man Brewing, Trouble Brewing, White Gypsy, and Dungarvan Brewing. On the Cider side we had Orpens, who will be setting up shop in Slane, Co Meath next year, and Craigies from Wicklow. Also in attendance was The National Homebrew Club, and True Batch Brew.

Firstly, if you get the chance to go down to this farmers market you should, they’ve a lot of local food producers, including the ever delicious Hicks Butcher. 

The day was long, and the conditions were very cold, I wouldn’t have liked to be running the Hell and Back the next day. Fair play to anyone who did.

Trouble brewing brought along a keg of the pumpkin ale, quite possibly the last keg, and it was delicious as always. They also rotated the 2nd tap between Sabotage IPA and Dark Arts. Our neighbours from White Gypsy were pouring a lovely Baltic porter called Gota, and Belgian ale called Semoy. 

On the Bru Stand we had the three products flowing, and after initial teething issues with the gas on the Rua we got things pouring great. The Dubh went down really well, but there were plenty of plaudits for the Amber Lager. 

Mountain Man probably had the busiest stand, his stand has evolved from the RDS where now one of the taps is actually made with a 50 cal bullet casing for the green bullet. Phil is a gas man, and it was great to meet up with him again, and Mrs Mountain Man was great too! Hopefully you enjoyed your snack box on the way home! 

One of the most interesting stands for me though was the team behind True Batch Brew. Essentially its a 1 gallon all grain brew kit contained with all the ingredients you need to make a small batch without loads of home brew equipment cluttering up space. They’d samples of their pale ale, and porter. The pale ale was very tasty. It was their first outing and judging by the visitors they seem to have captured the public’s imagination. The kit is €45 and comes with very clear instructions. Well done guys, I hope to pick up a kit to test and post the results on my blog! Best of luck with the venture.

Lastly, the ciders, Orpens cider, coming soon to the royal county, taking up home in the Old Mill in Slane near the infamous bridge on the banks of the Boyne. The cider is lovely medium dry, and it very refreshing, I can’t wait to have it more. Well done. We also had Craigies from Wicklow, who were there with their lovely cider. A bit on the dry side for my taste, but as I was tasting it I was thinking of the food matching possibilities, pork belly and cider mmm. Anyway, they’ve some pretty interesting plans for bottling into the future, and best wishes guys. A very tasty day.

A good day was had by all, and i’m sure there were some valuable introductions for all the exhibitors on the day that hopefully will mean we will see more of these bespoke, artisan, hand crafted products in more places in the future.

The day wound up pretty quickly from about 7 on wards it was very quiet, one or two comments from people locally was they were unaware it was on. Even though there was shuttles in operation and phone numbers for local taxi drivers in supply the crowd was a little light after the farmers market finished up, maybe for the next event, they could target market the locality, in pubs like Hollands, and others in the area. 

Beoir, Craftbeer, Drinkstore, Limerick, Market, Navan, Red Torch Ginger, Thai, The Central

Upcoming Plans

by irishbeersnobLeave a Comment on Upcoming Plans

Sorry i’ve not posted in a little while been all quiet on the western front but there are a few things coming up over the next few weeks which i’ll be looking forward to sharing with you as soon as I can.

Not much in the way of beers etc being tried, but have been thinking about Christmas and what to do then. So any ideas from anyone out there have any suggestions for Christmas ales. One being given serious consideration at the moment is a nice chocolate stout float as part of the Christmas dinner. 

So had a work lunch in Red Torch Ginger today – 2 course lunch including home made lemonade, iced tea, or water for €14.95 those who’ve read my previous reviews will know that I rate the food very highly. I went for the combo starter which was a spring roll, wanton, chicken satay and marvelous rib. For main course went with a delish Duck with Basil and Chilli stir fry with egg noodles. Also great to see that they are offering a range of craft beers. Some great beers on the list. Look forward to getting back and sampling with a meal next time guys.

Coming up, we’ve a wedding in the Shelbourne, a trip to Limerick, and i’m really looking forward to that, really looking forward to checking out the craft beer scene in Limerick.

Payday this weekend and expect a haul from Drinkstore or Sweeneys perhaps. However with my Beoir membership now getting me 10% off Irish Craft Beer at Drinkstore, thats looking like a winner.

Also hoping to check out the Honest to Goodness Market on Saturday Morning.

So i’ve not been in hibernation, just planning!