Category: Irish Craft Beer

2016, Collaboration, Hopical, Irish Beer & Whiskey Festival, Irish Craft Beer, Myles Lambert, News, podcast, St Patricks Day, Wylam, Yeastie Boys

Podcast Episode Seventeen – Wylam & Yeastie Boys W x Y

by irishbeersnob1 Comment on Podcast Episode Seventeen – Wylam & Yeastie Boys W x Y

In the big comeback episode for Mrs Beer Snob, the team sample a collaboration beer that was gifted to them by their favourite Geordie, Myles, who was over recently for the Alltech Festival (You can read his thoughts on the festival here )



In this episode we also catch up on the latest happenings in the Irish Craft Beer Scene, and look at the upcoming Irish Beer & Whiskey Village which prompted some interesting conversation when it was noticed that Guinness’ Open Gate Brewery will be present. Here’s a link to the Tweet that asked the Question – you can check the replies by clicking on it.

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsWe also discuss some of the Media handwringing a certain Wicklow Wolf beer experienced in recent days. Instigated by serial troll and drain on tax payer funded RTE Joe Duffy you can hear the nonsense here and read some of the more reasoned stuff here and here. 

Also if you’re in the London Area, the guys from www.irelandcraftbeers.com are running a few events around the place.

  • 16th March – The lads are at We Brought Beer, link to the event page is here
  • 17th March – Craft My Irish at Brewdog Clapham Junction featuring beers from White Hag Brewery and 8 Degrees
  • 17th – 20th March – My Goodness, No Guinness at The Rake – festival itinerary is here

Don’t forget to subscribe to us on iTunes, and Rate & Review our show. For those using non Apple devices, the direct MP3 link is here.

2016, Athlone, beer & food matching, Black Donkey Brewing, Bo Bristle, Craft Beer, Food Pairing, Irish Craft Beer, Mescan, The Ritz

Craft Beer & Food pairing at The Ritz

by irishbeersnob1 Comment on Craft Beer & Food pairing at The Ritz
So Friday night we joined Simon Says and the Athlone beer club for one of their monthly meetings. While it was my first time to meet up, Wayne had the pleasure of attending before. Simon organized a great event for the night, a craft beer and food pairing evening hosted by The Ritz aptly named #HopsAtTheRitz. Unsurprisingly there was a terrific turn out on the night. The guys put together a wonderful menu with some great beers.While I read over it I began with a pale ale from St Mels 
First course was smoked hake, warm nicoise salad topped with a boiled quail egg and citrus salsa verdi. This was beautiful and light with great flavours. Its matching beer was a brilliant choice in Mescan Blond. A delicious beer weighing in at 5.5% with a great creamy smooth finish.
Up next was a wonderfully prepared Pan seared wood pigeon, puy lentil with blackberry jus and a micro herb salad. This was so very tasty. To accompany it was Mescan Tripel. I really enjoyed this course but personally felt the beer didn’t quite suit the dish. Both are beautiful, just not together. 
Our third course was a baked sweet potato and cumin soup with sweet potato crisp and home-made bread. Young Dave Guilfoyle of Bo Bristle brought along a specially brewed beer for the evening. A simply stunning Strong Amber at 7.8%. I thought this was the perfect match. There was a slight kick to the soup that was complimented by the sweet caramel goodness of the beer. 
Following that we enjoyed Braised beef cheek with horseradish mash, baby veg with wild mushroom and smoked lardon jus. The cheeks were so tender and mouth watering and the mash was gorgeous. Such a generous portion size. This was paired with Beoir Na Nollaig by Mescan. A lovely strong dark ale with sweet spicy taste. 
Last but certainly not least was dessert! An amazing warm chocolate fondant with ginger nut crumble and vanilla bean ice cream. This was pure heaven. I loved how it oozed as soon as i took my first spoonful. The beer chosen for this dish was a new one from Black Donkey. A Biere De Garde called Arigna #1 at 7.5%. This one was not to my taste but I know Wayne really enjoyed it. 
This was a fantastically well organised event that offered amazing value for money. We enjoyed these five stunning courses with the accompanying beers for €35. Well done to Simon and all the staff at The Ritz. We’ll definitely see you again!
2016, Alltech, Beer Festival, Beerporn, Craft Beer, Dublin, Guest, Instagram, Ireland, Irish Craft Beer, Lagunitas, Mescan, podcast, Protips, Tripel

Podcast Episode Fifteen – How to be a "Beer Pornographer" and a look forward to Alltech Brews & Food 2016

by irishbeersnob22 Comments on Podcast Episode Fifteen – How to be a "Beer Pornographer" and a look forward to Alltech Brews & Food 2016



This week sees the first Irish Beer Snob podcast episode with a live guest recording alongside our Intrepid Duo. We have Instagram legend, Pierce Cooney of @Son0vaGun (https://www.instagram.com/son0vagun/ ) to share his tips for excellent Instagram Beer Photography.

We also visited McHugh’s Off Licence in Kilbarrack, Dublin for the beer for today’s episode – we had Mescan Brewery Red Tripel, and a Growler of Lagunitas Mozango IPA with Mango. 

Pierce and his padawan apprentice

Here are some practical tips for you to improve your Instagram photography from the master himself.

  • Plan your photo, sounds like common sense but really helps
  • Try use natural light if you can, however some people use Light boxes
  • Choose a nice background, use places of interest, landmarks etc, make it not just about the beer.
  • Take your photo from a low angle, turn your phone / camera upside down if necessary
  • Take plenty of shots, from a variety of angles, then choose your favourite
  • Use Hash Tags! (Save them somewhere and copy and paste them!
Helping to get that “Shot”
Pierce’s 3 Favourite Beer Photo Instagram Accounts
  1. @BeerFarts – Beer & Lego what’s not to love
  2. @FantasticFilm – Pierce’s #PrizelessPrize Nemesis
  3. @Commodore_NB_Pants – a US based instagrammer
We had great fun recording this episode, where we also have a look forward to the upcoming Alltech Brews & Food Fair in Dublin’s Convention Centre, Feb 5th to 7th. Loads more info on the website here tickets still available and if you’re there on Friday don’t forget to register for the Guinness World Record attempt for worlds largest beer tasting.

The good folk at Alltech have kindly given us a pair of tickets to give away to one lucky listener to bring themselves and a friend to the festival on a day of their choosing. Please note the competition will close on Friday 29th January at 5pm. Winner will be chosen at random, and must be able to collect the prize.

To win all you have to do is answer this simple question;

What was Pierce’s favourite beer in 2015?
Hint: Listen to the podcast to find out

Once you have your answer, please comment below this post on the blog – entries are only accepted if posted to this page.

You can now find our podcast by searching for “Irish Beer Snob” in iTunes, by direct download link here or by adding our RSS to your favourite podcast listening app which is http://irishbeersnob.libsyn.com/RSS

#CraftBeerUnLaoisd2, 12 Acres, Beer Festival, Bo Bristle, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Irish Craft Beer, Kavanagh's, Snobfest, Trouble Brewing, Vanguard Beer Collective, White Gypsy

#CraftBeerUnlaoisD2 – Portlaoise Craft Beer Festival Returns to Kavanagh’s on 20th June

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Once again we are coming back to Kavanagh’s Pub in Portlaoise for a Beer Festival. This time we are doing it in Summer time! 



After having such a great event last time our we are really looking forward to coming back and we’ve teamed up with some great breweries to bring this event to you.

Local Lads 12 Acres from Killeshin will be there, no doubt bringing along their award winning American Pale Ale.

Representing Tipperary we have White Gypsy from Templemore coming along. Kildare is represented by Trouble Brewing. Offaly represented by Bo Bristle who are debuting this years Wild Irish Beer. Lastly we’ll have James from Vanguard Beer Collective who will be bringing along some Irish Beers & Ciders.

Entry costs €10 which includes 2 beer tokens and food. Doors open at 4pm til late

There is live music in the evening provided by Keelan Donovan as part of his Irish Tour.

It promises to be a great afternoon / evening

Portlaoise is very well connected in terms of public transport – you can easily reach by the following methods

From Dublin
Train from Hueston Station (www.irishrail.ie)
Bus from George’s Quay (www.jjkavanagh.ie)
Bus by Dublin Coach (http://www.dublincoach.ie/timetables-fares/N7-bus-dublin-airport-to-portlaoise.php)


2014, Beoir, Bru Brewery, Copper & Spices, Dubh, Dublin Beer Ladies, Guest Blog Post, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Irish, Irish Craft Beer, Le Cheile, Mrs Irishbeersnob, Music, Rí, Rua

Music Festival, In a Brewery? It can only be the Le Cheile launch in Brú Brewery

by irishbeersnob1 Comment on Music Festival, In a Brewery? It can only be the Le Cheile launch in Brú Brewery

Ok, in a world exclusive, Its not me doing this blog post, i’m handing over the reigns to the long suffering Mrs Irishbeersnob. Janice. 

Janice, over to you.

Sampling some craft beers

Ok, a little about me. For a long time i’ve enjoyed craft beers, and I am the one who created the Irish Beer Snob, no matter what he may tell you. My love for Timothy Taylor Landlord is famous the land over. My name is Janice, i’m a proud Dublin Beer Lady, member of Beoir, and tryer of craft beer. Its all a lot of fun, and i’m looking forward to featuring a bit more here, and hopefully in podcasts in the future. Now, i’m going to talk to you about the awesome night we had, well, I had cos poor Wayne was toiling away pulling pints for a thirsty music crowd, while I hung around with my partner in crime Carmel, supping those lovely Brú Beers.

Every August in Oldcastle, they hold a music festival called Le Cheile, this event was ran as a facebook competition for people to win entry to the brewery, and have a few beers while they were rocked by 3 local bands, all of whom will be playing at Le Cheile. I was lucky enough to be one of the forty winners.

It all kicked off at 8pm on a Friday evening and when we arrived the band were sound checking and it was still very bright out. As you’ll see from the pictures below. Famished after a day at work we went straight to Carmel from Copper and Spices for some yummy Chicken Curry with Pilau Rice. Curry and Beer, what a great combination. Now we had the curry, but not the beer. So out we went to get some Rí. Poor old Wayne couldn’t even finish the bowl before he was hooked in behind the bar to help out Neil.


There was a good crowd, but the atmosphere really took off when a bus load of music and beer lovers came down from Oldcastle. Once they got in, and were fed and watered, the bands kicked off. It was still quite bright out so Daire closed down the main loading door at the back of the brewery which made the brewing area dark, and perfect for the music that was going to come next. 

The first band was an acoustic duo called T4AA, they were perched up over looking the crowd strumming away as people continued to drink. It was notable a lot of these people wouldn’t be your typical craft beer drinkers. Most of them were Craft Beer Virgins! Lucky for them Wayne was waiting to eagerly convert each and every one of them. He even said how one lad said he’d never go back to Guinness after drinking the heavenly Brú Dubh. We all know my love of Brú is massive! 

The next band up were Travis Oaks, who were an original band, who played all their own material, and this was the group most of the crowd were here to see. They got them all worked up. Or was that the beer? Probably both. But they were rocking, and it’s a good thing that there was plenty of Copper and Spices Curry, and Samosa’s to go around. 

In fairness to Wayne, he never let my glass of Rua empty, its just delish, and it doesn’t get any better than served at the brewery.

Last up, then for the night were local covers band, No Halo, playing lots of familiar rock hits, kicking the crowd into overdrive. 

All in all, it was a great night, but, more importantly, it was very unique. 3 Bands, in a Brewery, with great curry. Where else would you get it? The organisers from Le Cheile and Brú should be commended for their imagination, and execution of a great event. 

Tickets for this great festival, are available for purchase at www.lecheile.com and several outlets in Meath. If you’ve no plans for the August Bank Holiday weekend you should check it out. Oh, and don’t worry about it being rubbish beer, the beers at the Festival will be Brú!

*****************************************************************

Now that i’ve wrestled the laptop away from Janice, as supping a lovely Blackstairs Ruby IPA, I just want to thank Janice for being so supporting with all my beery escapades, and to let you all know this will not be the last time Janice will be posting to my blog. Hopefully soon, you too will be able to listen to us waffle on in our very own podcast, once Ian teaches me how to do it!!

Thanks for reading, please share this with all your friends! Mrs Irish Beer Snob, has arrived.




11pm somewhere, 2014, beer bloggers, EBBC, european beer bloggers conference, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Irish Craft Beer, tale of ale

Into the breach – European Beer Bloggers Conference Dublin 2014

by irishbeersnob1 Comment on Into the breach – European Beer Bloggers Conference Dublin 2014

So as many of my regular readers will know I started this blog last year and have slowly and steadily built up a readership averaging between 2500 and 3000 readers per month.

This blog has got me to some great things such as media access to the fantastic Alltech Brews and Food festival in Dublin last February. I’ve made strong connections with several brewers and feel a firm part of the Irish craft beer scene.

So it is with a sense of excitement I’m going into next weeks European Beer Bloggers Conference in Dublin. I’m excited for a number of reasons but mainly as it’s a fantastic opportunity to network and learn from peers who have been where I have been and have grown into hugely respected blogs with multiples of my readership.

I’m also really looking forward to the local brewers showcasing their talents as its not often seen outside Ireland and that its our duty as bloggers to spread the good word of the blossoming Irish Craft Beer Scene.

Some of the talks that are scheduled I’m hoping to pick up things that will help me to become a better blogger.  But most of all this is going to be a hell of a lot of fun.

The evening sessions will no doubt be great fun too as I always say beer is a social lubricant.

No doubt myself and Ian of 11pmsomewhere.com podcast fame will be getting up to no good somewhere. For those of you interested we are hoping to have a Google hangout pre event at the Brewdock on Amiens St, at 4ish on the Thursday for any of you who are getting into Dublin early.

Like minded individuals in an environment that will be no doubt relaxed having a few jars. This is gonna be special.

All kicking off next Thursday with the pub crawl organised by Reuben Gray (www.taleofale.com) to attendees and organisers I look forward to sharing a pint with you at some stage over the few days.

Sláinte