Category: Mescan

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