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.
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| 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!
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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.
Irish Beer Snob 