Craft Beer

[neilinboston]

i can now recommend Newbury port brewings ipa too, about all the hops i can handle but good balance too.
can't wait to see what craft brews are available in Ireland when i get back

[artaneboy]

i can now recommend Newbury port brewings ipa too, about all the hops i can handle but good balance too.
can't wait to see what craft brews are available in Ireland when i get back

Don't get too excited, but there's a quiet explosion going on here too. O'Hara's of Carlow and Dungarvan Brewery are two good brands among several others that I like myself.

[AdamK]

More importantly is the fact that it seems 'cool' for pubs to stock craft beers, and new craft beer pubs are the in thing now. I am very okay with this.

[neilinboston]

what's your recommendation for a good craft beer pub in Dublin?
i should probably start a new thread-what an emigrant should drink when in Ireland for a week...and where should they drink it.

[Lamb of BOD]

personally love the Porterhouse. Great beers - they brew a number of them themselves, and have an extensive menu of bottled world beers. We frequent the one on Nassau St, partially for the beer and food (it's not everywhere you can get a plate of oysters these days), but also for the craic with the staff.
Another brilliant place is Mulligan's in Stoneybatter. I could echo everything I just wrote about the Porterhouse for Mulligan's - excellent beverages, good food and friendly staff. It's just a little out of the way for me from where I live.
The final suggestion that I can think of right now is The Bull & Castle across from Christchurch. Craft beers (I;m open to correction in saying I don't think they brew their own) from numerous micro breweries around the country plus an extensive world beer section. If you reserve a table for Friday evenings (before 6pm - I think, could be 5) for 6 people they'll chuck in a free beer plus food platter for you. Not too shabby. Their grub is good, too. FX Buckleys own it and have a restaurant downstairs.

I accept this has only a tenuous link to the thread title in that Mrs Lamb and I are as likely to head to one of the above after a match as anywhere else.

[artaneboy]

what's your recommendation for a good craft beer pub in Dublin?
i should probably start a new thread-what an emigrant should drink when in Ireland for a week...and where should they drink it.

I don't live in Dublin anymore- but I think the Porter House chain on Parliament Street, Phiborough and elsewhere is still a good one. They just do their own porter house beers though- no independents, that I know of. Incidentally the Covent Garden branch of Porter House is (was?) the OLSC HQ in London- so good vibes on that.

[AdamK]

what's your recommendation for a good craft beer pub in Dublin?
i should probably start a new thread-what an emigrant should drink when in Ireland for a week...and where should they drink it.

Against the Grain on Wexford st is a good spot!

[Rogocoko]

I wish the RDS would do something like this

http://www.examiner.com/article/padres- ... -of-dreams

[domhnallj]

I wish the RDS would do something like this

http://www.examiner.com/article/padres- ... -of-dreams

At the moment I'd settle for them not charging 5.70 for a pint.

[TheBear]

what's your recommendation for a good craft beer pub in Dublin?
i should probably start a new thread-what an emigrant should drink when in Ireland for a week...and where should they drink it.

I don't live in Dublin anymore- but I think the Porter House chain on Parliament Street, Phiborough and elsewhere is still a good one. They just do their own porter house beers though- no independents, that I know of. Incidentally the Covent Garden branch of Porter House is (was?) the OLSC HQ in London- so good vibes on that.

The Porterhouse has a decent range of independently brewed beers. They rotate the ones they have on tap, but have a selection of about 150 or more bottled beers.

When are you visiting, Neil? If it's soon, you might want to check out the Porterhouse's Belgian Beer and Mussels Festival? (Mussels from Brussels! Geddit?)

what's your recommendation for a good craft beer pub in Dublin?
i should probably start a new thread-what an emigrant should drink when in Ireland for a week...and where should they drink it.

Against the Grain on Wexford st is a good spot!

It's nice, and has good beers, but tends to get very packed. Even on days when it's not too busy, it has awful acoustics, which makes it uncomfortably loud for aging ear-drums.

[neilinboston]

Belgian beer, mussels...talking my language! in a different life i spent an entire night shouting 'moules frites' every time i saw a Belgian guy we happened to run into.
i won't be back until sept.
of the craft brews, is there a style more popular? in the USA it seems there's an abundance of similar ipas and everybody tried to stand out by just making their beer hoppier to the point that they became almost UN drinkable if you have taste buds still in tact

[mikerob]

is there a style more popular? in the USA it seems there's an abundance of similar ipas and everybody tried to stand out by just making their beer hoppier to the point that they became almost UN drinkable if you have taste buds still in tact

Yeah, I noticed exactly this point about US IPAs. I found quite a few totally undrinkable because they are so hoppy.

However a good thing about the scene in the US is the amount of experimentation with different styles. I was over in NY last autumn and a number of places were doing seasonal pumpkin ales and I thought a number of these were really good.

[meinster]

of the craft brews, is there a style more popular?

"American style" lagers are the biggest sellers, if that's what you mean. When micro-brewing re-started in the mid 90s it was all about the stout, but that soon swung towards blander lagers (deliberately bland to appeal to a wide audience; like the multinationals. Not quite Budweiser-eseque, but definitely a brewer's compromise). Very little experimentation until the turn of the century. Tastier lagers (pils & belgian mainly). Mid naughties it was all about getting the IPAs out there, and the turn of the decade was really when demand was really starting to justify other beers. We now have a full compliment of tasty beers that can be regularly produced (and sold, more to the point!), by the ~20 Irish micro-brewers. Bland lagers are still the best sellers, but IPAs and wheat beers now competing with the stalwarts of micro-brewing (a decent stout, a nice ale, and a bland lager; the rent payers, if you like). Some micro-brewers exist because they are passionate about beer & local produce; some exist because it's the cool thing, or something. You can taste that in their beer.

I can't think of any Irish beer that is undrinkable, TBH. I'm sure in an other few years, as experimentation increases, we might hit that.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Apparently the International Craft Brewing and Distilling convention is on in the convention centre over the next couple of days. Apologies if someone already mentioned it and I missed it.

[meinster]

Apparently the International Craft Brewing and Distilling convention is on in the convention centre over the next couple of days. Apologies if someone already mentioned it and I missed it.

For any one at the last RDS festival, beware that bloody bourbon beer (Kentucky?) is in town.

[tigerburnie]

I recall my first visit to Dublin in the mid 1970's, you could get Smithwicks,Guinness or Harp lager, that was it.

[domhnallj]

I recall my first visit to Dublin in the mid 1970's, you could get Smithwicks,Guinness or Harp lager, that was it.

and on the upside you can't get Harp anymore

[TerenureJim]

I recall my first visit to Dublin in the mid 1970's, you could get Smithwicks,Guinness or Harp lager, that was it.

Ireland would have had a tradition of multiple local breweries like England/Germany/Belgium but for Guinness. For all the national symbol type thing it has become Guinness on it's own is probably the main cause of the lack of a brewing culture/tradition/industry in Ireland. They expanded out from Dublin as canal and rail infrastructure developed and decimated brewing in Leinster (bar Kilkenny, Smithwicks) and then further into the country with Cork and some pockets round Munster being Murphys/Beamish holdouts, up Noth Harp and Bass were popular with an honourable mention to the imported Tennants which i assume is popular due to the Scottish links of a proportion of the populace up there.

What's also worth pointing out is the popularity of whiskey would have meant that until recent enough years say last 30 odd most guys would have been drinking spirits rather than beers leading to a great selection of the distilled rather than brewed variety of alcohol.

[domhnallj]

I recall my first visit to Dublin in the mid 1970's, you could get Smithwicks,Guinness or Harp lager, that was it.

Ireland would have had a tradition of multiple local breweries like England/Germany/Belgium but for Guinness. For all the national symbol type thing it has become Guinness on it's own is probably the main cause of the lack of a brewing culture/tradition/industry in Ireland. They expanded out from Dublin as canal and rail infrastructure developed and decimated brewing in Leinster (bar Kilkenny, Smithwicks) and then further into the country with Cork and some pockets round Munster being Murphys/Beamish holdouts, up Noth Harp and Bass were popular with an honourable mention to the imported Tennants which i assume is popular due to the Scottish links of a proportion of the populace up there.

What's also worth pointing out is the popularity of whiskey would have meant that until recent enough years say last 30 odd most guys would have been drinking spirits rather than beers leading to a great selection of the distilled rather than brewed variety of alcohol.

i know that the distilling industry used to be quite widespread, but in my lifetime there has only been a handful of distillers which is strange considering how the scots have cashed in

[Alternative Ulster]

What's also worth pointing out is the popularity of whiskey would have meant that until recent enough years say last 30 odd most guys would have been drinking spirits rather than beers

I think the opposite is true. Consumption of spirits has grown in the last 30 years. There was an increase in Excise duty on spirits in 2003 which affected sales, but the general trend has been upward not downward.