Wicklow Brewery 12:12:16

 

Had the pleasure of drinking a special from Wicklow Brewery last night, (Bottle 1 of 2 - cheers to Jason for sending them on) - their anniversary beer named 12:12:16. The date coincides with the 4 year anniversary of the signing of the lease for the brewery and also the 2 year anniversary of the opening of the beer hall (which is awesome by the way, well worth the visit). 

Now on to the beer! Described on the bottle as Oak Barrel Aged Strong Ale I was expecting a whiskey soaked, heavy, very dark beer. Pleasantly surprised to find this beer quite light and delicately well balanced. Has a smokey aroma and you can get the smell of the treacle too. The colour is a dark burnt orange, again would have thought darker but there is obviously a careful balance of malts used  which are listed on the label too. 

There is a lovely sweet but delicate fruit flavour at first tasting. For the brew they rehydrated raisins and cherries in 10 year old port and added this to the whiskey barrel aged beer! This precise and careful attention to detail is what I would expect from Wicklow brewery having tasted some of their other fine beers (can't wait for aurora ipa next year). As the beer warms up (admittedly had it a bit too cool at first) you start to get the warmness of the alcohol from the whiskey and the smokey flavours from the oak barrel. This beer has a smooth mouthfeel and a slight tartness in the aftertaste. Bags of flavour to this beer and I can't wait to try my next bottle... serve at room temperature is Jason's (head brewer) advice. I will definitely heed this advice! If you can find a bottle of this and I wish you luck as there are only about 1000 bottles, get your hands on one! 

I believe there are big plans next year for a range of new beers from this brewery including some more barrel ageing! Keep your eyes peeled and also get down to Redcross to visit the brewery and taproom! They have glamping accommodation onsite too so would make a good long weekend. 

Cheers - The Beer Hopster 

 
 

International Stout Day

 

So yesterday may have been all about the boys in green but Thursday was all about the all black - International Stout Day. Yep that's a thing and this was the 3rd year running. I was lucky enough to be invited along to a gathering in The Open Gate Brewery  by friends Kelly's Mountain Brew to celebrate the dark, malty, roasty wonder that is stout! 

5 guest breweries along with some media & bloggers were invited to come along to celebrate stout day. Of the breweries invited there was the aforementioned Kelly's, 5 lamps, Porterhouse, Dungarvan Brewing Co. and from London, 40ft Brewery. All in attendance were showcasing their own stouts/porters and there was a great many takes on the style to taste. 

Try as I might, unfortunately I wasn't able to try them all. The guest breweries had one or two beers each and Guinness themselves had about 8 varieties to choose from. So... what did I get around to tasting? Well, first off I got chatting to Domhnall and a couple of the other lads from Open Gate and decided to try the Sea salt and burnt sugar stout. This was delicious! Desert in a glass. A dry stout (salt effect) with a brown sugar/salted caramel finish. Anyone who thinks that all the big beer companies make is bland beer needs to visit the Open Gate. They are serving some cracking beers in there. 

Of the Guinness beers, I also had their weisen stout and apple stout. The former was a light and smooth stout and probably the most sessionable beer I had that evening. The latter was impressive in that they managed to get the subtle flavour of apple into a dark beer but personally I don't think the two belong together and I didn't enjoy this one. 
 

Also had a long chat with Peter Simpson and he gave us a sample of two different barrel aged stouts on the night. 

The Antwerpen export was the 2nd time the barrel had been used so I don't think it got the full benefit of being aged. It was a bit sour, not bad but in comparison to the other barrel, it didn't compare. The 2nd barrel had the West Indies porter aged in Rye bourbon. This was smooth and had a fine vanilla flavour as well as the bourbon. I really enjoyed this beer. Along with the burnt sugar stout, these were my favourite of what Guinness had to offer. 

Of the other breweries, stand out beers were Wakey Wakey by 5 lamps and 40ft deep by 40ft brewery. Wakey Wakey is a collaboration beer between the Dublin based brewery and coffee roasters that I cannot recall the name of now. If you had served this to me in a cup I would honestly think you had given me cold coffee. Massively roasty coffee flavour and well hidden alcohol. I'm not a coffee drinker myself but I love when a beer tastes of what it is meant to. Too many beers don't quite live up to their names/expectations. 

The 40ft deep was a dry Irish stout style beer. Chatting to Ben he said he had tried an Irish stout and loved the dryness of the style so decided to brew one himself. I think they managed to make a beer that is true to the style and I really enjoyed drinking this and talking to the guys from 40ft. 

A quick note on the non-beer side of things. There was a cheese mongers serving a selection of hard and soft cheeses along with crackers and apple slices and also The Cupcake Bloke was serving up some delicious treats. Blas na hEireann gold winner this year had some delicious cupcakes and brownies to soak up the beers. The nice thing was they had used some Guinness beers somewhere in each of their recipes. 

Hopefully there will be similar events next year, it's a great way to celebrate a lovely and actually quite diverse beer style. All in all, fabulous evening. Hope you all enjoyed some great Irish or international stouts on the day too. 

Cheers - The Beer Hopster 🍻
 

 

 

 

Savouring the long weekend!

Hope everyone has been enjoying the last long weekend of the year! I know I have. On returning home to Kildare from visiting friends in Wexford yesterday, we decided to drop by the Savour Kilkenny food festival. This was my first time attending and I think I'll have to book myself a night in Kilkenny next year for this. There was such a great atmosphere there with musicians playing and a huge crowd flocking around the plethora of food stalls. But I'll be honest I was there for the beer. So after a quick float around the stalls and a tasty wood fired pizza for lunch, I was off to the O Hara's beer tent. 

First up I visited 12 Acres and had a pint of their delicious pale ale. They also had their new Golden Harvest pale ale available in bottles for take away. This is their seasonal beer for Aldi, available nationwide while stocks last. 

Next I was off for a chat with Ger Costello of Costello's brewery and a pint of his red ale. He's was telling me the brewery is almost up and running and should be brewing away in the next month or two. Also we can expect some new brews early next year, looking forward to that. 

After this I visited the good folks at metalman for some cans to take home with me. They had a really great offer of 5 cans and a glass for 15euro. Also had a raspberry chilli sour in cans but had problem with labelling so couldn't sell this. I was kindly given one though so made off with 6 cans and a glass for 15 euro! Bargain! That in itself was worth stopping off in Kilkenny for 😊 

Was time for one quick pint of stout from O Hara's before heading home and a quick pose for a photo to enter their competition for International Stout Day. Check out their facebook or twitter to enter, amazing prize, will be well worth it! My attempt is below. 

So that was yesterday, great fun! Today I had planned to bottle some home brew I'd had sitting in the fermenter a while but I tasted it and it was off! Damn. Anyway now I'm enjoying a can of Metalman's super refreshing and light ginger blonde ale. Blondes can be boring but the ginger here gives it a little zing. I'll report back on the raspberry chilli sour when I've tried it but for now I'm happy finishing the weekend with this enjoyable blonde ale.

Cheers - The Beer Hopster 🍻

 

 

 

 

American Pale Wheatnow?

Hello? What's this? The Crafty Brewing Company have just released their first limited edition brew - an American style Pale wheat beer! Not a style I'm familiar with but one I am happy to get to know... 

There's a smoothness to this beer that is so satisfying. At first I thought maybe it was a bit light in body or the beer was a bit flat. But the more I drink it, I realise this beer has one of the best mouthfeels of any beer I've ever had. Take a mouthful and hold it for a second and you can feel the bubbles tingle on your tongue. Once you swallow this you immmediately get pineapple, orange and a tangy citrusy kick in the top of your mouth followed closely by light bitterness on the back and sides of the tongue. A smooth coated mouthfeel remains leaving you gasping for more. Just checked my bottle and surprised to see it's 5% abv. You would think this was a sub 4% session ale. It's lovely and refreshing.

As well as tasting fantastically refreshing, visually this is a highly impressive beer. As they use a centrifuge at Rye River, there is a clarity unusual to wheat beers. I love these surprises and little quirks in my beers. The colouring/design on the label also stands out a bit more than the core range here. The homestar runner of The Crafty Brewing range!! 

Tell me someone else see this haha!? 

So as I sip toward then end of my glass, I have 2 questions relating to this beer? Firstly why did I only buy 2 bottles? And secondly do I open my second bottle now or save it for the long weekend?? Tough decisions ahead! If you can find any of these in your local Lidl, do pick up a few (Maynooth had some earlier in the week). 

Cheers - The Beer Hopster 

 

 

Sullivan's Brewing Co.

Paid a visit to Sullivan's Brewing Company launch night this week and I was very impressed with the setup. Firstly the brewery (or soon to be) is located in the heart of Kilkenny on John Street, just a few steps away from Matt The Millers pub. This makes a refreshing change from breweries located in out of town industrial estates. The taproom and brewery occupy old storage space linked to the wine cellar off licence. It's a great, large space with nice sized outdoor/beer garden area which hosts a wood fired pizza oven too. 

The taproom is pretty amazing to be fair. On the right hand wall as you walk in there is a brief history of the brewery in a timeline murial. The bar is on the left with cool light fixture it really stands out. There is also a small test brew kit in the corner which we were told is used to do test batches all the time. I assume it was just on display for the night.  

Of course the main focus should be the beer! So onto Maltings Red Ale. It's a lovely dark ruby red ale. Someone on the night said they felt it was closer to a brown ale than a red. I'd disagree but say it was somewhere in between. Tasty sweet caramel with some roasty malt flavours. Historically so we were told people drank the red ale topped up with barley wine! Thankfully, Sullivan's have gone and brewed a barley wine so we were able to try this. For me, the barley wine gave the beer that bit of an extra kick which was very impressive. Hopefully they decide to experiment and maybe barrel age some of Maltings Red Ale. Would make for some very interesting beers. There are lots more beers in the pipeline anyway I was assured.

Sullivan's is headed up by family members of the Smithwick dynasty. They have wanted to bring the brewing tradition back to the heart of Kilkenny and this will officially happen in the next 8 months or so I was told by their accountant (sorry forgot his name). Currently the beer is being contract brewed in Boyne Brewhouse. From speaking to plenty of Kilkenny folk on the night (I am part of the Kilkenny beer club myself) they seemed thrilled to have brewing brought back to the town. 

There was a fantastic turn out on the night, probably the biggest I have seen for a beer event... And on a Tuesday! Plenty of bloggers, Brewers and public and publicans were in attendance along with the nations grandfather, Gay Byrne and former Tánaiste Dick Spring! This made for a fun if somewhat quirky night. I must at this point give credit to Wayne, Rebecca and the rest of the team at Burrell PR. They put on a fantastic night and re-introduced brewing to Kilkenny in a Big Bang! I was told they are going to focus on the export (US) market more than the national market so I am looking forward to getting back to Kilkenny to try more of this fine beer shortly. In the meantime, Sullivan's will be pouring at next weeks Irish Beer Festival in the RDS. Make sure you pop along and sample this new beer. If you can, request a top up of barley wine in your Maltings Red Ale! Cheers - The Beer Hopster 

 
 

 
 
 

Sweetwater Beers Launch

It's been a busy week on the beer scene but Wednesday night was my personal highlight! Last week Rye River Brewing Co. announced they would be the distributors of beer from American brewery Sweetwater Brewing Co and would be holding a launch party in Dublin's Mercantile pub. 

So off I popped of a Wednesday evening to find out more about these new (to Ireland or anywhere outside of the US) beers. 

First up I tried the 420 extra pale ale. Apologies for photo quality already, quite dark pub! And shitty phone camera! Fortunately the quality of the beer is awesome. The 420 along with the IPA were available on draft which I was delighted to hear. I do have a slight concern with the freshness of bottled beer coming from the US. Sierra Nevada and Brooklyn often suffer in my opinion. 

Sweetwater beers are being shipped direct from the brewery to Ireland so we should have lovely fresh American beer available in pubs and off licences shortly (perhaps even as I type this). Anyway I digress, back to the 420. It's name derived from the date it was first brewed, April 20th (1997). Nearly 20 years and it's a delightful fresh easy drinking pale ale. Surprisingly light beer for an abv of 5.7% and well balanced between malt flavour and delicate hops. I tried the IPA after this and it was everything you would expect from a big bold American IPA. Full of citrus and a lovely level of bitterness. My favourite of the 3 beers I tried on the night. Columbus hops really shine through here, making you want to come back for more and more. At 6.4% abv though it's not long before you're as hazy as the beer! 

 Next up we tried the delicious Georgia Brown. This was one of two bottled beers available on the night. The other was Sweetwater Blue, a light ale infused with blueberries. Unfortunately I didn't get to try this as it sold out quickly. I heard mixed reviews on the night but I'll reserve judgement until I try myself. Sounds nice anyway.... Back to the brown! A lovely slightly smokey brown ale with big chocolate flavours on the palate. Can't wait to try this on draft. I needn't have worried about freshness, fantastic beer. 

Overall a great night was organised by the Rye River team. Hat tip to Simon Broderick especially for the work he put into it. A live link to the brewery in Atlanta for a chat with head brewer Nick Nock (great name) failed  due to technical problems but there were some games and prize giving throughout the evening as well as finger food. 

Wonderful new American beers for us all to try. Just goes to show how popular craft beer is becoming in Ireland, was a great attendance on Wednesday night too. "Don't float the mainstream " indeed! Well done to all involved in organising - cheers! The Beer Hopster 

 

Welcome to Newbridge Brú House

3 years I've been living in Newbridge and to say the craft beer scene is poor is about right! One or two pubs (Coffey's, Flanagan's) make an effort with some bottles and Judge Roy Beans has its own house beer on tap (made in Clane). JRB's is more of a TGI Fridays place though and I could never see myself going in for few pints. 

Anyway finally Newbridge has caught up with its neighbours - Naas (Hayden's), Sallins (Lock 13), Kildare (Harte's) all offering good range of beers! I won't lie, before now I hadn't been a huge fan of Brú Brewery's beers but they have pulled out all the stops in the first bar! 

 

Massive range of beers including 8 rotational taps which I was told will change on a monthly basis. All the Brú range are available also at the very reasonable price of 4.20 a pint. Other pints range from 5.50 to 5.90. The Brú IPA and once-off BOB were fantastic on draught. A large range of bottled beer and wine/spirits also available. 

We arrived there late enough, missing food service. However I was told by one of the very knowledgeable and friendly staff that food will be served daily 12-9 (hoping to extend until 10 on weekends). Can't wait to get back to try the donuts that were recommended! 

 

 
 

 The place has been given a lovely makeover for anyone who had previously been in Rose Earleys/Dunnes bar. Not much of a layout change on the Dunnes side and I was glad to see they have kept the snug area. Outside there is a large open smoking area too. I have yet to have a look upstairs but have been told it will be a late night cocktail bar opening on weekends. Of course all the Brú beers will be available upstairs too! 

I have to say if the staff remain as welcoming and passionate about the beer and pub then this place will be packed out every week! For a hushed Monday night opening, there was a decent crowd and a nice mix of ages too! This could be just the place Newbridge needs to kick start it's nightlife (several places closed in recent years). I for one will be back again and again.... At the very least for Greg's great hair! 😉 cheers - The Beer Hopster 
 

 

 

A night at the Guinness Open Gate

Had a fantastic nights in the Guinness Open Gate Brewery Friday night! Myself and another beer fan (@vinylhops on Twitter) were treated to a wonderfully informative run through of all the specials that were available. 

 

Personal highlights were Tropical IPA, botanical ale and the Antwerpen export! If I had to choose a favourite it would prob be the latter. Big malty number with lots of chocolate aroma and flavour as well as coffee bitterness! I really enjoyed the Brewers project and look forward to more releases soon but I feel so far the best is kept inside the open gate. There are plans to release a lot more of these soon in pubs across Dublin and Belfast! I really hope they choose to bottle some of better ones also. If you're a beer fan, it's a great way to spend a Thursday or Friday evening. Plans are being made to extend these opening hours into the weeknd and also to create a nice beer garden in the opening courtyard as you walk in.

 

 It's a great set up and sitting in the middle of a working brewery tasting some fine beer (with delicious snacks to accompany) makes the evening even more special. I told Domhnall (our friendly guide) I would be back with my father soon! Then my wife! It really is something everyone can enjoy, not just Guinness drinkers. Well done guys I was very impressed.

 

New Beer Books!

Hello Beer Fans!

Excuse the crudeness of this post, I am currently trying out a new blog  host and haven't it properly set up yet. Recently I have had the pleasure of being sent some beer related books to review and have been  pleasantly surprised by the quality of said books.

I will go in to these all in more detail but as a quick intro, I have a cooking with beer cookbook imaginatively called 'Cooking with Beer' by Mark Dredge, a beer recipe book (more on this later) called 'Craft Brew' by Euan Ferguson and finally a guide to homebrewing  book called simply 'Brew' by James Morton.

Starting with the cookbook - this is a beautifully pictured and simply to use cookbook. BUT with beer as an ingredient in every recipe which makes it totally manly and awesome! Broken into sections such as Breakfast, Snacks, Mains, this recipe book is ideal for any beer lover who wants to dabble in the kitchen. I've yet to try any recipes out myself but they all seem very simple to follow and I cant wait to russell myself (and the wife) some breakfast stout pancakes or ultimate beer pizza!

Again apologies for the crude images, snapped from my phone. I may find a good blog host eventually and load up better images etc.
There are also a couple of nice sections on pairing beer with food and a guide to different beer styles but one of the things I'm most excited about is the little mini recipes within recipes for stuff like Beer Ketchup and Hop Salt. I cant wait to have jars of these in the press to impress! 

I'll keep this brief enough so on to book number two. Euan Ferguson's 'Craft Brew' is a collection of recipes from established craft breweries scaled down for homebrewing. This comes hot on the heels of BrewDog's DIY DOG release off all their recipes earlier this year. I love the idea of this but from flicking through this book I'm not sure there is enough information for a novice brewer. Sure for a seasoned home brewer, this is probably a fantastic recipe book that they will get lots of use from but I would find it hard to follow myself as I'm sure many would... or I'm just a bit thick!
What I do love most about this book is the inclusion of a couple of recipes from Irish Breweries. Euan Ferguson being an English author living in England has gone for a couple which I was surprised to see included. From what I know about Irish beer being exported and from what I have seen in the UK its rare enough to get any Irish craft beer. You might find some O Hara's or Rye River here and there but Euan has gone for Trouble Brewing's Hidden Agenda and Brú Brewery's Rua. I will look forward to trying to emulate them at some stage in the future. There's some nice sections on equipment, ingredients and a step-by-step guide to home brewing too which is quite useful. As with the cookbook, this is largely a flick-through coffee table book. I don't mean this in a negative sense at all, but you would be unlikely to sit down and study this in any detail.

On to our final book, 'Brew' by James Morton. Now this one I can see the beer-nerd that I am reading this cover-to-cover. Saving the best to last in traditional style, Mr.Morton has written a very simple, easy to follow guide to home brewing. As the preface to this book states, James is more of a baker, having released two books already on the subject. However just from flicking through the first few pages you can tell our author is a passionate beer lover and really does know what he's talking about. I don't know what his qualifications are but he is knowledgeable and informative on beer and home brewing. Respect!
What I love is the attention to detail that has gone in to this. As with the previous books there is a beer style guide, ingredients guide, equipment guide but there are also hops guides, beer colour charts, off-flavour guides etc.

Malt Colour Guide

 However it is the simplicity with which James explains everything about home brewing from extract brewing to all-grain that I think is the best thing about this book. I know that this book will help me and many others become much better home brewers. AND when we do have the skills to brew to decent beer, he has included plenty of recipes for all styles of beer for us budding home brewers to give a lash. There is a bit more attention to detail in these recipes than in the previous book and I feel most would be able to follow these once they have got the knack of basic home brewing.

I'd quickly like to thank Mullett Fitzpatrick and especially Siobhan Mullett for contacting me and providing me with three amazing books to review. It has taken me a while to get around to it, sorry! Been a busy few weeks. I urge everyone with an interest in brewing or home cooking to get their hands on any of the three above. All the main book stores (Easons, Waterstones, Hodges Figgis etc) will have these.

Enjoy the brewing and the beer cooking! I will :) - The Beer Hopster

Kildare Craft Beer - where are we at?

As with the rest of the country, the Kildare craft beer scene is really kicking off. More and more the buzz is spreading from the cities (ie. Dublin) to the smaller urban areas. I would like to take this opportunity to look at the Kildare brewing industry and craft beer scene. As I see it, there are currently 4 breweries - Trouble Brewing (Kill), Rye River Brewing (Kilcock but soon to be Celbridge), Kelly's Mountain Brewery (Clane) and Two Sisters Brewing (currently contract brewing in Kill). There are also some pubs that have their own 'house beer' including Hayden's in Naas, Judge Roy Beans in Newbridge and Cathedral bar in Maynooth. I know Kelly's make the beer for Judge Roy Beans but I'm not sure about the others. I believe Lock 13 in Sallins may be planning their own beer/brewpub but haven't heard anything concrete yet. They did however just start Kildare's first beer festival which was held earlier this month. Hopefully this becomes an annual event.

So what else is happening in Kildare? This is what I want to know. Are there more breweries on the way? More festivals being planned? Does anyone have any suggestions as to the best craft beer pubs/off licences? Please feel free to comment and let us know of anything going on in your area! Cheers - The Beer Hopster