Sunday 4 September 2016

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