Real Ale in Ireland - Pubs that DO sell it.

r3nu4l

Okay, in light of the popularity of the 'Real Ale' thread I thought it might be a good idea to have a definitive list of pubs in Ireland that sell real ales.

Folk can contribute every time they discover a pub that sells real ale.
I would also suggest that if people are heading out for a night on the town they consult this list and support a pub selling real ale.

Perhaps we could even suggest that the next Official Big Boards Beers (not forum based ones) take place in a pub that sells real ales?

So who'll get the ball rolling?

noby

Firstly can we define real ale, or are we taking CAMRA's definition?

fatboypee

r3nu4l wrote: »

Okay, in light of the popularity of the 'Real Ale' thread I thought it might be a good idea to have a definitive list of pubs in Ireland that sell real ales.

Folk can contribute every time they discover a pub that sells real ale.
I would also suggest that if people are heading out for a night on the town they consult this list and support a pub selling real ale.

Perhaps we could even suggest that the next Official Big Boards Beers (not forum based ones) take place in a pub that sells real ales?

So who'll get the ball rolling?

Tara's Speciality Beer House, Ballina Co. Tipperary.
Draught:
Galway Hooker & Rusty

At least once a year there is a beer festival here that lasts a week with a good few craft beers on draught.

There is often another beer on draught tbut i cannot recall the name (didnt like it much).

Bottles:

Black Sheep
HobGoblin
London Pride
ESB
Bishops Finger
Spitfire
Banana Bread Beer
Chocolate Stout
& others I forget.

Notable Absentees:
Brakspears, Bombardier & Youngs

Additional:
Lots of beers from lots of places, notably Budvar & Erdinger on Draught.

Lots of other bottles of beer & Cider from alot of other places amongst them:
Chimay
Westermalle
Sam Adams


FBP.

r3nu4l

noby wrote: »

Firstly can we define real ale, or are we taking CAMRA's definition?

Hee hee, can of worms alert
I'm not the best person to ask as I'm not a brewer. CAMRA tend to be very strict about what they call real ale. I would probably be less strict but wouldn't go so far as to call Smithwicks, Caffreys and the like 'real ale'.

Let's see how the thread develops and what the experts think...

noby

I've put the can opener down. But there must be some criteria, otherwise you're just excluding the likes of Smithwicks on personal taste, and that's a whole other can of worms you don't want to go near.

Without getting into the nitty gritty of cask breathers and the like, can we not, for the sake of this thread come up with some sort of definition?

LordSutch

OK - lets nip this in the bud (excuse the pun), before we delude ourselves that Real is Available on Tap in Ireland !!!

Firstly 'Real Ale' it NOT widely available (Apart from 'Porterhouse TSB' Nassau St + 'Porterhouse TSB' Temple Bar - as far as I know .....

Real Ale 'On Tap' is NOT available in 99.99% of Irish Pubs.

Real Ale = Cask Ale= Hand Pumped from a Cask = CAMRA definition.

noby

Hence the need for an "Irish " definition.
And as I said on the other thread, there is more than Porterhouse. Not much more but there is. Rusty in Tara's is indeed cask ale. Tigh Bhric in Kerry brew their own, and serve it on cask. Similarly the Well in Cork, although maybe not all the time.

BeerNut

Yeah, I don't think "Real Ale" is a helpful term to use. And "Good Beer" is too subjective a notion. Could it be that what you're looking for are places that sell English ales?

For a list of pubs and restaurants that sell Irish craft beer of all stripes, see Noby's list here.

Up north there are a handful of JDWs, plus the Whitewater and Hilden outlets mentioned on Noby's list.

Real Ale = Cask Ale= Hand Pumped from a Cask = CAMRA definition.

Not true. CAMRA have long since recognised bottle conditioning as "Real Ale in a Bottle". UK bottle-conditioned beers will often have a badge on the label saying "CAMRA says this is Real Ale".

coillcam

The Old Stand in Mullingar has a great selection of bottled beers. A lot of the English stuff is there and plenty more from around the world. No ale on tap though presuming you discount Smithwick's

LordSutch

noby wrote: »

Hence the need for an "Irish " definition.
And as I said on the other thread, there is more than Porterhouse. Not much more but there is. Rusty in Tara's is indeed cask ale. Tigh Bhric in Kerry brew their own, and serve it on cask. Similarly the Well in Cork, although maybe not all the time.

Yes indeed Noby, but thats just three, or maybe four Pub's? in the whole Country and thats presuming the two you mention actually have a 'hand pump' at the Bar that pours Ale of the 'CAMRA' criteria as mentioned in the previous post.

BOTTLED ALE's DON'T COUNT.

noby

Yes, I'm fully aware of the CAMRA criteria, so for the final time, there are not that many in the country, but rest assured the few I mentioned have a proper beer engine/cask setup. Not having been to their cellars I don't know if they have a cask breather that CAMRA looks down their nose at, and frankly I don't care.

Do Messers have occasional casks on?

r3nu4l

BeerNut wrote: »

Yeah, I don't think "Real Ale" is a helpful term to use. And "Good Beer" is too subjective a notion. Could it be that what you're looking for are places that sell English ales?

No. I'm looking for pubs that sell a decent selection of 'real ale' (for want of a better term. There are plenty of good belgian ales that would fit into my definition of real ales but I can see that there is indeed a need for a better definition of ales in Ireland.



This thread really isn't doing what I hoped it would do Perhaps we should try to better define 'real', 'good', 'great' ales...

r3nu4l

Camelot wrote: »

BOTTLED ALE's DON'T COUNT.

Camelot, have a read of this please.

CAMRA wrote:

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, supports real ale in a bottle. This is the next best thing, and the bottled equivalent, to the draught real ales you can enjoy at the pub.

BeerNut

noby wrote: »

Do Messers have occasional casks on?

No. Anything he has casked for festivals recently (Imperial, Best, Porter, Extra, Bock) is only ever sold from the keg in MM itself.

There used to be a house cask bitter called Pale, but it's long gone.

_blank_

The Gingerman sells the Lady's Well stuff, repackaged, and on tap.

BeerNut

r3nu4l wrote: »

No. I'm looking for pubs that sell a decent selection of 'real ale' (for want of a better term. There are plenty of good belgian ales that would fit into my definition of real ales but I can see that there is indeed a need for a better definition of ales in Ireland.

Right, well, if I'm looking for a selection of bottle-conditioned beers in Dublin I would go to The Bull & Castle or one of the Porterhouses. And that's it.

You'll get token bottles of Chimay or Duvel in the likes of Thomas Read on Parliament Street, or Le Circ on Dame Street, or any number of other upmarket trendy bars. But, bottom line, for a choice of decent ales in Dublin it starts and ends with the Porterhouse and Bull & Castle.

I'm happy to be proved wrong.

The Gingerman sells the Lady's Well stuff, repackaged, and on tap.

Kegged

knightmare

Tried My first bottle of Clotworthy Dobbin Last night... man I wish this was available on Tap in the Munster region...anybody?

BeerNut

knightmare wrote: »

Tried My first bottle of Clotworthy Dobbin Last night... man I wish this was available on Tap in the Munster region...anybody?

I've never enjoyed it on tap -- either cask or keg -- as much as I enjoyed the bottled version (which isn't bottle conditioned Real Ale, before anyone asks). It's never as full-bodied on draught.

If it's going to be on tap anywhere in Munster it'll be The Bierhaus, Abbott's Ale House or Franciscan Well in Cork or Tara's in Ballina. But I've not heard of any of them getting it in.

Excise duty is a pain.

oblivious

Des wrote: »

The Gingerman sells the Lady's Well stuff, repackaged, and on tap.

good stuff alright but not naturally conditioned in keg or bottle

LordSutch

Have we now defined a criteria for Real Ale in Ireland? and are we now including 'Bottled Beers' in this Real Ale discussion? along with Smithwicks & Bass ? because if so, then we can safely say that every Pub in Ireland sells Real Ale :cool:

But thats certainly NOT what I am on about.

oblivious

Camelot wrote: »

Ireland? and are we now including 'Bottled Beers' in this Real Ale discussion?

Its "real" in any container if its go a secondly fermentation to naturally carbonate the beer/cider etc, this is not just a CARMA it's also accepted by hr Brewing association in the US

fatboypee

noby wrote: »

Do Messers have occasional casks on?

Rusty is available there (so I've heard)...

FBP.

BeerNut

Camelot wrote: »

Have we now defined a criteria for Real Ale in Ireland?

We're sticking to CAMRA's. They invented the term, after all. In which case

Camelot wrote: »

are we now including 'Bottled Beers' in this Real Ale discussion?

Yes

Camelot wrote: »

along with Smithwicks & Bass ?

No. They are not cask or bottle conditioned and therefore are not Real Ale.

Camelot wrote: »

But thats certainly NOT what I am on about.

Every pub selling cask beer has been mentioned. It's basically Tara's, Tigh Bric and the Dublin Porterhouses. If that's all you need to know, I think you have your answer.

BeerNut

fatboypee wrote: »

Rusty is available there (so I've heard)...

Nitrokegged. It's on cask in Tara's.

fatboypee

BeerNut wrote: »

Nitrokegged. It's on cask in Tara's.

I know , glad that place is my local

IronMan

Excuse my ignorance, but is there any reason why a pub could not get in a cask of a well known ale such as London Pride and start selling it? I'd make a beeline for the place if available. I'm getting sick of Porterhouse TSB.

noby

IronMan wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance, but is there any reason why a pub could not get in a cask of a well known ale such as London Pride and start selling it? I'd make a beeline for the place if available. I'm getting sick of Porterhouse TSB.

No reason at all. Assuming they know how to treat it, and the economics added up (i.e. shipping ot over etc.). A cask breather will keep it good for a couple of weeks after tapping.

LordSutch

Re Messers Maguire ...........

fatboypee wrote: »

Rusty is available there (so I've heard)...

FBP.

But sadly not anymore I was there only the other night, but I did ask the Barman where I might get a Pint of the real thing & "He Said" the only place you will get Real Ale On Tap in Dublin is in the Porterhouse Nassau Street, or maybe Temple Bar?

If Bottled Ales are included, then several Pub's have them on the South Side!

BeerNut

IronMan wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance, but is there any reason why a pub could not get in a cask of a well known ale such as London Pride and start selling it? I'd make a beeline for the place if available. I'm getting sick of Porterhouse TSB.

noby wrote: »

No reason at all.

Yes: there's no reason they couldn't, but several dozen reasons they wouldn't. The economics of it would be really hard to justify to an accountant.

Your best bet, sadly, is to keep drinking the TSB (because if you don't, it'll go too), and pester the management of any other bar you're in to get a better selection in, even if it's not cask. Step one in the revolution is to break the power of Diageo and Heineken.

Camelot wrote: »

If Bottled Ales are included, then several Pub's have them on the South Side!

Bottle conditioned ales. Very few of the English bottled beers we get are bottle conditioned. It's much more common in Belgian ales.

noby

BeerNut wrote: »

Yes: there's no reason they couldn't, but several dozen reasons they wouldn't.

Precisely. If they won't even stick a couple of bottles of Pride on the shelf, which would take zero effort, and not much financial risk, then they're very unlikely to even consider keg, not to mind cask, Pride.

noby

BeerNut wrote: »

Bottle conditioned ales. Very few of the English bottled beers we get are bottle conditioned.

And apparently some of the bigger breweries with "Bottle conditioned Ales" filter their beer anyway to help stabilise it, then re-pitch some yeast.

Why, if I was devious enough I could filter and carbonate my ale, and add a little yeast, so the sediment in the bottom of the bottle would keep the CAMRAites happy.

BeerNut

noby wrote: »

I could filter and carbonate my ale, and add a little yeast, so the sediment in the bottom of the bottle would keep the CAMRAites happy.

Yes, but if the yeast is alive and kicking in there, isn't it still doing its good work to produce a fresh, live, full-flavoured ale at the end of it? And wouldn't it be a greater risk, unless you have the right sort of expensive process controls, to keep fermenting a shelf-ready beer?

noby

The yeast will only carry on working if there's fermentables left to, well, ferment.

I know the first method is done, which is pushing the boundaries of what makes a Real Ale, but I'm just 'thinking aloud' on the second one.

LordSutch

Just been to Tesco & picked up a few Bishops Fingers + a couple of Spitfires 4 the week

They also stock London Pride - not a bad selection really when compared to just a few years ago, but still no 'Bombardier' or 'Morrissey Fox' Blonde Ale (as advertised in Tesco UK stores) . . . .

My local Pub does'nt stock any of the above Ale's, Bottled or on Tap.

BeerNut

Camelot wrote: »

not a bad selection really when compared to just a few years ago

Yep: you need to go to a specialist beer off licence for a decent sized range.

That said, SuperValu on Aston Quay usually has Bombardier and its two off-shoots, Burning Gold and Satanic Mills.

oblivious

Camelot wrote: »

J
My local Pub does'nt stock any of the above Ale's, Bottled or on Tap.

tbh, I find your luck if you can get a pint bottle of Guinness

noby

Camelot wrote: »

Just been to Tesco & picked up a few Bishops Fingers + a couple of Spitfires 4 the week

If you see the boxes of Shepherd Neame (4 different bottles in a box, including those two) I recommend picking one up - they're like a different drink when they've been kept away from bright lights. They go for a tenner down here.

BeerNut

noby wrote: »

If you see the boxes of Shepherd Neame (4 different bottles in a box, including those two) I recommend picking one up - they're like a different drink when they've been kept away from bright lights. They go for a tenner down here.

No 1698 in it though: boo! I think Spitfire and Whitstable Bay are two of the dullest beers around.

noby

'Tis a shame there's no 1698, and I agree about Whitstable. Spitfire is solid if unspectacular. Masterbrew and BF I do like though.

MediaTank

BeerNut wrote: »

No 1698 in it though: boo! I think Spitfire and Whitstable Bay are two of the dullest beers around.

Agree, bland dish water IMHO.

LordSutch

After reading this Thread up until now, this is a rough list of the Pubs that sell Real Ale on Tap in Ireland. (excluding NI which has loads).

TARA's Speciality Beerhouse Tipperary
'GALWAY HOOKER' & 'RUSTY'

The Porterhouse Nassau St, & Temple Bar
'PORTERHOUSE TSB'

I think thats about it, as regards CASK Ale On Tap in Ireland ...........

Obviously, we have all discovered that you can now pick up a variety of Bottled Ales in various Pubs, Off Licences & Supermarkets all over the country

PS somebody said in a previous Post that 'one' of the reasons for the lack of Real Ale was to do with transport & shelf life, but then why does the North not seem to be affected by these shortcomings?

noby

Try re-reading it.

Galway Hooker isn't on cask. Tigh Bhric have their own ale on cask, and the Well in Cork have seasonal/occasional casks on.
I really feel like I've typed that several times before.

oblivious

Camelot wrote: »

PS somebody said in a previous Post that 'one' of the reasons for the lack of Real Ale was to do with transport & shelf life, but then why does the North not seem to be affected by these shortcomings?

Its not that massively popular up there either, its just that two of the indigenous breweries produce and promote cask ale and the a pubs that want to stock it. Out side of Belfast weatherpersons is really the main provider

BeerNut

Additionally, Porterhouse North had a TSB tap, last I checked.

Camelot wrote: »

PS somebody said in a previous Post that 'one' of the reasons for the lack of Real Ale was to do with transport & shelf life, but then why does the North not seem to be affected by these shortcomings

The North is affected by them: compare the proportion of pubs in the North selling cask beer to the proportion in Britain. What is sold is largely from the local breweries, Hilden and Whitewater. That some pubs are willing to absorb the extra cost of maintaining an appropriate cellar is probably because pub overheads are lower. The difference in the licensing regime is fundamental to this.

Nothingcompares

Is anyone here familiar with the Bull and Castle Beer hall and gastro pub in christchurch? Any recommendations for "real ales" there. There won't be anything on tap but can I go for bishop's finger or something?

BeerNut

Nothingcompares wrote: »

Is anyone here familiar with the Bull and Castle Beer hall and gastro pub in christchurch?

A bit, yeah

Nothingcompares wrote: »

Any recommendations for "real ales" there. There won't be anything on tap but can I go for bishop's finger or something?

Not if you want "real ale". A nice bottle of Westmalle Dubbel, Duvel or Chimay would be a better bet if you're after something bottle conditioned.

Edit: Well slap my thigh, Shepherd Neame 1698 is apparently bottle-conditioned. You'll get that in the B&C, and it's lovely. The only other one from this list I've ever seen in there is Hen's Tooth, which is decent but not spectacular.

noby

But if you're after good English ale, whatever about CAMRA's feelings on it, they'll have a good selection in there. A few nice Irish ones too on draught.

BeerNut

Oh absolutely. I was taking it as read that the whole "Real Ale" thing is mostly complete ballcocks and no guarantee of beer quality.

noby

BeerNut wrote: »

Edit: Well slap my thigh, Shepherd Neame 1698 is apparently bottle-conditioned.

I assumed you were aware of that - it being their nicest beer and all that.

Nothingcompares

thanks again i shall make some investigations.

fatboypee

noby wrote: »

I assumed you were aware of that - it being their nicest beer and all that.

1698, their nicest ? Or the nicest you can get here....

My votes on domestically available bottled UK beers (not intended to antagonise )

1. Brakspears Triple
2. HobGoblin
3. Fullers ESB
4. Fullers London Pride
5. Bombardier

There are others, but 1698 is deffo not there, nor is Hens Tooth, a Moorland brew, looks like dishwash and tastes like a strong barlety wine....

I've plenty of others that I get online (more expensive, but worth it IMHO).
and for the real connoisseurs amongst you, have a think about going to a real Ale Festival in the UK: http://www.raaj.info/this is one I try and get to most years, just look at the brews ... http://www.raaj.info/beers/

FBP.