why are there no J D Wetherspoon pubs in ROI?

MadsL

stimpson wrote: »

You can read all about it here:

http://www.beoir.org/

22 Craft breweries listed, one per 208,556 people.

The US has 1,904 Craft breweries, one per 159,793 people.

C'mon Ireland, thought you were a drinking nation..?

Teyla Emmagan

Terrible terrible food!!

reprazant

Sheesh, moan that there are not craft beers, get shown that in fact there is quite a lot and still you moan.

Ghandee

I haven't much to say about wetherspoons.


Just want to wade in with this though.


Coopers sparkling ale, must be the best beer known to man. (Australian beer, fermented in the bottle)

Try it (Tesco sell it) and love it.

Mint Sauce

But if the Vinters Assiocation can influence the price of drinks in your local pub, woundn't Wetherspoon or any other chain have to price accordingly as well?



Anyway, I'm glad as well that there are none of them here as well, the only chain that I like going into in England is O'Neils, although alot of pubs in the UK are in control by a local brewary, and not indepent, and sell the local brewary beers/ales/stouts as well as the national/international brands.

Celly Smunt

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

Terrible terrible food!!

You get what you pay for,you don't go expecting a five star meal,its perfectly fine for a burger and chips on the cheap.

EuskalHerria

There's a couple of them near me. Cheap beer and food but they are truly terrible in every sense of the word. I've worked in bars before I could drink legally in one and they are just god awaful in every regard.

Plus the clientèle makes them seem like a green room for the Jeremy Kyle show.

ElvisChrist6

MadsL wrote: »

Many, Many? What 'craft beers' are widely available on tap in Dublin?

Craft beers such as?

Everything, pretty much, at some point - there are three sister craft beer pubs called Against The Grain, The Black Sheep and the Brew Dock in town with a new one in Blackrock called the Dark Horse. There are also the Porterhouses and the Bull & Castle, not to mention more local pubs like Rea's on Parkgate Street that have craft beers as well as the standards. There are plenty, you just have to look.

Most of these will have beers from Irish breweries like Franciscan Well (Rebel Red most commonly), Metalman (their pale ale), Galway Bay, Galway Hooker, Belfast Brewery, 8 Degrees (Howling Gale Ale), O'Hara's (their red or smoked ales)...

Then outside Irish breweries, you can get Brew Dog, Brew Fist, Sierra Nevada, Fullers, St. Bernardus, Peroni, Grolsch, Sam Adams and Orval on tap and will always find Odells, Brooklyn Brewery, any Trappiste beer, Duvel and whatever you can think of in a bottle. In fact, The Bull & Castle have a house ale made by F.X. Buckley that only they and Rea's on Parkgate Street have! Even The Grand Social has Leffe on tap.

So, yeah, plenty of craft beer here!

Edit: How did I forget Trouble Brewery?! :P

MadsL

stimpson wrote: »

Galway hooker, the Franciscan well brews, trouble Brewing, 8 degrees, dungarvan brewing co., the Porterhouse. O'Haras

Just off the top of me head.

Which Dublin pubs apart from the Porterhouse as it IS a brewery, have those brews on tap?

Boombastic

they put too much sour cream all over the Nachos

stimpson

MadsL wrote: »

Which Dublin pubs apart from the Porterhouse as it IS a brewery, have those brews on tap?

I've had them all on tap somewhere in Dublin. Beoir have a list of what's available where. There are a number if pubs that only serve craft beer.

MadsL

http://www.beoir.org/index.php?option=com_sobi2&sobi2Task=search&Itemid=69

15 pubs with cask ale in Dublin. Hardly 'widely' available. Although Dublin has improved a lot in recent years to be fair.

Amirani

MadsL wrote: »

Which Dublin pubs apart from the Porterhouse as it IS a brewery, have those brews on tap?

The Ginger Man and Anseo are the first two that pop into my head for carrying the first 2. You can get O'Hara's in O'Neills (Pearse St), The Bleeding Horse and a good load of other places.

Then you have the likes of Bull and Castle, Against The Grain, The Black Sheep and The Brew Dock who carry everything.

Things have improved a huge amount in the past 2/3 years.

cardwizzard

MadsL wrote: »

Someone needs to sort out the utter pish that passes for beer in Ireland.

Ireland has been left way, way behind, when the best beer in the world is being brewed by Americans.

:eek::eek: Thought you were serious there for a second:D

Amirani

cardwizzard wrote: »

:eek::eek: Thought you were serious there for a second:D

US is certainly one of the best countries in the world in terms of beers they produce, perhaps the best.

ElvisChrist6

MadsL wrote: »

http://www.beoir.org/index.php?option=com_sobi2&sobi2Task=search&Itemid=69

15 pubs with cask ale in Dublin. Hardly 'widely' available. Although Dublin has improved a lot in recent years to be fair.

Cask isn't the be all and end all of craft beer - the pubs I mentioned above might have one or two cask taps at the bar, but many other taps from kegs for craft beer. Part of the reason though it's so low and improving fast is that Diageo used to buy taps from small pubs so they could have their products in them to stop craft beer becoming a bigger competitor than it was, so the Irish never really got the chance to see it like the Brits did. But I think it'll improve even more over the years!

NiallSparky wrote: »

US is certainly one of the best countries in the world in terms of beers they produce, perhaps the best.

Some of my favourite beers are actually American - Odell's IPA and Brooklyn's East India Pale Ale... although my favourite is Brew Dog's 5am Saint, but I will agree America does make nice beers despite what people say; I think they're jaundiced by the awful macro-lagers that have come out of America. Pure shite altogether. Sierra Nevada and Sam Adams are great session beers as well as pleasant drinks!

LordSutch

Wetherspoons = A choice of real cask ales on Tap = lovely jubbly!

Which is quite a rare experience in Ireland these days, apart from one or two Porterhouse ales served in Porterhouse pubs in Dublins city centre.

cardwizzard

NiallSparky wrote: »

US is certainly one of the best countries in the world in terms of beers they produce, perhaps the best.

Some of there stuff is decent, but compared to Belgian, German or some eastern Europeans it wouldn't hold a candle IMO.

Lyaiera

American beers are grand, some are even great but America has really embraced the IPA craze. I'm not a fan of that and would much prefer to go for a Belgian dark ale or a German wheat beer. But that's the thing about craft beers, you're able to make that choice.

And I can think of six pubs here that have a big enough selection of craft beers without even trying hard.

Amalgam

sock puppet wrote: »

Screw Wetherspoons, lets petition Fullers to open up an Irish establishment.

Don't some Wetherspoons serve London Pride from cask?

I'd turn into an alky if Dublin pubs served Fuller products on tap.

MadsL

cardwizzard wrote: »

Some of there stuff is decent, but compared to Belgian, German or some eastern Europeans it wouldn't hold a candle IMO.

Some of the US brews are "eastern" (did you mean Central?) European. Shiner in Texas make a great bock, blondes and a dark larger. They are now owned by Gambrinus out of Czech republic.

cardwizzard

No Eastern, just because they are central on the map, doesn't mean they are.:D

Love Sam Adams, i wouldnt knock alot of the yankee stuff but wouldn't be my preference.

awec

Wetherspoons bars are typically ok during the day and awful at night.

You can go in at lunch time and get the cheap food and drink deals (the food isn't as good as normal pub grub but it is cheap and you get what you pay for).

At night, the low drink cost attracts all the undesirables of the day and so the places are generally to be avoided.

The presence of a wetherspoons doesn't drive drink prices down either because other pub owners know that most people have no desire at all to spend an evening in a wetherspoons pub.

stimpson

MadsL wrote: »

http://www.beoir.org/index.php?option=com_sobi2&sobi2Task=search&Itemid=69

15 pubs with cask ale in Dublin. Hardly 'widely' available. Although Dublin has improved a lot in recent years to be fair.

Where did I mention cask ale? I just said craft beer was available in many pubs.

A case in point - I was in the Radisson on Golden Lane a few weeks ago and they had O'Haras IPA.

Holsten

Any time I was in a few in London they were grand, this was during the day though.

Cheap and decent enough food/drink, more than welcome here.

cardwizzard

awec wrote: »

Wetherspoons bars are typically ok during the day and awful at night.

You can go in at lunch time and get the cheap food and drink deals (the food isn't as good as normal pub grub but it is cheap and you get what you pay for).

At night, the low drink cost attracts all the undesirables of the day and so the places are generally to be avoided.

The presence of a wetherspoons doesn't drive drink prices down either because other pub owners know that most people have no desire at all to spend an evening in a wetherspoons pub.

Plus 1.

Grand if your over for a game or a stags, burger few pints and move on.

risteard7

dd972 wrote: »

You'd think with the boozing culture we have they'd have colonised our town and cities some time ago, plus costwise they'd annihilate the opposition paying through the nose for their Guinness and Heineken.

Only heard bit and bobs of rumour as to why there's no Spoon pubs here ranging from the fact that it's in the Eurozone and it doesn't fit in with their business plan and the Victuallers Association here are keeping them out by some means or other, anybody heard anything more substantial?

Dont know what "boozing culture" youre talking about? i think thats greatly
exaggerated in this country, we like to believe we are big drinkers when really were not. pubs all over the country are closing every day because theres nobody going to them, i dont think that many drink at home either

crockholm

Not a fan of the chain,just seems to be geared to a joyless alcoholic stupor,with an unsympathetic staff and troubled patrons. More and more in Ireland I'm finding that pub owners aren't as conservative and myopic regards guest beers and different choice as they were in years past, talk to them, get others to do likewise, the economic sense dawns on them after.

Pumpkinseeds

If Wetherspoons opened in Ireland we'd all die:D We had one a short walk from our house in England and sooo many times a quiet drink on a lazy Sunday afternoon ended up as a blur. 1.99 for a double Smirnoff and tonic and 1.99 for a pint. Its too tempting to get trollied especially when you can do so for 20 quid.

My husband loves real ales and he always liked trying the different guest ales they do.

Seaneh

cardwizzard wrote: »

Some of there stuff is decent, but compared to Belgian, German or some eastern Europeans it wouldn't hold a candle IMO.

The best breweries in the world are probably American.

Breweries like Odell, Dogfish Head, Russian River, Deschutes and a few others are absolutely peerless and making the most innovative beers in the world.