Guinness Open Gate

Tenzor07

n97 mini wrote: »

And if the maker of a tasty enough beer has muscle they'll squeeze out the competition. So you'll have a tasty beer, and no choice.

Well there you have it, a multinational conglomerate has the financial power to muscle out the competition and we're back to the same choice(s) as it was up until the 1990's.

RasTa

n97 mini wrote: »

And if the maker of a tasty enough beer has muscle they'll squeeze out the competition. So you'll have a tasty beer, and no choice.

Like in the states?

Zaph

Paid a visit tonight and have to say I was very impressed with the set up. It's €6 for a sampler flight of four beers (1/3 of a pint of each), and while it may not be he same sort of standard you'd get in a proper craft beer pub, it was still decent enough to be worth trying. For my flight I had both Christmas ales on offer, a milk stout and a dunkelweizen. The Christmas ales were the finalists in the Smithwicks home brew competition. The winner (Old Town) tasted a bit cough syrupish at first, but that's probably because I'm not a fan of liquorice. My drinking companion liked it more than I did. The other one is an apple pie ale, which wasn't bad, although the apples weren't always noticeable. The texture of the milk stout was possibly a little thin, but the flavour was good, if not quite as sweet as some milk stouts I've had. I agreed with my friend's suggestion that the addition of some coffee would make it a very nice beer, or it could make a nice vanilla stout as well. The real star of the show was the dunkelweizen. It's 8.4%, but you wouldn't really know it and it was worth going just for that imo. I'd be very happy if Guinness released it commercially. The barman also gave us a taste of a barrel aged cask ale they have maturing which I reckon will be very interesting after it's had another couple of weeks in the cask. At the moment they have a very tasty wee heavy on their hands.

Look, it's not going to be for everyone, there will be some who just won't be able to get past the fact that it's a macro brewery muscling in on the craft beer buzz. But so what? They're offering a couple of decent and interesting beers which ultimately might encourage some people to broaden their tastes when it comes to beer. And as I said, they also have some potentially commercial beers on their hands that could offer a little more choice to beer drinkers if they choose to make them.

For anyone who's interested, one of the barmen told me that they plan to offer a new beer every two weeks or so. They're down to their last two barrels of the dunkelweizen, and after that's gone they're planning an oatmeal brown ale with peanut butter, followed by a vanilla stout and then a California common/Vienna lager hybrid.

oblivious

Zaph wrote: »

Paid a visit tonight and have to say I was very impressed with the set up.

I was there Wednesday night and was similar impressed and it turns out the manger is a long time Beoir member!!!!!

Not a fan of the dunkelweizen. it just not a dunkelweizen with Guinness yeast it really needs a Bavarian yeast. But it did have that nice candy sweetness that Schneider Aventinus has.

The nitro IPA was interesting, but I suspect I would prefer it on CO2 and I thought the real hit was the milk stout, very tasty

Zaph wrote: »

Look, it's not going to be for everyone, there will be some who just won't be able to get past the fact that it's a macro brewery muscling in on the craft beer buzz. But so what?

Yea, funnily enough no one seams to get as vexed about 5 lamps brewery, at least Guinness are open bout their brands

BeerNut

Zaph wrote: »

they're planning an oatmeal brown ale with peanut butter, followed by a vanilla stout and then a California common/Vienna lager hybrid.

There's a rye IPA with Amarillo in the tank at the moment and I had a sneaky taste last week. It's very promising.

I wish they'd do more about publicising what's available. I think we still have that classic big-brewery disconnect between what the brewers are doing and what the marketing people are saying. The two sides don't talk to each other.

slayerking

Can you just stroll up for a pint yet or do you need to book in advance?

BeerNut

What I've heard is that if there's space, they'll allow walk-ins. You can also check availability on their booking system.

JimmyAlfonso

Anyone got a report from one of these events? Are there many drink samples included in entry? They mention food is available, is it bacon fries and tayto or something inferior Heading this Thursday

BeerNut

JimmyAlfonso wrote: »

Are there many drink samples included in entry?

4. You might get one from the oak barrel as well, if you look interested and it's still there.

andekwarhola

Heading in this week. Had never heard of it until I read the thread. Thanks.

BeerNut

Let us know what's on tap this week.

Yarghhh

BeerNut wrote: »

Let us know what's on tap this week.

I was there Friday. The specials were then:

Antwerp Imperial Stout
Vienna Larger
Nitro IPA

Does it change each week?

BeerNut

Cheers!

Yarghhh wrote: »

Does it change each week?

When they started the plan was a new beer every fortnight, though I don't know how well they're sticking to that.

andekwarhola

Will have a look on Thursday.

andekwarhola

Specials were still Vienna Lager, Antwerp Imperial Stout, Nitro IPA and Milk Stout last night.

Only one that stood out was the Antwerp which I liked.

Really nice looking bar as well.

Didn't get a chance to ask about the cask one because the fire alarm went off and we had to stand outside for a fair while.

schemingbohemia

Was in there last night, enjoyed it.
Surprised that they had the mainstream Hop House 13, normal Guinness, Blonde on. The Tropical IPA had good aroma but no real pronounced hop flavour, would love to try Pilsner 1516 against Harp, thought it was alright. The Vanilla Stout was decent but didn't get much vanilla off it. The Antwerpen was really nice - also got to try it from the Cask (barrel aged in Rum Casks) which was very good too.
Finished off with a bottle of Foreign Extra.
My mate had the Nitro IPA, just all kinds of wrong to me.
They could do with upping the food available, was just about to pounce on the giant pretzels when a group bought all of them. Only other option was crisps.
Well worth a trip.

BeerNut

schemingbohemia wrote: »

Surprised that they had the mainstream Hop House 13, normal Guinness, Blonde on.

The place exists in order to advertise these beers so it makes sense they'd be there.

schemingbohemia

BeerNut wrote: »

The place exists in order to advertise these beers so it makes sense they'd be there.

True, I suppose I'd hoped there would be more of the "exotics" than the widely available, rather than 50/50. From the quotes on the site it would seem to imply a greater amount of "new" beers, experimental beers, or that could just be me.


WE INVITE YOU TO COME ALONG AND TRY OUR NEW BEERS, MEET OUR BREWERS AND SOAK UP THE UNIQUE ATMOSPHERE INSIDE THE WALLS OF OUR EXPERIMENTAL BREWERY.
SOME OF THESE BEERS WILL END UP ON AT YOUR LOCAL PUB OR THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD. OTHERS WILL NEVER LEAVE THESE WALLS.

BeerNut

schemingbohemia wrote: »

True, I suppose I'd hoped there would be more of the "exotics" than the widely available, rather than 50/50.

Four of their own beers seems to be the norm. They do turn them over fairly quickly. There's a strawberry porter and something else new coming up in the next couple of weeks.

lk67

schemingbohemia wrote: »

... The Antwerpen was really nice ...

That's the Foreign Export btw.

BeerNut

lk67 wrote: »

That's the Foreign Export btw.

OMGnoob. There's, like, no such beer as Foreign Export? I can't even. Antwerpen is based on Special Export but is sliiightly different, apparently.

ben.schlomo

BeerNut wrote: »

Four of their own beers seems to be the norm. They do turn them over fairly quickly. There's a strawberry porter and something else new coming up in the next couple of weeks.

Sounds horrific.

lk67

BeerNut wrote: »

OMGnoob. There's, like, no such beer as Foreign Export? I can't even. Antwerpen is based on Special Export but is sliiightly different, apparently.

Noob...

Whoops on the mistake!

:-)

Told by the bar manager it was the same beer. Tasted different mind but put it down to bottle versus keg + bad mood.

Effects

The strawberry porter does sound awful but it seems to be getting good reports. It has basil in it too.
I'm getting to try it tomorrow so will report back on it.

BeerNut

Don't think I've ever had a bad basil beer. There's always a first time, though.

Effects

Thought it was mediocre to be honest. The flavour was so subtle is was hard to notice.

Got to try the chocolate and vanilla stout as well which was lovely. I preferred the chocolate milk stout from last year though.

BeerNut

Effects wrote: »

Thought it was mediocre to be honest. The flavour was so subtle is was hard to notice.

Yup. I doubt I'd have been able to guess it was there without being told.

Effects

Also heard that they are launching a new beer from the brewers project, that they had been testing, in the next couple of months.

Sleepy

I took part in a market research focus group on the Open Gate Project last night. No mention of a new beer being released but the timing would seem to support that...

n97 mini

BeerNut wrote: »

Don't think I've ever had a bad basil beer. There's always a first time, though.

Spontanbasil. It tastes better in turkey stuffing than it does in beer though.