Irish Craft Beer Festival 2016

RasTa

O'Hara's take 30% of all beer tokens plus whatever they charge for them to attend hence a good few missing.

BeerNut

RasTa wrote: »

O'Hara's take 30% of all beer tokens plus whatever they charge for them to attend hence a good few missing

Same deal every year. And the 30% goes to the organisers generally, not just O'Hara's.

BaZmO*

Silent Disco? Really?

RasTa

BeerNut wrote: »

Same deal every year. And the 30% goes to the organisers generally, not just O'Hara's.

Alltech is 10%. Carlow brewing co getting a bad rep at the minute. Letting Tom Crean in this year, Diageo at the one around Patrick's weekend.

Although it's all very Irish

BeerNut

RasTa wrote: »

Letting Tom Crean in this year

I don't remember them ever being absent.

testaccount123

BaZmO* wrote: »

Silent Disco? Really?

What a joke. Hope somebody launches a Dublin festival with the focus on beer

me_irl

testaccount123 wrote: »

What a joke. Hope somebody launches a Dublin festival with the focus on beer

Might hit up the Altech one next year instead of heading along to this again. (http://eu.alltechbrewsandfood.com/)

Followed a few other posters' recommendations. All were halves, as despite being given the pint cup I didn't want to overdo it! I wanted to steer well clear of my usual IPA's so...

Started with The White Hag Nitro Stout. Good lord that was an experience. Nice fella serving quipped that he may as well just stay behind that tap so it must be going well!

Second up I had a half of the Kinnegar High Glen Sour. I'd have to say this was nicer than the one rated Second Best in the Beoir magazine (White Hag Púca). Not too sour and each sip was as refreshing as the last.

Third was Trouble Brewing Gunslinger (I think this was their West Coast IPA). This was my own fault, I should have asked for a sample and went on the name alone (The Dark Tower series!). Best thing I could say was that I found it palatable, but not great.

Fourth up was Beaky Dargus Turf Cutter. Like an eejit I went up and asked for a "half". Got a great response from the Frenchman (hope he was French!), and realised that the stronger beers were only being sold in thirds. Not blown away by this either. Great smoky smell and taste. Wife got the stout which admittedly I should have gone for.

Oh! And after googling for the beers I managed to find this page: http://www.irishcraftbeerfestival.ie/beers-list/ Would have been handy if I found this before the even to print out

Fifth was the N17 Chili Porter. Blown away by this (and not just that afterkick of the chili). No wonder it's an "award winner".

Lastly was Metalman Zwickel (odd I can't find it on the list posted above!). Taste buds were ruined after the Turf Cutter and Chili Porter, but remembered it was nice... :pac:

One token went on sweet potato fries. Yep. A tiny portion of sweet potato fries for 3e! I would have went for a hot dog (did last year and remember they were amazing), but for nine euro!!!? Wasn't drunk enough to pay that much.

Thought the floor layout was very higgledy piggledy. Breweries being shoved in to corners or given very little, or too much (Creans) space.

BeerNut

me_irl wrote: »

Oh! And after googling for the beers I managed to find this page: http://www.irishcraftbeerfestival.ie/beers-list/ Would have been handy if that was advertised (I do follow beoir on twitter), and could have printed this out.

It's nothing to do with Beoir. The list is news to me.

me_irl

BeerNut wrote: »

It's nothing to do with Beoir. The list is news to me.

Feck! Not sure how I got that notion. Apologies.

TheCosmicFrog

Have been to this every year since it started and, have to say, this was the first year I didn't enjoy it. Went on the Saturday. Plastic cup instead of a glass, tiny paper beer tokens, no live music (just that bloody silent disco) and significantly fewer people than previous years. Added to that the high entry fee (considering no decent freebies), pricey tokens and very little decent food, it was just a disappointment. Was really looking forward to it too. Shame.

jsa112

Had a lot more fun at the alltech beer festival a few months ago than this one. Got free tickets and still didn't think it was worth going to.

irish_goat

I had a good time on Saturday but did feel it was quieter than usual.

Highlights included Rascal's hoppy sour, Sullivans red ale, Dungarvan's Maple Bacon sour and my favourite beer of the festival, Trouble Brewing's East Coast IPA.

Sono

Anyone try the western herd brew? Delightful stuff!

MonkstownHoop

Sono wrote: »

Anyone try the western herd brew? Delightful stuff!

Liked Danger Here, great name too!

Zaph

I really enjoyed the festival the last couple of years, so I was a bit disappointed when I realised that it was on the same time as I'd be in Italy on holidays. But by the sounds of things it's gone downhill compared to previous years. However my disappointment was lessened somewhat when I discovered that there was a craft beer festival being held in the town I was staying in. When we got to the festival it was a world away from the RDS. For a start, it was outdoors - kind of. It was actually held underneath a large flyover that crossed over part of a small park on the outskirts of the town and it was all typically Italian and chaotic. Entry was free, so there were no festival glasses or beakers, and tokens were €2 each. A token got you a 0.2l plastic cup of beer, or you could get 0.4l cups for two tokens. There were only 10 or 11 stands, and tbh I've no idea if any of them were from breweries or they were all bars. I know the one craft beer bar we found in the town (which is where we heard about the festival) had two separate stands, so the rest could have just been bars from other towns.

As for the Italian beer, I have to say I was very impressed by it. I've never made it in to the Italian beer festival in Dublin so I didn't know what to expect, but among the beers I had was one of the best Scotch ales I've tasted anywhere. Unfortunately I didn't manage to take note of the names of the beers we were drinking. Presumably because they needed access to shared generators all the bars were set up in a row, which meant that getting out through the crowds without spilling the beer was a higher priority than remembering the names. The crowds also made it very difficult to spend any time speaking to the guys behind the bars, which was a shame. However I did get to chat with the barman in the aforementioned craft beer bar we were in and it seems that the Italian craft beer market is growing rapidly and from what I tasted they're producing some top quality beers.

Lovely Bloke

Oh, you've got to make it to the Italian festival this year, it's on either the 19th or 26th of November, depending on when the Italian government decide to hold a referendum, so the brewers can get over here for it.

Where were you? If it was anywhere around the North West of the country (Florence, Genoa, Milan, Turin) then there'd be a good chance you may encounter some of the same breweries.

Zaph

No, I was in the south, so I'm guessing that the breweries would have been from that neck of the woods. One of the bars had a Mikkeler beer, but that was the only brewery I recognised.

Lovely Bloke

Zaph wrote: »

No, I was in the south, so I'm guessing that the breweries would have been from that neck of the woods. One of the bars had a Mikkeler beer, but that was the only brewery I recognised.

On my honeymoon in Rome in 2012 we stayed in a hotel close to the large train station, and there was about a 20 minute walk to the Trevi.

On our way down there one afternoon we passed a small bar with heavy metal music pumping out, but they had craft beer.

Took a bit of convincing, but we went there twice