Irish Beers for a Belgian

bigar

I have a friend over from Belgium in a couple of days and would like to give him some Irish beers to drink while he is here.
I am Belgian myself and have a considerable Belgian beer collection. Up to now I still was unable to find any Irish creft beers to my taste. Most overdo it with the hops and have that recognisable bitter aftertaste.

So, fellow beer lovers. What Irish beers can you suggest that do not have that hoppiness and are a bit more to the sweeter side?

As a guideline, some of my favourite Belgian beers you may know: Delerium Tremens, Duvel, St Bernardus Abt, Piraat.

Thank you for your recommendations

TheBully

You should try some of the Kinnegar stuff, Rust Bucket, scraggy Bay and lime burner are some of my favorite craft beers at the moment.

saintsaltynuts

Guinness by the pint.

L1011

Mescan, if you can find them, would be an obvious choice

Quackster

Guinness Milk Stout is widely available in off-licences and should meet your requirements, albeit minus the 'craft' credentials.

odyssey06

+1 for limeburner and mescan

Liamo08

If you're still living in Marino I'd suggest going down to Martins and ask the guys there for some recommendations - they should have plenty there to keep you going. Plenty of Stouts, Red Ales/Ambers, Barelywines, Sours etc. as well as some Belgian styles being made by Irish breweries if you want to avoid the hoppy stuff.

bigar

Excellent, thank you. I have a few to start with.

Martin's is very close and I get a lot of the Belgian beers i like there. I will check what they have and ask for recommendations too

a_non_a_mouse

What about White Hag's Black Boar or White Gypsy's Imperial Stout ?

bigar wrote: »

Martin's is very close and I get a lot of the Belgian beers i like there. I will check what they have and ask for recommendations too

Martins can be quite expensive at times, though his selection is usually excellent. If you are in that neck of the woods, there are another couple of off licences that carry good selections. Lilac wines on Philipsburgh avenue (though I haven't been there in a while) and McHugh's in Artaine, opposite the Goblet on the Malahide Road.

McHugh's in particular do a great range of Irish craft beers, and the staff would have no trouble recommending a couple of different ones. Also, check out the BRÚ house in Fairview for a beer and a bit of food. They do guest beers at reasonable prices all the time.

Up to now I still was unable to find any Irish creft beers to my taste. Most overdo it with the hops and have that recognisable bitter aftertaste.

This is a particular bugbear of mine. We are in the middle of a 'craft beer revolution' here in Ireland, supposedly, yet 90% of the beers available are either pale ales or IPAs. There is very little selection in terms of ciders, stouts, wheat beers etc.

It's miles better than it used to be but it gets a bit samey when there are ten taps in a bar and 7 of them are essentially trying to out-hop each other in the bitterness stakes.

RasTa

It's grand. All about juice now in these IPA's.

Although table beer fad is over after a month and the next thing is the Brut IPA

Alun

Jason Salty Revolt wrote: »

This is a particular bugbear of mine. We are in the middle of a 'craft beer revolution' here in Ireland, supposedly, yet 90% of the beers available are either pale ales or IPAs. There is very little selection in terms of ciders, stouts, wheat beers etc.

It's miles better than it used to be but it gets a bit samey when there are ten taps in a bar and 7 of them are essentially trying to out-hop each other in the bitterness stakes.

This x 1,000,000.

Black Donkey Saison is decent.

HopsAndJumps

Alun wrote: »

Jason Salty Revolt wrote: »

This is a particular bugbear of mine. We are in the middle of a 'craft beer revolution' here in Ireland, supposedly, yet 90% of the beers available are either pale ales or IPAs. There is very little selection in terms of ciders, stouts, wheat beers etc.

It's miles better than it used to be but it gets a bit samey when there are ten taps in a bar and 7 of them are essentially trying to out-hop each other in the bitterness stakes.

This x 1,000,000.

Pale's and IPAs are what pays the bills at the moment. Stouts and particularly Belgian beers are harder to make. The R&D can take years. Then when they are perfected they can take a longer time to ferment and can take up space and time conditioning. 
IPAs and Pales are in and out the door quickly and in much more volume. The recipes are much easier to formulate and perfect.

HopsAndJumps wrote: »

Pale's and IPAs are what pays the bills at the moment. Stouts and particularly Belgian beers are harder to make. The R&D can take years. Then when they are perfected they can take a longer time to ferment and can take up space and time conditioning. 
IPAs and Pales are in and out the door quickly and in much more volume. The recipes are much easier to formulate and perfect.

I hear ya. Its the same reason for the recent hipsterisation of gin in that its distilled and bottled then you're onto the next batch. Whiskies etc. need to be aged for the really good ones.

It's been the best part of a decade now since the likes of the black sheep first opened their doors (and they've a better selection than most) but it seems like 90%+ of new beers are in the IPA mould. What if you don't like hoppy 6% beers? What if you do like them, but are sick of them?

In one bar recently, I counted 10 taps, and 6 or 7 were IPA and two pale ales, with one guinness (think it was pipers corner). That's almost as bad as the late 90s when it was restricted to guinness, bud, bulmers or carlsberg. Look at the selection in, say, the living room as an example of a wide ranging and varied selection.

OldMrBrennan83

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Patww79 wrote: »

Black ipa.

Coalface by that crowd in Leitrim is delicious, i'll give you that.

OldMrBrennan83

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If you don't mind me asking..... Too mainstream for what?

Quackster

Jason Salty Revolt wrote: »

If you don't mind me asking..... Too mainstream for what?

Exactly my opinion. The main thing I care about is the taste. Next after that would be how local is the brewery.

OldMrBrennan83

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Quackster

Patww79 wrote: »

Blacks are fairly big bow, you can even get the black ipa in Tesco and Dunnes now. Regardless, I'd still recommend it, either on draught or in bottles. Good flavour but doesn't have the real bitterness to it that the OP was talking about.

I'd agree with that. I'm not a massive IPA fan but I do enjoy Black's Black IPA.

L1011

Patww79 wrote: »

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They still meet the requirements to be considered micro under Irish law; additionally its not like any of the Belgian breweries mentioned in the OP are new or obscure...

Losty Dublin

You could play it safe and try him on O'Hara's, who are brewing more traditional style beers for a more mainstream audience but without the big boy label. Rascal's are doing some pretty different stuff with their beers as are Trouble Brewing.

osarusan

Boyne Brewhouse Saison was one I had recently that was a nice change from the IPAs that are everywhere (which I also like).

There is always the possibility that the OP's friend will like hoppy pale ales anyway.