Supporting craft breweries

BeerNut

Same variety and the same cultivar, on account of the contents of the bottle all coming from literally the same single tree. Harvest, press, ferment, age, bottle. No blending.

Edit: I can see some products are blended, but they're marked as such.

Twee.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120955628#Comment_120955628

I haven't ordered from them but know of https://www.beyondbeer.de/en/#

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120956293#Comment_120956293

I must check them out further.

I make about 80 litres of cider every autumn, but it's a mixture of about 8 varieties. All native except for one French.

Hodors Appletart

I make cider from apples on a tree growing in the garden next to my mother's house - I don't know what type of apples they are, but a Breton friend told me the cider reminded him of home, I've never had a bigger compliment on anything I've fermented.

Krusty_Clown

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120955628#Comment_120955628

Not really 'craft beer', but if you like smoky beers, I've ordered from Schlenkerla to Ireland before, but the cost of delivery to Ireland has since become prohibitive. Still only €8.90 for delivery within Germany, so if you like the style, definitely one to take advantage of. I see they have a new Rotbier, some low alcohol beers, and even a schnapps now.

youcancallmeal

Has anyone who ordered Boxtravaganza received it or even an email about dispatch status?

Unrealistic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120955793#Comment_120955793

I've heard that beer going into Finland often gets targeted because of the high duties there.

Tinter Box

Ordered a box of beer from Austria via groupon years ago. It was impounded by customs but when I went to the office in the docklands to offer to pay the duty etc it they were very nice and sent me on my way. Had done the same thing with wine (from Spain) before and no issues.

Also good luck to those heading to a Sligo tomorrow!

Citizen Six

Passed by the Hagstravaganza site earlier today. Marquee being set up, and a bunch of other tents. Weather isn't supposed to be great, but looking forward to it all the same. i've some beers already chilling for the trip down!

Tinter Box

Any trip reports from yesterday?

phantom_lord

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120971881#Comment_120971881

Way over capacity. Huge queues for beer. A lot of the beers sold out quickly. 90+mins wait for food.

They weren't prepared for the number of tickets they sold.

youcancallmeal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120972416#Comment_120972416

That doesn't sound like fun, I saw some pics with queues 6 people deep at the bar. Has it ever been like that pre-covid?

Tinter Box

Only time I was there was first one after Covid. Weather miserable but table service! Still waiting for the boxstravaganza box delivery update.

breezy1985

Never been to that festival but I pretty much stopped going to beer festivals unless it was the trade only session because everything worth tasting was always really busy or sold out.

AlmightyCushion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120972881#Comment_120972881

The queues were way bigger than 6 deep. I haven't been in a few years but last time I was there a token got you 330ml of normal beers or 200ml of the high strength beers. Now it is 200ml and 100ml respectively. That alone means people are queueing more. You're practically going to the queue twice as much. I was at it a few times pre covid and don't remember the queues being bad at all.

It is also really poor value now. A token used to be €2.50, now it is €3. With them reducing how much you get for a token, it works out at nearly €9 for a pint of normal beer or nearly €18 for a higher strength beer. I had been recommending it to my friends in Dublin for years but I won't be recommending it any more.

Tinter Box

That’s a shame. I mean they aren’t stuck for space. It’s an expensive day out going by those prices.

Citizen Six

The weather was supposed to be wet, but it stayed dry and sunny for almost the entire time. The queues only seemed to get bad later in the evening, after 6pm or so. But each queue had at leat ten people in it. I felt they moved quickly enough before that. They did run out of beers I wanted to try, meaning I had to change my selections often at short notice! came home with a free can i got from Hag Man, and used my last tokens on a barley wine, as I didn't want to queue any more. I seemed to remember the bar was wider last time I was there, which was pre covid.

The train down was good craic, with a bunch of people on it for the Fleadh as well. Train was almost double the capacity it normally is, and people still had to stand. Train back was similar. Some sound dude gave myself and a mate a couple of beers to enjoy.

Really enjoyed Don't Tell Brian Cupcake Stout that they had in the barrel aged room.

irish_goat

Queues were definitely bad this year. Some things couldn't be helped e.g. at one point there were 4 staff all waiting to pour from the same tap. We ended up hanging out in the tasting area as you were at least guaranteed to get beer there. There was also no wait in the barrel room but it was dangerous to hang out in there all day. Price wise the regular strength beers are poor value but on the flip side you definitely got more than 100ml of the barrel aged stuff.

We've decided next year we are just going to bring our own food as well.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120975077#Comment_120975077

There are definitely ways you can solve things like 4 people waiting for a tap but I accept you are probably not getting high quality staff for a one off event.

TaurenDruid

Is staffing still a problem everywhere - one off events, absolutely, it'll be temp staff on gig economy jobs from Get The Shift. But I was in the Beer Temple yesterday, early evening, 8-ish, and they had only one person on behind the bar, absolutely run off his feet (wasn't helped by tables ordering cocktails, but still!)

irish_goat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120975134#Comment_120975134

Not really sure what they can do. If 4 people all order the same beer there is gonna be a wait.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120975458#Comment_120975458

The guy pulling offers to pull all 4 or the staff take more orders while waiting for the tap to free.

Plenty of busy pubs would have a backlog at the big taps and you wouldn't just stand around and wait.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120975422#Comment_120975422

Ya it's still a problem. It's not helped either by the fact that most pubs were usually already running on tight wage budgets and have added things like cocktails (without adding more staff) which are an awful time drain.

irish_goat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120975550#Comment_120975550

Get your point but it would end up getting messy cause the staff are moving up and down quite a long bar. It's not like a pub scenario where 1 guy can line up a load of pints.

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120975550#Comment_120975550

I'd imagine it would be easy to get confused, with about 50 beers on tap. To save time, I was often ordering two at a time, and sometimes after they poured the first, they would ask me what the second one I wanted was.

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120975077#Comment_120975077

I brought my own food on the train, just to be safe, as I knew I'd be drinking a lot. I ordered a pizza, and waited about 10 mins, which I didn't think was too bad. But that was around 3pm or so.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120977763#Comment_120977763

Ide expect that if it's event staff to be fair.

I much prefer the type of festival set up where each brewer is pulling their own rather than a massive bar which is what this sounds like.

Tinter Box

Looking like Boxstravaganza on the way. Hoping to have in Dublin 8 for weekend!

Jambonjunior

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120979052#Comment_120979052

Yeah I was surprised too.

My girlfriend got a discount code for yards and crafts but lost it during the festivities 🙂

Did anyone else happen to get it?

AlmightyCushion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120993599#Comment_120993599

It's HAG23

Tinter Box

Boxstravaganza arrived. A Cider and a hard seltzer in there ☹️ otherwise looks ok