Supporting craft breweries

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121305030#Comment_121305030

A 660ml 12% bottle for 55e is no different to people who pay that or more for wine.

I'm certainly not one of those people though. For wine or beer.

hynesie08

I've seen more than one person spend 40-50 on a sharer bottle of Sierra Nevada trip to the woods or a geuze in various craft beer bars. The market is there, it's not me but it's there.

irish_goat

There's a few Sierra Nevada's in there for €28, but they have also been aged 5/6 years old so there's more of a justification for a higher price.

Insect Overlord

I remember seeing Tactical Nuclear Penguin in a bar for €95 back in 2014!

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121305426#Comment_121305426

Well in fairness that's cheap for 40%.

If you bought a bottle of house spirits it would be around 150e in a pub. Although probably around spot on at 100e in 2014 if I remember prices correctly.

youcancallmeal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121304982#Comment_121304982

I'd assume their high roller advent calendar will be mostly made up of those €9-10+ US imports. The only time I've ever ordered those expensive US cans is when they had some from a brewery I'd tried when I was over there a few years back, it was a nice bit of nostalgia. Otherwise it's hard to justify ordering cans from an 'unknown to me' US brewer no matter how fancy the cans look 😂

Pen Rua

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121305896#Comment_121305896

I've only ever ordered two, both of which were interesting-to-me-sounding stouts (one of which had a small bit knocked off the price on sale)

the beer revolu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121305030#Comment_121305030

I've seen some special edition Lambics retailing for over €60

Krusty_Clown

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121304982#Comment_121304982

Suddenly the €4.40 I paid for Rascals' The Big Smoke Imperial Stout (also aged in Bourbon barrels, also 12%) seems like really good value for money and I should go back and hoover up the rest of the stock. The can is only 500ml, but comes in at about €51 cheaper for a similar style of product!

the beer revolu

That's very inexpensive for any 12% beer, never mind a barrel aged one!

irish_goat

At the other end of the spectrum, Forged Stout has landed up north priced at a very reasonable £1.75 a can. Won't be enough to tempt me to stock up but I'd say it will sell alright at that price.

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121312143#Comment_121312143

How much will the barrel aged version be?

irish_goat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121312973#Comment_121312973

Jesus, I never even considered there might be a Proper Twelve BA version at some point. 😬

breezy1985

Well there is a tiny gap in the market with Islands Edge gone.

I'm sure having McGregor will mean it will do a bit better than Heineken managed.

squonk

Is islands Edge gone? Had a B point once. Can’t revenge it but I thought it’d hold out a bit better.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121313981#Comment_121313981

Ya plug was pulled during the week.

Pen Rua

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2023/11/02/heineken-ireland-axes-islands-edge-stout/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

I only ever picked up a 4 pack when it was on offer close to launch. It was fine, but I never sought it out since.

It's still kinda mind boggling that they went for a third stout, when they have two in the portfolio. I know the whole shtick was to target non-stout drinkers. Maybe non-stout drinkers will continue to... not drink stout.

squonk

Funny but I really thought Rockshore would have bitten a bullet when it initially launched. I had a few cans at one point and can’t remember it. My impression was that it was a bit like pi$$. It must be doing ok though given they’ve used the brand to launch an orchard thieves competitor cider. Diageo might know their maker a bit better than Heineken. Hop House is fine to go along with if you’re stuck in ac macro bar at a night out or wedding but any of the lagers I’ve had from the likes of Kinnegsr, Western Her and Black Donkey were better. Diageo did have their flops too though. I liked Breo back in the day and was sure to see that go but Blue Moon was at least available as well. Similarly they did a Guinness specials series about 20 years ago. There were showed to be 6 limited run variations but I think they stopped after 3. I really liked the Toucan Brew released as part of that. I think they were using it to gauge the market for a Guinness spinoff variety but by the sounds of it I was the only punter buying pints of it! 😀

squonk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121314139#Comment_121314139

That’s the thing though. I hated beer when I first tried it. Started out on those evil alcohols or cider. I got into it though and it gave to say that Guinness and stout in general is kind of an acquired taste. It’s also heavy relative to lager. I also think it has an image of being an old man’s drink. I think they’d have done better pushing Murphy’s or Beamish. I drank Beamish in college because it was cheap but was also a good beer.

Firblog

Anyone recommend a local brewed wheatbeer? Like Lidl's Franziskaner, wouldn't mind trying something different though.

toffeeshel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121314139#Comment_121314139

And to market it as less bitter - they have a less bitter stout in their portfolio- Murphys

Yeah Right

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121313981#Comment_121313981

https://www.joe.ie/business/islands-edge-stopped-785255

Only announced today/yesterday

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121314170#Comment_121314170

A lot of the Guinness stuff like Breo was ahead of its time in terms of getting people to try something new. It was also stuck in a weird place where everyone thought it was a form of Guinness so only the very hard to shift Guinness drinkers even tried it. Far less "I'm a Guinness/Bud/Heineken man" out there now.

Always thought having a lager and cider both just called "Rockshore" was an odd choice but it does seem to be a popular brand. Guinness also often have interesting beers that you can't get in Ireland.

BeerNut

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121314139#Comment_121314139

My theory is they noticed that only oulfellas drank Beamish and Murphy's so rather than deal with the image problem of those two, they created a stout aimed at the young. They didn't notice that the young, and the oulfellas, are perfectly happy with Guinness.

Oddly, before Island's Edge was launched, they had a test product called Kettle Brew with a similar or identical recipe. You'd have thought that the whole point of test products is to ensure marketing disasters like Island's Edge don't happen.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121314170#Comment_121314170

I think Rockshore's success has nothing to do with the product or Diageo's market accumen, and everything to do with their ability to distribute it to just about everywhere it can conceivably go. Flood the zone, as Mr Bannon once put it. C&C lacking the sheer muscle to keep Budweiser in all the places Diageo had it created a convenient vacancy for Rockshore to occupy.

Pen Rua

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121314237#Comment_121314237

re stout being an old man's drink -- my TikTok feed has a lot of young lads now basing their personality around being a fan of Guinness. There's a podcast I listen to, and one of the hosts is in his 30s and always harps on about Guinness. Even in my work peer group, there's a few in the office who you wouldn't tag as stout people (read: young women in their early to mid 20s) that would be on pints of it all night on a work night out.

BeerNut

Guinness is perfect for non-stout drinkers. Its reputation for being an "acquired taste" only exists because people believe it, like they believe it's somehow heavy or that it contains iron. None of it has any grounding in reality.

the beer revolu

Funny how the keg beer market can support, seemingly, endless lager brands but appears to baulk at any more than 3 stout brands!

BeerNut

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121314334#Comment_121314334

Solely because one stout brand dominates in a way that no lager ever has. By the time lager arrived in Irish pubs, our competition law had modernised so that a Guinness situation couldn't happen again.

Yeah Right

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121314238#Comment_121314238

Very difficult to get a decent craft wheatbeer in Ireland.

The Hope crowd do one called Overboard that's nice.

O'hara's Cuirim is pretty nondescript, wouldn't write home about it. They did a limited collab with Tullamore DEW that was lovely but good luck getting your hands on that.

Lough Gill do one called Bán which is more of a Belgian Wit but I haven't seen it anywhere, it's supposed to be lovely.

If you get the chance, Rothaus is a German beer that has a couple of styles and their hefeweizen is the nicest available over here. McHugh's sell it, along with a few others but the distributor is British and refused to engage with anyone over here for a while during/after Covid for some reason. It's back now, though not exactly locally brewed.

Lidl's crafty American Wheat ale is also lovely, though probably neither Irish nor craft, never actually checked.

squonk

I’ll add Western Herd’s Backbeat here as well. It’s quite nice. They do it in limited runs though. I hadn’t seen it in a while but delighted it’s back in stock.

https://www.westernherd.com/product/back-beat/