Supporting craft breweries

dashingdash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123479471#Comment_123479471

Aside from wanting to support local producers, I also turned to Irish breweries because we don't get a great selection of pils in our imports. If you want a helles, no problem, but only handful of decent imported pils are available and they're rare enough.

Some pretty fresh Bohemian Pilsner from Eight Degrees actually turned up in Aldi shortly after I posted this.

BeerNut

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123489216#Comment_123489216

Amen to that. For a few months recently, my local SuperValu was doing Jever for €2.50 a bottle. If I'd known it wasn't going to be restocked I'd have bought way more of it.

Blisterman

Is Jever no longer being imported to Ireland? I've struggled to find it recently.

Black Sheep

I am no great connoisseur of Irish craft lagers, but Hopburgh Helles has always struck me as good - although I don't know how closely it really corresponds to helles as a style.

I was also recently impressed by Rye River's Bidin' Time lager, which is a more generic summer-drinking lager, but just seemed remarkably fresh-tasting and bursting with life when I tried it.

Are people saying the 8 Degrees Pilsner is worth a whirl then? Anyone else… Dundalk Bay lager? Wicklow Wolf? Kinnegar Donegal lager? Stag Kolsch?

I've had the rice lager and also the pils from Whiplash and thought they were pretty good too.

When I buy imported lager, I really like Grevensteiner, Sam Smith pure brewed organic lager (Impossible to get of late) and I've also like the new Iron Maiden lager brewed with Crew Republic.

irish_goat

Kinnegar DL is good, but it's more in the vein of a light Helles. They make excellent pilsners, but having 2 lagers in the core range can be confusing in the trade. Gets even more confusing when you chuck in their black lager too.

Galway Bay have recently released Figo, labelled as an Italian Pilsner. I've not had it yet, but seen good reviews so far.

BeerNut

Is Jever no longer being imported to Ireland? I've struggled to find it recently.

It's one of Grand Cru's non-core range and they can be sporadic. I'm guessing it'll reappear when a new shipment comes in. In the same shop, Duvel disappeared for a few months and then came back, and Westmalle Tripel has been gone for a while now: all Grand Cru beers.

Hopburgh Helles has always struck me as good - although I don't know how closely it really corresponds to helles as a style.

Yeah, I think it's pretty much spot on. When a brewery only does a small number of beers, that's usually an indication that they're doing them right.

Anyone else…

As mentioned up-thread, Third Barrel's Hello Yes? is very good. I suspect it's a case of the brewer making a beer that he likes to drink. It deserves to find a market.

Black Sheep

Galway Bay Slow Lives any good?

White Hag has Roc Helles, around a while, and I see they have a kind of American style lager coming out now as well… (Kind of reminds me of what the Porterhouse did with Chiller, many moons ago..).

BeerNut

Haven't had Slow Lives since they changed head brewer but I always quite liked it.

JoeLapira

Nitro Red Ale coming out from Brehon 😍 Jesus I hope I can get my hands on some