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Why has craft beer and cask Ale not taken off in Irish pubs?

lufties

Hi, just an observation. Ireland has some fantastic micro brewers, solas being my favourite currently. However, I never see them in Irish pubs outside Dublin. I've visited a few pubs recently in Tipp and Clare, they all serve the same mass produced rubbish.
I live in Yorkshire, and every pub serves different ales ranging from 3.5% upwards. It's a shame it doesn't take off in Ireland as I'm sick of returning home to the same old Guinness, Heineken etc.

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[Deleted User]

Effects wrote: »

You sound like someone who still wears boot cut jeans and doesn't like people who you think are better than you as they have developed their tastes further than you.

You see, that attitude doesn’t help. I know their post was mostly trash but the superiority complex is what puts a lot of people off. Just like what you like and don’t think you’re better than other people because of what you like, that’s the key. And that goes the other direction for people who don’t like craft beer too. It’’s a wonderful thing, which we are so lucky to have because so many breweries are producing here, so what’s the point in scoffing or thinking you’re God-like because of it?

TaurenDruid

Ah, gotcha, I thought you meant just 12 different brands :-)

Yup, it might well be that you've found your preferred beer style, and none of the craft styles beat it. Each to their own - my partner drinks the most bland lager available, but that suits them.

What annoys me is heading away for a weekend, going into the hotel bar, and finding that I may as well have stayed in Dublin - I might be in Dungarvan, Ennis, or Sligo, but it doesn't matter: they have three types of Diageo and two types of Heineken for sale, despite there being a good selection of local breweries within a 20-minute's drive. God forbid a tourist might want to try something local...

grindle

Effects wrote: »

You sound like someone who still wears boot cut jeans and doesn't like people who you think are better than you as they have developed their tastes further than you.

How in the name of god does wearing bootcut jeans equate to having undeveloped tastes?

"Wow Fionnachras, those tartan skinny jeans with the lime green stripes are on fleek and the vintage NAFF jacket engenders everything I love about streetwear in a pre-post-capitalist society, total yurt!" = some pleb with developed tastes?

RasTa

Mongfinder General

Effects wrote: »

You sound like someone who still wears boot cut jeans and doesn't like people who you think are better than you as they have developed their tastes further than you.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. Nobody gives a **** what you’re drinking. Nobody cares about the texture and added flavor created and nuanced by imported roasted Dutch barley. And nobody will give a fcuk when most of these micro breweries are bust or on their arses during the next recession. Diageo and a small oligopoly have the market by the balls. And good luck to them. And most of all nobody gives a fcuk about your opinion of how beer is brewed or boot cut jeans for that matter. You’re probably one of those d1cks who wears a neckerchief and corduroy jackets

Ipso

Barley is imported from the Netherlands?

DelmarODonnell

Mongfinder General wrote: »

I’ll let you in on a little secret. Nobody gives a **** what you’re drinking. Nobody cares about the texture and added flavor created and nuanced by imported roasted Dutch barley. And nobody will give a fcuk when most of these micro breweries are bust or on their arses during the next recession. Diageo and a small oligopoly have the market by the balls. And good luck to them. And most of all nobody gives a fcuk about your opinion of how beer is brewed or boot cut jeans for that matter. You’re probably one of those d1cks who wears a neckerchief and corduroy jackets

Why would we import barley from the Netherlands? That is just plain silly. It's like saying we should import milk from Italy for the coffee. Come on now out of that.

Micro breweries are doing great stuff, have a fantastic effect on the local economy and directly employ more people than the multinationals like Heineken and Diageo. Whether you want to drink the beer or not is your own choice but I pity the person who has to be sat beside you at the bar as you moan about the quality of your Guinness and growl at some fella ordering a beer brewed down the road instead of the usual crap.

ShamNNspace

+imv the microbreweries are reversing the Guinness policy of buying up many of the local breweries and subsequently closing them down over 100 yrs or so ago

Gloomtastic!

Remember people, please attack the post, not the poster. Nobody likes it when it gets personal.

The Gloomster!

Mongfinder General

DelmarODonnell wrote: »

Why would we import barley from the Netherlands? That is just plain silly. It's like saying we should import milk from Italy for the coffee. Come on now out of that.

Micro breweries are doing great stuff, have a fantastic effect on the local economy and directly employ more people than the multinationals like Heineken and Diageo. Whether you want to drink the beer or not is your own choice but I pity the person who has to be sat beside you at the bar as you moan about the quality of your Guinness and growl at some fella ordering a beer brewed down the road instead of the usual crap.

Imported barley. It’s just an example of the type of nonsense used to market some off colour ****e dreamed up in somebody’s bath tub.
As for guinness, great stuff if you want to pebble dash the toilet. And nobody has to sit beside me.

Eric Cartman

Hunky Monster wrote: »

Honestly? Advertising.

Every pub in the country sells Budweiser and Heineken. They're not fit for human consumption yet they're the go to "beers" for a good chunk of the population.

My local got in a range of the McGargles stuff a few years ago, it's a lot better than the commercial mass produced stuff, it was being handed out for FREE for anyone who wanted to try it at the start yet everyone still went back to the drain cleaner Budweiser and Mcgargles died a death. People are used to this muck and they're not willing to change.

to be fair its kind of a momentum thing, If youre heading into a pub you don't want to be the only one drinking a certain beer, the first two pints out of a seldom used tap are going to be filth.

I love a pint of hop house (which isnt even obscure) but outside of cities id be reluctant to order it unless i saw a few others drinking it.

Lewis_Benson

Mongfinder General wrote: »

Imported barley. It’s just an example of the type of nonsense used to market some off colour ****e dreamed up in somebody’s bath tub.
As for guinness, great stuff if you want to pebble dash the toilet. And nobody has to sit beside me.

What an odd thing to post.
Anyway, people can like whatever they want.

I love a good pale ale, particularly Blacks Kinsale Palr Ale.
I wish my locals would get a tap in, they already have a good selection, this would be the go to for me.

oceanman

to be honest I think craft beers are over rated and overpriced, in this country anyway.

Eric Cartman

oceanman wrote: »

to be honest I think craft beers are over rated and overpriced, in this country anyway.

definitely overpriced in most places. Most spots around the city would charge 5.70-6 quid for a pint of commercial now, not a chance am I paying 50 cent over that for what is probably only marginally better and not like ill care from pints 5-10 anyway.

TaurenDruid

And therein lies the problem - the macro breweries like Diageo and Heineken can work on economies of scale. They buy exponentially more grain and hops than your Blacks of Kinsale or your Kinnegars. So they can buy it at a huge discount compared to what the craft breweries have to pay. If the craft brewers are paying more for their basic ingredients, they've no choice but to pass it on to the consumer. So yeah - quality, small batch beer will cost more than mass produced generic ****e. (And yeah, ****e craft beer still costs more to produce than mass produced ****e, so even the "bad" craft beer will cost more than a pint of Bud, Heineken or Smithwicks).

mfceiling

I don't mind paying extra for craft beer. A good beer should cost more. Mass produced lager is as bland as it gets and I'd ratherthrow an extra euro or 2 at something that has a bit of flavour and taste to it.
I bought a can of Kinsales OG Kush last Friday and it was 4.39. Told my mate in work and he says "you could get 4 cans of Aldi's cider for that"....After telling me before that he likens it to drinking petrol!!

oceanman

mfceiling wrote: »

I don't mind paying extra for craft beer. A good beer should cost more. Mass produced lager is as bland as it gets and I'd ratherthrow an extra euro or 2 at something that has a bit of flavour and taste to it.
I bought a can of Kinsales OG Kush last Friday and it was 4.39. Told my mate in work and he says "you could get 4 cans of Aldi's cider for that"....After telling me before that he likens it to drinking petrol!!

after five or six pints they all taste the same anyway...

Geuze

Note that Sam Smith's brewery in the UK can sell a pint in a pub for GBP 1.34.

http://tandlemanbeerblog.blogspot.com/2019/09/what-times-mr-smith-coming.html

OK, they aren't a tiny brewer, but I don't think they are huge either.

L1011

Geuze wrote: »

Note that Sam Smith's brewery in the UK can sell a pint in a pub for GBP 1.34.

http://tandlemanbeerblog.blogspot.com/2019/09/what-times-mr-smith-coming.html

OK, they aren't a tiny brewer, but I don't think they are huge either.

That's 2.8%, so qualifies for reduced duty - not a huge cut admittedly - and obviously pays less duty anyway due to being that low.

The pub would be owned outright - so zero external supply chain costs, is relatively close to the brewery and is in an extremely deprived area.

Effects

Eric Cartman wrote: »

not like ill care from pints 5-10 anyway.

Ten pints on a night out sounds like a bit of a drinking problem though.

Technocentral

Same here its like I dont mind paying more for nice coffee in Cloudpicker over Centra coffee, I do like pints of cheap ale in Spoons too now and then only cause they are lovely.

Technocentral

Effects wrote:

Ten pints on a night out sounds like a bit of a drinking problem though.

Therein lies one of the problems, the quantity over quality merchants. I like to savour fine ales not lash them back.

TaurenDruid

Technocentral wrote: »

Therein lies one of the problems, the quantity over quality merchants. I like to savour fine ales not lash them back.

Same. I "binge drink" (according to the EU and Department of Health!), but my "binge" is three or four pints of good beer - not 10 of ****e chemical-laden tasteless crap.

But ideally I'd like a choice of decent low-alcohol beers - 2.5% to 4.2% - so I can have a few more if I want, rather than being limited to a choice of 5% and over IPAs, DIPAs and imperial stouts. I can currently only usually manage that if I'm going to a party and stop off at a good off licence - even the good craft beer pubs usually only carry one or two low-alcohol beets.

DelmarODonnell

Eric Cartman wrote: »

definitely overpriced in most places. Most spots around the city would charge 5.70-6 quid for a pint of commercial now, not a chance am I paying 50 cent over that for what is probably only marginally better and not like ill care from pints 5-10 anyway.

Are you seriously saying you wouldn't pay less than 10% more for a pint of what should be superior quality and locally owned and produced? I mean, if you are out for a long night, you are paying either €2.50-€5.00 more, which is easily spent in the chipper later that night anyway.

I can understand going to an offo and paying €1 for a can vs €3.50 for a craft beer but never in a pub.

Sure you may aswell be solely drinking Tuborg or Bavaria in that case, at least you'll pay significantly less for the pint.

Effects

Technocentral wrote: »

Therein lies one of the problems, the quantity over quality merchants. I like to savour fine ales not lash them back.

I've no problem drinking Guinness in a pub myself. But I wouldn't really drink it at home, preferring something better from my local off licence.

I also sometimes find if I drink craft on a night out I have a worse hangover, which I attribute to a higher ABV.

But I just find anyone drinking ten pints would be a bit too much these days, and not good for your health at all.

machaseh

I love my fine ales once in a while but I disagree with the notion that there is no place for lager or other cheap mass produced beers such as Guinness.

Lager is not worse than craft ales, it's just a different product. Lagers are mass produced and are purposefully light in taste so you can drink more of it. You drink it as a refreshing, neutral beverage and to get drunk.

Craft ales are something you'd maybe have 3 pints of at most, with a very strong and complex taste that is enjoyed slowly. Only pretentious D4 ''''hipsters'''' would slam down 10+ cans of craft beer on a night.

There is a place for both types of products. Just like you have Brennans pan bread and artesanal bakery sourdough bread. It's just a different product. Or an expensive cuban cigar versus a normal fag. Etc.

Effects

I had a bottle of Brooklyn Special Effects Non Alcoholic the other night. Nicest NA beer I've tasted I think.

oceanman

I suppose the nicest thing you could say about craft beer is that's an acquired taste..not for everyone though.

TaurenDruid

machaseh wrote: »

Lager is not worse than craft ales, it's just a different product. Lagers are mass produced and are purposefully light in taste so you can drink more of it. You drink it as a refreshing, neutral beverage and to get drunk.

Nope. Mass produced lagers - your Heinekens, Carlsbergs, Rockshores, Budweisers, Coors, etc. - might be purposefully light in taste but I doubt that's so you can drink more of it, it's moreso that brewing a lager with flavour requires more grain types, more hops, and often longer fermentation - which all adds to the cost.

Proof: any of the wonderful traditional continental lagers you can get in a decent offie or when on holiday in Germany or Belgium; and many of the craft lagers produced by Irish and British craft breweries.

odyssey06

Spaten or something similar available in pubs would suit me.

Have had some very nice craft beers - pale or session ales rather than IPAs - but can get a bit heavy not so much in alcohol as density...not sure if its the hops?

I think especially in touristy areas pub would be missing a trick not to stock something local.