Supporting craft breweries

recyclops · 05-05-2021 10:32AM

Macy0161 wrote: »

Wicklow Wolf opening the Taproom this week. Must have the new licence, as growler fills, and no minimum quantity on cans. Will be paying a visit on Friday! No price or stock list yet "coming soon" apparently.

Saw this on their social media, a taproom no more than a 5 minute walk from my house, absolutely glorious news

:):)

did like the mention of coffee as well and opening at 8AM, surely tap rooms abide by the same off licence hours or is it different?

L1011 · 05-05-2021 10:36AM

Producers on-licence is 10:00-19:00, 12:30-19:00 Sunday, so 30 mins on off-licences in the morning during the week. That's assuming that is the licence they have; there are only a handful issued so far.

Macy0161 · 05-05-2021 10:44AM

recyclops wrote: »

did like the mention of coffee as well and opening at 8AM, surely tap rooms abide by the same off licence hours or is it different?

Doing coffee too - probably tapping(?) into all the building work as Newtown goes from village to town!

BonnieSituation · 05-05-2021 11:13AM

Has anyone had the Pineapple Púca yet?

BeerNut · 05-05-2021 11:17AM

BonnieSituation wrote: »

Has anyone had the Pineapple Púca yet?

Yeah, I liked it. Plenty of pineapple but not so much that it overpowers the sourness. One of the better Púcas, imo.

youcancallmeal · 05-05-2021 12:03PM

Pen Rua wrote: »

https://craftcentral.ie/collections/may-sale-1

Craft Central are doing a weekend sale. It seems to be predominately the recent US & UK imports marked down by a euro or two.

Just a word of warning, I put in an order at the weekend and picked a few of the American(18th Street, Barrier, Thin Man) beers in the sales. They are all best before January, it could be the canned on date but there is no indication either way? Also one of the 18th Street beers I have was clearly not sealed properly(congealed beer around the rim), I expect it will be flat and gone off when I open it. I should've known better as I rarely drink an imported American beer and think wow this is really nice and fresh.

BaZmO* · 05-05-2021 01:19PM

youcancallmeal wrote: »

Just a word of warning, I put in an order at the weekend and picked a few of the American(18th Street, Barrier, Thin Man) beers in the sales. They are all best before January, it could be the canned on date but there is no indication either way? Also one of the 18th Street beers I have was clearly not sealed properly(congealed beer around the rim), I expect it will be flat and gone off when I open it. I should've known better as I rarely drink an imported American beer and think wow this is really nice and fresh.

18th Street Beers always have the "Canned" date on them.

Spillage on the rim doesn't indicate that it's not sealed properly, it would more so show that they weren't overly careful when filling.

youcancallmeal · 05-05-2021 03:54PM

BaZmO* wrote: »

18th Street Beers always have the "Canned" date on them.

Spillage on the rim doesn't indicate that it's not sealed properly, it would more so show that they weren't overly careful when filling.

Ah cool, hope you're right

recyclops · 06-05-2021 01:15PM

Macy0161 wrote: »

Doing coffee too - probably tapping(?) into all the building work as Newtown goes from village to town!

popped in as I had a spare 15 mins in work, down 50 quid now and 6 cans and full growler heavier, its the same room they served drink in on tour, coffee was lovely.

Had their new limited run cans to buy separately and all the usual suspects handy having it so close save me going to kilcoole to pick up their beers.

Macy0161 · 06-05-2021 02:31PM

recyclops wrote: »

popped in as I had a spare 15 mins in work, down 50 quid now and 6 cans and full growler heavier, its the same room they served drink in on tour, coffee was lovely.

Have the growlers cooling ready to go tomorrow! Probably more breweries should go this route, as I suspect the macros are going to go in hard for the on-trade with offers the publicans can't refuse to crowd out micro breweries.

BeerNut · 06-05-2021 02:41PM

Macy0161 wrote: »

Probably more breweries should go this route, as I suspect the macros are going to go in hard for the on-trade with offers the publicans can't refuse to crowd out micro breweries.

I'd say it would be tough for most of them to justify, with the extra cost of the licence and being in out-of-the-way locations. Wicklow Wolf was set up to have visitors, not many Irish breweries are.

Twee. · 07-05-2021 10:17AM

You do really have to build from the start with visitors in mind if that's what you're aiming to do.

Macy0161 · 07-05-2021 10:32AM

I'm not sure Wicklow Wolf did, to be fair. I did the Tour pre-lockdown and the taproom is very much a small corner of the building. It's set up as in it's a big modern building purpose built to be a brewery, so it was planned to some degree. However, it didn't seem that visitors were at the forefront from my observation or from what was said at the tour tbh. It was all about the beer/ capacity/ efficiency.

BeerNut · 07-05-2021 10:45AM

They definintely said that running events was part of the plan when I visited.

Twee. · 07-05-2021 11:03AM

Oh I'm not implying it would be done over and above brewery design, efficiency etc, not at all, it's just a tricky thing to have to retrofit depending on your space and location, so ideally you'd plan to some degree at the start, especially if you're custom building. I hope to see more brewery taprooms, it's something the UK industry has that I really wish we had here.
Although I've heard from a few brewers who worked in such places that they didn't like being watched work from behind glass :P

Macy0161 · 07-05-2021 11:12AM

BeerNut wrote: »

They definintely said that running events was part of the plan when I visited.

It was more about the beer when I went, from what I recall - but after the taproom we were straight to the mountkennedy inn, so that could be a factor in my memory

BeerNut · 07-05-2021 11:17AM

Twee. wrote: »

I've heard from a few brewers who worked in such places that they didn't like being watched work from behind glass :P

Dance, little hop-monkeys!

youcancallmeal · 07-05-2021 11:39AM

Twee. wrote: »

Although I've heard from a few brewers who worked in such places that they didn't like being watched work from behind glass :P

Probably don't want to the 'magic' of brewing revealed to be fairly mundane in reality

Also this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtqbk9pgPXw

Twee. · 07-05-2021 11:44AM

youcancallmeal wrote: »

Probably don't want to the 'magic' of brewing revealed to be fairly mundane in reality

Also this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtqbk9pgPXw

99% cleaning :P

07-05-2021 11:48AM

Macy0161 wrote: »

I'm not sure Wicklow Wolf did, to be fair. I did the Tour pre-lockdown and the taproom is very much a small corner of the building. It's set up as in it's a big modern building purpose built to be a brewery, so it was planned to some degree. However, it didn't seem that visitors were at the forefront from my observation or from what was said at the tour tbh. It was all about the beer/ capacity/ efficiency.

I found it to be more a tour of a business as opposed to a tour of a brewery. Lots of figures and sales talk more than anything else. It’s very impressive what they’ve built there though.

BeerNut · 07-05-2021 11:58AM

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

I found it to be more a tour of a business as opposed to a tour of a brewery. Lots of figures and sales talk more than anything else.

You never know when an undercover shareholder is going to drop in.

07-05-2021 11:59AM

Their shareholders would be fairly recognisable

Macy0161 · 07-05-2021 02:49PM

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

I found it to be more a tour of a business as opposed to a tour of a brewery. Lots of figures and sales talk more than anything else. It’s very impressive what they’ve built there though.

A lot of it was about the environmental aspects and what they were trying to do in that regard when I was there.

Anyway, went to the Taproom over lunch - impressed with the set up compared to what it was at the tour anyway. Proper growler taps, not just normal taps, full range of cans, including the most recent specials. I'd say I'll be a frequent visitor, even for the specials/ cans if not necessarily growler fills.

DelmarODonnell · 07-05-2021 02:59PM

A friend dropped in today to pick up cans and growlers. He said the guy there was telling him they will be set up for outdoor service on June 7th. Great news, and will be heading down there from Bray to partake! I've only been up there to collect Merch I ordered but surely outdoor area is pretty limitless given the size of the place.

Macy0161 · 07-05-2021 03:31PM

There was a queue so wasn't too much time to chat! I'm not sure how far back they own - houses going in beside them. They looked like they were tidying up outside, but they've put in a few hop vines in space that would've been perfect.

recyclops · 07-05-2021 03:38PM

They have got rid of a lot of the greenspace recently as they are starting to grow hops on the land there so unsure how much space they will have set aside, its all very good news though and great for the area. Between themselves, bonac gin and wicklow way wines they really could create something special if they all got together and created a mixed space for them all to use.

always annoyed me living here that I had to drive out of the town to actually buy the stuff as the garage was always hit and miss with stock.

Macy0161 · 07-05-2021 04:40PM

recyclops wrote: »

always annoyed me living here that I had to drive out of the town to actually buy the stuff as the garage was always hit and miss with stock.

Used to wreck my head having to drive passed to get the specials (or even Apex) or have to order on-line. Getting Locavore 2020 from Craft Direct/ Mullingar* when the hop farm is within my 5km (not to mention the whole carbon neutral thing last year)!

*previous years I was in the office, so came from Dublin Off Licences.

BonnieSituation · 07-05-2021 10:56PM

Fairly decent stash acquired from Martin's today:

Some Carraig Dhubh back in stock. Finally. Also when I was at the till I noticed some riasc black and riasc red. Was not expecting them to be back. Haven't had the cúl dorcha or the béal bán before. So we'll see how they go down over the weekend.

The Pineapple Púca is an absolute gem. Exactly what I was going for. It's as In Cahoots as I'm gonna be getting at this rate. Will be buying a stash of them over the next while, lest we be told that it was a limited edition as I run out.

irish_goat · 08-05-2021 04:41PM

Pen Rua wrote: »

FWIW, it's 85 cals.

https://twitter.com/OHarasBeers/status/1386284533155250176

I see they've added another 5 calories.

https://twitter.com/OHarasBeers/status/1390987742440534017

irish_goat · 10-05-2021 04:55PM

Whiplash coming out with a non-hazy.

https://twitter.com/whiplashbeer/status/1391766188749885446

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