I broke the news today to my OH that I'd rather not go and I got chewed 😆
Has Larkins brewery gone out of business does anyone know?
They posted about a new beer on Instagram 5 days ago, so I doubt it...
Was in my local Molloys earlier and noticed there was no 8 Degrees product at all, which was a bit odd.
Nope - they're still going. They seem to have relaunched their core range at minimum and have some other stuff going around. Had Maverick, their core NE IPA on draft over the weekend. It was fine, but there is better out there.
I'd say most of the 8 degrees production effort is going into the Jameson Caskmates range which would be significantly more profitable. I wonder if the original 2 guys are even still involved since they were acquired by Irish Distillers in 2018
The beer from those casks still gets sold, though.
Full range in my local Centra
I've seen plenty of Eight Degrees core range around but this is the first year in ages that they haven't done a series of special editions.
Still some 8 Degrees in Bradley's, but stock is dwindling and I don't remember the last time I saw a special edition from them since the barley wine they did whenever that was.
Are there any particular 8degress beers people would recommend. Any time I tried them I was completely underwhelmed.
Not any more, no.
They were most people's favourite brewery 7 or 8 years ago, now difficult to recommend. Sad, really.
Cam and Scott still definitely involved. Their Instagram page has photos of their core range in them so they must still be getting sold somewhere. Not had any remarkable from them in quite a while either though.
Their campfire porter was fantastic. Hopefully they release more of it.
Just done a full launch of a "New" core range, but I don't think they're all new beers rather than rebranded. They've been a bit messy with the whole curious society pointless rebrand. I had the session IPA over the weekend, and it was grand as core ranges go (except for calling it "Sesh"!).
Thanks. We haven't been able to get in contact with them for weeks now! Rep disappeared, then emails to their main account started bouncing and main phone number was gone! Very strange!
lol, that's pretty hilarious in a sense.
I know Craft Central are "close" to them - in the sense that their Dog Days IPA (which was actually very good) became a Craft Central exclusive if you're that desperate to track them down. Bierhaus in Cork had their "new" stuff on draft, but Bradley's (also Cork) had nothing new in cans for retail sale.
Weird brewery, by all accounts, it seems.
Lad made a comment around the issue of price over quality...and it was a good one .
Have to admit was a bit of an anti craft drinker some time ago ...but thanks to some good experiences with the craft product I am happy to give them a go.
I like coffee as well and was rather amused at the marketing spin that transformed the humble cuppa into a mystique laden beverage that a lad who ates his dinner in the middle of the day would struggle to understand and of course the basic Americano now costs north of 3.40 in most places.
Just wary that the craft beer segment might be going down the same road...no harm in trying to big up a basic product...but they needs to keep the price in check if Pat is to get on board and not leave it all to the hippsters and urban woodsmen.
Best of luck to all the craft brewers ...happy to support you...chancers, gougers and charlatans will inevitable bite the dust ...those who give a good product at value will do well.
Cheers !
Craft brewers can't compete with macros on price for two reasons. Scale and cost of ingredients.
Scale allows automation. Automation reduces operating costs. Look at the tiny number of staff proposed for Diageo's new ale and lager brewery in Newbridge - which will presumably be producing huge volumes of Smithwicks, Carlsberg, Rockshore, Hop House 13, Macardles etc.
Specific ingredients that the macro brewers use little or none of are very expensive - patent and/or low yield hops in particular. A very hoppy IPA is going to use huge amounts of expensive hops; and people price compare it to strong lagers which, well, don't.
Tesco sell a lot of 8 Degress core range
.. ..
Managed to get in touch with them finally! They have rebranded apparently! Doesn't explain no phone or email for a couple of months!
To be fair, there are good deals to be had for the price sensitive craft beer drinker. O'Briens did a 20% off sale on a lot of their craft beer over the weekend. Wicklow Wolf, White Hag, Kinnegar etc 440mls for €2.40. Was in Aldi earlier and they have 6 or 7 Lough Gill 440ml cans for €2 euro a pop. And had two Dot Brew beers for €2.49 and €2.69 each. Like with minimum pricing laws, there really isn't too much of a difference between that and cans of macro lager
... they have?
I will always support the crafties over the mainstream beers if I am not being gouged.
However like everything else the retailers and producers always try to con the customer when change occurs.
A good Pilsner in my local Supermarket used to be on sale for €1.15 for .500ml can, now it’s up for €1.30 for a 330ml can.
I know there is minimum price involved but hey………
The boy Parsnipp put it succinctly, don’t big up craft beer into mysterious bevvie where only the ‘insiders’ understand the nuances and then try to inflate prices to accommodate that situation.
A reasonable increase is fine, but don’t try to butt ream Pat with the Barista style crud.
Not acceptable.
That's what they said when they finally got back to us. Made some reference to their phoneline being down for a while!
All Aldi's? Or a specific one? Love the Lough Gill range
All the specially brewed for Aldi cans I would suspect, there's several in the range now. Dont think I've ever seen Lough Gills own stuff in Aldi
Yeah they had the three different IPAs/Pale Ales yesterday, as well as an extra special bitter and a witbier. While the branding is different than the usual Lough Gill cans, they haven't created a fake brewery name like the O'Sheas or Roadworks stufff.
The Dot Brews I think were special. Lough Gill have had 4 in for a long time, but have added an ESB and a Wit recently.
Their (Lough Gill) NE IPA, the one with the Bison on the can is really good.
