No, you are 100% correct, they make very good beer now - Big Bangin IPA is lovely, and the American Brown in Lidl is always worth picking up, but really the whole range is very consistent.
And pretty decent beer in fairness, in my very uneducated opinion. But was never a fan of the McGargles branding (but that was still better than some!)
yeah and I remember at the RDS the year after they launched they were lashing out free beer to anyone who went up and had a go at the branding and set up, they seemed so butt-hurt about the feedback
Like a brewery launching and immediately selling longnecks (no other Irish brewery was doing longnecks, and I think Porterhouse had those weird ringpull 330ml bottles) with 4-pack packaging, sample packs and that godawful branding, I even procured a ceramic McGargles tankard around that time, it sets the craft spidey-senses on edge
RR started with an IPA that was practically red, made in Burton; and some other stuff that was practically undrinkable. That and the 'never established' date did make it seem like one of the macros had made up a fake craft brand like Cute Hoor later on.
Some turnaround to have the fairly sizable brewery, international distribution and so on now. And putting 2013 on the bottles!
That's sort of how RR started the McGargle's brand too
It was about a dozen accounts all with one check-in giving this one beer five stars. It looked extremely and obviously fake.
Yeah, Forest Road seemed to be running a what-not-to-do workshop for a while.
Well not if the friends actually gave them 5 stars.
Kind of reminds me of dealing with the absolutely odious cnts at Forest Road Brewery. They had sticker, badges and "merch" all over the craft beer scene before any actual beer.
They gave a load of their friends their beers and asked them to join Untappd and give them five stars. That's the opposite of good marketing.
More likely. The place I mentioned is on Parnell St. and looks like a very slick operation. Not surprised to hear its just good marketing+contract brews.
I doubt the JWS equipment can be moved out in any economically viable way.
It looks like a Photoshop. I don't think Dublin City Brewing has ever existed as a brewery. From the street side it's still boarded up and the signage is now gone. As far as I know the beer has always been brewed at Dundalk Bay or the Netherlands before that.
Yeah, Barrelhead/Hopkins & Hopkins/HopburgH is who I meant. There's a production licence in place for Bow Street and it's all decorated as a brewery. Haven't seen any pics of the inside, though.
Oh could be wrong on that completely! I thought they were brewing around there, no idea if you can go in.
Didn't realise they had their own place. Another one for Hodor's pub crawl, if you can get beer there.
Think that might be Barrelhead/Hopsburgh Helles on Bow St?
Is it Dublin City Brew Co. ?
Actually looks like a real taproom in Dublin city centre which would make it the only one as far as I am aware.
is the equipment still there I wonder.
pre-pandemic they used to be really amenable to homebrew meetings, and I've definitely been on a tour of the set up on a couple of occasions.
It'd be a pity to let it become run-down or unused
JW Sweetman's last-known head brewer now has his own brewery on Bow Street. That coupled with new owners and a general lack of interest in the in-house brewery doesn't bode well.
Big romance, walk down Marlboro st, dip into pipers corner, then be lazy and get the luas 2 stops to underdog.
Delaney's had some To øl on tap last time i was there, Walsh's had kinnegar, mulligans, Fidelity, Bonobo and underdog basically one luas stop away, you could easily lose a boozy day in stonybatter/Smithfield. Plenty of great food and a few games of pinball In token (also a decent can/bottle setup)
Add in a Belfast Coffee from 1661 there and that's me done I'd say 😅
My last visit to Sweetman's was disappointing, two taps I enquired about were actually empty, an IPA I ordered was put on the counter for me when it was clearly a stout, eventually settled on a pale ale and after two sips was abandoned as it was undrinkable.
I think the number of drinks might mess up your walk. 😂. I would literally have to be carried around that route and that’s even before considering pizz stops
I completely left The Big Romance off my list but it sort of messes up the walk too, probably easiest way to incorporate it would be from The Black Sheep
Stoneybatter is a great spot these days.
Im definitely doing some of this when I go up next week. I've never been to Stoneybatter before and always felt there must by somewhere like this in Dublin that I was missing out on.
loads. I was in there abut 2 weeks ago, really decent selection for what it is
Has Darkey Kelly's gone craft? Used not to be
I think this is the most efficient way of getting to most of Dublin's Craft Beer pubs, with the exception of Brew Dock, Against The Grain and 57 The Headline - simply because BD and ATG are out of the way and are GBB pubs, and the headline is too far out - my suggestion would be to get a taxi to it and get food there.
There's about an hour and twenty minutes walking between venues, and the longest walk is going from Fidelity to Dudley's, but you could stop into Pilsner Pub to break that walk up a bit. I also wasn't sure if Thomas House was still crafty, but it's easy to add it between Dudley's and Beer Market anyway.
There's also the 9 minute walk between PHTB and JWS where you could nip across to Panti if you wanted, or walk through Temple Bar and stop in at The Palace which I think has some craft.
Drinkstore Pick up 16 cans for the stroll between pubs
—> 1 min
L Mulligan Grocer
—> 8 mins
Bonobo
—> 7 Mins
Black Sheep
—> 8 Mins
Underdog
Fidelity
—> 12 Mins
Dudley’s
—> 5 mins
Beer Market
—> 3 mins
Bull & Castle
—> 1 mins
Darkey Kelly’s
—> 3 min
Beer Temple
Porterhouse TB
—> 9 min
Sweetman’s
—> 2 min
Cassidy’s
—> 5 min
Tapped
—> 6 min
Peter’s
Bar Rua
P Macs
Finally, if you wanted to add an easy northside leg to this walk, you could start at The Bernard Shaw in Phipsboro, add The Bald Eagle and The Back Page then go to Bonobo, around to LMG and then do the rest of the city centre walk.
I think the owner (Peter I assume) is a buddy or neighbour of the Wicklow lads. It was explained to me once but I've half forgotten.
I do love a spot that can mix craft beer with still being a proper old pub.
Peter's is a great shout with the Wicklow Brewery stuff on tap, don't see that much around the place
P. Mac's and Peter's.
Bonobo have Pointy Shoes on tap at the moment too.
