Citra still floating about, currently on draught in the Garrick in Belfast.
Aldi’s Oktoberfest beers are in, including a bock & helles from DOT, Budvar dark and several German imports. Lidl’s Kickstart 2024 program includes Connemara Brewing Co, Third Barrel and Hopfully. All existing beers. Among non-beer producers is McDaids with Football Special and other soft drinks.
Above as per respective online leaflets, but they appear to be for the back end of this week.
The Lidl beers are in. It would seem, without actually popping into an Aldi, that the Oktoberfest beers will be a Sunday special buy.
The Aldi beers are in stock now, but there's not a single actual Oktoberfestbier in the line up unfortunately. It's things like Bitburger Pils and Erdinger NA.
What is Erdinger urweisse?
It's meant as a more old-fashioned version of their flagship weissbier: slightly darker and lower in alcohol. I don't think there's much difference between them.
Well since we're discussing them in the thread.. I give the Budvar dark beer the thumbs up... very nice... But the Munich Dunkel from Hopfully is a bit thin / insipid.
Hopfully Helles from Aldi. Clearly something amiss here, this is straight out of the can and it's undrinkable. Off , and zero head, had to pour it away.
Odd. It was perfect on draught at the RDS.
An update on the Hopfully Munich Helles… I gave them the heads up on what occurred, because I genuinely felt there was something amiss, and they've reverted back to me confirm that there was a 'packaging issue', and that carbonation had not held up. Hopefully it is not too widespread.
In fairness, I appreciated the response, and it seems like a very rare or freak occurrence, other products I've had from them have always been fine.
I have one among the stash under the stairs - I might jump it to the top of the Q if there are known carbonation issues already…
did they send you a discount code or anything? It’s great they got back to you but if the issue was on their end I’d expect a replacement can or a good site discount to make up and by way of good will. I suppose Aldi will reimburse you but still…
Vintners won’t allow it.
They’d rather we all sit in a dimly lit hovel drinking mass-produced piss at a huge markup.
Well, I didn't look for anything, but yes, I understand they're sending me something in the post. I suppose, even if it's a single replacement can of Munich Helles, and that would still be a win ;)
Some good news for producers way down in the depths of the budget.
That is good news! I didn't know that smaller cider producers got included in the duty reduction in 2023! It always seemed very unfair to me that they were treated differently to beer producers.
Now, what about independent micro distilleries?
Those Wicklow Way wines are very good.
Haven't time to click that, but what's super strong cider?
>8.5%, so that wouldn't even count.
Mad that those were not pulled up on the ambiguous soft drinks looking branding.
The strong cider this is aimed at would I assume be scrumpy's and certain craft ciders.
First glance, I thought it was that Boost energy drink in its old branding:
The only product that I can think of which will benefit from the tax break on strong ciders is Stonewell Tawny. It's 15% ABV, which is the strongest something can be and still be classified as a cider for tax purposes.
It's probably more about the incentive to start producing some.
Sensationalist BS from the Indo as usual. Is there even a single "super strength cider" brewed in Ireland? Or do they mean anything a bit stronger than the watery lagers they like?
Two posts up, Hotblack.
I’d no idea this was available. I see Martins have it, so I’ll drop in to pick one up tomorrow.
It's really good as I recall.
I can just picture you going in to buy it
I already feel bad that I’ve looked up what time they open. 😂
I’ll be working this evening, so will pick it up early today, as they’ll be closed on my way home later.
😳 I'd left this page open for a long time and didn't refresh it before posting
€19.95 a bottle - think I'll have two!!
"We create this cider by chaptalising the Michelin and Dabinett apple juice whilst it ferments."
I looked up chaptalization, only to find it's just adding sugar. 😂
I've done similar myself, adding honey, from bees in the same orchard, to make my own high strength cider.
