This is the 'Supporting craft breweries' thread. Whatever you think about Diageo, they're not a craft brewery.
The bag of bags in the back of the car is mostly brewery tote bags; White Hag, Rye River, Dew Drop and possibly some more. Were pretty common add-ins when doing direct brewery orders during lockdown.
Yeah, got a load of them too.. only one I occasionally use is a free "Bag Of Cans" one from Rye River.
I noticed tote bags never became must have products for craft breweries in Ireland the way they are in Britain.
I ended up with a ton of them in England despite never using them.
Thanks. Grabbed a couple plus a few of the ol' reliables (Body Riddle, Northern Lights and Another Light).
Grabbed a Free Tote Bag for the missus too - can be gotten if you add the below into your cart for orders over €60 before midnight.
Stopped in to Open Gate earlier. Not the most interesting tap list, but nice to see that they seem to have the "original" Extra Stout on tap as a regular "Dublin classic". Never seen that on tap before! I know they had the foreign extra for a while but this was new to me.
I really liked it. I had it, and the maple one together, and much preferred the coffee one. Hadn't realised there was a stand alone imperial one too, which I picked up during the week. I found it a bit too sweet though.
The coffee one was my favourite of the bunch.
Anyone tried the 3FE Imperial from Whiplash?
The cost of transport is negligible. The €1.8m cost of a brand new brewery is more relevant to what you were charged.
A good illustration of how price and quality are totally unrelated, though.
Tried the new Changing Times beers today at The Swan. The hazy IPA is pretty standard, but the lager is nice. The stout wasn't pouring yet.
It's pretty expensive though. €7.90 for the IPA and €7.60 for the lager. Not sure how long that price point can be accepted for a beer that's brewed locally. Went around the corner to Caribou and had a Scraggy Bay, a better beer, for €7.20.
I don’t think it’s ever going to become a popular spot. Probably shouldn’t mention how much a pint costs. 😂
My local doesn't sell Guinness (only 9White Deer taps). It's really great for filtering out undesirables. If you can't get your head around even trying a different stout, they aren't really that interested in your custom. It's a small pub they aren't desperate for customers.
ssshhh don’t be telling anyone about Clearys- let’s keep it a hidden gem
I was only joking really. It's not a very attractive area. And as a pub, I've only gone in a couple of times. Haven't been that impressed with it. I'd rather just go to Clearys, under the bridge. But it's just a Guinness there.
Not exactly what the standard international tourist is looking for. Also it looks like a bit of a kip. Probably does still get a lot of tourists especially domestic (including me once) but Connolly isn't really an area you go to unless using the station. Any tourists using EPIC will probably pass it out.
But it's right between Connolly station and Busaras. Perfect place for your first pint as a tourist.
I was chatting to the Brehon Brewhouse guys at the Dublin and Portrush Beer festivals. On both occasions, while talking about their top quality stouts, the shared stories about the tourists they get to the brewery. They get asked a lot on their tours if they have any beers like Guinness and even a couple of times have been told by tourists that their Guinness tastes great. The majority of tourists who come have Guinness at the forefront of their mind when it comes to trying an Irish beer.
Tourists will always ask for a "Guinness" it's a big thing for them to try when coming to Dublin…
I remember the likes of Cassidy's and the Bull&Castle not having a Guinness tap but the endless requests for Guinness changed that..
Like someone already commented, the face on people when the bar staff say they don't have Guinness.. we have Stout though..
Honestly hate that place. I went there a few months ago, and went upstairs for food. A guy gave us a table with menus. 15 minutes later neither he nor another member of staff came back or even walked by so we could order a drink let alone lunch. Walked out, and I'll never go back.
In fairness Brewdock is physically and mentally quite far from the pubs I was talking about. I doubt that's were people dreamed of having that first pint of Guinness in Ireland.
They will take another stout but your pub will very quickly be gone from being one of the recommended places to visit on all those stupid sites as well as not getting any word of mouth mention. That would be very damaging to many pubs in the tourist area of Dublin.
Also many tourists in Dublin are Irish so those walking out in a huff are tourists too.
Been there loads of times, its part of where my observations on the tourists being absolutely fine with Ostara (and predecessors) and the Irish drinkers walking out.
It now serves Guinness anyway. Private equity demands returns, you can't afford anyone walking out.
Ever sat at the bar in Brewdock? People popping in before or after busses from Busaras or trains from Connolly. "A Guinness, please?" "We don't do Guinness - we have our own stout, or this other one…" Call in at a busy time during the day and you'd hear that four or five times while you had your pint.
And I notice a couple of the GBB pubs are doing Guinness, now. It is, sadly, just ingrained in the Irish (and tourist) consciousness…
Nah, its only Irish Guinness drinkers (and the odd Bulmers drinker) I ever see refusing an alternative product offering. Tourists will take another stout.
They may go to visit the Storehouse etc but they're not walking out of a pub in a huff about being guided to having an alternative. Whereas plenty of Irish Guinness drinkers do.
That's just nonsense. Ya some tourists go to Porterhouse and other craft places but it is most certainly part of the "Irish experience" for many tourists and I've seen it first hand on both sides of the bar. Even my friends in the craft beer industry want a Guinness in a traditional Irish pub when they visit.
Storehouse is often Ireland's most visited attraction and at least top 3 every year.
Tourists are very happy to not drink Guinness. Sit in Porterhouse Temple and you'll notice the only people who give out about the lack of Guinness are Irish. The tourists are happy to try something else.
I suppose what I call "central" Dublin is the tourist areas. I wouldn't know much about pubs in Dublin beyond that.
I imagine somewhere like the Palace does a fair trade from the stuff outside of the regulars.
I disagree. If over 50% of the pubs in central Dublin ditched Guinness, not having Guinness would be the new normal. There is nothing special about Guinness beyond its ubiquity.
I reckon you could ditch almost everything but it would be suicide for most central Dublin pubs to get rid of Guinness.
The vast majority of people I reckon will never come across those quotes. Beamish is a backwards example because that is deemed a "cheap beer" because the price for the consumer is cheap where as these beer will be more expensive for the consumer so will be "premium" beers to most people.
That's it. I think the point of the exercise is to show the big brewers that Dublin pubs aren't dependent on them. The problem, I think, is that they will quickly find out that Dublin pubs are dependent on them, and will continue to buy Guinness and Heineken in the same volumes as before. Introducing independent tap lines didn't change that; the sweetheart deal with C&C for 5 Lamps didn't change that, so I don't see how this will, other than the bit of money saved via vertical integration.
Logically, they can't complain about the industrial breweries' behaviour while continuing to act as their premium retail outlet.
