Supporting craft breweries

Any news from Whiplash on how they may or may not change their operations since the untimely death of Alex Lawes. Wasn't he the main creative force behind Whiplash?

I paid 50 for a bottle of Tactical Nuclear Penguin about 15 years ago. And that was with a 10 euro discount.

Well let's take a look at the Omnipollo

First of all, it's 14.5% ABV, so that's a LOT of grain used in the brewing of that beer (relative to say, the same volume of 5% beer)

The price of grain/barley has been pretty high, and highly volatile, since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Higher than when TNP was brewed for example, and higher than even the year before the invasion. Grain being the main ingredient in beer, it's going to be the main driver of cost of production.

Now, this is a fruited sour beer, so the cost of fruit is an additional input over and above the usual ingredients in beer, so tack that on. You do need a LOT of fruit to ensure the fruit flavour is detectable, even more if it's going to be competing with the other flavours. It's a huge amount of fruit.

The souring process can be done in 2 ways, a quick kettle souring using lactic acid in the mash, or (and I'd say Omnipollo are doing this) an aged souring, like with Lambics or German Gose (which this ostensibly is) - now for any aged sour beer, it takes a while, in wooden casks (barrels) and those barrels have to be stored somewhere - this costs money too, over and above the usual storage for beers which go from fermenter to bright tanks in breweries, and then they get packaged into bottles, cans or kegs for distribution. The souring process is another step in another area of the brewery which has to be maintained, paid for etc.

THEN, you can if you want, consider all beers soured in such a way to be "barrel aged", but you don't really see Lambics and Goses claiming to be barrel aged, this (to me) implies a further aging process, using fresher barrels which impart the flavour of oak, the flavour of the spirit or whatever liquid was in those barrels before the beer. Those barrels have to be sourced and paid for, and extended aging means extended storage time.

You can't really compare the cost of 330mls of a 14.5% barrel aged, fruited sour to 330mls of a standard beer.

I probably wouldn't BUY a bottle for that price, but I'd bet that the liquid in the bottle is a fine example of the souring, fruiting, barrel aging process and I'd happily share the bottle with a couple of friends at a beer tasting.

Of course there is a bit of "we're omnipollo, we're great so you'll also pay us for being us" but that's no different to the difference between a bottle of plonk that costs a fiver in Aldi, or a well sourced bottle of a decent vintage from a renowned winery that costs ten times as much in a specialist wine shop.

People can and do pay for perceived potential quality.

Sometimes it's just nice to have nice things.

You almost make me want to buy a bottle now. 😂

14.5% is a lot of grain, but it's not really that much to be honest, to warrant such a steep price. You see some Irish beers at that sort of ABV, and I'm surprised at how cheap they are.

In Brighton. Pint of anything that resembles craft is over €9.

Rich city and all that, but bloody hell

Dumb question but would Rye River Brewing Company even be considered "craft"? I've seen their beer pop up in every Supermarket.

I have reason to be in Navan soon. Google has not highlighted any worthwhile craft beer off licenses. Am I / Google missing any? Hoping to pick up a couple of cans that don't make it down to Bradley's / Cork that often (e.g., Ballykilcavan).

Molloys finglas village is also convenient from the M50

Rye rivers big bangin IPA has been a longtime favourite of mine. At 7.2% it’s ideal for the busy man on the go.

I saw this in my Event Brite feed and I thought some folks here may be interested… Hope Brewery throwing open their doors for their 10th birthday on Friday 12th June.

Location is right beside Howth Junction DART station.

From 4pm to 8pm, get behind the scenes of our brewery, enjoy a range of fresh beers, and soak up the atmosphere with live music and great food. Whether you’ve been with us from the start or are just discovering Hope Beer, this is the perfect way to celebrate a decade of great beer. Tickets are just €10 and include the tour of the brewery and a beer.

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/hope-beer-10-year-celebration-tickets-1985566645286

I'd have them and O'Hara's still as "craft" or large micro's. I mean, there're fairly big operations compared to most, but still not compared to the macro's.

Exactly.

The ones that were craft and no longer are instantly dropped all meaningful seasonal production in exchange for a "sessionable" lager and a decreased ABV core range once they got bought out.

Best brewery in Ireland. Proper beer styles instead of that English inspired American nonsense.

There was a bit of a hiatus for a few years as the estate was focussing on family friendly events. I only found a out or a few weeks ago. I suspect Cillian has had a big input into it. The two local distilleries are attending as well along with a cider producer. Hopefully they'll have the Mescan Oktoberfest again, always a brilliant night.