Anyone know if there's something special about Mo Chara lager? Spotted it in Tesco earlier but at €3.79 or €3 with Clubcard for a 4.2% 330ml stubbie it seems crazily expensive.
I do know that they have a few pubs in Dundalk.
Bullhouse have announced a 10th birthday party festival that will be happening at their east Belfast taproom (and the public square out the back) on Friday 31st July and Saturday 1st August. 20 guest breweries being invited. Tickets will be on sale tomorrow.
That's so weird. I have never heard of them before 10 minutes ago when I bought one in an offie.
I was coming on to ask about them.
Strangely their Double Bangin IPA(7.2%) is not as nice as Big Bangin IPA(7.1%). Double Bangin seems a bit redundant, not sure why they brew it 🤔
It was 8%. Have they cut it?
Sorry you're right it is 8%
I've had both in the last two weeks. Might them again side by side over the long weekend. You know, for science. 😎
Recipes do change so I was just checking!
I find Double Banging tastes like a conventional strong IPA, and Big Banging is much more hop heavy and hides that. Which makes it dangerous in volume
Yes exactly, Double Bangin is more malt forward. I suppose there is a place for beers like that, I just find them a bit boring nowadays
Tried this tonight with the 330ml cans from Dunnes rather than the 500ml bottles. While I would probably agree with youcancallmeal that the Big Bangin' is a tastier ale than the Double Bangin', I enjoyed both of them a lot.
I was trying to find Póg, the new sour from Wicklow Wolf, as well, but hadn't much luck sourcing that in Limerick these last few days.
On the Mo Lager / Mo Chara question above, to me, there’s nothing remarkable about it. It’s a fairly good, clean lager that is benefiting massively from very good branding and a novelty form factor. I got it in Bradleys some time ago, and then again in Tesco when I saw it land on offer but I wouldn’t bother getting it again especially for the price. Tesco’s own Czech pils is €2.00 w/Clubcard for 500ml. No brainer.
I went to college with two of the Mo Chara lads, though I wouldn’t pretend to know them. Believe they worked for Dundalk Bay Brewery for a period and then set up Mo Chara which is a pub in Dundalk, and the beer followed. I’d go out on a limb to assume the beer is brewed by Dundalk Bay…
Third Barrel are opening their own pub/taproom in the former The Beer Market location on High Street called The Christchurch. Apparently opening in the next couple of weeks.
Bullhouse East pouring Cantillon Kriek currently at a pricey £8.90/€10.29 per half. Has to be the most expensive beer the north has seen on tap. Can't recall any Dublin bars ever charging prices like that but I'm guessing Underdog or one of the GBB pubs has gotten something rare in that was similarly priced.
Weirdly as well the Vineyard are selling 375ml bottles of the Cantillon for £15.
It's not a beer I associate with tap at all. Even in the brewery I only ever drank bottles.
£15 is steep. Can't remember what I paid Cork and Limerick but it was a decent bit less.
Yeah same. I also wouldn't really fancy sipping on it from a half pint nonic glass in Bullhouse, which tends to be a quite lively taproom.
Fekin UK and their nonics. The rare chance you get a Belgian beer it's in a fekin nonic.
I know tap rooms that would charge hefty prices like this and think it can go in the same glass as their IPAs.
Hope it works out. That spot's always been a bit cursed I think.
Great location but awkward building. Will make a nice stepping stone to/from Dudley's.
I like the simple name. Names like Beer Temple just scare away people who you might need if you want to survive.
GBB lasted the longest of any recent operators there, possibly since the newer building was built even; as is quite common with cursed locations and them. Black Sheep site was a cursed corner, still there; Against The Grain also and it did ~10 years.
Hopefully it being a brewery bar assists in keeping it going.
Their brief spot in Limerick is closed again. No surprise really as it was just reopened in the same bare dilapidated state GBB had it in and only opened erratically.
I was last in Limerick in November - was it even open then? Didn't notice it being.
Seems to have had licencing troubles:
Company fined for selling whiskey at Limerick pub while trading without a licence
Ya I could never tell when the Wickham was or wasn't open. The owner seemed to be doing part time as a side thing and not very well.
It was recently declared officially closed.
I always thought Against the Grain was a decent location, along that strip of pubs and restaurants.
I was put off by a combination of bad bar staff, and a smell from their sewers. So I never went back after my initial visit.
Appreciate this is not to everyone's liking, but Tesco are doing a run out on Foxes Rock Session IPA for €1.71 a bottle.
Picked a few up today and they had best before dates of Feb next year.
That could be the end for Foxes Rock. The Pearse Lyons brewery is closed and O'Hara's, who now own the brand, already have a rake of other beers in Tesco. I'm surprised that the market for half-litre bottles in the supermarket is as large as it is, but if you're going to cut one, I'd say Foxes Rock is a prime candidate.
Your right about the variety - but its perfect for the likes of myself. I hate drinking out of cans and love the pint(ish) sized bottles, as they keep nice and cold. I would buy a good few and enjoy one or two when watching my teams on the TV.
Absolutely! The half-litre bottle is a precious commodity and should be protected. We don't want it going the way of the pint bottle.
Foxes Rock used to be the only IPA available in Ryans Beggars Bush, but only in bottles. Used to have it on Leinster match days. They got rid of the tap early this year and if it got replaced, it was with another macro lager tap :-(
I've noticed a considerable slowing in the amount of one off brews / specials landing on Irish shelves, both from Irish breweries and imports. I feel like I could go two to three weeks now without seeing something new / interesting, whereas a year ago you couldn't go more than a week without something new landing. Might just be a sign of the shifting landscape for craft beer between costs & demand.
Craft beer market has definitely peaked, and DRS adds costs to one-offs (and DRS is coming in basically everywhere in Europe by 2030, so in time it may be a case that there's less one-offs at all, not just that they're a costly pain here).
I also think the problem where there's periods where the bulk of the specials are all the bloody same - a rake of pastry stouts or exceptionally murky IPAs etc - doesn't help either as it will have put some people off the very idea of them.
