My journey to Irish craft beer!

So how did it all start? Well, with those first few drinks, back in the 70s, growing up in Sussex, roughly 50 miles south of London.

At somewhere about 17 years of age, my mates and I, like most teenagers, were mad to get into the pub. One of the few that would serve us was an old fashioned pub, on the outskirts of town. It had 3 bars, a snug (for women), the lounge (carpets and cushions on the chairs) and the public bar (spit and sawdust).

After 8pm few people ventured into the public bar; it was a spot for builders and the like grabbing a pint on their way home from work. This was our spot for a sneaky pint. The landlord would take no nonsense, the only drink he would serve us was Mild, at about 3% alcohol. Ask for a Bitter and you were out, a Lager don’t bother coming back. We were proud as punch thinking we were getting away with something. Of course, in retrospect, he knew our age well and was just enforcing his own ideas of how to introduce youngsters to drinking. A far cry from alco-pops and fat frogs of today.

Fast-forward 25 years and I land permanently in the Emerald Isle. My Irish wife and I talked about it for years, but it wasn’t until the year 2000 we took the plunge.

In the early years, I was consumed with starting a new life, a new business and building a house. Many conversations with friends, old and new, lead at some point to the question “What do you miss about London?”– “Very little” I was genuinely happy to reply. When pushed however; “beer and football – I mean soccer!” was the answer. Every trip back to UK involved cherishing a few pints of ale.

This progressed into “If you are coming by car, please please chuck in a few bottles of Pride, or Ruddle’s, or, f**k it, anything will do”. This policy got some great results. Although I do remember one sunny August day, a case of Boddington’s arriving. I didn’t have the heart to tell the well-meaning donors, what I thought of it and even had to drink some, to look grateful.

As the long winter nights, when nobody comes visiting, drew in, it was back to the Guinness. I don’t like this drink out of a can and leaving the turf fire, on a cold winters night, with the uncertainty of getting a taxi home, became less and less attractive.

In business I sometimes deal with couriers, back in 2000 the general reaction, if you wanted anything sent to Mayo was, “WHERE? No we don’t go outside Dublin”. By 2006 things had completely changed. It had become easy to get just about anything delivered. I hit on the idea that, if I couldn’t go to the beer, it could come to me. I’d get some sent over from UK.

Along with many other wide-ranging changes to the west, broadband had arrived. I set out to find beer on the Internet, with half an idea to try and flog a bit to local pubs. — Yes lack of good beer was definitely affecting my mind.

A short search on Google brought me to “The art of brewing” a craft beer supply shop somewhere south of London. It was then I had my first eureka moment. I can make it myself!

A starter pack and a couple of kits were duly ordered and arrived a few days later. A quick rake around the loft produced Graham Wheeler’s book “Home brewing” printed 1993. When did I buy that? No idea, must have been closing time at a beer festival, sometime. I don’t remember, but something must have told me not to bin it!

What followed was what many must have gone through. My thoughts veered wildly from “well this looks easy enough”, to “I don’t think I’m up to this, I should have gone to university and got a chemistry degree”.

I turned back to the all powerful Internet for help. I can’t remember which sites were trawled through, there are so many, some great, others a waste of space. I shied away from USA sites, because they talk in lb and oz – just one more thing to try and take in. UK sites have a tendency to talk only about English ale type beer.

By this time I was beginning to realise that in fact, Ireland’s often bemoaned climate, was perfect for brewing all kinds of ale – English, Belgian, German and the great beers coming out of North America. All I had to do, was gather the right ingredients, equipment and knowledge and my days of drinking watery lager were over. It was a lonely quest. I genuinely thought I was the only person in Ireland doing this.

Then came eureka moment number two IRISH CRAFT BEER website in its infancy, just a dozen members mad about beer. Lucky for some I became number 13. Roughly 100 posts and 8 months later I attended the meet at the Bull and Castle on July 19. It felt a bit like going on a blind date! My wife still thinks it’s all a bit odd, but was pleased to see photos of me at the meet and she now believes me, when I say I was not visiting Miss whiplash, in some dark Dublin back street. It is a first for me to meet people through the Internet. I now feel like a fully-fledged member of ICB.

So what of the future? I hope to go on and develop my brewing skill, enjoy a bit of craic with other members, both on-line and at the occasional meet-up. I will contribute what can to the group, although I am still a very inexperienced brewer. I will write more on the trials and tribulations of actually brewing another time.

As for ICB itself? Heading for 100 members. One thing I was pleasantly surprised by at the meet was that, although I did detect a few with North American and English twangs, as far as I know, I was the only foreigner there.

It is generally acknowledged that CAMRA in the UK has had a huge influence on the brewing industry there. Although things here are very different and on a much smaller scale, I see this as a positive. A small website is not going to put Guinness out of business (or want to) but making more choice available is already happening.

Bring on the beer revolution.

Duncan Sclare