I’ve been needing a mash tun for some time now and after a long search through the mountains of junk I eventually found a long lost old ice box and decided to give it a go using what I could find around the house. I’m fairly useless at DIY etc so this proves that anyone […]
A wort chiller is probably one of the most useful pieces of equipment a home brewer can have, allowing you to quickly cool your wort to reduce the risk of oxidation, achieve a good cold break, and generally speed things up. The simplest wort chiller design is the immersion chiller; a simple copper or […]
I would imagine there are very few craft beer enthusiasts in Ireland who haven’t heard of The Porterhouse. Not only did the Dublin microbrewery start a revolution in Irish beer, but it hasn’t been slow to build upon its success. As well as owning five pubs in two countries, its beers are a regular fixture […]
For the second year, members of Irish Craft Brewer attending the Easter Beer Festival at The Franciscan Well in Cork selected their favourites from among the Irish craft beers exhibited. (Results for 2007 are here.) The contenders included cask beers from Carlow, Franciscan Well, Hilden, Hooker and White Gypsy (Messrs Maguire). All brought keg beers […]
The imminent departure of Site Admin Adeptus (Barry M) for Germany prompted the Bull & Castle management to suggest a tasting night / going-away party in the Beerhall. And so it was on 7th February that about twenty brewers and drinkers gathered to share some homebrew and assorted commercial beers of interest. The house laid […]
This collection of essays, sub-titled, "the unexamined beer isn’t worth drinking", interprets its remit in a variety of ways. The great philosophers had very little to say on the subject of beer and there’s only so many times one can make a pun about alcohol measured in degrees Plato — here it’s done early to […]
It should be a matter for public outcry that the complete guide to beer and cider in Ireland is pocket-sized. Neither is the completeness a publisher’s idle boast: this densely packed little book covers everything from the extinct micros like Balbriggan and DBC, to those just getting going, like Shelta and Bluestack. You can find […]
My plane touched down in Heathrow bumpily at 11.20 in the morning as another disgruntled Aer Lingus pilot took out his frustrations on the tarmac. My mission for the day was to drink a pint in each of London’s seven brewpubs, and with the first opening its doors at noon I set off at speed […]
"Day return to Hilden, please." The girl at the ticket window looked confused. "Where?" "Hilden. It’s near Lisburn." "To Lisburn?" "No. Hilden." "One moment please" and she scurried off into a back office. I became intensely aware of the queue behind me, the membership wondering why they always joined the one with the nutter at […]
"Forty-five bucks!? This better be the best tasting beer in the world. [Drinks] You got lucky." — Barney Gumble Let’s face it: Oslo is not the obvious choice for a beer-hunting weekend. Two contributing factors spring immediately to mind: the state monopoly on selling booze, and the ferocious price of the stuff. Armed with these […]
