Help Us Find Europe’s Best Airports & Railway Stations for Beer!

Are you a beer-loving traveler? Have you ever been pleasantly surprised by a great beer selection while waiting for a flight or train? At EBCU (European Beer Consumers Union), we want to find out which European airports and railway stations…

Review: Beer & Philosophy

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…

3 Days, 400 Breweries, 1800 Beers

When the lads from Galway Hooker were installing their brew in the Bull and Castle, I quizzed them about their inspiration for producing an IPA. Ronan told me about their experience at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver and said…

Oktoberfest 2007 in Cork

The October Bank Holiday week-end has traditionally been known as the Jazz Weekend in Cork (are you goin' jazzin' boy?), but over the past few years I have also visited the Franciscan well this weekend. This year the Oktoberfest was my main…

Review: Beer & Cider in Ireland: The Complete Guide

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…

London’s Micros

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…

DaveT’s Brewery

I started kits and malt extract in 1983 to save money for a mortgage. Once I got the house I tried all grain brewing in an effort to avoid that extract taste you used to always get. It appealed to my technical bent as my background is electronics…

Festival Virgin: Hilden 2007

"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…

Beer Destination – Prague

What can you say about a city in which the best lagers in the world are available on every street corner at a quarter of the cost of pub prices in Dublin? It’s a beer lover’s fantasy and I found it hard to believe I was really…

Beer Destination – Oslo

"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…

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…