TOPIC:

Barry, if we can find any here, who should we be looking out for?

"Barry M":yum2bvpl wrote: I'm curious what, if any, of the new wave of German craft beers have made it to Ireland. Are you guys seeing any of the likes of Hopfenstopfer, Camba Bavaria, BrauKunstKeller, Heidenpeters or the like?[/quote:yum2bvpl]Freigeist has just arrived, but that about it, unless you count the Maisel's craft-style ones. I haven't seen Crew around in ages.

James, there's been a lot of developments inthe past year, especially up in Berlin and Hamburg, but I haven't been keeping up. But I would rate the likes of

Hopfenstopfer
Kehrwieder
BrauKunstKeller
Ale-Mania (previously known as FritzAle, till Fritz Cola took action)
Riegele
Camba Bavaria (who have a ridiculously large range)
Freigeist (though some brewers I know think he just brews crazy stuff to get the US market)


Ones I've heard good things about, but have not tried any beers from yet, include:
Schoppe Bräu (no idea why I haven't tried any of their stuff yet. I've had plenty of opportunity!)
BrewBaker
Heidenpeters
Buddelship Hamburg

There's also a few "crafty" brands, like Braufactum, which produce some really fantastic beers, but also crazily expensive, aiming at the "gourmet" market. Also, they don't count as "craft" to me, as they are part of the behemoth Dr. Oetker group, via Radeberger.

Bitburger set up a craft brand usingit's pilot brewery, calling Craft Werk, and produce some surprisingly decent beers, and at least they don't hide it is Bitburger. However, I don't see them around, so suspect it was a bit of marketing.

Even my local, regional brewery is producing IPAs, Stouts and Porters the past two years. It's going craft mad over here! <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->

John, I think I only tried one of the Maisel & Friends beers at BKL. Can't remember it making a good impression.

I think the North Carolina Sierra Nevada has landed here, had a bottle from Tesco yesterday that had a new label design with North Carolina mentioned on it and it was 8 weeks old. Not sure how long it was sitting on the shelf so it might have been available fresher. I did note that it doesn't specify which brewery premises it comes from.

&amp;quot;irish_goat&amp;quot;:316v8io6 wrote: I think the North Carolina Sierra Nevada has landed here, had a bottle from Tesco yesterday that had a new label design with North Carolina mentioned on it and it was 8 weeks old. Not sure how long it was sitting on the shelf so it might have been available fresher. I did note that it doesn't specify which brewery premises it comes from.[/quote:316v8io6]

Yep, I heard about a month ago that the next pallet in was going to be from NC.

And that cuts a bit of time off the previous lead time, which had SN 58 days old when released from Customs in Dublin port.

CAMRA have annouced the winners of Champion Beer of Britain. Overall winners were.

Gold
Tiny Rebel - Cwtch

Silver
Kelburn - Jaguar

Bronze
Dancing Duck - Dark Drake

Had a sample bottle of Cwtch at Walled City a while ago and wasn't that impressed, thought it was a just another watery red ale, but maybe it shines a bit more on cask. Had Jaguar last weekend as well on cask but it had a strange menthol taste so perhaps wasn't on top form. Dark Drake (and anything else from Dancing Duck) is fantastic though. Always enjoyed seeing it on cask in Kavanaghs when Declan was bringing them in.

Rest of the winners here[/url:38wywh14].