Thursday, 27 June 2013

Kinsale Brings a Brand New Craft Brewery to Town :D

Hey everyone, today's post is a really exciting review of a brand new Craft Brewery from Kinsale, Co. Cork, Ireland. Hope you all Enjoy :D


The Blacks Kinsale Craft Brewery
From Humble beginnings comes a fantastic new brewing company down in Kinsale Co. Cork. Like most of us avid beer drinkers and brewers there is always a dream to produce and supply the public with your own beer, for the Blacks Kinsale Craft Brewery this is no longer a dream. This new brewing company started off with a little brewing time in another fantastic brewers headquarters down in Cork,  the Eight Degrees brewery. This gave the guys a chance to start making their first beer, their Pale Ale, which allowed them to get their new beer out to the public as quick as possible. This brewing time acted as a great learning tool for the guys and allowed them to really harness in and perfect that first beer that would be presented to the public. 

As with us all there was deliberation as to whether to start off with a safe Pale Ale or to really push the boundries and make a beer that they love and one that they would want to drink, so this is what they did. They put aside all the boring, plain, pale ales that are out there and really started to work on a recipe that would wow all of its drinkers. This Pale Ale has a great balance of Citra and Cascade hops bringing a whole new dimension to the beer. Several batches of this beer where made in order to really bring a brand new, quality Pale Ale to the public and boy have they made an impression. 


This is what the guys over at the Blacks Kinsale Craft Brewery had to say about their Pale Ale:

"This beer is mostly about the hops but there is some nice biscuit like character in there as well. Being based in Kinsale we also wanted to make a beer that could be paired well with food, and give local restaurants a gourmet beer option for their menu's. The beer works really well with seafood as well as going great with spicy food and anything from the BBQ.  I think the profile and bitterness level is spot on for a Pale Ale but we look forward to bringing in more bittering and hops in our IPA series." 

I was lucky enough to give this Pale Ale a try and I can't tell you how blown away I was with it, it is absolutely fantastic. Here is a full beer review really giving you all an idea of the true character of the Blacks Kinsale Craft Brewery's Pale Ale.



Beer Name:
Pale Ale

Brewery:
Blacks Kinsale Craft Brewery

Alcoholic Percentage:
5.0% Vol

Measure:
330ml



Taste:
Strong Hops, Smooth, Slight Sweetness, Bitter After Taste
Colour:
Deep Orange
Odour:
Strong Hops, Slight Citrus, Slight Tropical fruits


General Thoughts:
The Blacks Kinsale Craft Brewery Pale Ale is a great, full bodied Pale Ale, which packs a real hops punch, which I love. There is a bitterness that comes from the two hop varieties used in the beer, Citra and Cascade, this gives the beer a real moreish quality, making you want to keep going back for more and more. The Blacks Kinsale Craft Brewery Pale Ale is a real easy drinking beer, smooth and full of well rounded flavours, ranging from slight tropical fruit notes, to citrus notes, all the way through to the mouth watering grapefruit flavours. There is a slight bitter after taste which helps keep the drinker interested. There is little to medium carbonation in this beer, making it nice and refreshing, perfect for those summer nights and days, drinking in the sun while cracking out the BBQ. This beer really blew me away, for a breweries first attempts at a mass produced craft beer, this just knocks you for six. I was absolutely amazed by it and really cannot wait to get out to the shops and get myself a crate of this fantastic beer. If a brewing company can make a beer like this on their first attempt then I am really excited about what the future has in store for the Blacks Kinsale Craft Brewery and what other new beers will be coming our way in the future. I know one thing, I cannot wait to get my hands on them. All in all a fantastic start to the Blacks Kinsale Craft Brewery's beers, not only making a great beer, but one that is truly different and memorable.

Some Important Information:
The official launch of the Blacks Kinsale Craft Brewery Pale Ale is Friday 28th June in The folk house in Kinsale. Many local pubs and restaurants are stocking the beer so far and they hope to have it in most places by the end of June.

They will also be rolling out the Pale Ale to other Cork Venues and Dublin Venues in the next couple of months, more on this will be available in the coming weeks.




Shane
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Sunday, 12 May 2013

Odell Brewing Company: IPA !!!

Hey Everyone, Hope you've all been enjoying some fantastic beers over the weekend in the sun, Today's beer comes in from the USA, I hope you all enjoy !!!

Beer Name:
IPA
Brewery:
Odell Brewing Company
Brewed and Bottled:
800 East Lincoln Avenue,
Fort Collins,
Colorado,
CO 80524
USA




Alcoholic Percentage:
7.0% Vol
Measure:
355ml
Taste:
Strong Hops, Smooth, Slight Sweetness, Bitter After Taste
Colour:
Light Orange
Odour:
Strong Hops, Slight Citrus


General Thoughts:
IPA by the Odell Brewing Company is a fantastic, smooth beer with real full developed flavours. This beer is deep in flavour, strong in hops and also has a nice malt note to it. There is also a slight sweetness to this beer which helps to balance out the strong hops flavour that you get in this beer. This slight sweetness helps to mellow the bitterness from the hops giving an overall, smooth, developed flavour. IPA does have a slight bitter after taste, however I think this is a great attribute in a beer as it makes you want to go back and drink more and more of the beer. One of the surprising things about IPA from the Odell Brewing Company is the real balance in alcohol flavour. This beer comes in at 7% ABV, however this beer is so well balanced you would never think it was that strong. This beer really doesn't taste as strong as it is which is a real bonus. All in all IPA from the Odell Brewing Company is a great, all rounder that is well balanced in deep hops flavour and also allows for a slight sweetness to round the whole beer off. If your looking for a good example of an IPA then this is definitely a beer you should try. I would really recommend this to you all as it is a really nice, smooth drinking beer.  


Price:
€3.00 - €3.50 (Based on Average)

Shane

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Sunday, 28 April 2013

Arrogant Bastard Ale !!!

Hey Everyone, hope your all having a great weekend so far, today's post is an exceptional beer, one that I wish I could get my hands on more of, Today's Beer is from the Stone Brewing Company. Hope you all enjoy :) !!!

Beer Name:
Arrogant Bastard Ale
Brewery:
Stone Brewing Company
Brewed and Bottled:
1999 Citracado Parkway
Escondido,
California,
CA 92029






Alcoholic Percentage:
7.2% Vol
Measure:
650ml
Taste:
Deep, Rich, Smooth, Strong Hops, Slight Bitterness
Colour:
Light Brown / Slight Red Tint
Odour:
Slight Hops, Slight Malt, A Little Sweetness


General Thoughts:
Arrogant Bastard Ale is a fantastic beer, one of the best beers that I have ever had the pleasure of drinking. This beer is deep, full of flavour and really moreish. This beer has a strong hops flavour, mixed with a great level of malt flavour and a slight sweetness. There is a bitterness to this beer from the hop content of the beer, however this is a pleasant bitterness and one your glad is there to balance out the little sweetness to the beer. Arrogant Bastard Ale is a strong beer coming in at 7.2% ABV, you would expect a beer of this strength to not only taste really strong in alcohol but also to be overpowering. Due to some exceptional brewing this isn't the case at all with this beer, this beer doesn't seem overly alcoholic at all and is so well balanced and deep in flavour you won't find it overpowering either. This for me is a beer that I wish I could get more easily and would drink more often if I could, unfortunately it isn't easy to get which will make it all the better and more special when I can get my hands on it. The other plus point to this beer is that it comes in a big bottle so you get much more for your money, making this a win win situation. On the whole Arrogant Bastard Ale is one of the best beers I have ever tasted and really have to commend the Stone Brewing Company for making an exceptional beer. Deep, Rich, Full flavoured beer, perfectly balanced, with that moreish quality making you want to return time after time. All in All an exceptional beer, Thank you Stone Brewing Company !!!  


Price:
€3.00 - €4.00 (Based on Average)

Shane

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Sunday, 14 April 2013

Las Vegas: Nic's Stag Do - A Trip of a Lifetime !!!!

Hey Everyone, We are back, its a been a hectic last couple of months, but within the time away I went on a trip, A trip that can be summed up in one word "EPIC". 

This was no ordinary trip away, this was a trip with  6 of my closest friends, to somewhere that needs no introduction as it just speaks for itself, LAS VEGAS. 
This was a trip to celebrate the future marriage of one of my best friends Nic, (subsequently the marriage has now happened). Nic decided that we should celebrate his upcoming wedding in real style and head over to the USA, to Viva Las Vegas to have a Stag Do (bachelor party) that he would never forget. This being a Stag Do mean't that there was plenty of beer drinking done which I will come to shortly. 

Las Vegas is such an overwhelming place, there is so much to do and so many places to go, also if you enjoy a drink and a little flutter in the casino, this place is like heaven.
I wanted to do this post to firstly talk about some of the great beer that we had while away in Las Vegas, but also as a thank you to Nic and the rest of the guys for a fantastic week and a week that I feel has brought us all a little closer together, and not only that but also brought about some real close friendships.


So here they all are, from left to right we have, Matt, Chris, Nic (the Groom), Phil, Dan and then Will at the back behind Nic.

It is safe to say that Las Vegas really didn't know what they were letting themselves in for when we arrived, we knew we were going to have a great time before we got there, but it exceeded my expectations on so many levels.


We did everything you can think of while in Vegas, I won't go into all the details as you know what they say, "What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas", but i will talk about a couple of the many things we got up to while we were there. We took full advantage of the casinos and all the slots they had to offer, some of us winning big on these, others just about breaking even. 

We also went an visited the Grand Canyon, this is somewhere that if you haven't been to, you must go. There is only one way to really appreciate the awesome sight and that is by helicopter. This was a real highlight for us all and the first time that I had ever been in a helicopter, the views and sights that you get to see are just breath taking and something I am really glad to say that I have now seen.

But apart from all the gambling and sight seeing, there was plenty of drinking. We experienced a whole range of great American beers while we were in Las Vegas. For a lot of the boys this was the first time that they had experienced Samuel Adams, they all really enjoyed it and a few drank this for the majority of the holiday. We also got to experience the Stone Brewery's IPA, this was a fantastic beer and one that I would highly recommend. This beer has a strong hops flavour, giving it a bitter after taste. This bitterness makes you want to go back for more and more, let alone the smoothness that this beer brings. This beer has an overall full balanced flavour with a hint of sweetness to bring the whole thing together.

We also go to try a couple of beers that are made specifically for the bar, at Twin Peaks on the Las Vegas Strip. These were their Dirty Blonde beer and Naughty Brunette Beer. The dirty blonde was a wheat beer made with a slight lemon note to it, this beer was smooth and light, giving it a real refreshing quality. The Naughty Brunette (this was my favourite), is a Maple Nut Brown Ale, this was a dark brown beer with rich malty flavours, this beer had a slight bitterness coming from the hops but was well rounded from the slight sweetness. The best thing about Twin Peaks beer is that it is all chilled and served at around 0 degress, this means that it is extremely refreshing and also gives the glass a real frosted look. These were both fantastic beers that I would definitely recommend you trying, if you're ever in Las Vegas you must go down to twin peaks. There were many more beers tried while in Las Vegas but I will be doing reviews on these in the near future.

Las Vegas has so much to offer, but for me the best thing that Las Vegas did for us was show us a real good time. I had a really fantastic time with the best group of guys you could ask for. This trip reinforced some already great friendships, but also helped to start and create some other really great friendships. I hope that Nic had as much fun as I did, in fact I know he did, but on the whole I just want to thank all of the guys above for the best week ever, and not to mention thank you Las Vegas for giving it to us.





Here is a video that shows just some of the memories that we all shared on this trip. I would love to hear from all of you readers to share your experiences of Las Vegas, the times you had there, the beers you drank, but I would also like to hear from people that are now looking at going to Las Vegas. Please all leave your comments in the comments box below.

I hope you all enjoyed the post, a new beer review will be on its way very soon,


Shane
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Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Honker's Ale !!!

Hey Everyone, Its mid week and probably about now that were all wishing for the weekend, well why not have a midweek beer to help bring the weekend a little closer. Today's review is from the Goose Island Brewery, Hope you all enjoy !!!

Beer Name:
Honker's Ale
Brewery:
Goose Island 
Brewed and Bottled:
Goose Island Beer Company
Chicago, 
Illinois,
USA






Alcoholic Percentage:
4.3% Vol
Measure:
355ml
Taste:
Light, Refreshing, Slight Bitterness, Slight Hops
Colour:
Slight Cloudiness, Dark Orange
Odour:
Slight Hops


General Thoughts:
Honkers Ale is an interesting beer, light and refreshing with a slight hops flavour. This is a very easy drinking, palatable beer, one that you could enjoy many of. There is a slight bitterness to this beer coming from the hops, which also leaves a slight bitter after taste, this helps to give the beer that moreish quality, making you want to go back for more. Honkers' Ale is a subtle beer with subtle flavours, there are no out there flavours, that burst onto the scene, making this any different from other beers out there, however saying this it is still a very enjoyable beer. This beer is also mellow in character, therefore its not overly heavy in flavour or overly rich, you kind of know what you getting with this beer, a nice easy drinking beer with all round nice, slightly hop flavours. There is little to no carbonation to this beer, which helps make this beer so easy to drink. All in all Honker's Ale is a nice all round, mellow, refreshing beer, with slight hops flavours and a slight bitterness. This beer is easy to drink, however doesn't stand out from the crowd, therefore if your looking for a "Wow" factor beer, this wouldn't be it, but if your looking for an easy drinking beer that you could have mid week to take the edge off the week, then you would not be disappointed. Overall a nice beer, that you could find yourself drinking many of, but not a beer that really packs a punch.


Price:
€2.50 - €3.50 (Based on Average)

Shane

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Saturday, 23 February 2013

Stout: The Origins and Beyond !!!

Hey Everyone, it's Saturday and I thought I would do a post similar to last week but looking at a different style of beer. So I will give a little bit of history behind a beer style and then give a comparison between two beers in that style.

So the beer style that I have decided to look at today is:


Stout

There are many different varieties of stout out there, ranging from a Dry stout to a Milk stout, From an Imperial Stout to a Chocolate stout, to name just a few. There is a lot of debate in the beer world as to where stout or more the term stout comes from. So on that note lets take a look at the history of this beer style and where it all began.

A Brief History:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CHrKKDU9290/
TR8RvX6sO_I/AAAAAAAAHrE/FJgz_
ZkMgFw/s1600/Whitbread_London_Stout.jpg
In the early 1720's London, United Kingdom was well on its way making lots of beer, its most popular at the time was it Porter, a beer that was extremely popular with the people working the ports of London. This beer was a dark brown in colour and was enjoyed by so many due to its high alcohol content. The beer was so popular that large volumes of it were being shipped over to Ireland, in time Ireland started to brew their own porters. The iconic colour of the porter comes from the roasted malt or barley that is used in the brewing process, giving it a rich dark, black colour. The use of the word "stout" is something that causes a lot of debate with the beer community. The original meaning of the word "Stout" was "proud" or "brave", this was further developed over time to mean "Strong", it is this version of the meaning that applies to the beer. Porters ranged in strength and it was this range that was so appealing to all, not to mention it was able to last a lot longer without going off and the longer it was left the stronger it would get. The stronger versions of porter started to get the name "Stout Porter", however some breweries decided to remove the porter name completely and just use the "stout" name. One example of this is Guinness, Ireland, they were making ales for many years, but it is their porter that is just known as "stout".
http://www.guinness.com/en-ie/img/promo-alt.jpg

There are many different versions of stouts as mentioned above, these ranging from Milk stouts to Chocolate stouts, Dry stouts to Coffee stouts, Oatmeal stouts to Imperial stouts. Each style of stout has its own flavours and characteristics, all of which you should get out and try. There is also oyster stout. It was very common for pubs and bars to serve oysters with stout at the time, however some breweries did take to using oysters in the brewing process, this would give a distinct flavour to the beer. This isn't the case with all oyster stouts though, some breweries just use the name oyster as they feel that their stout would work well with oysters. This just shows the diversity of the Stout.

Comparison:

Celebration Stout, The Porterhouse

This is a really nice beer, smooth, bitter, roasted malt flavours. This is a strong beer coming in at 7% ABV, however very well balanced with just a slight alcohol edge to it. Rich and indulgent, a beer to enjoy as the name states, for a celebration. 




Black Chocolate Stout, Brooklyn Brewing Company

This is an exceptional beer, rich, smooth and with deep, full flavours. There is a real flavour of chocolate to this beer, with a really smooth texture to it. This beer is very strong at 10% ABV, however the balance to this beer is extraordinary, it is so well balanced you would never feel it was that strong. This is a beer that should be enjoyed slowly, with its warming, moreish quality.


(For the full beer reviews, just click on the names above)

My Thoughts:
Stouts offer such diversity to its drinkers, which means that if your not a huge fan of a dry stout, why not try something slightly sweeter, like a Milk Stout or a Chocolate Stout, or if you like a really strong, deep flavoured stout, why not try an Imperial Stout. I feel that due to its diversity it is a beer style that can appeal to such a wide audience of beer drinkers, making it a beer style that is popular with many.

I think that people should get out there and try as many different stouts and porters as they can, as there are so many different varieties and you will end up finding your favourite. I would highly recommend the Black Chocolate stout by the Brooklyn Brewing Company above, this beer isn't available all year round, so you should stock up when it is available as it is just to die for.

I would love to hear from you all and you feelings on Stouts Tell us what your favourite style of stout is and feel free to suggest some stouts that are out there that you feel deserve a review on the blog. Leave you comments in the comments box below.

Hope you all enjoy the post, and most of all try the diverse stouts out there and enjoy your weekends and beers !!!


Shane

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Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Southern Tier 2 x IPA !!!

Hey Everyone, Today's beer review is from the Southern Tier Brewing Company. Hope you all enjoy !!! Also looking to read some other beer reviews why not check out The Beers page !!!

Beer Name:
2 x IPA
Brewery:
Southern Tier Brewing Company
Brewed and Bottled:
Southern Tier Brewing
Company,
Lakewood,
New York,
USA





Alcoholic Percentage:
8.2% Vol
Measure:
330ml
Taste:
Strong Hops, Refreshing, Citrus, Bitter After Taste, Smooth
Colour:
Golden / Amber
Odour:
Strong Hops, Slight Citrus


General Thoughts:
2 x IPA is a great beer, light, refreshing and smooth, with a strong hops flavour. This beer has a high hops flavour giving it a slight bitterness, however this is well balanced with a slight sweetness, giving this beer an overall pleasant feel. One of the best things about this beer is that it doesn't taste overly alcoholic, which is a big surprise considering it comes in at 8.2% ABV. This may not be a beer that you could drink all night as it is very strong, however it is a beer that you can enjoy with your mates on a special occasion or as a final beer of the evening. 2 x IPA is also surprisingly light considering its strength, this again goes in its favour, in my eyes making it a great beer. There is little to no carbonation to this beer, giving it that moreish quality, which is helped along by the slight bitter after taste that you get from the hops flavour of the beer. This beer doesn't taste overly bitter either compared to other IPA's that are out there, so if you are an IPA fan but looking for something that is strong in hops flavour, with a slight sweetness, balancing the whole beer out then this is the beer for you. On the whole  2 x IPA is a brilliant beer, light, refreshing and bursting with full, deep flavours, making you want to go back for more and more. This is a beer that I would really recommend to anyone that is an IPA fan as it ticks every box in that beer style, if your new to craft beers, then this may be a good transition as it is not overly bitter, which you can get with other IPA's. All in all a fantastic beer that I would highly recommend.

If your interested in a little history of the IPA and some reviews and comparisons of great IPA's then check out this post Here.

Price:
€3.00 - €4.00 (Based on Average)

Shane

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