Yesterday evening I made it to JJ Harlow’s in Roscommon for their first ever Beer Festival. They had six local breweries and MacIvor’s Cider for our delectation. There was a cool vibe too, one lad I was talking to reckoned it was ‘…like Barcelona or somewhere!’, not bad going for a dark winter night in the Midwest. The DJ spinning the funky tunes probably helped. The first beer I tried was Soulwater’s new Stormchaser IPA. It’s delicious, with lots of soft juicy fruit flavours, keep an eye out for it in the fine pubs of Galway.
Local butchers Castlemine were providing soakage in the form of savage sausage sandwiches. So I had one of those. Galway Hooker and Independent were also representing Galway in the corner. I had Independent’s Connemara Black IPA. I’ve recently said that you shouldn’t pair IPAs with chocolate but I’d make an exception for this with it’s dark chocolate and coffee flavours. Hands up everyone who remembers Galway Hooker’s old brewery in Roscommon? I got one of their original Pale Ales for a brewer and he remarked that it was ‘tasting pretty good’.
I also found room for Black Donkey’s Beyond Rye PA, Reel Deel’s Knowledge of Finn and St Mel’s IPA. But you know how good they all are already! Well done to Brian and all of the JJ Harlow’s crew for putting on such a cool event. If all of that has whetted your appetite then stay tuned, Don’s Bar, Moate is hosting a micro festival on the 11th of December. Sláinte!
