A night away is always a good idea. Even if it’s raining. So a few of us headed to Limerick. My wife wanted to pay a quick visit to the Milk Market so that was our first stop. And Mother Mac’s is just around the corner and just had to be our second. The lads are obviously telepathic as they’d just tapped up a fresh keg of Bay Ale. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned Mother Mac’s here before (someone go check!) but it bears repeating that it’s a lovely pub. They have a nice offering with a beer for most tastes. Nice relaxed atmosphere too.
Lost City of Pop in Crew
Crew Brewing have been closed longer than they’ve been open thanks to events. But it’s only a short walk from Mother Mac’s and I felt the need to check it out. They are serving straight from tanks behind the bar which is something you don’t see often in Ireland. Their Lost City of Pop ticks all of the New England Pale Ale boxes being soft and tropical. They also have a street food area about 100 metres away and a few people were enjoying food with their beers. Hopefully these guys get a good run at it this time!
Treaty City, Limerick
Treaty City have been around for a while longer and have featured on this blog a few times but this was my first opportunity to set foot in the place. I had a cracking Helles. It’s a cool spot which was comfortable and aesthetically pleasing. They also offer tours and are right beside King John’s Castle if you fancy a history lesson. It was great to see Treaty City’s local support too. They are pouring in Katie Daly’s, Patsy Flannery’s and The Commercial Bar, and I’m sure a few more spots around Limerick. Also, we had a gorgeous dinner in The Spitjack and they had beer from my old friends Rye River and Stonewell Cider. I have to say I was impressed with Limerick, it’s well worth visiting. Sláinte.
Riverside Beer Festival line up. (Pic borrowed from their Instagram)
So I said I’d just drink what’s there, when one of my friends asked if I’d be bringing beer home. Just as well too, as there were very few cans on the go. But draught now, that was a different story altogether…
They gave me a big glass on day one…great for lagers!
Where was I? Oh yes, London Docklands. We (Galway Bay Brewery) were invited to Brew By Numbers Riverside Beer Festival, which took place in their brewery. Cormac and I were manning the taps for the three day event. It was £50 for a four and a half hour session and there were six of those. Punters were given a glass and unlimited 100ml pours. Braybrooke had been recommended to me so they were my first port of call, obviously I made sure all of our own beers were tasting great first! They had a lovely malty boi – Vienna style pouring and I enjoyed that. The Bruery had Ruekeller Dunkel on and that kept those lovely malty vibes going. We were stationed between Finback who had a beautiful Seasalt Lager and Fallen Acorn who were pushing out the NEIPA boat with Awaken. Not a bad place to be.
Dois Corvos, Jester King, Dumplings and Cheese!
I also sampled Dois Corvos Cream DIPA, brewed with Citra, not cream! And I refreshed my palate with Jester King’s Blackberry Saison. The Himalayan dumplings were probably my favourite food of the festival. And the Swiss lads from Hoppy People brought their raclette and a wheel of cheese for some light snackage after the first day. As you do like. Melted cheese is hard bet.
Riverside Beer Festival Day Two
I kicked off day two with Brew By Numbers 32 German Style Pilsner, which absolutely nails it, really dry with nice bitterness. And for something completely different I had Hoppy People’s Clash of the Titans Barley Wine which was rich and warming.
E Pellicci, and a few more beers…
On the morning of day three Cormac reckoned we should visit E Pellicci for breakfast. I’m going to say this is a must the next time you are in London. The place oozes character and craic. And the grub was spot on. I sampled IPAs from Fuerst Wiacek and Beak and they were both really good. Time to Ride the Danger Curve TIPA from Heist was whopper. And Pastore’s Dry Hopped Sour was like a mouthful of summer.
Winding down…docks sunset…tunes and craic.
Myself and Basil from Finback had fun working side by side. And the lads from Fallen Acorn were very generous with their (necessary) factor 50. We all shared food and I’m looking forward to crossing paths with the good people I met. I have to say I was very impressed with the event. The Brew By Numbers team were so helpful and sound. You should visit them if you’re in London and grab a pizza and a couple of beers. Sláinte!
Sure this is it…Gift of Time from Galway Bay Brewery
PS: it would be remiss of me not to mention the new/old beer that we poured first at this event. Gift of Time is a mixed fermentation beer that was brewed as a collaboration with Honest Brew, aged for three years in white wine barrels and finished with Nelson Sauvin hops. If that sounds like the kind of thing you’re into then you should definitely get yourself to Mullingar’s inaugural Wild Beer Festival this coming Saturday the 11th of June!
Last week myself and my family took off to sunnier climes. Incredibly I found time to try some beers. Joan has been writing about beer for some time now as Birraire, in fact we met, way back in 2014 when the Beer Bloggers Conference was held in Dublin. You can check out his work here!So I gave him a shout and he recommended meeting in La Textil, Barcelona for lunch. I enjoyed their Writer’s Block Helles and their Quad 4 Pale Ale. They also had a small lunch menu and the aubergine with romesco sauce was lovely. The place is very cool with serious attention paid to every detail, worth a visit if you are in Barcelona. Also great to enjoy a beer with one of the people behind the Barcelona Beer Festival and a wealth of knowledge and stories.
BierCab, Barcelona
One of the more famous craft beer bars in Barcelona is BierCab so I felt I had to visit. I made short work of Fuerst Wiacek’s Stray Robot Session IPA and local legends La Pirata’s The Last Fool Southpaw 15% Imperial Stout. I had intended on checking out Garage and some other spots but time and opening hours didn’t work out.
El Tamboret, Cambrils
The next evening we took a walk to Cambrils which wasn’t too far from where we were staying. I wanted to check out brewpub On Tap. Alas, it was closed midweek. Luckily, El Tamboret was right around the corner. They had a nice local IPA pouring called Trapitxol from Ona which went down beautifully with some cheese. I also tried quite a bitter (in a good way) Galaxy Pale from Ales Agullons and a lovely Saison dubbed Nobel Ek from Brekeriet. The bar man/proprietor was very friendly, helpful and happy to recommend choices to me. From what I can tell, all of these are quite small breweries and it’s great to see.
Twins, Tarragona
Joan had mentioned Twins in Tarragona to me over lunch so we headed there. The twins in question are dead sound and they have a really relaxed place. We sat outside, as everyone else was and enjoyed a leisurely lunch of tapas. They also had a tasty IPA as well as some more unusual options like a Tripel and a surprisingly light Coffee Stout. If you’re in the area this is a must visit for great food and quality beers. You can check out some impressive Roman ruins in Tarragona too!
Craft beers from Esclat
I was tipped off that there might be some craft beer in the large supermarket Esclat which was a 20 minute walk from where I was staying. Alarmingly it looked like they had a two year shelf life and they were being stored ambient. Happily they were all pretty fresh. All decent examples of the pale ale hoppy type beer. And certainly a change from the dominant Damm lager.
Just some Damm beers…
In Ireland we have a couple of big breweries that are present on almost every bar in the country. In Barcelona and the surrounding area if you ask for a beer there’s a very good chance it’s going to be Estrella Damm. A lot of restaurants and tapas bars seem to only have one beer tap, so your choice is that, wine or sangria. Damm have a variety of bocks too which weren’t bad. If you Google craft beer in Salou the list is short. One bar that’s top of the list is The Butler. They had Damm’s (new?) IPA pouring and I was told it’s being brewed in a smaller facility (I’m thinking something akin to the Open Gate brewery) and that they grow the Nugget hops themselves in the mountains. It was pretty quaffable to be fair with a decent amount of juiciness. My least favourite Damm beer was Xibeca but at a couple of cents a can it’s hard to be too upset. Hopefully you can make the effort to find some of the hidden gems on your next trip to this part of the world. Sláinte!
A glass Of Foam And Fury in Johnny’s Kitchen, Lyon
Festivals are back! My first mission of the year was the Lyon Bière Festival. Direct flights to Lyon are not daily so I had to head over there on Thursday. Our French friends Accasbel had a couple of things lined up to keep me busy in the run up to the main event. First stop was Irish Bar Johnny’s Kitchen for a Galway Bay Brewery tap takeover. The atmosphere was welcoming, the fish and chips were great and I made a few new friends. More importantly, the beers were well received!
Orgao Beer House, Lyon
Next stop was Orgao Beer House where Funky Fluid’s tap takeover was in full flow. I enjoyed their Smasher: Cryo Pop B Blend. An 11% Triple NEIPA that drank like fruit punch. A lively spot, I’d recommend checking out.
Põhjala in La Plante Du Loup
And then it was on to ANOTHER tap takeover. But it was pretty much over… undeterred, we asked if it was ok to have a night cap…and we were told there was no problem. La Plante Du Loup is a bottle shop but they have a long table for sampling. They had several chilled growlers of Põhjala beers and the Pime Öö PX 13.9% Imperial Stout was recommended. Some way to conclude the evening. If you are lucky enough to come across this one give it a try.
Brasserie Georges, Lyon
As always before setting off for a city that’s new to me I had a look at the very well travelled Beer Nut’s blog. One place that he had mentioned was Brasserie Georges and my colleague Cormac also had heard it recommended so, after setting up our bar on the Friday morning, and a brief siesta we headed there. This place is on the go since 1836 and has what looks like an art deco style to me. It’s a big hall with small booths and smartly dressed waiters. The food is very old school. I had a sausage that was made with veal, which turned out to be calf intestine with very buttery mash and a rich sauce. The flavour was nice, if the texture was a little chewy. And I couldn’t really think about it as I ate. Cormac had bone marrow, swimming in butter. He was also inspired to come up with the title of this post! I had the Munica Brune which I reckon was a fairly good pairing.
Platypus Brew Pub
We just had time for a brief stop in Platypus Brew Pub before heading to our next assignment. Cormac had the sampler flight which I robbed samples of and I had a pint of the Hoppy Lager. I thought the Hoppy Lager was a grand pint!
L’Alerte Rouge, Lyon
We landed in to L’Alerte Rouge to meet our opponents Big Mountain. This wasn’t a tap takeover, oh no, this was a BATTLE! Now the folks from Big Mountain turned out to be sound. And their beers were good too. We both had 8.5%ish dipas so it was a fair fight. But I’m not sure who won in the end. There was also some shenanigans with a loud hailer, siren and flashing lights. Great craic, en Francais. We didn’t stay out too late as we had a long day of festival to get through.
Lyon Bière Festival
We started off the day with a nice bit of soakage in the form of some fierce fancy hot dogs, green stuff and mustard on the outside, cheese in the middle. Apparently the chef is a big deal. The first beer of the day was a Pils from Mount Salève which was brewed with French malt. It looked hazy but tasted crisp and clean. We also took the opportunity to walk around before it got too busy and I really enjoyed a Czech lager from Sibeeria, a collaboration with Piggy, Jean Pierre Lager which was very traditional, and had a lovely bitterness to it. Then it was back to the bar…
Galway Bay Brewery taps at Lyon Bière Festival
We were pouring our two new specials: Caveat, the aforementioned 8.4% Double IPA which we brewed with Prizm and Sixty Ships Down, a 12% Imperial Stout which was a collaboration with La Pirata. They’re a pair of belters if I may say so, and the good people of Lyon agreed. We also had a 10 litre keg of 200 Fathoms and the anticipation was building for the 6pm tapping. I borrowed a cow bell from our neighbours to mark the occasion and rang the shite out of it. Even at 100ml servings the baby keg was gone in no time. Dot were our neighbours on the other side and I was delighted to get to try the delicious and fruity (red fruits) Big Bottle No. 4!
A mystery stairway
After the festival we made our way to the famous members only Darts Club. We had met the owner earlier in the day and Maud from Accasbel had signed us up. I honestly didn’t have high expectations for the beer selection. I was wrong. They had a Pils from Dupont and Bull’s Eye DIPA from Bapbap (Peter ex Wicklow Wolf is brewing there now)! And then the owner brought us down to the cellar and opened some of his stash. Unfortunately I was too tired to appreciate it fully. So it was definitely time for bed. I had sore feet but what a great day was had. Thanks to Accasbel and Lyon Bière Festival. Sláinte.
It’s been about 20 years since I was in Brussels so when the lads in Galway Bay Brewery proposed a weekend trip I didn’t hesitate to sign up. A few of our Belgian beer loving friends joined us too. Most of us caught a very early flight on Friday morning. Bags dropped off we headed straight for Cantillon. This was my first time here and I think it’s fair to say we made a decent dent in the bottle list. Having only enjoyed the odd taste from this brewery before this was a very enjoyable experience. The Grand Cru Bruocsella was a particular favourite of mine.
L’Ermitage brew pub
A short stroll took us to a much more modern enterprise. L’Ermitage is a small brew pub where I enjoyed their Saison along with some cheese and sausage. We were made feel very welcome here so it was hard to move on, but press on we did!
Foeders in 3 Fonteinen
3 Fonteinen Lambik-O-Droom was our next port of call. This was quite a different experience to Cantillon as it was much more modern, having been rebuilt after an incident in 2009. Our tour was excellent and we learned about the brewing and blending operation. And we thoroughly enjoyed trying the various blends.
Het Boerenerf Eylenbosch
Our last brewery of the day was Het Boerenerf Eylenbosch. This is a nano brewery on some of the land that was the site of a much larger operation until the 60s. Senne’s growing some of his own hops and cherries and has most of his barrels stored in a lovely old barn. You can also get ice cream here so this is one for the whole family!
De La Senne Zenne Pils
The next day we headed for De La Senne after brunch. We worked our way through the menu with the Zenne Pils being fierce popular.
Brussels Beer Project
Brussels Beer Project were holding a Chantier (building site) party in their very nearly completed new brewery. The place was packed and the atmosphere was fantastic. We enjoyed the flash tour too.
The crew in Bar Du Canal
We headed for dinner in Bar Du Canal. It was mostly (very good) small plates and wine (which I don’t talk about). But it made a change from the beer.
De Biertempel
Sunday was relatively relaxed with a quick visit to De Biertempel to pick up a few bottles. And then it was time to head home. We’re already planning our next trip! Sláinte!
