Athlone pub trek

There were wintry showers in Athlone last night but we braved it in the name of beer! Our first port of call was The Malt House where I successfully managed to confuse everyone. The end result was that my friend the Digital Media Expert ended up with a pair of pints of Bo Bristle IPA. You can see how impressed he was by my antics above. I chose Trouble Brewing’s Dark Arts Porter:

This was like a comforting bowl of soup on the night that was in it. I mean that in the best possible way!
Next stop was Naughton’s where I had an O’Hara’s Leann Follain Stout.

I have written about the barrel aged version of this before:
http://simonbroderick.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/nablopomo/
This is probably a better one to have mid session though as it’s not as strong while it is still a great beer full of flavour and depth.
We continued our mission with a stop in Flannery’s. There’s none of yer fancy craft beers here you can have a good pint of stout and a be happy with it. If your looking for a real old fashioned pub that the locals love as opposed to a tourist stop off then Flannery’s is the spot for you. And Ann is great craic!

Biddy’s Steak House/Teach Steig that is also a bar was our final destination. The Main Man in the Insurance Game’s 40th was in full swing. The Smokes were playing their last show and they were determined to go out with a bang. There was also a short impromtu set from Those Sacred Mushrooms/The Midnight Special which was a treat for the elder Athlone heads present. Again no craft beer but I didn’t complain when the house was rocking. I may start offering guided tours of the pubs of Athlone but I think I’ll wait til the weather improves!