Athlone Beer Club met last night at Killinure Chalets on the shores of Lough Ree. We were joined by Soulwater Beer from Galway who brought a couple of their own beers in key kegs and a lot of really interesting imports in bottles. They even gave the evening a theme; ‘Around Europe in a Dozen Brews’!
Most of us started off with Soulwater’s excellent Renegade which is an American Amber Ale. The lads were very thoughtful and had some English Cider from Hog’s Back for my better half.
The food was starting to look and smell pretty great.
We had time for another couple of tasters before eating and first we had Hasen Brau Ausburger Original, a very easy to drink Keller bier.
Then we stayed in Germany with Stortebeker’s Schwarzbier.
The place fell silent as we got stuck into our very tasty steak, frankfurters and ribs…I heard there was some chicken and salmon too but I missed on those, some of you may find it hard to believe, but I was near the back of the que.
We had some St Feuillien Saison with our food. I am a fan of Saisons with food, and this one went down well with most of the group.
The first big surprise of the night was the Buxton Lervig collaboration Trolltunga, a Gooseberry Sour IPA. It blew everyone away.
Next up we had Wild Beer’s ‘Evolver’ Brett IPA, which brought White Hag’s Brett Pale Ale to mind for some reason.
We had some Darkstar Espresso Stout in lieu of after dinner coffee.
And we had Wild Beer’s Salted Caramel Millionaire for dessert, this was another very popular one! And I finished the night with Soulwater’s juicy Mutiny IPA. Liam Tutty brought some of the new beers from Whiplash and they got shared out and a few of the lads stayed going into the wee small hours, I went straight home to bed of course.
Thanks to everyone who came along and fair play to Shane and Tadhg for travelling from Galway. If you want to know more about them and their beers check out:
Also, the food and service in the Chalets was amazing, this was my first time having the barbecue after many visits over the years, it’s a great idea if you’re planning a Summer get together. You’d need to book well in advance though. The next beer club will be on Friday the 6th of May, and of course you will all be in Moate on the 4th of June for the second Midlands Craft Beer Festival. Sláinte!
