I seem to have spent this week drinking beer from Trouble Brewing. I picked up their Kill Lager in Supervalu Celbridge at the start of the week. That’s a seriously impressive supermarket, they have a great selection of Craft Beer and they now even have their own growler station! Anyway, Jim Koch of Sam Adams fame was being interviewed by Bobby Kerr on Newstalk and he said that he respected the Irish Beer market and was bringing us something that we couldn’t brew. Now, I would never turn my nose up at a bottle of Boston Lager…but, ahem, Ladies and Gentlemen, exhibit A:
For me, this ticks all of the boxes for a Vienna Lager. It’s the right Amber colour, malty and slightly sweet. And it comes in 500ml bottles too. I’ll be having this again.
Dave Guilfoyle dropped me over a bottle of The Grove. It’s the first Beer of his that has made it to bottles since he took over the role of Trouble’s head brewer from Mark Nixon. He’s like a proud Dad. The aroma is sweet and toffee like, just the same as if you opened a tin of peaches, or maybe even Mangoes! This is also a beautiful rich amber colour. It’s hopped enough for you to know it’s a Double IPA and it kicks you in the ass with a good dry bitter aftertaste. Nice one Dave.
Trouble’s Milk Stout was a collaborative effort with Danes Coisbo. Now, maybe I shouldn’t have opened it straight after getting out of the car but this one burst out of the bottle and half of it ended up going down my sink. It took a bit of effort to get the head you see above and that dissipated very quickly. It tasted bitter enough and lacked the sweetness I’ve come to expect from a Milk Stout. Craft Beers of Ireland and Beyond aka Nellie O’Neill was coincidentally simultaneously drinking the same Beer and he reported differently: ‘…a rich, smooth, silky gem of a Stout. ‘ to quote from his Facebook page. link here! I have another bottle here to try and I will be delighted to change my opinion but I swapped Dave a bottle of Wild Beer’s Millionaire for this, and right now I feel like I got the shitty end of the stick. Still, as Meatloaf sang: ‘Two out of three ain’t bad.’Sláinte!