A few American beers and one Belgian one for the craic!

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My neighbour and I ended up having a bit of a beer tasting last night that was totally unplanned, unlike the Beer Club that was really semi – impromtu! We started off with Avery Brewing’s New World Porter. It’s described on the bottle in small writing as a Black IPA so that’s not at all unclear. Unless you’re one of the people who insist on referring to this type of beer as hoppy stout. In which case you’d be happy as that’s what this is in a nutshell! No matter what you want to call it I would say it’s an excellent beer.

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Cantillion Gueuze 100% Lambic Bio (to give it’s full title) is a Belgian classic, complete with cheeky pissing boy on the label. It’s sour. If you left a cooking apple soaking in lemon juice overnight and then took a big bite out of it you’d be on the right track. It’s probably a better idea to just pick up a bottle and try it for yourself.

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I opened a Sixpoint Rad next. It’s basically a grapefruitty radler with some mango flavours to balance out all of that bitterness. This isn’t one of the Sixpoint’s they have in Wetherspoon’s. You’ll have to cross the Atlantic for it, or get someone to bring you back one!

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Finishing up our fairly random selection  we shared a Founder’s Curmudgeon. It’s an Old Ale that gives you a kiss steeped in bourbon and vanilla. It’s smooth and does not have any of the abrasive alcohol you might expect from a 9.8% beer. A great way to conclude the evening and Ned the neighbour was happy when I left. But that could just have been because I was leaving! 

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That Impromtu Athlone Beer Club meet up in The Malt House in full!

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Let’s start at the beginning, it was ooooh, about half nine last night when I burst through the swinging doors of The Malt House ready for this month’s Beer Club. Unusually I wasn’t the first there, a pair of rascals had started without me. Immediate expulsions all round.

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When that dispute was agreeably resolved credentials were checked. Myself and James were carrying our new Beoir membership cards and we exhorted the rest of the group to sign up. It’s only a tenner after all! (If you want to know how to join just ask me.)

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We started with one of my favourite new beers from the Midlands, St Mel’s Helles Lager. But we probably should have begun with Carrick’s Amber Ale. No matter!

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Rob had done up a menu for the evening, there was a lot of beer on there, so drinking duties were shared out in an equable fashion. Hannah is normally a cider drinker so we decided she should try the Fruli.

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She really liked it. She declared ‘You could drink that all night!’

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Beer has a funny way of bringing some people together and pushing others apart. 

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Tony enjoying his Ginger Beard.

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Benny checks out Carrick’s Poachers Pale Ale. Now we were getting down to serious business.

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Dave from Bo Bristle had kindly given me a pair of bottles of their brand new limited release Smokey Bacon. It’s a smoked beer in the style of a German rauchbier. There is no bacon in it, we’ll leave that to the crazy people in Rogue. It is well smoked and there’s a bit of a bitter kick. Very good. It’s being distributed by Vanguard, so if your local has Bo Bristle ask if they can get it in! John is down learning his trade at Black’s of Kinsale at the moment so he brought a pair of bottles of the lesser spotted Beoir #1. I’ve written about that here before, some of the group hadn’t had a double IPA before and it was great to see their pleasantly surprised reactions.

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I decided to call it a night and finished up with a Kinsale Pale Ale. Thanks to the crew in The Malt House for looking after us so well last night.
This is post number 250, thank you for coming here and having a read!

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Two from Thornbridge

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Thornbridge’s Colorado Red was born out of a collaboration with the Odell Brewing Company. It’s made with a lot of English hops: Admiral, Bramling Cross, Phoenix, Pilgrim and First Gold. I haven’t even heard of half of those myself. So it’s a proper English Ale with some American perspective thrown in for good measure. More importantly though, how does it taste? Impressive. Proper. A very flavourful ale.

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Otto is a more Germanic beast. It’s a Weizen Doppelbock. The minute I popped the cap off it was as if I’d stuck my face into a jar of those banana shaped sweets you sometimes get in pick and mix. Thankfully the taste is not sickeningly sweet and the result is a complex yet balanced brew which includes cloves and a touch of spice. For all that the Colorado Red is the one I’d reach for again!

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Impromtu Athlone Beer Club in The Malt House

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Sooooo… what if I said that July is a long month to go without an Athlone Beer Club meet up? I know some of us are lucky enough to be heading to Donegal next week sampling the delights of Kinnegar’s Farmhouse Brewery and relaxing in the luxury of Rathmullen House, not to rub it in or anything! The Malt House are after getting in some new beers and I feel duty bound to lead the charge of samplers! We’ll kick off at the usual time of 9:30pm.
Pictured above is a St Stefanus that was gathering dust, I deliberately left it aside to age as directed on the bottle and then completely forgot about it. It was best before June but was far from terrible. I would go as far as to say it wore it’s age well like Maggie May. I was full sure I had written this one up before but I can’t find it so it must be PB (pre blog)! Try it but don’t forget about it like I did…

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Wired on Beer and Pizza

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We tried out our pizza stone last night. The results were ‘rustic’ looking and delicious. I had pepperoni, oregano, goats cheese, mozzarella and cheddar on mine. Pizza and beer go together like Romeo and Juliet but without the tragedy. 8 Wired is a New Zealand brewery that have produced a one of the best IPAs ever in Hopwired. They describe it as a ‘tropical punchbowl’, I couldn’t fault that description. The hoppiness cut right through all of that cheese I had on my pizza. A slice of heaven.

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What could I do after that only turn up the hopometre? Super Conductor has 80% more hops than the already hoppy Hop Wired, if you can believe that! Try to imagine someone soaking a face cloth in lemon and grapefruit juice and wiping every bit of the inside of your mouth with it. Well it’s a bit like that, only not as tickly! I did find myself comparing it to Of Foam and Fury but I shouldn’t have, it’s not a competition.  Both are available from Bradley’s in Cork and if you like hops you need to do yourself a favour! 

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