The air of anticipation in the build up to last night was incredible. Other beer clubbers were asking me what they could expect and I only had a rough idea myself , Adam Lyons was playing his cards close to his chest. I wasn’t worried of course, Kin Khao’s reputation for great food meant that we had nothing to fear, they really pulled out all of the stops last night though! Adam had talked with his chefs about pairing the food with the beer and they were delighted to be able to prepare something completely unique for us. James from Vanguard had then expertly selected the beer pairings. We were in for a treat.
We started off with some seabass rolls which were filled wth rice noodles,mint,coriander and spring onion. These were accompanied by an old favourite of mine; Bo Bristle’s IPA. We were on the right track straight away.
For our second course we had pork neck which had been marinating for three days paired with Tempted Strawberry Cider. Regular readers will know I’m not a huge cider man and the Cider Correspondent herself was at home watching the Toy Show with the kids so I had to get stuck in! Jason who was sitting beside me fell madly in love with the cider, it wasn’t like other ciders that he’d had before and it married really well with the pork.
After that we had Tom Jeud, which is a clear soup, I thought it was the best cuppa soup in the world!
Our next course was air dried beef with a siriacha sauce. The sauce was seriously hot and the Bo Bristle Amber Ale that was served with it went down fairly quickly. We were lucky James shared any with the rest of us!
One of the dishes I enjoyed most was the duck with crunchy roasted rice which was paired with N17’s Rye Ale.
The last dish of the night was home made mango ice cream that perfectly matched Reel Deel’s Irish Blond, Irena made her love for Kin Khao’s sticky rice known and a few portions of that were called for and shared around the table. What a way to finish the evening, but wait, there was more! James had brought us a special treat to round off proceedings, Eight Degrees 2014 Russian Imperial Stout, it’s a beautiful rich coffee like stout. Everyone really enjoyed the evening and I’d like to thank James for selecting some fine beers and Adam and the chefs in Kin Khao for an amazing gastronomic experience. That’s it for Athlone Beer Club for 2014 but we’ll be back in the New Year, thanks for all of your support!
After that some of us made our way to Maguire’s for a night cap, an appropriate way to conclude the evening as that’s where the Athlone Beer Club began!
Sláinte!
Athlone Beer Club’s Thai Food Experience in Kin Khao
Brew Barrel, it couldn’t be easier to brew your own beer!
A couple of weeks ago I was emailed by Brew Barrel and asked if I’d like to try out one of their brew kits. I’m generally open to trying new things, especially so when it comes to beer so I agreed to give it a go. I chose the style of beer I wanted and personalised it on their website and I had it delivered within the week. I went with a Pale Ale and decided to add some Mango.
The kit is, dare I say it, fool proof. If you can follow ten simple steps then you’ll be able to do it. You start by adding the malt extract.
You might need a funnel or a pretty steady hand to pour the water into the small opening, I had some help from Pinocchio!
Speaking of steady hands, you may need to wear oven gloves when giving the keg a good shake!
At the end you add the yeast, hop solution and whatever additional flavourings you may have chosen.
Seal it carefully and seven days later it’s ready to drink!
Now you just have to wait for your friends to call round, no one needed much persuasion!
Beer and snacks, what else would you be doing of a Tuesday evening?
It took us a few goes to get the pouring right, but we persevered and it was worth it in the end!
I found the Mango a little sweet myself but all of the ladies present, my wife (who’s more of a cider fan) included liked it!
So what’s the verdict? This isn’t going to convert the all grain brewers but I think it would make a great present for the beer drinker in your life, Christmas is coming, so get the order in fairly lively! If you’re thinking about starting to brew your own beer but are a bit intimidated by all of the equipment and everything that could go wrong then this is a safe bet for you. It’s twenty five pounds or about thirty euro for the kit but considering I saw a mini keg of Heineken in the local shop for twenty euro I suppose an extra tenner for a personalised beer isn’t bad at all. Give it a go, let me know how you get on. Sláinte!
http://www.brewbarrel.com/home/
Brew Barrel gave me this kit free but I think I have been fair and honest in what I have said.
The Night of The Double IPAs!
I picked up a couple of lovely beers in McCambridge’s, Galway yesterday. I managed to get one of the last of the numbered bottles of Crazy Horse from Mountain Man and a few other beauties. I had this at the Irish Craft Beer Festival back in September and it’s still as gorgeously hoppy.
Then I had a Green Flash West Coast IPA. This one has five different hops but is differentiated by the inclusion of the lesser spotted Simcoe which means it has a slightly different aroma to the Crazy Horse and the one which concluded the evening.
Which was Sierra Nevada’s Hoptimum, sure what else could you finish with? A fine trio of hoptastic beers. All of these are pretty high up the old abv scale so I’m sure you’ll be glad to know I shared them! Sláinte!
Limited Editions in The Malt House
I was able to nip in to The Malt House on Friday after work for an hour and I knew that they had the limited Carrig Coalface Black IPA on draught. It’d be rude not to give it a go. It’s pretty darn good. Very quaffable. But it’s quite mild for a beer labelled an IPA. I’d call it a dark English style ale. We even managed to persuade a stout drinker to try it and he liked it a lot!
Another beer that won’t be around for much longer is Bo Bristle’s Double IPA so that was my next tipple. It came in one of their very fetching new glasses bearing the words ‘Don’t Mess The Boar!’ Rob and Michelle being dead sound as they are even let me bring one of the glasses home for my collection. So call in to The Malt House soon and give these beers a try and sláinte!
Ten reasons why good beer is better than wine!
When I read The Wine Wankers Ten Reasons Why Wine Is Better Than Beer ( http://thewinewankers.com.au/2014/11/20/10-reasons-wine-is-better-than-beer/ ) I felt compelled to respond on behalf of beer! You may note that I’ve specified ‘Good Beer’ , I’ll take a nice glass of red in preference to a bad beer like Budweiser.
1) Beer does not stink. Bad beer might smell like cardboard but stick your nose into a glass of a great beer and your senses are assaulted in a good way with hop and malt aromas, a prime example being Eight Degrees Full Irish pictured above.
2) Beer doesn’t make you fat. There are as much if not more calories in wine as beer. This has been proven. Somewhere. I don’t count calories but if you do look it up… Now the fatty snacks you have after a few beers, well that’s a different story!
3) Beer pairs well with food, try a stout with some blue cheese.
4) Beer has a broader range of styles. You can have red or white wine. ( I know, I know I’m expecting some flak for that!) You can have lager, dark lager, kolsch, ale, pale ale, pilsner, IPA, stout, porter, imperial versions of some of the above, sours, saisons, barrel aged beers, I could go on…
5) Beer is cheaper. Even if I want a special beer like Brooklyn Black Ops I can get it for less than €30. Any half decent bottle of wine is the same price and if you want something a bit above average you have to dig deep.
6) Even the snobbiest beer snobs aren’t as snobby as wine snobs. ( That’s a lot of snobbery in one sentence) Obviously I wouldn’t include The Wine Wankers in that given their fun approach to the vine…
7) You can’t beat a cold lager on a warm Summer’s day.
8) You can’t beat a rich chocolate porter on a cold night sitting by the fire.
9) There are no hops in wine. I looooove hops!
10) There are no vineyards in Ireland (yet, climate change is not all bad! ) but there are plenty of breweries, so, in this country at least beer wins! Edit: The Beer Nut has informed me that there is one active vineyard at the moment, thanks for that!