My connecton how i love thee, Old friends in a new setting, The first brew, Munster see red (scarlet red that is)

Welcome back folks,

Good news, after years of being left out in the wilderness Drishane Brewery has now got broadband, this technological advancement means that i no longer have to sneak around at work to get a blog post written, Yippee. so here's to my new connection long may it last.

This Sunday past 26/April/2009 i found my self in need of a little refreshment, as i was in Youghal, Co. Cork. my hopes of receiving anything except the usual crappy (insert macro brew of choice here) , Luckily i remembered a post by Rebel on ICB which mentioned that a selection of the Franciscan well beers are now on tap in the nook (Treacy's) bar. with this in mind i went in search, what i found pleased me, i hadn't been in the nook for quite some time but knew that the owner Mick was a very driven bar owner who spotted a niche easily hence the taps, quickly i ordered a pint from the young barman, "a pint of friar weisse please" to which he replied much to my shock "no problem I'll get that now" not the type of comment i had come to expect from young barmen serving new beers the usual answers being "whats that some new Budweiser" or "ya what?".

i got my pint and was mighty pleased, not as nice as it is at source but what the hell it was much better than any macro beer available. after this pint i had a conversation with the owner Mick who informed me that the three beers available were 1: friar weisse 2: rebel red and 3:blarney blonde, of these three the rebel red was selling well, the friar weisse was selling OK, and the blarney blonde wasn't really selling at all, during and after the conversation i had a rebel red, this was just as nice as at source and deserved to be the best selling Franciscan well beer in the bar, after this i had a chat with some of the regulars who were all very pleasant and had good craic, i started this chat with a blarney blonde and continued for a while drinking rebel red, all in all it was a good Sunday evening had in the company of three of my oldest friends in the unfamiliar surroundings of one of their new homes.

On another note, a few weeks ago i brewed my very first all grain beer, i tried to keep the recipe simple and added

• 3kg of Maris otter



• 500g of crystal



• challenger hops for bittering



• and 100g of spalt select for flavour and aroma,

all did not go well, i had two stuck mash moments and at least three stuck sparge moments, but all in all in the end it seemed to go quite well, there are various pictures which i cannot post at the moment but which will be up on the Drishane Brewery website tomorrow night don't forget to check them out.

Finally on a very positive note, i have been to see Munster play in Musgrave park in cork, on the night they were playing Welsh rugby team Scarlets, the game was good with Munster winning by 29-10 scoring four tries and gaining the all important bonus point too, sadly though Thómas O'Leary was badly injured in the first half, his fractured ankle means that not only is he out for the remainder of the season but will also miss out on the lions tour, we all hope recovers and i am sure that he will get another shot at the lions in his career.

CHEERS

Keith