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

BIY 2009 (Brew It Yourself) beer fuelled fun

Howdy folks Back Again to tell all of you about BIY 2009, the event ran between the hours of 2pm and 8 pm on the 18th of April 2009 @ The Franciscan Well Brewery, 14a North mall, Cork, Ireland.

The event was Run by Irish Craft Brewer and Franciscan Well in conjunction with the Bull and Castle gastropub in Dublin. Also in attendance were who i consider to be the best home brew suppliers on the Irish market The Home Brew Company.

The collaboration of all the A fore Mentioned organising bodies made the day a great success (the weather helped a little too). there were many ICB members in attendance who were willing and able to give some sterling advice to any new brewers and also to give advice to each other over the course of the day.

The Main event of the day though was the Beer Tasting, One of the ICB members Aleman Brought along his portable bar setup to which he had connected two Cornelius Kegs of Gorgeous Beer, Along with these two beers SBillings had brought along a Cornelius Keg of beer which too was connected to Alemans Portable bar Setup and was very well received by all who drank it, along with these kegs there was a plethora of bottled beers, most notably some in the corner which went off like a volcanoe when opened, after the Gushing though it was a damn nice Dubbel.

as the beer tasting was progressing so were the two Brews which were being made in the corner, one was being produced by Peter and Paudie of The Franciscan Well and I was making the other, Peter and Paudie were making a homebrew version of the house favourite Rebel Red, and I was Making a very impromptu stout/porter/brown ale without the aid of measuring equipment i still don't know which this is gonna turn out to be. a good few people found this part of the expo interesting although not as interesting as the tasty free beer.

The lads from The Home Brew Company had set up shop near the free beer area and seemed to be doing a good trade in starter kits and high quality all malt kits. BTW lads thanks for Sponsoring the ingredients for my impromptu brew, much appreciated.

At the end of the day we had served a load of mythbusting beer, brewed two batches of all grain and Hopefully started a lot of homebrewers on their way to great beer made in the comfort of their own home/brewing area.

Until Next Time

CHEERS

Drishane Brewery day trip: Gougane Barra and the hungry mountain people of West Cork

Howdy Folks, my first post for april is now arriving, after an exhausting night of hanging around the beer bars of cork city Morgan the Drishane brewery accountant and I decided that it was high time that we went on another Drishane Brewery Sanctioned Day Trip. So we headed to the brews mobile and we were off. not knowing where you are going is a trait which we have come to associate with Sundays. its great, sun beating down, music on the radio, except one thing the severe lack of food, so we decided that we had better head west in search of food.

BAD IDEA

Leaving from cork city we had arrived in ballincollig area when we decided that we would go to The chapel at Gougane Barra. somewhere along the way we believed that we might be able to stop for something to eat. at this point i should point something out, Morgan has decided to give up fast food for a period of time which meant that we were not allowed to venture near some of the wonderfully filthy looking roadside burger and chip trailers that i would have happily settled for, oh no we had to have proper food served in a restaurant of some sort. somewhere along the way to gougane barra I spotted a sign saying that thre was a toy soldier factory in the vicinity and helpfully it had a little arrow on it, We both said it might be cool to check it out and so promptly followed the arrow, after driving about 5 minutes we realised that this particular route seemed to be getting smaller and smaller as we went round each turn, also we appeared to be going uphill at a drastic rate, multiple signs promising our imminent arrival at the toy soldier factory had passed before we get to a cross roads with a sign saying that the toy soldier factory was now only six minutes away ( if you are going as the crow flies by rocket ship that is) half an hour later we arrived in the nice village of cill na martra, this thankfully is where the toy factory was situated, unfortunately it was shut and the village was jammed with people and cars as we had just happened to arrive at he end of what must have been a good GAA match. we exited the village by the only possible escape route,

BAD IDEA

following a seemingly confident skoda driver we ventured on this road which got increasingly worse and worse until that is we ended up in a farmyard, the skoda turned as did we but only to find that the skoda had disappeared without a trace, we backtracked along the road until we came to a grassy crossroad, and took a left, this is where it began to get a little creepy, we met a solitary man who looked to be dangerous enough to even scare hardned culchies such as ourselves, he promptly walked in the middle of the road and refused to budge inwards, As quickly as the road would allow i passed the unpleasant personn and carried on into the mountain, the scenery was brilliant, not a house or any sign of civilisation for miles. after some time driving on the mountain we decided to try our best to get back on track as our bellies were rumbling and the day wasn't getting any longer, we eventually made our way to Inchigeeligh via some road that is not on the map above. here we encountered Creedons lots and lots of them. thay appeared to run everything in the village, the hotel, the newsagents, the haulage comapany, the doctors surgery all Creedons, we decided to go into the Hotel for some grub to tide us over.

BAD IDEA

There was no food to be ha which we soon found out seemed to be the norm for the whole village both newsagents closed the cafe closed nothing open but the hotel and all they were serving to feed ya was pints of stout, since i couldn't drink we politely left after a swift pint of coca cola.

this seemed to be the them for the next village in our trip too, Ballingeary a larger village but still no food although the local shop was open, we ventured inside and all there was to be had was biscuits and marsbars. with Morgans ban on Fastfoods these were not allowed either plus i got the distinct feeling from the lady behind the counter that we had just woken her from hibernation and she was not happy about it. by this stage we had come to the conclusion that we were not going to get fed, and that the mountain dwelling people of west cork must be a mighty hungry bunch indeed.

Onwards to gougane barra which was as good to walk around these days as i remember it was as a child, lots of other people had come too and there was a steady stream of visitors all the time we were there, the rest of the day though had been so irritatingly annoyingly odd and interesting driving that arriving at our destination lacked a little, after the obligatory photos had been taken we went and visited Ireland's top toilet 2002 which is situated across the road from the picturesque island chapel of gougane barra.

After this we headed back to the city

GOOD IDEA

where we promptly headed to the city centre to get some food, into zanzibaar, ordered grub, recieved our grub and the only thing i could think of was the hungry mountain people of West Cork that we encountered on our way to Gougane Barra.

Saint Patricks Day, Cork, Ireland.

Howdy Folks

There has been many a time when i have fallen around various towns and indeed the city as well on this most drunken of days. i have carelessly swigged yellow (or Green) fizzy water and made a complete arse of myself. this year however i was determined to be different. i stayed SOBER all day and even all night not a drop of anything legally considered to be alcoholic passed my lips and boy oh boy was i in for a surprise.

the day started rather slowly with Morgan and I heading down to the Grand Parade in Cork City to check out the food festival which was by then in full swing. Quickly we joined a Queue for some food which we had heard was very good. this food was being served by Barracuda Barbeque Company from Kinsale. I have never had anything like it, Bratwurst and Herbed Potatoes in a Chinese Style takeaway box with some fried onion on top, so simple but abou the best thing i've eaten in a long time, if you see these guys anywhere try the sausage and spud punnet you won't be disappointed.

We the watched the Parade which passed without a hitch, so far the day had been a big thumbs up, after the parade we went and visited th Bierhaus on popes quay in the city, here i had two weihnstephaner non alcoholic beer, it's nothing special but it knocks the socks off Becks any day.

after this we went and enjoyed some more weihnstephaner in the Oval on south main street, followed by heading to Captain America's for some food and cheesy St Patricks Day style Irish Music.

After this it all wen't wrong, usually by this point in the evening i was very drunk on a barstool somewhere or already in bed but this year with sober eyes i saw it all, it was madness, Gardai required at every street corner, the street was a veritable obstacle course with vomit everywhere and drunks fighting in middle of the road, at one point i saw some lad vomit on his burger and then pick it up again before deciding that it was in-edible. i always wondered why the rest of the world saw us as nothing other than a bunch of drunken Oirish Louts now i know, it's because on Our most publicised day the vast majority of irish twenty-forty somethings become a big shiny flashy neon stereotype of what it is to be Oirish.

Next year i'll stay for the food Fair and the well organised Parade, but will exit the city good and early, i'll ignore the news, and refuse to listen to the stories others tell, I'll imagine that the world see's us as a, well educated, funny, pleasant, population and not just a bunch of drunken idiots.

beer tasting, Baltika 8, Baltika 6, Fullers ESB, Black Sheep Emmerdale Ale

Howdy Folks, Back Again with some more beer tastings, in this post i will be going over my tasting notes from four beers as stated in the title. so ets get started eh?

First up Baltika 8 Hefe-Weizen:
powerful spicy nose with hints of citrus fruits,possible clove. this fades with time.

On first taste there is little or nothing to talk about except a mild clove aftertaste which doesn't really last,a few tastes later and i'm afraid that there is little more to add except a rather unpleasant tang before the clove.

this beer has little to no body and feels very light in the mouth, i am not impressed, having tried various Baltika beers in the past i feel that this has generally summed up the brand for me, not good.

@5% alc by volume i was expecting more from this beer but was sorely disappointed. My final word: i definitely would not buy this beer again, just plain nasty.

Next up is another from Baltika their Baltika 6 Porter:
Good malty nose with a distinct lack of roasty aromas.

on Initial tasting there is a strong malt flavour slightly bittersweet, unusual but not bad aftertaste which once again fades Quickly, this is definitely a porter but seems to me to lack any special destinctivness that would set it apart from any other standard porter.the same unpleasant tang as the baltika 8 appears after the third swig. it may be something to do with the ingredients or por storage i'm not sure.

once again there is little body to this beer a bit too easy to drink for such a malty flavour.

with it's 7% alc by volume this is the strongest beer of the post but it sure doesn't feel like it. my final word: of all the baltika beers i've tried this is the best although it still falls short of the mark when compared to some of its competitors.

Next up is a beer made Fullers this beer i liked Fullers ESB:
light floral nose with fruity berry like aroma with a not too heavy malt backbone.

good hop profile (from which my inexperienced palatte cannot distinguish one hop from another) with a light lasting bitterness smooth and easy to drink.

this beer has good body which is not overly heavy nor overly light, i see this beer as an evening beer, maybe not session strength but close enough.

@ 5.9% alc by volume this beer is perfect for chilling out in the evening and reflecting on your day, my final word is: a superb beer which excels in many areas but fails to point out in which one it excels most.

the final beer of my post is a Gimmick from Black Sheep Brewery it is their Emmerdale Fine Dales Ale:
light to nonexistant aroma with little or nothing to offer me, very faint scent of malt.

Bland and uneventful much like the show itself, I keep waiting for the Plane to crash and kill off the dullness but alas it hasn't.

body is once again pretty standard not great not terrible, once again i'm not impressed but in regard to this beer i'm not sorely disappointed, In My Opinion this is a gimmick beer, designed for the masses of bland, soap opera watching, yellow water swilling, people.

the Alc content is pretty average too 4.2% by Volume but that was to be expected, my final word: probably fine for the wollpack but certainly not for me.

well that's me for this post if you have been affected by any of the views or opinions expressed in this post please leave a comment.

if you feel that i have been too harsh on a particular beer or not harsh enough please feel free to leave a comment.

If you feel like leaving a comment please do

I Have nothing to blog about !!!!! except beer (Clotworthy Dobbin/Hopfen Weisse)

Due to a severe Overspend with my credit card and other miscellaneous bills all coming through at once i have been unable to brew since the middle of November 2008. thankfully though I had done two brews at once then and still have limited supplies left over. I'm planning on getting my brewing apron back on in the middle of March, thank jeebus for that.

the massive Overspend has also crippled my ability to socialise as much as i once used to so trying new beers has become a once or twice a month thing.

I've tried a beer which is loved by many a beer drinker over on http://www.irishcraftbrewer.com/ . this beer is called Clotworthy Dobbin and is brewed by a Belfast Brewery "whitewater" . to be fair I've tried this beer twice now just in case my palette had been adversely affected the first time, sadly it was not affected as much as i had hoped.

After much praise for this beer i was left gobsmacked by the lack of taste, don't get me wrong the beer is very good just not as good as i thought it would be, there was a good spicy nose off the beer once poured into an appropriate glass an there was a taste of honey and a very slight grapefruit tang off the hops. Like many "great" films i personally think that this beer has been overrated and over hyped. my final thoughts on this beer are "very good if not exceptional, i would happily buy this beer again".

My other Beer to talk about has swiftly become one of my favourite beers, this is the ever beautiful Hopfen Weisse from Schneider/Brooklyn, this beer has an immense presence when poured with the Huge Citrus Nose hitting you before you have even attempted to sample it. it is hard to describe why i like this beer it could be the shade of amber it pours or the fluffy head which forms on top or maybe it is the US hops i don't know but the overall experience is mind blowing plenty of spices and interesting flavours to keep anyone happy. my final thoughts "yes please barman I'll have another".

That's all for now thanks for reading
Cheers

Update Finally Complete

Ok We have finally Updated the Drishane Brewery Website.

the Updates are small but until i get a better internet connection i'm afraid thats how it has to be.

Among the changes are:

new pictures: these pictures depict the drishane brewery daytrip to the cork city gaol (jail) and some random night out pics that have been taken over the last month or so.

Change of Blog: yes it's true this is now the official blog of the drishane brewery crew. after much deliberation we felt that this was the best platform on which to run the drishane brewery blog.

That's about all the changes for tonight but with the blog now onine here obviously we will be able to keep you updated on a much more regular basis.

I would like to thank The Beer Nut for his much appreciated encouragement on our joining the blogosphere.

once again that's all for tonight i'm gonna go enjoy a bottle of I Dunno Either now

CHEERS