Franciscan Well - Cork (part two)

Pin It Now! While we were sitting at the bar, two guys came in and ordered a Bulmers? I said to Dave, and I suppose the girl behind the bar too "What's the point of coming in to a brewpub and ordering a Bulmers?" The girl behind the bar laughed and said I would be surprised at how often it happens.

So anyway, on to the last two beers and my favourites.

First up is Shandon Stout. This is a typical Cork style dry stout. The aroma packs a strong roasted coffee and this follows through when taking a mouthful. It also leaves a lovely Burnt Coffee aftertaste which lingers.
This was Nitro Kegged unfortunately and on asking did they have it in another form like bottle I was told no. She said they used to do Rebel Red in 5L mini kegs but not any more. That was a shame because I knew about that and had planned on buying some to take home. Anyway this was a nice stout, probably not as good as Wrasslers XXXX from the Porterhouse but still a very nice stout.


Finally comes my favourite of the bunch. Purgatory Pale Ale is one of their special seasonal brews. I loved this from the first sip, hell I loved the sound of it before I even tasted it and ordered a Pint before I even got my sample plate. I left the pint alone while I went through the samples as I wanted it to warm up a little.

I love bitter hops and this did not disappoint thanks to the Cascade Hops. It is a dark amber in colour, very dark actually which makes a lie of the Pale Ale style? The Barmaid must have seen me examine it and said that this is a new batch, only released the other day and it is much darker than the last batch. The last batch had been pale like a Lager. I asked about how that impacted the taste but she said she honestly could not remember what the last one tasted like but she loved this new batch. Now I am curious to know what it was like before, I'm going to take a guess that this is a much better batch than the paler version. Anyone any comments? Maybe someone has tried the previous version or better yet, had both.
I sucked this down before Dave was half way finished with his Lager so I ordered another one and took it a little more slowly. This is the kind of Beer I love and could drink them all day.

Later that day when we got back to Bandon on the bus, we stopped off at the closest Off-License for me to see what they had. I remember I liked this place from the last time but I was mainly buying wine and they had a great selection. Of beer they were not so great. I got a few and the one im going to mention now is because it was pretty rubbish.


This is Svyturys Ekstra, a Lithuanian beer. I liked the bottle and I had never had a Lithuanian beer so I gave it a shot. The Ekstra is just a standard Lager. It tasted fair as lagers go but was nothing interesting and I only finished half of it before pouring the rest down the sink.

I was determined to find a good Off-License in Bandon and Dave mentioned one at the other end of town so I would have to check it out.