So how are my current beers coming along?

*I am sure everyone who reads this blog asks that question on a daily basis. Well for the millions of readers out there wondering this very thing then I will gladly answer.
I have two beers I am drinking at the moment.

The Mild Smoker has matured since its one week taste test. It has filled out a little, the smoke has died down a little which is to be expected. Overall I am very happy with it and it is eminently drinkable by all but the hardcore I don't like smoked beer brigade.

Seeing Red (pictured above) has come out nicely in the keg, though it is still pretty young having only been tapped a few days ago and will likely mature over the next week or so. Even still it is far better than when I did a one week taste test. The aroma is pure dark chocolate, little roast coffee and a little bit of citrus sneaks through. The same goes for the taste and there is a nice citrus like finish. It actually reminds me of the finish you get from eating a bar of 80% cocoa dark chocolate. I am currently enjoying it from the keg and it is too cold to get a good feel for subtlety but its very refreshing and is a good quaffer.
I don't think this is anywhere near as malty as Clotworthy Dobbin which was the direction I was aiming for but it is good enough for a first attempt while not trying to be a Clotworthy Dobbin clone.

So there we are, for those wondering how my latest beers were going you have your answer. Both will be tasted at the next Irish Craft Brewer meeting in April.

*This paragraph may contain sarcasm and /or lies.

I love this time of year for beer

This is the time of the year where the weather starts getting warmer, the days longer and not only do a number of new beers come out in Ireland but also some beer festivals kick off.
It started with The Porterhouse Irish beer festival, well festival is not the right word I think. Maybe a celebration week where the Porterhouse chain brings in a number of Irish beers on tap or bottle and promotes them. Actually it is also an Irish whiskey festival but new Irish whiskies are very rare.

This year I have been unable to take advantage of the beer festival. I did get to go to the porterhouse on Saturday. I was there for another reason though. I met an American couple who had contacted me via my blog and talked to them about Irish beer. I did get to try a few new beers though, I just was not in blogging mode as I was too busy talking and eating the good food the Porterhouse serves.

I had the White Gypsy Bruinette which I enjoyed quite a lot. The carbonation is quite low which I found a nice touch. It is an Irish Red style and had a nice malty base along with some chocolate and dry roasted grains. My American companion had a taste and he had never tasted anything like it. Irish Red is a well known beer style in the US but they tend not to be based on real beers in Ireland no matter what they claim. Killians springs to mind.

Carlow has a new IPA out which I thought was fantastic. Not quite like their goods store cask IPA but an absolutely fantastic pint. The typical American style IPA notes are there with grapefruit/citrus ever present, though not so much in the aroma.

I had myself a Wrasslers then just because I could and while still lovely, I found there was something a little different to the way I remember it on tap and I could not put my finger on it. It was almost as if there was fish oil in it or something and a little less roasty? I might have been imagining it.

Afterwards we moved to the Bull and Castle and I had Carlow's Easter stout on cask and I was in love. Rich dark chocolate was pretty in your face. It's like having some 80% Cocoa dark chocolate after being used to 40%. It was so good I had a second and possibly a third? I can't remember but it went down well with the Americans as well as did the Clotworthy Dobbin I suggested and even more so the Porterhouse Brainblaista in the bottle.

Sorry for the lack of pictures and descriptions but Saturday was about enjoying myself rather than taking notes and pictures to blog about beer.

I will try and do better this weekend when I head to Cork for the Franciscan Well Easter Festival. I missed last years so I made sure to be around this time.

For further info on some of the other new beers around, and a much better blog post be sure to check out the report from The Beer Nut.

Barleywine face off Scotland V USA (sort of).

For some reason the pictures I took last night of the two beers are not on the camera so I had to take a picture just now of the two bottles.
From the USA I have a bottle of Anchor Old Foghorn which was thrown in for free with some beer by the good folks at drinkstore. I will be going to San Francisco in June so plan on visiting the brewery then, even though I would not be the biggest fan of many of their beers. I like Anchor just fine, I just tend to find them a little boring and usually overcarbonated. The carbonation issue was evident even in this Barleywine. On the nose was a rich malty aroma packed with vanilla, sweet caramel and alcohol. With the first mouthful I was hit by a strong alcohol burning before noticing a creamy texture and a slightly sour finish. Plenty of dried fruit packed in. It was lovely and I enjoyed it immensely but I just felt it was too fizzy.
At least Anchor are consistent in their mission to overcarbonate every beer I have ever had from them. It is a shame because apart from the over carbonation I quite enjoy some of the beers.


I have had the 16 year old Ola Dubh before and this time it was its younger brother the 12 year old's turn. Yes I know what you are thinking, this is not actually a Barleywine but on old ale? Well lacking another Barleywine to try, this is close enough. Besides I would love for someone to tell me a difference between the two styles because as far as I can tell they are the same thing.
The aroma is woody, dark malts and smoke. The taste starts off sour and then the wood and smoke come marching along sporting vanilla and a very evident dark chocolate finish. Lovely stuff.
I can only go from memory but I remember the 16 year old being thicker than this one as it is quite thin for looking like engine oil. The 12 year old seems to have more smoke character though which is interesting.

Out of the two I enjoyed Ola Dubh the most so Scotland wins.

Anyway I am off to get ready. I am going in to Dublin to meet up with a couple who contacted me through this blog. They are from the US and want to know about Irish craft beer. Then I will hop on a train to Enniscorthy* (wexford) and stay the night at my dads place. I doubt I will find any good pubs serving craft beer there but I will take a look while I am there.

* Some beer nerds might recognise the name Enniscorthy as being the home of the old Letts Brewery where a beer was once supposedly brewed and the recipe is now used to make Killians Irish red, an abomination of a beer which is like Coors with red dye in it.

Breconshire brewery

Well since I was disappointed by yesterdays Breconshire beer I was hoping to be more impressed with the other two and I was more impressed, just not very impressed over all. Perhaps there is something I am simply not getting? I tried the Cribyn first and I decided I liked it. There was no head at all and it smelled malty, earthy and a little floral. It tasted similar to Golden Valley, so a little lager like but it was far more bitter. I thought this was an excellent session beer. Not complicated or even very interesting but a good beer to have a few of on a night out.


Being a lover of stouts I was looking forward to this. Called Night Beacon, the first thing I noticed was how dark it is. I also noticed that the head was non existent unless you can call a thin film of froth around the edge of the glass a head. It smells of roast coffee and something else which becomes clear when tasting it. Clearly there is going to be a roast coffee taste from the grains used and perhaps a little liquorice but there was something else in the finish which reminded me of cardboard. Yes cardboard, like you would get in a homebrew kit. It was not cardboard of course, it was a slightly smoked taste but to my senses it reminded me of cardboard for whatever reason. I enjoyed it but not to the point where I would pick it over many of the other stouts on the market.

So three beers from this Welsh brewery and I guess they are not to my taste but don't take my word for it and try them yourself. Their website boasts a number of awards their beers have received so the fact I was not personally impressed does not mean they are not great beers.

A Welsh Wannabe lager

While at drinkstore a few weeks ago I picked up three beers from The Breconshire brewery in Wales. The first of the three I finally tried tonight. It is called Golden Valley and you absolutely have to say it in a Welsh accent as it must be the point of this beer. The first thing I have to emphasise here is that this is in fact an ale. I had a hard time believing that when I tasted it but it certainly is an ale. It pours a golden clear colour until the yeast at the bottom of the bottle gets in but I love a yeasty beer so in it went. The head was massive and frothy.
It smelled of, well not much really. It reminds me of the smell of a lager like Carlsberg or any of the others with a good malt base. It tasted pretty much like a flat lager. It was quite malty and had a nice bitter finish and was also quite metallic. I had this at room temperature which I think was a mistake because just like a lager, this should probably be served cold and preferably with some curry.

I do have two more beers to try and I am optimistic that they will be better. I am not saying Golden Valley is a bad beer, on the contrary it is a very good beer and quite tasty. It just seems to be trying to taste like a good lager and I don't see the point other than as a stepping stone for lager drinkers to become ale drinkers.

Dogfish Head - A small Shark with a big bite

Having grabbed 4 bottles of Dogfish head beer from drinkstore I proceeded to drink them over the St Patricks day week. I have had the 60 minute before but never blogged about it for whatever reason. I kept that till last so more on that later. The first one up was the 90 minute IPA which was a Sumptuous affair indeed. This imperial IPA weighs in at a respectable 9% and an IBU of 90. Even though the IBU is so high, it is not a very bitter beer because those 90 IBU's are backed up with a serious malty sweetness, dried fruit, caramel and pure heavenly appeal as well as the citrus (grapefruit) from the hops that it just fits together perfectly making it possibly the most balanced beer I have ever had. It is thick and creamy though not quite syrupy. The 9% abv is well hidden behind the hops and sweetness. I suppose that makes the beer dangerous since you will not realise how the 9% has affected you until you have had 3 and the room starts spinning.
A truly excellent beer.


Next up was the Palo Santo Marron which gets its name from the massive 10,000 Gallon Wooden barrel made from Palo Santo wood from Paraguay that they use to brew it. This beer is actually 12% and has an IBU rating of 50 which should be quite bitter but is not. On the nose I got caramel, wood, vanilla and prunes. The taste started off with a bit of wow then moved on to a creamy syrupy, woody, alcoholic (muted) caramel monster that had a little spice, moving to a little dryness, liquorice and a slightly sour finish. It was a memorising beer and one that I enjoyed for well over an hour.


I remember some of my French from school so when I read the next beer was called Raison D'être I was able to tell immediately that this translated to Reason to be or Reason for being. A tall order for a beer I would imagine. Clearly they are going for a Belgian feel here as it smells Belgian and has a huge foamy head. On tasting I found it thick and creamy with dried fruit, dark chocolate and some roasted grains. It reminded me of a malty Irish Red ale with Belgian spice (from the yeast). An interesting beer though not one I was overly excited about but that is down to Geography as I have been to Belgium and with Ireland being in Europe it makes it easy enough to get excellent Belgian beers. So American takes on Belgian beers tend to be lacking but then again, this was also better than a lot of real Belgian beers I have had in the past.

Sadly the last of the Dogfish Head beers was the 60 minute IPA. I am sure I have had it at one point but I can not remember for sure and I certainly never wrote about it. Like its big brother it is continuously hopped during the boil. Unlike the 90 minute IPA, this one is only 6% and 60 IBU but those are still figures to make this beer worthy of some respect as 6% is nothing to take too lightly. On the nose I got the expected grapefruit citrusy aroma I would expect with any American style IPA but that was all I could detect.
The taste was very hoppy but not as bitter as the 60 IBU would suggest, so it was similar to the 90 minute in that respect. There was a lot of citrus and it was quite dry but some sweetness to balance it out. This was no where near as balanced or impressive as the 90 minute but it was a good solid IPA but nothing to get excited about.


And lastly I did my 1 week taste test of Seeing Red and so far so good. It has the chocolate malt and caramel aroma I was going for and this translates in to the taste as well and the roast coffee is also pretty obvious. A lovely malty red ale to be sure. I look forward to this from the keg and seeing how it matures.

How to dismantle a European Sanke to make in to a Fermenter

Here is a quick guide I put together after dismantling a keg. I found an old beat up keg dumped in a ditch and figured I could recycle it. There are plenty of internet guides that tell you how to dismantle a US style sanke keg but a European keg is different and does not use a spring clip. I did find this guide but it did not show pictures of the procedure itself and I was even unsure as to what sort of basin wrench he was talking about. Also it turns out that my keg was a little different to whatever EU keg he had.

I took the pictures and did the guide after the event so there might be the odd step missed, however the important info is below and anything missed will be figured out very easily as the hard part is releasing the safety ring and everything else is just a bit of adjusting, pulling and twisting.



These are the tools you will need. A hammer, screwdriver (any kind), Pliers and a wonder bar. Note that the model of wonder bar I used is the one I linked to so is 1- 55-515. See image above for barcode and details to identify it. Now I originally went to the hardware store looking for a basin wrench with prongs like the other guide indicates but they only had the other kind with a swivel head and closing claw type grip. I figured the wonder bar would work just as well as it measured about the same width as the diameter of the opening on the keg.


This is the opening you will see on a keg. The locking mechanism needs to be turned anti clockwise and then unscrewed out. First thing to do is to take your screwdriver and push down on the metal bit in the middle to de-pressurise any gas that is in there. I advise aiming it away from you because if there is beer in there it will spray out so rather than hit you in the eye, aim it at something you do not mind getting stale beer on.


As it turns out the wonder bar was about a millimetre too big on either side and this turned out to be a good thing for getting grip. Take your hammer and hammer the wonder bar in to the corners of the grooves until it eats in. Do each side one at a time until you are able to place it straight on and hammer it down. You do not need to go far in, just until you have a grip and then turn anti clockwise. Just a point to note, this image shows the mechanism sitting in the neck but I did not screw it back in to save time so your keg will have the locking mechanism flush with the top of the neck.


Unscrew the retaining ring which exposes the rest of the keg mechanism below.


This picture I took after I had the keg dismantled to show you better. Get your pliers and pull on the metal pressure valve. At the same time you might need to push your screwdriver in to the black rubber surround to help release it. With a bit of manoeuvring and turning you will get it out in a minute or so. There is a little catch and this is what you are trying to release while pulling it out.


This is what you end up pulling out. There is a spring underneath the rubber piece so be careful in case it gets you in the eye as this will probably come out before the metal tube gets pulled out. This tube could be useful for something so keep it handy for a while as it might be useful in a future brewery project.

All in all, this was much easier than I thought once I had the right tools for the job.


This is what you end up with. A keg with an opening similar in size, though a little bigger than a glass carboy. The next part of the project is to be able to seal that up and I have two options I can think of. One is to use a large rubber bung which should work and the other is to use a carboy cap. The only problem is the carboy cap is too small to make the opening due to a lip that sticks out over the neck so I will have to use an angle grinder and take off the lip and the carboy cap should fit over the neck.

A not so lazy Saturday post

I apologise for yesterdays single word post but that was all I could say. It was good to wash down spicy food but not good for much else.
In a completely opposite direction is the next Porterhouse beer to talk about. This is their strongest beer at 7% called An Brain Blásta which is a clever play on words because that is Irish for The Tasty Drop. The clever word play is pretty obvious so does not need explaining.
This is a beer that is quite lovely cold but develops into a heavenly beer when it warms up to room temperature. It is all dried fruit and malt with a lovely citrus hop character and even some dark chocolate going on along with roast caramel. The finish is dry and leaves you longing for more.
This is better than on tap from what I can remember of it. I "think" it may be a little sweeter on tap.
Well done Porterhouse and keep up the good work.

Lazy Friday post

Meh...

Two more Porterhouse bottled beers

Oyster Stout is a beer I enjoy on tap, though not as much as Wrasslers and so I tend to order a Wrasslers instead. In bottle format it is quite lovely an better than plain in my opinion, or at least I prefer it to plain but that does not necessarily make it better. This is a good solid mild stout, less bitter and a little sweeter than many. The Oysters seem to impart an almost lemony flavour which is quite refreshing.


Porter House Red is a basic Irish Red Ale. Very little aroma, perhaps a little sweet toffee. There is also little to make it interesting to the taste buds but it is a good session ale. If I had to pick an Irish Red Ale to drink, this would be second on my list to O'Haras Red. Actually make that third as I would take the Carlow brewed Aldi version over this as well.

So far with the porterhouse beers I have had in the bottle, I think they are slightly overcarbonated. I could be imagining it of course but they seem more carbonated than on tap.

It's Wrasslers but not as we know it

I love The Porterhouse and I especially love Wrasslers XXXX which is a full stout. It is the stout your grandfather used to drink, Michael Collins drank it in the 1900's or at least that is the spiel. Well I have always loved it on tap, even if it was nitro kegged and have been waiting patiently for it to be in the line up of bottle conditioned beers that The Porterhouse has been releasing.
Following on from The Beer Nuts twitter reports that it is a different beer than the normal Wrasslers I had to rush out and buy some.
The first thing you will notice in the difference is ABV and the bottle weighs in at a hefty 5.7% as opposed to the normal 5%. Also the body seems a little thinner than on tap but that is to be expected due to the normal stuff being served using nitrogen like Guinness. In fact this seems closer to what I would expect from a cask version. I hope they release a cask version soon, I had their plain porter on cask the other day and it was lovely.

Anyway back to Bottled Wrasslers. I have to say I loved this. It is a different beer to the tap but without trying them side by side I would have trouble picking out the real differences so I can only go with the impression I got from this bottle.
The Aroma here starts off with strong chocolate, a little woody and some sweet caramel.
The taste is pure burnt coffee, dark chocolate and pure "yum".
There is one thing I noticed, I "think" it was a little overcarbonated. Certainly on first opening it was a little fizzy but it died down as the beer warmed up.

One other thing I noticed is that the bottle I have was labeled for the USA. It had all the state by state refunds I am used to (Michigan .10c refund). I wonder was this exported to the US and the imported back to Ireland? If so that makes the carbon footprint of this bottle of beer crazy.

After the Wrasslers I popped open a bottle of Plain Porter to compare and it does not hold a candle to the Wrasslers to my taste.
I have their bottled BrainBlasta, Red, Oyster Stout and Hop Head to talk about next time.

Fraoch 20th anniversary ale

I have had the normal Fraoch beer before and rather like it so I was happy to come across the forgotten bottle of the anniversary ale on my wine rack. This is very unlike the ordinary stuff, it is like a Belgian Tripel in some ways but unlike a Tripel in most. For a start it weighs in at 11% abv. Secondly, and most importantly is that it is matured in Whisky/Sherry (Scottish) casks.

It starts off with a strong whiskey, vanilla and toffee aroma.
In the mouth it it burns, the alcohol is quite evident and you could almost be forgiven for thinking you are drinking a whiskey. Interestingly there is a woody sourness to this that I rather enjoyed as well as an interesting bitterness.
Perhaps the most interesting thing I was reminded of was a finish reminiscent of pancakes, or more specifically pancakes covered in my secret syrup. Well my secret syrup is nothing more than cream, heated up and brown sugar added till it caramelises. Best pancake sauce on the planet but that is the finish I was reminded of.

A lovely beer and my wife surprisingly enjoyed it as well.