Franciscan Well - Cork (part one)

I headed down to Cork on Wednesday night to stay with some friends in Bandon. The main (only) thing on my to do list was a visit to the Franciscan Well. If you are not familiar with it, It's a Brewpub which means they brew their own beer on site. I walked in with my friend and ordered a sample platter. I also looked at the menu and liked the sound of the Purgatory Pale Ale so asked for a pint of that (even though its on the sample plate). My friends idea of a beer is a can of Tuborg or a Coors light so I had to educate him. Im going to leave the Purgatory till last as it was my favourite. If you look at the sample plate, I started with the closest one to the right and worked my way around anti clockwise.

First up was the Rebel Lager, It went down smooth and had a slight creamy taste to it. As Lagers go, this was a very nice one but Lagers do nothing for me so I passed it to Dave as I knew he would like it and he certainly did. He ordered a pint of it.

Next came the Purgatory... yum but I will write about that later.

Then came the Rebel Red (at the back) which is probably the most well known beer they do. This was lovely stuff. Kilkenny on steroids... And with some taste as well. I liked this a lot, the only other "red" I can compare it to is O' Haras Red. I think I would need to have more of the Rebel Red to know for certain though. My original plan was to eat food and have a pint of each beer but it became apparent when I walked in that they do not serve food. If they had, I would have sat for hours sampling the beer properly. I will get some Rebel Red next time I am at the Bull and Castle.

Next came the Blarney Blonde. As you may have guessed, I am not a fan of Blonde beers as they usually have a very sweet & fruity undertone which I do not like. This however had no such thing. Delicate is the best word I can use to describe it, almost like a light wine. There were some Citrus notes but there was very little about this beer to keep me interested so I passed it to Dave and as I suspected, he thought it was lovely.

The last beer on the plate (with one more not on the plate) was the Friar Weisse. This was a pretty nice wheat beer, lighter than most I have had but very drinkable. I gave it to Dave and told him to take a sniff and he eventually realised he could smell the banana.