Never Give Up

Regular visitors will have noticed that I haven't updated recently.
Why?
Disillusionment.
Yup.
I became disillusioned.
I guess every revolutionary becomes downheartened. The truth is that most revolutionarys fail. Most revolutions fail.
But some don't, that is, if the revolutionarys don't give up.

So onward all ye faithful. Onward to the paradise where every bar sells good quality, locally made regional beer on draught and some bit of a selection of classic beers in bottles. Onward to a place where good beer is held in the same regard as good wine. Onward to a time when licensing laws allows the sale of beer wherever wine is sold. Onward to a culture that can drink strong beer in moderation. Onward to a society where all the publicans have vision and imagination and do not control the actions of our government. Onward to when almost all the breweries in the world aren't owned by three multinational companies. Onward to a climate of diversity in beer, when pale yellow, fizzy lager will not be every county's mainstay brew. Onward to when hotels sell quality beer (imagine that!), to when restaurants treat beer menus like wine lists, to a time when the quality of beer served at social occasions matches the quality of the food, wine and spirits. Equality for beer! Honour for beer! Respect for beer!

I need an anthem (replies on an ecard, please)

So, after that revolutionary call that has my blood pumping and my spirits up and given me a future to strive for, I reckon, I can explain my downtrodden feeling of before.

It's very easy to live in a bubble:
I always have a source of good beer from The Abbots Ale House, Cork. I usually only drink in pubs that stock good beer (The Bierhaus, Sin É, The Mutton, The Oval, Cane Lane). Most of my friends have, to varying degrees, a preference for drinking good beer rather than industrial lager. I talk on the internet about beer with beery people. I know people in the industry. I seek out beer when I travel abroad.
I can live, most of the time, in a world where it doesn't matter to me that the vast majority of pubs sell only mainstream beer, supermarkets sell frighteningly large amounts of frighteningly discounted lager, and wealthy people drink fabulously expensive wine and spirits but cans of cheap beer. I can convince myself that it doesn't matter to me. People can do as they wish - I'm all for choice.


But some of the time it does matter to me.
It matters to me when I go to a concert and want a beer. It matters to me when I go to a wedding and want a beer. It matters to me when I stay in a hotel and want a beer. It matters to me when I go to a restaurant and want a beer, when I meet a friend in a regular bar.

I have a friend who drinks vodka and diet coke and pretty much nothing else. Apart from the expense of such drinking habits, I envy him. He can have his drink of choice, pretty well presented, in any bar almost anywhere. The same goes for a Heineken drinker (albiet to a lesser degree due to freshness of keg and flow on line etc.).

The obvious answer is for me to drink vodka and coke or Heineken or Guinness or move to Belgium or Germany but I'm not being difficult when I say that I don't like any of the above drinks. I really don't. I could drink gin and tonic or Bushmills or something but when I go to the pub I happen to like drinking beer - not wine (I love wine with food) or spirits or sweet shots or anything else.

The huge vastness of lack of choice available, outside of my little bubble, got me down, almost made me give up hope.

I analysed my choices.

a. Drink Heineken or Guinness in bars.
b. Drink whiskey or gin in bars.
c. Stop going to bars.
d. Drink water in bars.
e. Stay inside my little beer bubble.
f. Try to keep the revolution alive and influence one person at a time in the hope of encouraging some real choice in the market.

I decided on f. with strategic use of d. at times.

The Beer Revolution is reborn (until it gets tired again)

P.S. This post was more about me than I normally like this blog to be. Forgive my introspective indulgence, please.

My last drink was; Green Spot Irish Whiskey, 40%abv, a small one

Let's Take Over The World

Lest anyone though from my last post that I was loosing the run of myself and becoming a celebrator rather than a complainer, fear not. I have a bee in my bonnet and I want to let it out.

My gripe is with huge industrial breweries who, not content with a massive market share, seem to want to control all the beer in the world without consideration for anyone who may suffer in the process. In this instance, I'm talking about the Dutch Giant Heineken and their drive to sell Paulaner in Ireland.

Anyone who knows me will know that, when out, I like nothing more than a nice cold Weissbier. I have written about such things. The first Weissbier commonly available in Ireland was Erdinger. A small company called Noreast Beers started importing it and distributing it about 10 or 12 years ago. Erdinger was the first Weissbier that may Irish people tasted. Over the years, through dogged persistence, Noreast Beers fostered a taste for and created a market for Weissbier in Ireland. It is no mean feat for a small company to successfully introduce a new beer style into a competitive market. And while I personally find Erdinger rather bland, I admire what Noreast have done with it in the Irish market and will, if stuck, willingly drink it. I am, on the other hand, very partial to their Dunkel (a dark weissbier).

It seems Heineken weren't happy with their massive share in the Irish beer market. Big breweries buy littler breweries - that's what they do. Heineken own scores of brands across the world. In Ireland they have: Heieken, Amstel, Coors Lite, and Murphy's and , not to be out done in the specialist markets they now push Heineken owned brands Affligem (Belgian Abbey style beer), Zyweic (popular Polish lager), Sol (tasteless Corona type lager) and Moretti (Italian Lager) in Ireland too.

Now they've gone after Erdinger in the Irish market with their Munich weissbier Paulaner. Now, Erdinger is no small little company but they seem to have put very little effort into the Irish market, leaving all the hard work and marketing to its importers and distributors - Noreast Beers. Heineken seem intent on capitalising on the decade or so of grooming that has been done by Noreast and blowing Erdinger out of the water with deep pockets. They are throwing everything at getting Paulaner to stick in the Irish market: promotions giving away free pints, sponsoring bars at events and making publicans offers they can't refuse to take out Erdinger. Heineken can afford this and, no doubt, will persist at this until Erdinger is squashed out and Noreast Beers are out of business.

My first encounter with Paulaner was about a year ago in The Oval Bar in Cork. A promotions person offered me a free pint of draught Paulaner. Who was I to refuse? It was awful. Like soggy bread. Didn't even finish it. I've since had bottled Paulaner and while hardly a classic of the style, it is very drinkable. I've tasted the draught on two other occasions and one was awful, the other fine. There seems to be a serious consistency issue with the draught product.

More recently I, like many other people, became a victim of their attempted world dominance while visiting The Spigieltent during The Cork Midsummer Festival. There was a Paulaner bar. Available were: draught Paulaner, bottled Paulaner, Sol, Murphy's and wine. Heineken are so serious about Paulaner that they didn't even sell Heineken in their own bar! Faced with that choice, I drank Paulaner. I felt terrible the next day!

Some days later, finding myself in The Spigieltent again, in the interest of research, I drank Paulaner again. Oh no, not again! Yes. Again! Awful headache the next day. Now, good beer does not do that to me. I can drink a moderate amount of Weihenstephaner, Schneiderweiss, Erdinger or any good beer like Galway Hooker and not suffer the next day but not so with Paulaner. I met friends who were with me in The Spigieltent who declared that they "would never drink Paulaner again" for the same reasons. This is not a good thing. I can't say why Paulaner has this effect on me and others but the outcome is that I will not drink it again and cannot recommend it to anyone else.

There is a delicious irony here. Left to my own devices, I probably would have drunk one or two bottles of Paulaner on the odd occasion and been quite indifferent to it. However, due to their expensive push on the product, I got to taste how bad the draught can be and only because of lack of choice due to their exclusive bar arrangement, I discovered the adverse effect of drinking more than two of them has. If they hadn't forced on me I wouldn't have formulated the opinion of how bad it is.

So, what weissbiers would I recommend? I really like Weihenstephaner (especially their rather light coloured dunkel) and Schneiderweiss. Franziskaner is a good beer and Erdinger is not a bad beer at all (some of us are just rather tired of it). And do try, and ask for - because they are available - the dunkel versions of these beers.

The Beer Revolution wants diversity not dominance.

My last drink was; Whihenstephaner Heffeweissbier Dunkel, 50cl, 5.3%abv

Pride of Galway

I know that I complain... a lot. But if people were always content then there'd be no need for revolutions and no one is going to convince me that Ireland isn't in need of a beer revolution. I'm obviously not alone.

If every body was happy drinking mass produced, tasteless lager and industrial, nitrogenated, bland stout then we wouldn't have microbreweries and beer specialist pubs. We do have the above, just not enough of them.

Enough complaining. Today I want to celebrate. I want to celebrate the beer that is Galway Hooker Irish Pale Ale.

I've always liked Galway hookers - the sailing boats. They are traditional, big, elegant, swift and take dedication and skill to maintain and sail. Not withstanding all the fun to be had with double entendres (and Galway Hooker brewery use this to the max!), it is an aptly named beer.

Galway Hooker has been around since the summer of 2006. I have tried it many times and have always liked it. It is hoppy, crisply bitter, well balanced and full flavoured. However, recently I had a pint of it in The Bierhaus, Cork and just had to have another. Whether they've honed the recipe or it was a particularly fresh keg (not that it's had freshness issues in the past) or I've just acquired a stronger fondness for the beer, I don't know but those couple of pints put Galway Hooker high on my beer list.

This is a draught beer that while full flavoured enough to appeal to beer heads, it is accessible enough to be in ever bar in Ireland. It is pale in colour, it has carbonation and is not too high in alcohol (4.4%abv). Irish people have conservative tastes in beer but this is a clever beer. Sure, it's too hoppy for some people but it's not a dark, strong, flat warm scary beer either. And it's Irish made and owned.

So where is it? Well, Galway have taken to their own. No less than 19 pubs in Galway have G.H. taps. Now, that's great to see. I just hope the punters are as supportive as the Galway publicans. Dublin has a fair 6 taps and Cork, Tipperary, Leitrim, Sligo and Limerick have one each (shame on Cork and Limerick). A full list of pubs is here.

Yes, it's great that Galway and Dublin are supporting their efforts but it must cost G.H. to be traipsing about the country to deliver to six locations, bearing in mind that with the best will in the world from the publicans, it is still a minority beer. But these guys seem to believe in the organic growth in the popularity of their beer. It's a long haul but if the decisions were left to the accountants, we'd have no G.H. outside of Galway and Dublin. This company is clearly run by people with a belief in and a passion for their beer. Let's hope that the future will see sustainable growth for the beer across the country and show that passion can make profit.

I'm not alone in my love for G.H. The McKennas, in their Bridgestone Irish Food Guide, have sung its praises, bluntly calling it the best new Irish drink. The Irish Craft Brewer site love this beer and have written about it here and here and voted it Best Beer 2007 at the Fransciscan Well Bierfest and more reviews can be viewed here.

At a time when we import more and more of our beer (by necessity, unfortunately if we want quality), Galway Hooker is Irish brewed. It is brewed without the use of chemical additives in a sustainable way. It is essentially hand made. This is a modern craft beer for a modern Ireland. It has funky marketing and can't miss counter taps. It is a quality product from a young, fun company. We should support it.

Ask your bar for Galway Hooker.
And keep asking - I will.
A simple search will find them online.

My last drink was; Glass Rustenburg, Stellenbosch, John x Merriman, 2005, 14.5%anv

It's been a long time coming - Finland Pt. 3

For anyone who hasn't forgotten and may have some interest; here's the final instalment of my Finnish story.

Pt. 1 here
Pt. 2 here

Part 2 (here) Finnished (gedit?) with our intrepid hero and friends turned away from the microbrewery. On our wanderings we had noticed what looked like a promising pub, despite the Guinness sign outside - I've always been suspicious of pubs that aren't bogged down by a culture of draught, notro, cold Guinness drinking that nonetheless choose to serve it and make a feature of it.

This pub was called Olutravintola Sillansuu. (Details here - in Finnish.) Upon entering, the first sight to hit me was some high up shelves directly across from the door proudly displaying, maybe, about thirty world bottled beers with labels clearly stating their origin, price, style and strength. Oh, the unexpected joy! Beer, lovely, varied, visible beer. And what's this? Could it be a barman with interest in and knowledge of beer? Yes it seems to be.

Now it may seem like an obvious thing to do to clearly display your beer selection and some basic information about them but it is a practice sadly lacking in many beer bars in Ireland. I've spent so much time peering over the counter of Irish bars, I fear my body will permanently take on that stooped shape. A large, clearly visible, well written blackboard is also a good way of getting the information across.

This bar had an admirable selection; there was a strong emphasis on Belgian - and not just the usual suspects (Gulden Carolus Classic caught my attention), British and German beers with a smattering of Finnish and other world beers. Alas, I didn't make a list and the webpage doesn't appear to have one either - anyway I don't like making lists on my blog, it doesn't make for good reading. I also suspect that the selection changes on an ongoing basis.

The quiet downstairs bar looked inviting. Overwhelming, more like!! I was, for once, left speechless by the amount of beers displayed in floor to ceiling, glass cabinets lining every wall. I've never seen so many beers in one place - and mostly full. They have a thing that if you bring a beer that they don't have, you get a free beer. Maybe a gimmick but it kept me somewhat distracted for the night. An amazing collection of contemporary and historic bottles.

So, being in Finland, first up was Kukko Dark Lager (4.3%) for me and Kukko Porter (6.5%) for my willing tasting partner. Damn, should have taken the porter which did all that a coffee, chocolate, strong imperial porter should - the dark(ish) lager being rather unremarkable.

Oh oh, this is turning into a list/beer review. Mmmm. Okay very quickly....Weltenburger Kloster Barock Dunkel (4.7%) was had, so was Lia Fail (4.7%) Scottish dark(ish) ale - all very nice but not too memorable. But what did stand out in a big way for me was Ivanhoe Very English Pale Ale (5.2%). Wow! a complex, fruity, big, balanced pale ale which I believe to be English brewed for the Scandinavian market. Lucky Scandys!!

This pub had an odd pricing policy on 75cl bottles. Although just a little over twice the size of a 33cl, they charged a little over three times as much as for a similar strength and quality 33cl bottle. Strange. Their speciality beers were priced much the same or maybe a little less than an Irish beer bar.

When it came to chucking out time, these guys politely do not mess around. Two minutes after the light flash, beer was not to be had. And three minutes after we were informed that the bar must be cleared in three minutes, we were outside, slightly bemused. They stuck to their habit of having the bar cleared on time and we stuck to our habit of staying until the very last minute. All quite agreeable really.

Oh, and they served food too but as we had been driven to a dodgy kebab by the microbrewery (see Finland pt 2), I never thought to check out what it was they were serving

My time there saw me in two other bars. What's the general story? A lot of generic lager. A lot of Lapin Kulta. A lot of Czech lager and some Estonian lager. But what pleased me was that every bar seemed to have some Czech dark lager - mostly Kozel. If every bar in Ireland had such a thing, I'd be a little happier.

They also, like their Scandinavian neigbours, drink lots of fruit "cider", Koppaberg and Rekorderlig being omnipresent as well as some English made, Scandinavian market cider. Oh and sweet, salty, strangely nice, black, vodka shots! Salmiakki!! And they also have what may be the original alcopop - a grapefruit and gin based drink called 'Gin' which was developed for the 1952 Olympics and stayed around getting Finns inadvertently smashed and giving them terrible hangovers ever since.

To finally wrap up this much longer than intended Finnish entry, I must tell you about a new use for beer that I learned. Now, this might sound horrible but trust me on this - it works. While having a leisurely afternoon after sauna, our host suddenly get excited about something (no, not in that way!). A can of beer is produced, a little is mixed with water and the mix thrown on the hot coals. We were gently enveloped in a steamy, malty, bready, beery cloud. Honest, it was really nice. My non beer drinking wife even liked it! It's not unlike the smell you get from breweries when they're boiling the wort.

The Sauna


Now, I'm off to find some more uses for beer.

My last drink was; Schneiderweiss/Brooklyner Hopfenweiss, 50cl, 8.2%abv