A Trip to Western Herd (and Some Lovely Horses)

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The Ladies Craft Beer Society weekend fun didn’t end in Limerick, though it’s fair to say we could have all used more sleep. We were rejuvenated by a trip to the Milk Market and its great variety of food options; it deserves especially high marks for the selection of cheeses as well as baked goods, and I managed to pick up some outstanding tea. We took a quick swing past the castle, and then made our way to Ennis.

Once we had dropped off cars and bags, we hopped in taxis to visit Western Herd Brewery. The journey along narrow, winding rural Irish roads was as advertised – brewer Bridger Kelleher warned us in advance that the when we felt like surely we were lost, it would mean we were nearly there, and he was entirely correct. Western Herd is based in a small converted shed, and Bridger is a one-man brewing operation (just in case you were wondering why it was so hard to get your hands on Flora & Fauna earlier in the year – more on that in a moment). Despite being a solo operator, he made time to set up a fantastic sensory exercise for us: we got to match up different hops and malts to their ‘real world’ counterparts, for example, matching different hop varieties to pineapple or mango, or malts to coffee, chocolate and so This activity was aided by ready access to fresh Loop Head Pilsner. We had the standard look at the brewhouse – soon to be expanded, which was exciting news – and our water expert Chelsea got a good look at the well and water conditioning system, which she praised highly.

Flora and FaunaWe learned a lot about Western Herd’s process and some of the upcoming plans, and a big ‘oh, wow’ moment for me was learning that the cans for their year-round beers (e.g. Siege, the Father Ted-themed Blue Jumper, Cliff Road) all show a different relevant part of the County Clare coastline – I had never noticed! We headed back to Ennis and regrouped at McHugh’s Bar, where we chatted with Maeve Sheridan, one of Western Herd’s co-founders and owner of the bar in question, which showcases the company’s beers and delicious food. We were fortunate enough to time our trip with a fresh batch of Flora & Fauna on tap. I had not managed to get a can of the much-desired DIPA when it was previously released, so it was quite exciting to see it available, and in sensibly-sized glasses. I wouldn’t normally start the evening with the strongest beer on offer, but it was lovely to try it with a fresh palate. The other beers were in perfect condition, too, and paired well with the small plates and the excellent halloumi burger. The pub interior is also lovely – alas, we were only sitting outside (sometimes in the rain, though it was well-managed with a tent), but I hope to make a return visit.

That's mad, TedFinally, before heading back to Dublin, our car (thanks, Katie, for driving, and for being our local expert) did some touristy things – we did a bit of hiking, looked at the landscape in the Burren, visited the Poulnabrone dolmen (used my archaeology degrees – check!) and, naturally, made our way past Father Ted’s house, which had some lovely horses in the front garden. Yes, I just did that, but it’s not my fault – too excited about the just-announced Divine Comedy tour next year.

We had such a pleasant time away we entirely forgot to record a trailer for the Beer Ladies Podcast Season 2 – but, lucky for you, we’ve managed to get it live now. Join us for the journey!

We Went to Limerick! Crew Brewing Company

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Crew Brewing CompanyYes, it’s true – we managed to get together for what looks like an annual Ladies Craft Beer Society of Ireland* long weekend Outside Dublin. We split up into two groups and made our respective ways to Limerick via car; while it’s theoretically possible to get to many places in Ireland via public transit, we had some less-accessible exploration on tap (har) as part of the plan (though for more shared grumbling on that, do follow Daily Downfall of Irish Railways on Twitter).
 

As only the more seasoned members of our little group like myself were fully vaccinated (though, fortunately, even the Younger Folk soon will be), we aimed for outdoor options as often as possible. And the Irish weather made sure that outdoor pints were something of a contact sport for our first evening, with absolutely lashing rain, but we came prepared with solid rain gear. And we could not have been better accommodated on both the tent and hospitality front by the great team at Crew Brewing Company.

 
Crew is perhaps the closest I’ve found in Ireland to a North American-style microbrewery taproom, both in terms of outstanding beer and setup, with everything being brewed on-site and an ever-changing lineup, including great guest taps from other local independent breweries. They are actively inclusive, with a much-appreciated ‘no racists, no sexists, no fascists’ sign prominently displayed. Apparently one person did see himself out after coming across it when they first opened, so no loss there. And the similarity to US and Canadian taprooms is likely no surprise – several of the team, including Emma, who was our guide throughout the evening, have worked in beer and bars in Canada, and they’ve brought some of the best methods and practices back with them.
 
So, on to the beer – and it was all absolutely top-class. Crew’s Fruited Berliner Weisse put me in mind of my late-lamented old favourite from Philly, Nodding Head’s Ich Bin Ein Berliner Weisse, but rather than the traditional woodruff syrup, the ‘plain’ Berliner Weisse could be enhanced with fresh strawberry, mango, peach or blueberry puree, and you could also mix those flavours for even more options (looking at you, gorgeous kiwi-strawberry, and thanks, Emma, for suggesting it). Size options meant that it was possible to sample a fair few beers without getting too silly, and pizza delivered from a neighbouring shop helped with that as well.
 
Sticking with sours, the Lemon Verbena and Raspberry Goes was also well-balanced and refreshing, but I also have high praise for the IPA, which was a perfectly ‘normal’ west-coast style IPA (as we need to be specific nowadays on these matters), and, once again, just a lovely example – I wish I could get it locally, but alas, it’s only available in and around Limerick.
 
We did also venture over to Mother Mac’s, once again, outside, though it certainly merits a longer follow-up visit to better explore their variety of local beers and whiskeys – next time!
 
All told, we packed a lot into our first night away, but we had more adventures to come, when we headed to Western Herd Brewery, and got to try more of their beers on tap at McHugh’s Bar in Ennis – and, in our next instalment, the weather cooperates a bit more
 

* For clarity, while there is considerable overlap with the Beer Ladies Podcast (back soon!), they are technically separate entities. We meant to record a new season trailer while out and about but, er, forgot.

We Left Dublin!

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Well, for a long weekend, that is. We had planned a trip to Cork last year, but it had to be cancelled when the second lockdown began, so it was very much an overdue visit. For those keeping score at home, we moved to Dublin in February of 2020, and, of course, Things Happened, so those expected short jaunts across Europe and trips back to visit family in the US never happened; we’ve only managed to leave Dublin once before as a family, with a trip to Kilkenny during the Lockdown Interregnum. In short, we haven’t had the opportunity to explore much of Ireland since arriving here, especially as many places are not accessible via public transit, though that’s another story, so it was *very* exciting to be back on a train (I LOVE TRAINS).
 
For those outside Ireland, we are still very much a masked society (I shudder to think how many recently-formed emo-jazz-baroque combos have called themselves Mask’d Society), so there was nothing especially unusual about masking up for the bus and train or shops, though for the adults in my group, our fully-vaccinated status now means we can drink and dine indoors in some places, which is, to say the least, both rather exciting and a bit worrying. In theory, we can bring the offspring in to many places for dining, but we’re not up for that yet, so it meant we aimed to book as much outdoor-but-sheltered dining in Cork as possible – and, as it turns out, Cork has done a great job of closing streets for outdoor food and drink, with well-secured tents and awnings, in a way that has not happened on the same scale in Dublin (or, perhaps more accurately, in as concentrated a way in the city centre – maybe?). And while we only had relatively brief time periods of more torrential rain, there was, unsurprisingly, plenty of wind, so some form of cover was key.
 
Traveling with kids during a pandemic – even low-key, local travel – is an odd mix of booking ahead and leaving things as flexible as possible; it’s a guessing game in terms of what will and won’t be open, what needs to be planned well in advance and what can be done more spontaneously (and who is going to be unreasonably grumpy). This isn’t a complaint, as we are very fortunate to be fully vaccinated, and to have at least one child halfway there, with one jab done – the other isn’t yet old enough – and to take the break from work during a less-busy time, but it does mean it’s wise to not get too wrapped up in any particular sight or activity as a must-do (looking at you, swimming).
 
The Journey
Although we’re out of practice at getting people out the door, we had no issues here; the train trip was made even more pleasant by scoring a copy of Chat: It’s Fate! in the station; clearly, it was meant to be. In a nice bit of synergy, my copy of Take a Break: Fate & Fortune arrived at my home when we got back. Written in the stars, no doubt.
 
The Hotel
We stayed at the Clayton Hotel Cork City, which proved to be very handy. The hotel choice was driven by 1) walkability and 2) an indoor pool, as the smaller child was absolutely set on getting to swim. The hotel did a great job of social distancing, keeping things clean and airing out rooms, and people all wore masks in most of the public areas. It was a little tricky to book pool slots – they were all gone by the time we arrived – but they had a good system to call down to see if there was space from no-shows, etc. – and we managed to find space more often than not. I had no trouble getting into the gym, and being back in a hotel gym for the first time since March of 2020 was – for a weirdo like me – thrilling, even if it meant working out in a mask.
 
The Food
We did the must-do tourist thing and hit the English Market on a weekday, and it was still fairly crowded, though not uncomfortably so. Unsurprisingly, hipster popsicles were among the top discoveries there (I mean, we knew there was CHEESE), though we kept returning to Swoon for dessert milkshakes (yogurtshakes?) outside the market. We had our first dinner in Cork at Goldberg’s, where they have set up a gorgeous indoor-but-outdoor courtyard, and the food and service were excellent. We have been told on numerous occasions that Pompeii Pizza at Franciscan Well is the best in Ireland, and I’m not sure it beats Rascals for that, but it was very good indeed, and well worth the wait. Coqbull was another dinner spot we all enjoyed, with the burger, especially, winning high marks.
 

Sitting in the liminal space between food and drink (OK, not really, but I needed a transition), we stopped in at Loose Leaf, a delightful little tea shop. We’ve ordered online from them before in an effort to buy from Irish tea shops – it’s much more difficult to find good tea than it should be in Ireland, but, like public transit, that’s another story – and had a great visit, sniffing (through masks) and buying up many, many samples.

 
The Drink
Goldberg’s had Black’s Kinsale Pale Ale on tap, so it was great to see a restaurant supporting local breweries. As mentioned, we also made it to Franciscan Well and while there was nothing especially special about their house beers, there was a nice assortment of guest beers on tap from breweries like Larkins, Lervig and Whiplash. We made the most of our digital vaccine certs and grabbed a few adults-only drinks inside at The Bierhaus, which had a phenomenal tap and bottle list – it really put us in mind of some of the best little Philly beer bars. We availed ourselves of further teenage childminding (really, having a decade gap between children makes us seem like master planners) and also enjoyed Rising Sons  who had a really nice seasonal Helles on, and The Friary, where they were kind enough to find us a spot and talk through the small-but-well-chosen taplist when they discovered we were ‘craft beer people.’ We enjoyed the lager Curious Society/Larkins brews for the Friary, and other local options included beers from Cotton Ball Brewing Company – everything was lovely.
 
The Sights
We purposefully did not aim to schedule too much sightseeing, more to avoid disappointment if we didn’t make a particular spot, but we did get to see a lot of Cork from the top of ‘Kitty,’ the Vintage Tea Trips bus. It was our third time on the Tea Bus – we’ve done their standard trip around Dublin as well as their Christmas ride – and it’s always a lot of fun. For the transit nerds out there, Kitty is an old Routemaster who has been kitted out (RIGHT?) for tea on the go, complete with an old-school soundtrack and vintage-inspired illustrations inside the bus. As ever, they offered great tea tier snacks and a friendly tour.
 
We retraced much of the bus journey and made it to the Cork City Gaol  and, later, Fitzgerald Park which has one of the most impressive playgrounds I’ve seen anywhere. The smaller child created a very fully- realised narrative framework for the various sections of the playground, so it certainly worked on every level. We were following and ticking off locations on the Playful Culture Trail, a very handy local guide to children’s activities available at a number of locations around the city. I have a special fondness for incredibly specific local museums, and so the Cork Butter Museum as very much my jam (I KNOW), even with the Kerrygold advert at the beginning. The collection is fascinating – I’m always here for bog butter – and it’s a great way to illustrate local history through the lens of a particular commodity. The only thing it’s missing is a little cafe with lashings of butter on everything, but perhaps that exists in Ordinary Time. We did, however, find Bláithín the lizard, star of the Playful Culture trail, at the Butter Museum.
 
We did not have a chance to visit Fota Wildlife Park or the Cork Public Museum but now that we know the lay of the land, we can file those away for a future trip; there is certainly much more to see. Similarly, the ghost tours did not seem to be running, and I hate to visit a city without doing its ghost tour – so, next time, I hope.
 
Finally, it wouldn’t be right to close without mentioning the public art – a city that references the Sultans of Ping FC on a utility box is doing something right. Full marks.
 

Brown Is the Colo(u)r…

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The most recent Irish Beer Snob podcast, featuring Brian from Craic Beer Community, included not just a shout-out to our little podcast (cheers, lads! – obviously, ‘lads’ is gender-neutral here – Janice is very much a part of this picture), but also a discussion about how they're Quite Serious about wanting to see more brown ales out and about in the world. I am also very much in this camp, and while I'm thrilled we have two great options here in Ireland, even more would be delightful.  I got to thinking about my favo(u)rites in this style, and came up with the following list:

Ballykilcavan Brewing Bambrick's Brown Ale - 5.8%
Happy to have this in my fridge year-round; it goes with everything and it is the perfect antidote to a session of beers that don’t always taste like ‘beer’ – you nerds all know what I mean.

Lough Gill Brewery Mac Nutty - 5.5%
You had me at macadamia nuts, but it’s also a perfectly-balanced brown ale. And speaking of macadamia nuts…

Maui Brewing Company Lahaina Town Brown - 5.1%
Hawai’ian breweries are simply great at dark beers - it's just science. Their Coconut Hiwa Porter is fantastic as well, but this limited release beer is a little bit nutty with just the right amount of roast. Obviously, I won’t be able to get it here in Ireland, but perhaps there will be travel again, some day.

Waikiki Brewing  Company English Brown Ale - 5.14%
It's so good I bought the t-shirt. I don't wear the Churchillian-dog-themed t-shirt as much now around town, but what a delightful beer – lots of notes of chocolate that made it a perfect dessert beer in the glorious Hawai’i sun.

Burke-Gilman Brewing Company LoBro London Brown - 3.6%
One of our old local breweries in Seattle - this low-ABV charmer is based on a century-old recipe with the usual necessary tweaks - it's got a lot of body and great flavo(u)r for its strength. We have a beautiful stainless steel growler from Burke-Gilman; someday, post-lockown, I’ll need to show it off to people so they. can see how different an American ‘growler’ is from its Irish counterpart.

Naked City Brewery Betsy's Mountain Brown - 5.4%
Pour one out for Naked City - we used to go here annually to take photos with (Beer) Santa, but they closed back when we still lived in Seattle. Although they regularly brewed a wide variety of styles, this was always my go-to. Ah well.

Populuxe Brewing Beer Snob Brown - 5.1%
Alas, like its semi-neighbor Naked City, Populuxe is gone forever…but this was an outstanding beer from a wonderful little brewery. I loved it and loved Populuxe – they were an underrated stop in the Ballard Brewery District (as I believe we are calling it now); very laid-back, lovely space, fun video games and pinball…but, sadly, no more.

Victory Brewing Company D-Town Brown Ale - 5.4%
Because (most) people on Untappd don't understand brown ales that aren’t adulterated with bourbon/marshmallows/etc, it gets a 'meh' rating, but it's far from a 'meh' beer - you won't get it outside the Philly area, and it's something of a rarity even at the OG Downingtown brewery, but well worth seeking out.

The Kernel Brown Ale – 5.6%
We’ve been getting beers from The Kernel for a few months now here in Ireland; I may not be able to get to London, but at least they can come to us.  If we could get some Anspach & Hobday too, this lockdown wouldn’t be so bad…and on the subject of British breweries, now that The Brewery of St Mars of the Desert has revived Jack D’Or, which I adored when it was still Pretty Things, perhaps it’s not too much to hope that St Botolph’s Town Brown Ale could also make a comeback? Pretty please? (SEE WHAT I DID THERE?)

So, there you have it - a very quick rundown of top-flight brown ales - let's have more!

 

A Little Psychogeography for Flagship February

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Flagship FebruaryCome for the pretentious title, stay for the opportunity to praise some fantastic – and thoroughly unpretentious – Irish beers.

It's our second February in Ireland, and we've now been around long enough to determine some favourite local breweries (all without leaving leaving the house). I know I sound like a broken record, but I am continually surprised by just how high the quality is with breweries that are only a few years old; their flagship beers are not just relatively new to me, but often still new to most everyone else, too, at least beyond the nerdiest of beer nerds (e.g., My People). That said, many of them have a firmly-established sense of place, and, especially in a time when travel is not possible, there's something about that local hook that can make the story behind those beers resonate even more. I love to see this storytelling element in beer – thank goodness we've moved beyond the 'x was a wild homebrewer, had a brainwave and now he's the master brewer here' origin story. These locals are each doing a bang-up job of tying local lore and ‘feeling’ to fantastic beer.

Hope Hop-on, Session IPA, 4.3%
First, and most importantly, it's simply a great go-to beer - an all-around, friendly-with-food session IPA. But the label design and 'backstory' add that true local flavour: the Dart (I LOVE TRAINS) and the story of two boys who took the Dart from Howth Junction (not coincidentally, where Hope is based), eventually hopped a ferry to the UK and blagged their way onto a flight to New York - the '80s were a different time, and the podcast looking back on the episode is well worth a listen.  I really miss having this beer fresh on tap, but now that we've moved to Dublin's Northside (for friends outside Dublin, the Northside/Southside thing is a whole mood), it feels even more like a beer 'for us,' thanks to the hyper-local angle.

Ballykilcavan Bambrick's Brown Ale, 5.8%
Beernerdia is always lamenting the imminent death of the brown ale, yet it's very much alive and well here, thanks to Ballykilcavan - this beer is simply gorgeous. Don't let the middling 3.8 on Untappd fool you; this may not be a 10% double IPA (though they make one of those as well), but it's a fabulous beer. Again, Ballykilcavan's sense-of-place game is strong; their Instagram shots of their 17th century family farm's beautiful outbuildings, which then find their names and stories represented in the beer labels, are very much characters. It will be delightful to actually *visit* at some point in the future.

Kinnegar Scraggy Bay IPA, 5.3%
Scraggy Bay is the name of the beach near the brewery in Donegal - a place I still haven't managed to visit - and Kinnegar's perfect, old-school IPA really does evoke that windy, beachy feel. The can art, again, brings the sea to the consumer, and stamps the beer with the locale. Kinnegar's mascot rabbits (hares?) are busy captaining and rolling kegs onto the ship. Kinnegar's very name is an Anglicization of the Irish for 'rabbit,' so their origins are built into the beer. And going back to the beer itself, in a world of hazy/cold/milkshake IPAs, having a well-crafted, balanced IPA is a bit of a novelty.

So, there you have it – just a quick selection of Irish beers for #FlagshipFebruary that also happen to convey a strong sense of where they come from – and I can’t wait to raise a few glasses with the Craic Beer Community at the next (virtual) meetup!

Beers for a Tenner

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While I don't do new year's resolutions, I did have grand plans to get back to blogging much more regularly when we moved to Ireland in early 2020. Circumstances (waves hands around at…everything) did not support those plans, but I'm hoping to do better in 2021. In support of that goal, here's a quick post to that ties to this week's Beer Ladies Podcast, where we discussed beers on a budget and hangover cures, both real (?) and spurious. The brief for the cheap(er) beer was to see what we could find for under €10. Given the current lockdown restrictions, I took the challenge to my local Centra, rather than roaming further afield to a higher-end off-license, and managed to pick up the following for about €9.50:

While I knew the Rascals beer well already (and am a big fan), I'd never tried the other two. I had to dive down a Google rabbit hole to find out more about the Journeyman, as a top-level 'official' page is nowhere in the first few pages of search results - in fact, The Beer Nut has the first useful report on the beer (and back to that in a moment). This quick bit of research revealed (to me) that the brewery of record on the bottle, Station Works, is now part of the Pearse Lyons family, so it's essentially a 'sibling' of Foxes Rock Session IPA from Pearse Lyons Brewing and a 'cousin' to Lexington Brewing Company's Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, also part of the Pearse Lyons/Alltech portfolio in the US. It still strikes me as very odd that there does not seem to be a findable website for the brewing arm in Ireland - the distillery website is easily found, and, given what I've had from both the distillery and the brewery, I would have to assume that the distillery is very much the priority. The other beers I've had from Pearse Lyons, both in Ireland and in the US, have ranged from underwhelming to aggressively mediocre (looking at you, Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale) - but I've liked the whiskey, so…

However, I note that The Beer Nut review of Journeyman from 2018 was, on the whole, positive…which makes me wonder whether the particular bottle I picked up was, perhaps, close to that 'vintage.' Everything about it tasted more than a little old and stale, but it seemed to be much more the result of having sat on several pallets and in storerooms much longer than it should have, rather than there being an issue with the actual recipe and brewing in this instance. I'd happily give it another shot if I could guarantee freshness, but, in this case, even for something in the neighb(u)orhood of €2.50, it was a partial drain-pour. While it was by no means the worst thing I've had recently, I still had 'better' options for the calories involved.

And so, on to the Archway Lager, which was a very pleasant surprise indeed. The can seemed to be fresh, and it was a clean, crisp lager. Nothing fancy, but also something that would be more than a match for a sunny afternoon, ideally with some soccer involved. It was slightly pricier than Carlsberg, which is also one of my go-to soccer beers when I can't find a low-key local craft option. I know that Franciscan Well is owned by the macros these days, but still hope to get to their brewpub at some point post-COVID, as I hear their pizza is amazing (and, in my experience, even when the 'original' has been purchased by one of the big ones, the local brewpub often still gets to make some interesting one-offs), so…

And pizza is a perfect segue to the Rascals, as I do believe their pizza is the best in Dublin, and a perfect complement to their excellent range of beers. Not being able to actually *go* there is not great, but the Fruitropolis, Wunderbar and Happy Days beers are all fantastic go-tos I'm happy to have in my fridge on the regular. It will be very exciting to get back to the brewpub in person and have some of their other creations - hopefully we all get those shots soon.

Of course, it wasn't just me on this week's podcast - go have a listen to hear what Bean and Joanne thought about budget beers!

Annual Beer-y Roundup, 2020 Edition: Highlights

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You’ve skipped the longer 2020 summary narrative (fair enough) or arrived here after slogging through it, so well done. And, really, well done in any case for making it through 2020. Without further ado, and in no particular order, here are my favo(u)rite beer and whiskey discoveries of the year.

The Breweries
Hope Beer
I love everything about Hope – quality all around, something for everyone in the standard lineup, and fantastic seasonal releases. Bonus points for being not only train-accessible, but train-celebratory: their Hop-on Session IPA features the Dart train. I LOVE TRAINS. And great beer.

Four Provinces Brew Co
MILD JOY. Gob Fluich is a perfect dark mild – absolutely the ideal ‘school night’ beer, and one that goes with everything from pizza to chocolate (so, essentially, all the key food groups of lockdown). But again, the whole lineup is delightful – a very more-ish lager and a fantastic session IPA, among other tasty beers. Very much looking forward to their pub re-opening since 1) I’ve never been and; 2) they will have a beer engine. Cask of all sorts is hard to find in Ireland, but I can’t wait to have the mild on cask. Additional plus for being a good entry point for the new learners of Irish – their bilingual approach is a handy excuse to get studying.

Whiplash Beer
Wonderful beer, friendly people and top-class branding – Whiplash cans are instantly recognisable and always a sign of good times to come. I’m not, on the whole, a fan of hazy beers, but a hazy IPA from Whiplash is always welcome. There are some wonderful stouts and grisettes in the mix, too, and I cannot wait for their Fidelity Festival in 2021 (vaccines permitting). We had a great time interviewing Lynsey, Whiplash’s lead cellar brewer, on the Beer Ladies Podcast, and learned some fascinating inside information – give it a listen!

Ballykilcavan  Brewery
Who doesn’t love a good brown ale? While the style may currently be too thin on the ground for my liking, Ballykilcavan Bambrick’s Brown is outstanding, another ideal go-to beer with nearly everything. Once again, the year-round beers are great, and all named after features on their beautifully-photographed family farm (truly a strong Instagram game). The seasonal and one-off specials are all worth a try as well – some lovely surprises in the mix.

And on to the honourable mentions: I have thoroughly enjoyed a number of beers from Lineman, Kinnegar, Trouble, Rascals, Heaney and Yellowbelly – all Irish breweries doing a lovely job, and I look forward to more from each one in 2021.

whiskey tastings at home!

Distilleries
Tipperary
I’m still very much learning the basics when it comes to whiskey, but have been very impressed with the various bits I’ve been lucky enough to sample from Tipperary, and love their approach to mixing technology and tradition – you can scan the QR code on the bottle to find out about the barley used in the whiskey, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. Their own-barley single cask whiskey is amazing.

Currach
The whiskey is matured in seaweed-charred barrels. It sounds weird. It is weird. But it’s good weird. They also feature great art direction and beautiful bottles, but it’s very much backed up by the product inside. Another pleasant way to wind down after a day of not leaving the house.

Shops
I’ve only had the good fortune to discover all these brands through the thoughtful sourcing and speedy delivery from a number of amazing local Irish businesses – many of which had to develop an e-commerce function overnight. So, massive shoutouts to: L. Mulligan Whiskey Shop, Craft Central, Beer Cloud, The Beer Club, Martin’s Off-License and Craft Geek Merchandise – you’ve each had a hand in introducing me to a new beer or whiskey and/or kept my wardrobe up to date with appropriately-themed merch.

Here’s to a better 2021 for all.

Annual Beer-y Roundup, 2020 Edition: Preamble

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Our first night out in DublinIt would probably be more accurate to include ‘whiskey’ somewhere in the title as well, since the various lockdowns here in Ireland have had the useful side effect of introducing me to many interesting whiskeys as well as beer through numerous virtual tastings. But before we dive in to an (almost) entirely non-hierarchical ‘favo(u)rites of the year,’ it’s probably worth noting that A Few Big Things Happened in 2020:

In January, we moved from Seattle to Dublin. Although my role is technically Dublin-affiliated, my colleagues are largely based in Basel. I spent our first few weeks ‘in’ Ireland mostly shuttling between New Jersey and Switzerland for midweek meetings. I do not recommend this approach for settling in to a new city and country, especially when attempting to find schools and housing. During a brief stint of my not traveling just before the Irish election, our teen went out to see Neil Hannon, my forever-favo(u)rite artist, play a few songs on Grafton Street; I had a meeting, but assumed I would have plenty of similar opportunities, now that we were living in the same country, so decided not to skip the call. I should have skipped the call.

In March, we got in just under the wire to obtain our IRP cards – the residence permits that let us funny foreigners live officially in Ireland – before everything locked down in response to COVID. While my at-home workdays became much longer, the abrupt cessation of travel was, for me, quite welcome. Our smaller child had perhaps 3 weeks in school (and our teen would not have *any* in-person contact with ‘people who are not us’ until September), but the pivot to Home School Hub on television helped her continue to adapt – and to get a lot of her videos screened for the nation. We spent the next several months being horrified at what was happening in our home country (even more than usual) and feeling extremely fortunate not to be there.

Careful now.Throughout the first lockdown, virtual meetups and tastings were the key to some kind of normal life, though we spent several of those first few months without real furniture. All our worldly goods had arrived via sea from America, but they were quarantined at the port. We were sleeping on inflatable beds and had only a rapidly-deflating couch in the living room throughout that time. We had managed to get some cheap plates and silverware, but knowing that our books, PELOTON and actual, solid furniture were within our 2KM radius but could not come to us was frustrating (not to mention not great for one’s back). Nevertheless, the Beer Ladies kept us sane through weekend Zooms.

Toward the end of the first lockdown, we were finally reunited with our ‘stuff’ – and working at home became much more comfortable as I was no longer simply sitting on the floor with my laptop (and I could actually work out again – my knees can only take so much running). And, as previously detailed, when the lockdown lifted, I got to see my virtual friends in person. We had a few drinks and started a podcast, but more on that in a moment. We had the opportunity to visit Galway and Kilkenny – so far, still the only places outside of Dublin I’ve been able to visit since moving to Ireland.

We spent much of the summer looking at houses to buy (renting in Dublin is, to use a technical term, hella expensive, even by the standards of other places we’ve lived, and it’s a nightmare with pets). We finally had an offer accepted and began the incredibly slow process of moving toward actually getting the keys…which we hope to complete early in January. We very much look forward to getting out of our Celtic Tiger-era rental, which manages to be both very expensive and incredibly cheaply-built, and into an actual house.

Beer Ladies PodcastAutumn brought the return of in-person school (and a return to semi-lockdown, though again, I’ll take anything happening in Ireland over the disaster that is the US) and also saw the launch of the Beer Ladies Podcast. We’ve managed some fantastic episodes with our rotating cast, and have had some great guests; I’m particularly proud of our session with Lynsey from Whiplash, and I’m excited about what we have planned for 2021. Like and subscribe!

In summary, it’s been a lot. I miss theatre, concerts and museums, though at least we managed to get in to some of the best local ones during lighter periods of lockdown. I miss (personal) travel and seeing other people, but I’m also glad I’ve had the chance to discovery so many new-to-me beers and whiskeys.

And, given that’s probably what you came here for in the first place…on to my best discoveries of 2020…

Beer-y Anniversaries and Pandemic Musings

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Halloween at L Mulligan GrocerOne year ago this week, I came to Dublin for the last time as a visitor. I’d landed my new job in August 2019, and as we knew we would be moving to Ireland for said role when all our paperwork was sorted out, so this trip was a combination of local work meetings and advance neighbourhood reconnaissance. The planets aligned in an even more fortuitous way: the Bram Stoker Festival and a meeting of The Ladies Craft Beer Society of Ireland were both scheduled during my brief stay. In retrospect, this very quick trip was fated to be much more impactful than I could have possibly imagined.

My previous work trips to Dublin during my tenure as an Amazonian had been much more circumscribed; I never had the time to explore beyond the city centre, and my last one was especially odd, as my then-boss insisted on constant togetherness, even over the weekend – I still have no idea whether she was aiming to keep tabs on me, or if she was just uncomfortable being on her own, so I had little chance to do my own exploration (though I had no idea at the time that I’d one day live here). This visit, then, was my first chance to really look around properly, get into some local events, and, I hoped, meet some casual acquaintances who could help give us advice as we prepared to move.

Good mate Mark GatissAs luck would have it, the events I was going to for the Bram Stoker Festival (you know, hanging out with my Good Friends Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffatt and Sue Vertue) were mostly north of the river, so I spent a good deal of time walking around Northside neighbourhoods that seemed like possible good fits for our family – something that would become a point of contention months later with several of our more peculiar relocation consultants, who insisted that ‘the likes of us’ could not possibly live in, say, Stoneybatter. (Nearly a year later, I’m still not entirely sure what she was trying to convey with that line of thinking, but I digress). I ended up at L. Mulligan Grocer, where I discovered Trouble Brewing (lads, I was first on the Ambush – then, later, the Dark Arts) and Rascals Brewing (Social Hops 2019 – see, Untappd is useful for this sort of exercise!). I also had some absolutely amazing food, and enjoyed one of the warmest welcomes I’ve ever had in a pub.

And when I met up with the amazing, fierce, opinionated and thoughtful Beer Ladies (or ‘my Beer Ladies,’ as my smaller kid now describes them), I knew I’d found My People – thought I had no idea how quickly after our arrival that would be cemented. Also on that night at Piper’s Corner, I discovered Kinnegar and Four Provinces – both breweries that have become go-tos for us. Fast forward a few months, and by the time all the work permit/relocation administrivia was complete, it was late January. Our arrival week also coincided with a beer-y meetup, so although I was a bit jet-lagged (and, frankly, exhausted from taking no meaningful break from work to move countries), I prioritised meeting up with my new friends – another stroke of good luck, since the next scheduled meeting coincided with the start of Lockdown One in Ireland.

The pandemic and the move to virtual socialising have, in many ways, sped up the ‘getting to know you’ process – who knew that shared trauma would be such a great way to make close friends? What would have been monthly-ish meetings became much more frequent Zoom calls and Discord chats. We have helped each other grapple with career and relationship insanity in ways that would not have been nearly as intense under ‘normal circumstances’ – and we’re better for it. We’ve even launched a podcast. (Like! Subscribe!) L. Mulligan’s virtual whiskey tastings have also become a regular occasion on our household calendar – even if we cannot get there in person at the moment, we’re happy to be able to support them in some way. I doubt I would have sampled this many local breweries by this point if we were simply going to pubs normally – but being forced to discover fantastic businesses stocking excellent local beers has been another side benefit of this odd time.

And that accelerated process of getting acquainted applies to Dublin as a whole, too – while museums and shops may be closed (again) for Lockdown Two, our 5K walks have let us do real exploring, and our house hunting has led us back north of the river…while our current Southside rental is in a convenient location, it’s not really ‘us,’ and we’re working to buy a house in an area our relocation agent would be horrified by – hopefully, that will be a good way to kick off 2021. Funnily enough, it’s in one of the areas I explored during that trip one year ago – so it may turn out to have been something of a prophetic trip in multiple ways.

It’s wild to think I’ve only had the chance to properly get to know this city and the fantastic friends I’ve been lucky enough to make here in such a relatively short space of time – not to mention how lucky we’ve been to avoid the absolute disaster(s) continuing to unfold in our home country – but I certainly look forward to the time we can get together in person, in a pub, without a second thought.

I knew before we moved that I’d be discovering Dublin through local beer to some extent, but I could not have predicted how crucial it would come to be in helping to form friendships and in directing us as far as where to put down long-term roots.

And now, I’m off to choose some good Halloween beers…without leaving the house.

 

Back at the Pub

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They're here! They're there!So, what was it like?

Irish pubs were allowed to re-open, with COVID-19 precautions in place, on 29th July - and we were very much there. I'll confess I would not have felt comfortable going to a pub or bar in the US or UK at this point, given How Things Are Going There, but since things seem more well-controlled here in Ireland, we opted to take the family out for an early dinner. We duly made our reservation and headed back to The Merry Cobbler for the first time since early March. We chose The Merry Cobbler for a number of reasons, though it's not our nearest pub: first, we knew it was large enough to handle meaningful social distancing inside. Secondly, the food is fantastic, and, closely coupled, the not-just-Guinness (more on that in a moment) beer selection is most welcome. Finally, we wanted to support a pub with outstanding service, and the team there delivered, just as they had prior to lockdown – in fact, it was our last port of call in The Before Times.

Beyond the obvious lack of allowed spontaneity - we made sure to arrive just before our reservation time to maximize our allotted 90 minutes of pub time - what else was new?

There are directional guides on the floor to help drive more-or-less unidirectional foot traffic, and there are dedicated entrance and exit doors. The Merry Cobbler already has a series of snugs and separate tables throughout the pub, so that likely required less rework than many spaces might have required, but we had the section we opted for entirely to ourselves. It's table-service only, and while that's handy whenever we're out with the family, not being able to wander to the bar to see what else is on tap is a minor quibble. To the credit of the waitstaff, they were very much aware of their taplist, so no worries there – and, really, in 90 minutes, unless you are very, very dedicated, how many pints are you likely to get through?

Hope!Speaking of pints, having a freshly-tapped Hope Hop-on For The First Time In Forever was absolutely glorious. And it seemed churlish not to also have a Guinness, given that they'd delivered the brand-new kegs only days before, and it was perfect, especially with the wonderful brownie. While it would have been nice to linger longer, that's not much of an option with a smaller child anyway, so we had no difficulty sticking within our 90 minutes without feeling rushed.

I don't think I'd chance a busy, crowded pub with a non-family group at this point, but a relaxing meal, seated far from other people, worked well. Obviously this is only going to work for a subset of pubs, and there are no easy answers there, but hopefully this is a small step forward, and COVID-19 cases will continue to go down, allowing more flexibility. But until there's a working vaccine, it seems like it's possible, with some sensible precautions in place, to support local pubs and breweries in person from time to time.

And as much as I've had the opportunity to try some amazing local beers at home that I might not have come across in a pub in Normal Times, it's hard to beat a fresh pint in its natural setting. I hope to do it again in the not-too-distant future.