State of the craft beer market in Ireland

[irish_goat]

Bru
Oharas
8 degrees
Metalman
Bo bristle
Carrig
Wicklow wolf
JJ's
Connemara
Galway Hooker
Dungarven
Porterhouse
White Gypsy
Jack Cody
Hope
Mountain Man
Black Sheep

All make poor, boring or inconsistent beers. Some make one good beer, which only makes the rest of the range incongruous.

Christ, that's a harsh list.

O'Hara's seasonals aren't great but their red, stout and Leann Follain are the best in the their respective styles in Ireland, imo. 8 Degrees make great IPA and have won a few (actually noteworthy) awards for them. Porterhouse's stouts are great, especially Wrasslers. Hope have some very good IPAs and pale ales out and I've heard great things about their other beers. White Gypsy make great weiss and lagers. I would agree with some of the others though/don't have enough experience of them.

Black Sheep are English as well, btw.

[mr hoppy]

+1 White gypsy lagers are particularly excellent. Maybe they don't have enough hops?

[Slev]

Does anyone know if a curated Good Beer Guide for Irish beer? The Irish market seems especially crazy - a lot of little guys trying their hand, macro beer mutton dressed as lamb, and quite a few bandwagon operations trying to cash in on an uneducated beer market.

I have tried quite a few over the last 10 days, and wasn't expecting the "meh" count to be as high as it was.

Not interested in starting a flame war here.

Amen to that.



All make poor, boring or inconsistent beers. Some make one good beer, which only makes the rest of the range incongruous.

So what would be an example of a beer that you would recommend?

[Paul B]

It's worth noting as well that anyone complaining in this thread obviously hasn't been to many parts of the continent recently where any kind of craft beer at all is scarce to none. I'm sure plenty of people can jump in with counter examples but it really took a recent trip to Italy for me  to realise how far ahead we actually are here in Ireland. Behind the US, way ahead of Europe.

[Keg]

It's worth noting as well that anyone complaining in this thread obviously hasn't been to many parts of the continent recently where any kind of craft beer at all is scarce to none. I'm sure plenty of people can jump in with counter examples but it really took a recent trip to Italy for me  to realise how far ahead we actually are here in Ireland. Behind the US, way ahead of Europe.

I'd say it's dependent on where you go. I found plenty of options in Milan in April, but was in Rome & Ancona last year and the choice was poor. I've found the variance is the same across Europe depending on what cafés, bars and restaurants you visit.

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[cruiscinlan]

Christ, that's a harsh list.

O'Hara's seasonals aren't great but their red, stout and Leann Follain are the best in the their respective styles in Ireland, imo. 8 Degrees make great IPA and have won a few (actually noteworthy) awards for them. Porterhouse's stouts are great, especially Wrasslers. Hope have some very good IPAs and pale ales out and I've heard great things about their other beers. White Gypsy make great weiss and lagers. I would agree with some of the others though/don't have enough experience of them.

Black Sheep are English as well, btw.

O'Haras Leann Follain was a different beer before they moved to the new bottling plant. On keg it's lovely, but the point is consistency.

Some of the brewers on that list put gorgeous beer into bright tanks and then ruin it through pasteurization or poor processing.

Porterhouse have been dialling it in for years and again their beers suffer from inconsistencies, their plain porter was a fantastic beer but when I've tasted it in their own bars this year it has been poor.

The original 8 degrees hurricane was great, but again is not what it was.

Black donkey turned into black sheep for some reason on my phone.

We've all suffered from beers being released that should have been tipped and a culture whereby brewers can't/won't accept criticism is bad for the industry and consumers. 

If you're a producer and people tell you that stuff is inconsistent you need to use that to go back to your tasting panel, review your batch logs and make amends so people keep coming back to you.

You can't satisfy everyone's palate but you certainly should be producing the same profile all the time for what you make. 

[BigDanny84]

Cruiscinlan is talking a lot of sense.

Depends where u are Paul B. I was in Copenhagen last year and the local beers would shit all over any of the beers I tried around Dublin a couple of weekends ago. What doesn't help these breweries is when u are paying over €6/pint for something that u wouldn't take to a local club meet if u had brewed it yourself.

[armedcor]

I'd agree with not posting the shit list if it was our responsibility to champion Irish craft beer but that's not our mission.

If these Brewers were worried about their jobs they might put the effort into consistent brewing. I'll always try a new Irish brew or micro when I get the chance but I'm sick of being disappointed so often.

The argument that we should be lucky compared to some countries really isn't a valid one.

[Qs]

I have to say at the price point for bottles of Irish craft beer especially I have little issue with people criticising them.

I do think packaging and handling are the main issues facing the industry but IMO breweries are far too accepting of poor practices. You can already see improvement since the cans came in. 95% of the Irish beer I buy now is in can because I just trust it much more and talking to brewers that seems to be because the mobile canning operation most use is actually quite good.

The beers don't last pissing time on the shelf and in storage either. Its hard to control what happens in the shops but I've seen breweries that have slabs of their beer sitting out in warm areas during the summer. Is it any wonder their beers are stale by the time they reach my glass?

[danger_zone]

I wonder if it's a case of business people seeing an opportunity in the market and opening a brewery and not knowing what they're doing as opposed to a passionate brewer knowing his craft and opening a brewery. There are so many poor breweries in operation and I would have no hesitation in putting a shit list together. As a brewer I would be ashamed if that was some of my beer on the market. That said, it's all subjective. A brewery I think is muck could be the next guys favourite but I'm betting there's a few that the majority agree on.
Price point is another issue. I know the micros don't have economies of scale but the prices some charge are a bit ridiculous for what you get and for that reason I avoid a lot of Irish breweries when I can get far superior European/American beers for the same price if not cheaper

[Paul B]

A list will accomplish nothing, also as others have said people disagree on whats good and whats not, as evidenced even in this thread. Just vote with your wallet and move on.

[mr hoppy]

Any chance of something like this?

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/magazine/commercial-calibration/

Even the odd one from our top judges would be brilliant.

[Qs]

The time we all got the same beer and people reviewed it was a bit like that. Pity that never took off regularly.

[mr hoppy]

Yeh, but no. Commercial calibration is people who know their onions giving the rest of us something to work off. And they could stick to stuff they like or things like Old Speckled Hen that aren't local but are readily available and evidence a variety of off tastes if they wanted.

[Pheeel]

I think that list is pretty harsh. There are at least three breweries that have no place on that list. There are plenty of breweries that would end up ahead of it
I think the problem is that Ireland never had its growing up period. In the States there was 10 years between the first local breweries to the mad IPAs. We skipped that and there are plenty of money men who have no idea what the product is while the general population has not interest in craft beer as they weren't taken on the journey