National Homebrew Club Ireland

Just wondering how many 'craft beers' out on the shelves are products of macro breweries??? ( ciders included)
Eg orchard thieves /heino
Hophouse 13/guinness

Diageo have a few.
West Indies, Dublin, Rye.
The smithwicks ales, blonde etc.
Journeyman beers from Alltech - is that considered macro?

From Supervalu in Swords a few months back. I sent them a message through Facebook, no response

About half is legit!

My definition of craft would be exactly what macros are doing,  the have "perfected"  a technique and do it over and over,  ok its not by hand but is any brewing? Micro / small batch is what we prefer to drink.

Half still ain't enough!!

From a Tesco leaflet today:
Blue Moon - MillerCoors
O'haras - okay fair enough
Pilsner Urquell - part of InBev now
Foxes Rock - Altech
Sam Adams - still technically craft in the States
O'haras again
Sweetwater - I thought they had been bought out but I might be wrong  (this beer is really bad)
McGargles - I'm not even going into that
Franny - MillerCoors

So out of 13 beers at least 4 aren't craft despite their advertising

Is cute hoor a fake???

Cute hoor is brewed by Heineken

Panna Lager in Cork never made it to shelves only because it blew up in heinos face

5 Lamps , C&C.....

Quote from: Damofto on December 15, 2016, 08:45:57 PM
Cute hoor is brewed by Heineken

Had the misfortune to be served that as a 'local red ale' in Navan back in the summer. Didn't hear the waitress properly but when it was brought to me with a Heino beer mat and I had my first taste I said to the missus 'I bet this is that Cute Hoor' and was proved right when the bill appeared. As if the Heino mat was not a big enough clue the complete lack of any perceivable taste was the clincher. It takes a certain skilll to make something that colour so devoid of flavour. They've nailed it.

-Barry

Clonmel really annoys me too. It's bloody everywhere in Belfast now. Just take a pint of yellow fizzy  water, name it after an Irish town and bingo; every gullible punter in the country is buying it. I might as well jump on this gravy train, bottle my own effluent and sell it as 'Aughnacloy Ale'. Minted, I'd be.

-Barry

Quote from: Bazza on December 16, 2016, 09:07:01 AM
Clonmel really annoys me too. It's bloody everywhere in Belfast now. Just take a pint of yellow fizzy  water, name it after an Irish town and bingo; every gullible punter in the country is buying it. I might as well jump on this gravy train, bottle my own effluent and sell it as 'Aughnacloy Ale'. Minted, I'd be.

-Barry

Don't see much of it around here, who makes it??

Quote from: rje66 on December 16, 2016, 12:48:19 PM

Quote from: Bazza on December 16, 2016, 09:07:01 AM
Clonmel really annoys me too. It's bloody everywhere in Belfast now. Just take a pint of yellow fizzy  water, name it after an Irish town and bingo; every gullible punter in the country is buying it. I might as well jump on this gravy train, bottle my own effluent and sell it as 'Aughnacloy Ale'. Minted, I'd be.

-Barry

Don't see much of it around here, who makes it??

C&C.

Quote from: Pheeel on December 15, 2016, 08:32:31 PMMcGargles - I'm not even going into that

Whats this? I thought they were independent.

Aughnacloy SuperValu will sort you out! (Best chicken sandwiches on the island!)

Quote from: Bazza on December 16, 2016, 09:07:01 AM
Clonmel really annoys me too. It's bloody everywhere in Belfast now. Just take a pint of yellow fizzy  water, name it after an Irish town and bingo; every gullible punter in the country is buying it. I might as well jump on this gravy train, bottle my own effluent and sell it as 'Aughnacloy Ale'. Minted, I'd be.

-Barry

Quote from: Qs on December 16, 2016, 01:01:59 PM

Quote from: Pheeel on December 15, 2016, 08:32:31 PMMcGargles - I'm not even going into that

Whats this? I thought they were independent.

http://www.ryeriverbrewingco.com/beer/all/

Francis' Big Bangin' IPA is still an amazing beer, no matter who or what makes it

I got a response back from Tescos:
Apologies we should not have used the term "craft beer" beer here. The craft beer offering is currently part of a "4 for €10" promotion as advertised and covers 86 lines which are a mixture of global brands (not craft beer) and locally produced craft offerings. The aim of this offer is to allow the customer choose a variety of products within a single price point. The term craft beer is not used in any of our signage in store.

Nothing from Supervalu though?
Ironic that a wholly owned irish company who actively promote entrepreneurs and Craft business would market incorrectly or not respond to a genuine and valid concern.

They must be busy fielding the thousands of identical queries from similarly concerned beer aficionados.

Quote from: Stecleary84 on December 16, 2016, 02:41:49 PM

Quote from: Qs on December 16, 2016, 01:01:59 PM

Quote from: Pheeel on December 15, 2016, 08:32:31 PMMcGargles - I'm not even going into that

Whats this? I thought they were independent.

http://www.ryeriverbrewingco.com/beer/all/

Francis' Big Bangin' IPA is still an amazing beer, no matter who or what makes it

What I meant was I thought Rye River were an indpendant craft brewery that just did a load of own brand stuff as well.

Quote from: mrmeindl on December 16, 2016, 05:04:30 PM
Supervalu only care about making money, everything else is secondary.

We should make an active effort to stop using the "craft" moniker as it's meaningless, microbrewery is a legal thing so it can be verified, stone barrel have a "made in a microbrewery in ireland" logo on their bottle, this is different to the ICBI symbol to enhance confusion! Once there's a common symbol used by all the micros it'll be easy to spot the real deal.

Well the ICBI is the common symbol. And the C stands for Craft 😃

I thought that the micro brewery's had developed a logo for themselves to identify that they are Irish micro's ???. What happened to that. :-\

Quote from: DEMPSEY on December 17, 2016, 01:04:58 PM
I thought that the micro brewery's had developed a logo for themselves to identify that they are Irish micro's ???. What happened to that. :-\

This puppy
http://www.icbi.ie/symbol.html

Must check if its on their bottle 8)

At the end of the day, the term 'Craft Beer' is just a marketing ploy that we all fell for.
Does it really matter if a decent beer brewed by a micro or macro brewery?
I'd have no problem buying 'Heineken IPA' it over 'John&Mary's Micro Craft beer' if it was a better and more consistent product.

Quote from: LordEoin on December 18, 2016, 09:13:29 AM
At the end of the day, the term 'Craft Beer' is just a marketing ploy that we all fell for.
Does it really matter if a decent beer brewed by a micro or macro brewery?
I'd have no problem buying 'Heineken IPA' it over 'John&Mary's Micro Craft beer' if it was a better and more consistent product.

That's a fair enough point, it just boils down to what our definition of "better" is. What a lot of us on this forum value in a beer doesn't necessarily tally with the values of a macro. Obviously the micros are also intent on making a profit, but their market share is very much dependent on matching their product with our values. I'd buy a well produced, tasty macro happily, but it does my soul a bit of good to send a few quid John and Mary's way if they're putting in the effort.

I'd prefer to buy local if they can meet my preferences and quality standard.

This is one of the reasons that I haven't bought a Diageo product in a while if I can avoid it. I'd rather support homegrown industry and take this recession on in tangible ways, this is preferable to bolstering a Diageo shareholders bank account, no offence Rory. :)

I like Orchard Thieves.

Quote from: LordEoin on December 18, 2016, 12:18:38 PM
I like Orchard Thieves.

Careful , you are not in confession, the confidentiality between you and the priest isn't binding here...you have the chance to withdraw that confession before CH sees it 😁😁😝

Quote from: Oh Crap on December 18, 2016, 12:48:27 PM

Quote from: LordEoin on December 18, 2016, 12:18:38 PM
I like Orchard Thieves.

Careful , you are not in confession, the confidentiality between you and the priest isn't binding here...you have the chance to withdraw that confession before CH sees it

Too late🤠
I used to drink Bulmers which is 60% apple juice (disappointingly beause of cost a huge proportion from overseas, Polish surprisingly) orchard thieves is sub 40% and produced by Heino in UK, amazing marketing but dreadfully sickly product and early versions had a significant number of folks have the shits after more than a couple of pints, some artificial sweeteners have laxative properties.
It takes a 1.5mt of apples to make 1000l of Micro cider (macro boys can do it with 500kgs) and country has close to 30 odd cider producers with 3 amazing ones in Cork, each to his own I spose.

60% apple juice....whats the other 40%?

Bumped with sugar for fermentation then cut with water and artificial sweetener

I guess acetaldehyde is well hidden in there...

Don't know where you get 1.5 to 1 asa ratio

My research/experience is more like 3 kg og apples equals 1 L of juice.

Bulmers/Magners allegedly ferment "apple wine" to about 13% and then store it in the silos. This is then diluted to be bottled 24/7/365.

You need a lot of AJ (and not sugar) to get to a 13% fg!

Do they boil down the AJ to up the OG like I do?

It's from Cider Ireland homepage Will and a interview with Con Traas.

Bulmers/Magners also have the far superior Linden Village. Or is it Old Somerset?