Just back from a wend in Ballinasloe and i belive it to be a craft beer free zone :(
while i only visited 2 hotel bars and 5 pubs there was not a sign of a craft beer just the usual macros. what i did notice was all the pubs had at least 2 of the cheap larger on sale for €3.50/€3.60 a pt.
last September spent a night in Kinnegead and again it's a craft free zone, that time visited 4 of the 5 pubs plus hotel bar and pint btl of McArdles was the best i got.
in future think i will book the hotel instead of my good wife.
Sure it's nice to get a break from all that oul 'craft' stuff. You probably saved a nice few quid in the process.
you should bring a little bag of hops with you when going somewhere strange.
Then you can dump them into your pint of heineken and leave out a loud sigh of relief after getting your fix.
That have me an idea a portable hop Randall. I'm gonna make tens of euro.
every trip to the pub will be like this:
Just decided using this would be easier,
(http://www.bodum.com/media/pic/products/medium_510/K11102-01.jpg) .
Just had a look at the beoir app, and noticed that bo bristle in Banagher is just 30km away, strange for a town that close not to at least have some of their beer.
Dunboyne could be added to the list, chap working in the off licence reckons none of the 4 pubs sell any craft beer.
Quote from: LordEoin on March 17, 2015, 04:06:30 PM
you should bring a little bag of hops with you when going somewhere strange.
Then you can dump them into your pint of heineken and leave out a loud sigh of relief after getting your fix.
Bert Grant (godfather of US craft) was known to carry a vial of hop oil and add a drop to his pint of American macro lager back in the 70s.
i have vague memory of the rebel brewers huddled in a cave with syringes of hop extract one night :D
I can't find it online for the life of me but I'm near certain there is a company in America selling a squeezy bottle of hop extract, with the idea being that you bring it to the pub and squirt it into a pint of lager to get your hop fix.
All the homebrew shops have little bottles of aroma oil and bittering oil you can do that with.
Personally i don't much like the aroma oils though, they're very generic 'herbal' or 'citrus' kinda things that all seem to smell like herbal cigarettes.
The bittering extract is good.
You could make a specific hop concentrate fairly handy though I suppose.
Quote from: LordEoin on March 20, 2015, 07:24:53 PM
All the homebrew shops have little bottles of aroma oil and bittering oil you can do that with.
Personally i don't much like the aroma oils though, they're very generic 'herbal' or 'citrus' kinda things that all seem to smell like herbal cigarettes.
The bittering extract is good.
You could make a specific hop concentrate fairly handy though I suppose.
I think this one was more of a malt/hop mix too though. Possibly just watered down hop extract with a hefty price tag added as well though.
Quote from: irish_goat on March 20, 2015, 07:27:06 PM
Quote from: LordEoin on March 20, 2015, 07:24:53 PM
All the homebrew shops have little bottles of aroma oil and bittering oil you can do that with.
Personally i don't much like the aroma oils though, they're very generic 'herbal' or 'citrus' kinda things that all seem to smell like herbal cigarettes.
The bittering extract is good.
You could make a specific hop concentrate fairly handy though I suppose.
I think this one was more of a malt/hop mix too though. Possibly just watered down hop extract with a hefty price tag added as well though.
Its this http://ontapbeer.com/
Seems someone has gone and made a hop/fruit tea bag that can turn your bland lager into a "craft beer". http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/weird-news/magic-teabag-transforms-bland-lager-5558722
Hah! Class.
Wonder how it would go down in those annoying situations where you're at a neighbour's BBQ and they hand you a bottle of Bud after you've said 'yes' to the offer of a beer.
'Ooh sh-I just have to drop this wee thing into it; doctor's orders, y'know?'
Asking for the loan of a coat hanger to fish the fecker out again for the next beer would be a little harder to explain away. You might as well land there with your own bottle of Daddies sauce for their spare ribs.
-Barry
Quote from: Bazza on April 28, 2015, 01:38:53 PM
You might as well land there with your own bottle of Daddies sauce for their spare ribs.
-Barry
Thus suggesting that their food is crap and you need a daecent drop with a powerful flavour to help wash it down :P