Shit Irish Breweries

[baphomite51]

Is it just me or are a lot of Irish breweries making shit low flavored beer?? it seems every time i try a new pale, red, ipa or amber ale from an Irish brewery its a complete disappointment, and the worse part of it is people with a bit of sense like certain bloggers are saying how great these beers are it strikes me as ars licking to be honest. you can say they're unoffensive gateway beers but thats a cop out, beers like punk ipa and dead pony club are gateway beers, they've gotten all my mates into craft beer and they're packed with flavour and thats what people want. some breweries are doing it right tho like 8 degrees, new breweries need to take a leaf out of their book, i had a gneas last night and that was great too and a stag ban which was crap

rant over

[delzep]

You're not allowed say things like that

I completely agree

[baphomite51]

feck it its done now if i was making crap beer (which i probably am  ) id like someone to tell me

[Donnacha]

well - there's a lot of new breweries on the scene - some better than others.

but .. thats a pretty sweeping statement you made - doesn't it depend a bit on how you define flavour??  And there's a lot of different folks with different preferences.

Me, I'm into my stouts, the drier the better - not a massive fan of over-hopped beers 

Surely the main thing is that you're able to find Irish beers that suit your preferences, and I'm able to find beers that suit mine, and that there's an increasing amount of choice to suit a more diverse range of preferences (that aren't necessarily the same as yours)? 

.... and of course those that don't suit anybody's preferences will eventually go quietly into the night.

[mr hoppy]

Crap can be bland, or technically flawed. Not necessarily the same thing. I'd say until pretty recently all Irish craft beer was fairly middle of the road. I mean I can only think of one (intentional) Irish sour beer, and it was a limited edition and not even brewed in Ireland.

[Donnacha]

I mean I can only think of one (intentional) Irish sour beer, and it was a limited edition and not even brewed in Ireland.

Was there not two at the RDS? - White Gypsy and O'Hara's.  Tried, and enjoyed the White Gypsy one .. but I haven't tried a sour before so had nothing to refer to.

Actually one of the things I liked about this year's festival was the increasing diversity  ... as you say, a lot of breweries have been middle of the road and perhaps played it a little too safe in relation to flavour.  But I think that reflects the tastes of the market, and as the punters are getting more adventurous, so too are the brewers (well some of them anyhow).

[mr hoppy]

I wasn't at the RDS. Tell me more.

[Donnacha]

The White Gypsy sour was called Scarlet ... not having had a sour before I was worried that I might find it difficult to adjust the ol' taste buds, but I thought it nice (maybe it lacked flavour  ) .. the wife took one wiff of the glass and refused to even touch a drop - que an animated discussion on why anyone would make "gone-off" beer on  purpose, or even worse buy gone-off beer on purpose 

Link to it on ratebeer.com - http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/white-gypsy-scarlet/286284/

but yeah, I thought there was a bit more variety style-wise this year (although a few uninspiring offerings too)

[baphomite51]

We'll in relation to a pale ale that should be a hoppy beer but a lot of the time the beer just isn't hoppy which would make it a poor attempt at the style. That's wat I'm getting at, it just frustrates me wen I buy a pale ale or ipa and i want a good hop flavour and I'm left dissapointed.

It's great to see a diversity of beers tho I had both sours at the RDS and they were very different to belgian styles iv had but were decent

[delzep]

That white gypsy sour is on draught in the norseman at the mo I believe

[mr hoppy]

Commercial breweries aren't bound by the style guidelines and some of them are probably more influenced by English than American antecedents. Timothy Taylor's Landlord says Pale Ale on the label. Deuchars IPA or Greene King aren't exactly American style hop bombs either.

It is very frustrating to buy a beer in the expectation of a heavy dose of New World late hopping and find that's not what's going on at all.

[Donnacha]

Thats a fair point in reation to the level of hops in IPAs and pale ale on the Irish market.  While not a fan of big hoppy beers, I do agree that a lot of Irish efforts can be a bit light on the hops.  I suppose the gist of my point is that there's more to flavour than just hops ... sours being an example, good stout being another.

[mcgrath]

That white gypsy sour is on draught in the norseman at the mo I believe

I was there Friday and was told they had no sour beer. I did have a bottle of Fulcrum wheat beer there which says nothing about being sour but is. Delicious. Think I ended up having about 4. Lets hope they meant it :-) or more importantly continue it..

[delzep]

The WG sour was diluted to the point of being barely sour, nice enough as it was.

If you want sour in Ireland, Liffey Brewers are leading the way

He meant beer flavour, not personalities 

[Bazza]

Right. Second attempt at replying to this (brilliant thread, btw). Fecking windows decided it needed to clean its arse in the middle of my previous attempt.

I agree with what Baphomite is saying, inasmuch as more bars and restaurants are offering more in the way of 'locally' brewed beers but no matter how good or bad they are they get all slapped with the 'Craft' label and suddenly you're talking a fiver a pint.

It's a case of be careful what you wish for. We've craved diversity from the macro breweries for years and now we're getting it we're getting stuck in the neck for it too while the Calrsberg/Carling/Tennents drinkers are looking on and feeling justified at paying a quid less for their muck.

I've a mate originally from Middlesborough, says his dad is still paying less than £2 a pint back home for local ales. Here, you might as well get it served in a woven basket and get a gift jumper for the amount you're paying.

Treated myself to a couple in my local last week in the Errigle in Belfast. First up, Thornbridge Jaipur - £4.65 - beautiful, great beer, great brewery. Very happy seeing their stuff over here, finally. But (in Tyrone spake) wile dear. Second up, Belfast BPA on pump. £3.90 infected. Rotten. Well past sell-by. Amost tasted the dust. Customer too farty to complain.

Point being. We're finally getting what we want in the pubs, but the cost/quality helps us reafirm ourselves as homebrewers.


-Barry

P.s. on a side note, where the f**k has this Clonmel lager started appearing from? Is this another of these Heverlee-esque cons?