The Big Grill Festival

[Parky]

Just back from a fab evening out at the Big Grill BBQ and Craft Beer Festival in Herbert Park in Dublin (kudos to Phoenix for the tickets! )

If you love BBQ and smoke-house meats, washed down with the best of Irish craft beer (and who doesn't), you'll love this festival, which runs all weekend. Great mix of people there - from bearded hipsters to families with younger kids, this is a day out pretty much everyone can enjoy.

Music - Two areas for music/DJs, one playing hip hop, the other a more mellow reggae vibe, although the DJs and artists will change over the course of the weekend.
Food - Something to suit the tastes of all meat lovers, although be warned some places are more popular than others (Argintino Grill and Uncle Sam's Smokehouse in particular), so be prepared to queue. I got an amazing smoked pork bap from 147 Deli, but leave your dignity at the door, these puppies are messy 
Booze - All the usual suspects are here, but highlight for me was Black's of Kinsale's High Viz double IPA on tap ... Mmmm! Dan Kelly's was the best cider for my tastes, and Pilsner Urquell is definitely worth a try.

Top tips -
1 As with a lot of these events, cash isn't accepted, you simply buy tokens and trade them for beer/food. The tokens (called smokin's) are non-refundable, so make sure you use them up before the 9pm curfew.
2 Make a mental note of where the loos are - trust me, your gonna need them
3 Beers are usually 5 'smokins' for a pint, but 3 'smokins' for a half, so split a pint with a friend if you're on a budget.
4 You'll see people with samples outside the Pilsner Urquell tent - help yourself to a sample and they'll give you a voucher for a free pint of pilsner in the Bridge bar (if not, just ask for a voucher).



Awesome grub!



14 day old tank of beer from Pilsner Urquell - huge hit of caramel, very nice indeed!



Bring your queueing shoes - you'll be wearing them a lot 

[Leann ull]

I am still struggling with the concept of nearly €20 just to get in and nothing in return. I guess if you are Into BBQ it may be your thing and they must doing something right as they have sold out on Sat.
Will be holding out for the RDS in a couple of weeks time who with 32 breweries on offer this year plus cider houses and distillers is gonna be the biggest so far and certainly on the Island.

[Bubbles]

Confused..

How do they have a 14-day old lager??

[irish_goat]

Confused..

How do they have a 14-day old lager??

I assume it means the tank left the brewery 14 days ago, so is pretty fresh.

[Bubbles]

Even though it's presumably lagering for a few months before it leaves the brewery?

[irish_goat]

Even though it's presumably lagering for a few months before it leaves the brewery?

5 weeks lagering time, afaik. The tankova beer isn't pasteurised so has a much shorter shelf life than the regular kegs.

The Czech Inn in Dublin gets casks of it in the odd time for special occasions, worth a try if you're a big fan of Pilsner Urquell.

[Bubbles]

Top beer, never heard of it before I went to Prague 10 years ago. Probably one of my earliest indicators that there was better beer out there than usual crappy macro swill.

[Parky]

How do they have a 14-day old lager??

Confused me too, here's a blurb about tank beer -

One of the reasons tank beer tastes so fresh is that, unlike all the other lagers you'll find pouring out of the taps at your local, it's unpasteurised, unfiltered and is maturing right up to the moment it hits your pint glass. Pasteurisation is the process used to remove any bacteria and live yeast from beer and is done by flash-boiling it. While it gets rid of any bugs that could damage the flavour, the process itself is slightly staling, taking away some of the subtlety of taste and aroma from the beer. As Miller says: "Why would you go and mature a beer for 40 days and then flash boil it?"

But by ensuring no bacteria gets in its beer in the first place, then transporting the beer directly from the brewery to the specially engineered tanks in the pub using vacuum-sealed bags kept at a constant temperature, pubs are able serve its lager unpasteurised, without having to worry about any loss of flavour. The technical process means the beer has no contact with the air until it hits your pint glass.

The guy said it usually takes 21 days to get a tank from brewery to pub, but these tanks were brought over specially for the event and only took 14 days to arrive. More info here and here