Spoons give Heineken a kick

[Oh Crap]

There is a place for ANY beer.  As was said, if you like Guinness or Heineken etc so be it....but surely the argument for craft beer is diversity...
Quality and staff knowledge are key to promoting alternative beers.
There is a new brewery 10 mins from my house, I call in regular for a nose and chat, we always have a beer, it's really nice stuff (saison) BUT last weekend I was at a party and the pub was serving his beer on tap so naturally I went for it, disappointed isn't the word, I put it down to 1st pint syndrome but it carried on, I said it to the owner who swore blind that at least 5 people were drinking it and informed me in a nice way "But sure that's the PROBLEM wit them beers, they all taste funny"
He could have said that they taste different then the norm.  I watched and noticed that the people he said were drinking it ordered the same again, 3 pints of Ken and 2 carlsburg.... He noticed me smiling to myself and when I went to order another round he asked if I wanted a proper pint....I ordered the same and then sent it back whilst informing that his beer was off an that when I'm in the brewery with ******* that there was no vinegary flavour there.....he suddenly had to change the barrel....

[Qs]

Its sad that none of that is surprising. Seen it happen all too often.

[ronnieb]

He should have had the cop on to change it without the nudge! How do you find the sales of craft in your pub oh crap?

[Oh Crap]

He should have had the cop on to change it without the nudge! How do you find the sales of craft in your pub oh crap?

Slow,
What I used to do was order smallest keg size, and untap the keg during the week and clean out the line before Friday nights, beer was fresh every pint...

[irish_goat]

Do you have a Facebook page for the pub?

[Hop Bomb]

I wonder how much gets dumped from Irish craft breweries. I've also said before that there is a real problem with price vs quality on a lot of the Irish stuff. I paid €4 for a bottle of Wicklow Wolf Porter yesterday and it was a decent beer but it wasn't an amazing beer. For €4 a bottle I expect brilliant beer. Especially when I can get a great porters like Founders and Fullers for €3 or less.

The price of Wicklow Wolf came up in conversation yesterday. Very pricey. No idea why when other Irish micros are 3.30e mark for the same size bottle. They obviously have margins they need to make to stay in business.

I know what our brewery gets per keg of 4.5% to 5.5% beer per 30 litre keg. I can tell you that every cent of it is hard earned. If you feel like you're being ripped off I can tell you hand on heart its not the breweries who are gouging you... Im aware that bars have overheads, they have their margins they apply to every beer they sell. Making a profit is what bars are supposed to do. At the end of the day its what the market can bare. Dont like the price, dont pay for it. Its the only way it will change.

But I dont see it ever changing tbh. Ive stopped drinking pints myself partly because Im so wrecked after a weeks work in the brewery, I get too drunk & fall asleep, & partly because of the price of a lot of draught beers I want to try. I drink halves now & its a much better drinking experience for me. I get to try way more beers, Im nowhere near as drunk & still have a great night out at the pub. Pints should be affordable but its close to 7e for some imports I want to try. F!ck that! Smaller glass please.

A quick one on beer quality:   Almost all breweries here are pretty new, have inexperienced owners & brewers & are just finding their feet. Some dont have adequate packaging facilities & you get oxidised batches of beer going out the door which usually doesnt show until beer is on the shelf in the shop (GBB just invested 150,000e in a bottling line to put an end to our (occasional) packaging issues) Some breweries just make bad beer. That will change (hopefully) as the brewers hone their craft or as the breweries hire more talented, experienced brewers.

We need to give the local beer scene here time to grow & flourish. It wont happen over night. Look at any stellar brewery across the pond & their brewers have all served their time at another brewery(s) for years before opening their own place.  That hasnt happened here. Most of the breweries here are first timers, its their brewers first gig. Its gona take time.

Not all beer from the big US craft guys is flawless. We had some stinkers at the BJCP night here from Mikeller, Anchor & Sierra Nevada to name a few. The first two had fermentation flaws, the last one was just old (im sure it was good at one stage)

Im positive the beer scene here will be in a much better state 5 years from now. We just need to be supportive, patient & bring any quality & price issues to the attention of the breweries & brewers.

[Qs]

I'm definitely looking forward to more breweries getting their own packaging systems. Its such a major part of quality control.

[ronnieb]

Black Donkey have their bottling line up and running now.

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Every beer transfer involves risk of DO pickup and if the beer has to be sent off site for packaging this carries even more risk. So in fairness to the packaging company, they can only put what is delivered into the bottle/can/keg. If the beer already has a high DO then there's nothing much they can do regardless of how good their packaging system is. The difference between the big breweries and the smaller guys really is resources, they can afford in house lab teams, so that beer is tested at each stage of the process, for micro as well as the rest of the specs eg colour abv gas content EBUs etc. a portable orbisphere for testing gas content runs at about €10k but without these luxuries you are shooting in the dark.
That's why as home brewers were far better off bottle conditioning rather than playing around with counter pressure bottling wands, unless you are going to get through your beer quickly. Even the likes of  Budweiser who are world leaders in packaging standards ( in their brewery in Mortlake London their limit on DO in final package was an incredible 10 parts per billion, everyone else at that time had targets in parts per million) still have a 6 month best before date on the beers while Duvel for example primarily due to bottle conditioning have a couple of years BB dates on theirs.

[googoomuck]

Black Donkey have their bottling line up and running now.

And metal man have installed the canning line.

[Qs]

Any idea when the cans will hit the market?

[googoomuck]

According to them (via Twitter) early next year. They seem to have a prototype amber beer @5.6% dry hopped with Willamette and summit on tap in Geoffs in Waterford. Anyone down that way want to take one for the team and have a cheeky sample?!

[Greg2013]

According to them (via Twitter) early next year. They seem to have a prototype amber beer @5.6% dry hopped with Willamette and summit on tap in Geoffs in Waterford. Anyone down that way want to take one for the team and have a cheeky sample?!

Ah shure gwan then 

[irish_goat]

According to them (via Twitter) early next year. They seem to have a prototype amber beer @5.6% dry hopped with Willamette and summit on tap in Geoffs in Waterford. Anyone down that way want to take one for the team and have a cheeky sample?!

They had it on draught at the RDS in September. It's nice, but it's no Metalman Pale Ale.

[googoomuck]

@Greg, good man, tough job but someone has to do it. @Goat, nice beer that alright. Anywhere I've been have always been out of their other beers so I've only had the pale ale.