Beer....

[AZOffaly]

Yeah, I like Tiger as well. Forgot about that one.

[LeoMc]

I drank a craft beer called 'Barefoot Bohemian' by some shower of crusties from Mitchelstown there a couple of weeks ago. It's a Pilsner, and they are the 8 degrees brewing company. It's nice stuff.

I also polished off a box of Cobra there last week after an Indian, that was nice, but maybe only because I was after eating an indian with their spices. All the lads from India I work with drink Kingfisher.

I'm stocking up with Erdinger Kristal and Staropraman for the Christmas. Any similar beers I should try instead?

Try Vedett, Peroni and if you like the cloudy German stuff it's hard to beat Franziskaner.

Peroni I find too strong to be honest. The Erdinger is a lager, Kristal, not the Weisbeir. I don't think I could drink the cloudy stuff.

Franziskaner do a kristalweis as well as their cloudier Weisbiers, though I haven't seen it for a few years.

[blewuporstuffed]

I drank a craft beer called 'Barefoot Bohemian' by some shower of crusties from Mitchelstown there a couple of weeks ago. It's a Pilsner, and they are the 8 degrees brewing company. It's nice stuff.

I also polished off a box of Cobra there last week after an Indian, that was nice, but maybe only because I was after eating an indian with their spices. All the lads from India I work with drink Kingfisher.

I'm stocking up with Erdinger Kristal and Staropraman for the Christmas. Any similar beers I should try instead?

Sam Adams is a nice beer.

[Croí na hÉireann]

Anyone every tried Galway Bay Porter? Pricey, doesn't keep the head but God damn tasty.

[Christmas Lights]

Would highly recommend this, had one at the weekend.  Craft beer. Was lovely and a cool 8.5% alcohol 

[omaghjoe]

Had a lovely pint of Chieftan's IPA in Dan Lovery's on McCurtain St. tonight.

Draught or bottle?  and what was lovely about it?

I'd say there's about a window of opportunity of about a month in the life of an IPA brew, after it's bottled or kegged, to experience the
ecstatic pleasures of the indescribable  outburst of  hop flavours. After the month, it's just a question of a gradual decline.

Rubbish!
As beer ages it matures especially bottle/cask conditioned beer so it actually develops deeper and more complex flavours with time, more often than not improving the taste of the beer. For example a bottle of Allsopps Artic Ale sold for $.5million a few years back.

Of course you need 10%ABV and higher to survive this long but 5%ABV beer would probably reach its peak after about a year, the flavours will continue to develop of course, but without alcohol, the bacteria will start to win the battle over yeast and start to sour the beer. However the decline will be slow and will probably be extremely tasty up until the end of the 2nd year,or longer depending on the cleanliness of the conditioning vesel, amount of hops etc.

Cask conditioned beer is a wonderful thing, drink it up and treasure its flavours, don't create urban myths about it!

Up your too, you self important twat.

I'm referring ONLY to IPA and the taste of fresh hops in the brew,
for example this http://enjoyby.stonebrewing.com/fresh-beer

'it's a race against the clock regarding flavor and quality. The flavor- and aroma-producing oils and acids in hops deteriorate with exposure to time, air, light or warm temperatures, so the easiest way to ensure that your hoppy brews are bright and flavorful is to enjoy them as soon as possible after purchasing them. Don't let that Stone Enjoy By IPA languish in your fridge for two months!'

or do a search fresh hopped beer and there are a zillion articles on the matter and the best enjoy by date.
Stone IPA have a best enjoy by date of 3 months. And there are plenty who think 3 months is too long,  their max is 30 days.
As time goes by, in the bottle and the keg, that fresh taste changes into something else,
can be a sour bitter taste eg bottled Fullers IPA   which is dull compared  to the a fresh hopped brew.
My opinion on the matter is also based on experience and consuming my own IPA brews, after 2 weeks conditioning.
The general consensus amongst the fraternity who gather to sample the brew is that it should be all consumed immediately before there is a .005%  flavour dissipation.

PS,,  and féck off back to Tyrone

Fair nuff Main St the pureness of the hop aroma and taste do degrade over time but I will maintain by opinion that the beer overall is best after bout a year or so. It is highly dependent on storage tho.
Americans are big into their craft beers and a bit over focused on the hop thing so unsurprising that the consensus out there is based on the hop flavours.
But I must apologise your clearly a craft beer fan not a slater

BTW anyone had any of Tyrone's finest?
https://www.facebook.com/PokertreeBrewingCompany

[Harold Disgracey]

I drank a craft beer called 'Barefoot Bohemian' by some shower of crusties from Mitchelstown there a couple of weeks ago. It's a Pilsner, and they are the 8 degrees brewing company. It's nice stuff.

I also polished off a box of Cobra there last week after an Indian, that was nice, but maybe only because I was after eating an indian with their spices. All the lads from India I work with drink Kingfisher.

I'm stocking up with Erdinger Kristal and Staropraman for the Christmas. Any similar beers I should try instead?

The Barefoot Bohemian isn't bad but I much preferred their Howling Gale Irish Pale Ale. There are some really good irish craft beers out there.

For a nice cheap beer it's hard to beat Bierra Moretti. You can get a dozen bottles of Staropramen for £12 in Sainsburys.

Emersons and McAnearneys in Armagh both have excellent off licences.

[LeoMc]

Had a lovely pint of Chieftan's IPA in Dan Lovery's on McCurtain St. tonight.

Draught or bottle?  and what was lovely about it?

I'd say there's about a window of opportunity of about a month in the life of an IPA brew, after it's bottled or kegged, to experience the
ecstatic pleasures of the indescribable  outburst of  hop flavours. After the month, it's just a question of a gradual decline.

Rubbish!
As beer ages it matures especially bottle/cask conditioned beer so it actually develops deeper and more complex flavours with time, more often than not improving the taste of the beer. For example a bottle of Allsopps Artic Ale sold for $.5million a few years back.

Of course you need 10%ABV and higher to survive this long but 5%ABV beer would probably reach its peak after about a year, the flavours will continue to develop of course, but without alcohol, the bacteria will start to win the battle over yeast and start to sour the beer. However the decline will be slow and will probably be extremely tasty up until the end of the 2nd year,or longer depending on the cleanliness of the conditioning vesel, amount of hops etc.

Cask conditioned beer is a wonderful thing, drink it up and treasure its flavours, don't create urban myths about it!

Up your too, you self important twat.

I'm referring ONLY to IPA and the taste of fresh hops in the brew,
for example this http://enjoyby.stonebrewing.com/fresh-beer

'it's a race against the clock regarding flavor and quality. The flavor- and aroma-producing oils and acids in hops deteriorate with exposure to time, air, light or warm temperatures, so the easiest way to ensure that your hoppy brews are bright and flavorful is to enjoy them as soon as possible after purchasing them. Don't let that Stone Enjoy By IPA languish in your fridge for two months!'

or do a search fresh hopped beer and there are a zillion articles on the matter and the best enjoy by date.
Stone IPA have a best enjoy by date of 3 months. And there are plenty who think 3 months is too long,  their max is 30 days.
As time goes by, in the bottle and the keg, that fresh taste changes into something else,
can be a sour bitter taste eg bottled Fullers IPA   which is dull compared  to the a fresh hopped brew.
My opinion on the matter is also based on experience and consuming my own IPA brews, after 2 weeks conditioning.
The general consensus amongst the fraternity who gather to sample the brew is that it should be all consumed immediately before there is a .005%  flavour dissipation.

PS,,  and féck off back to Tyrone

Fair nuff Main St the pureness of the hop aroma and taste do degrade over time but I will maintain by opinion that the beer overall is best after bout a year or so. It is highly dependent on storage tho.
Americans are big into their craft beers and a bit over focused on the hop thing so unsurprising that the consensus out there is based on the hop flavours.
But I must apologise your clearly a craft beer fan not a slater

BTW anyone had any of Tyrone's finest?
https://www.facebook.com/PokertreeBrewingCompany

Aye, I have worked my way through a few of them.
Their stout would be as good as any produced locally that I have tried and their Rebel Red is very easy drinking.
The Nirvana is interesting but I think it is one for a pub rather than sitting at home.
Th amber lager is OK but Clanconnell do a better one.
Apparently there are now 16 micro-breweries here in the North.

[Tony Baloney]

Had a lovely pint of Chieftan's IPA in Dan Lovery's on McCurtain St. tonight.

Draught or bottle?  and what was lovely about it?

I'd say there's about a window of opportunity of about a month in the life of an IPA brew, after it's bottled or kegged, to experience the
ecstatic pleasures of the indescribable  outburst of  hop flavours. After the month, it's just a question of a gradual decline.

Rubbish!
As beer ages it matures especially bottle/cask conditioned beer so it actually develops deeper and more complex flavours with time, more often than not improving the taste of the beer. For example a bottle of Allsopps Artic Ale sold for $.5million a few years back.

Of course you need 10%ABV and higher to survive this long but 5%ABV beer would probably reach its peak after about a year, the flavours will continue to develop of course, but without alcohol, the bacteria will start to win the battle over yeast and start to sour the beer. However the decline will be slow and will probably be extremely tasty up until the end of the 2nd year,or longer depending on the cleanliness of the conditioning vesel, amount of hops etc.

Cask conditioned beer is a wonderful thing, drink it up and treasure its flavours, don't create urban myths about it!

Up your too, you self important twat.

I'm referring ONLY to IPA and the taste of fresh hops in the brew,
for example this http://enjoyby.stonebrewing.com/fresh-beer

'it's a race against the clock regarding flavor and quality. The flavor- and aroma-producing oils and acids in hops deteriorate with exposure to time, air, light or warm temperatures, so the easiest way to ensure that your hoppy brews are bright and flavorful is to enjoy them as soon as possible after purchasing them. Don't let that Stone Enjoy By IPA languish in your fridge for two months!'

or do a search fresh hopped beer and there are a zillion articles on the matter and the best enjoy by date.
Stone IPA have a best enjoy by date of 3 months. And there are plenty who think 3 months is too long,  their max is 30 days.
As time goes by, in the bottle and the keg, that fresh taste changes into something else,
can be a sour bitter taste eg bottled Fullers IPA   which is dull compared  to the a fresh hopped brew.
My opinion on the matter is also based on experience and consuming my own IPA brews, after 2 weeks conditioning.
The general consensus amongst the fraternity who gather to sample the brew is that it should be all consumed immediately before there is a .005%  flavour dissipation.

PS,,  and féck off back to Tyrone

Fair nuff Main St the pureness of the hop aroma and taste do degrade over time but I will maintain by opinion that the beer overall is best after bout a year or so. It is highly dependent on storage tho.
Americans are big into their craft beers and a bit over focused on the hop thing so unsurprising that the consensus out there is based on the hop flavours.
But I must apologise your clearly a craft beer fan not a slater

BTW anyone had any of Tyrone's finest?
https://www.facebook.com/PokertreeBrewingCompany

Aye, I have worked my way through a few of them.
Their stout would be as good as any produced locally that I have tried and their Rebel Red is very easy drinking.
The Nirvana is interesting but I think it is one for a pub rather than sitting at home.
Th amber lager is OK but Clanconnell do a better one.
Apparently there are now 16 micro-breweries here in the North.

McGrath's collection from Clanconnel is tasty.

Would echo what what Harold says about the off-licences in Armagh. Catering for the more discerning Buckie drinker.

[Main Street]

I drank a craft beer called 'Barefoot Bohemian' by some shower of crusties from Mitchelstown there a couple of weeks ago. It's a Pilsner, and they are the 8 degrees brewing company. It's nice stuff.

I also polished off a box of Cobra there last week after an Indian, that was nice, but maybe only because I was after eating an indian with their spices. All the lads from India I work with drink Kingfisher.

I'm stocking up with Erdinger Kristal and Staropraman for the Christmas. Any similar beers I should try instead?

Try Vedett, Peroni and if you like the cloudy German stuff it's hard to beat Franziskaner.

Peroni I find too strong to be honest. The Erdinger is a lager, Kristal, not the Weisbeir. I don't think I could drink the cloudy stuff.

I have a soft spot for the popular Lowenbrau Orig  and prefer it just a bit ahead  of  Erdinger and Oettinger.

[Main Street]

Had a lovely pint of Chieftan's IPA in Dan Lovery's on McCurtain St. tonight.

Draught or bottle?  and what was lovely about it?

I'd say there's about a window of opportunity of about a month in the life of an IPA brew, after it's bottled or kegged, to experience the
ecstatic pleasures of the indescribable  outburst of  hop flavours. After the month, it's just a question of a gradual decline.

Rubbish!
As beer ages it matures especially bottle/cask conditioned beer so it actually develops deeper and more complex flavours with time, more often than not improving the taste of the beer. For example a bottle of Allsopps Artic Ale sold for $.5million a few years back.

Of course you need 10%ABV and higher to survive this long but 5%ABV beer would probably reach its peak after about a year, the flavours will continue to develop of course, but without alcohol, the bacteria will start to win the battle over yeast and start to sour the beer. However the decline will be slow and will probably be extremely tasty up until the end of the 2nd year,or longer depending on the cleanliness of the conditioning vesel, amount of hops etc.

Cask conditioned beer is a wonderful thing, drink it up and treasure its flavours, don't create urban myths about it!

Up your too, you self important twat.

I'm referring ONLY to IPA and the taste of fresh hops in the brew,
for example this http://enjoyby.stonebrewing.com/fresh-beer

'it's a race against the clock regarding flavor and quality. The flavor- and aroma-producing oils and acids in hops deteriorate with exposure to time, air, light or warm temperatures, so the easiest way to ensure that your hoppy brews are bright and flavorful is to enjoy them as soon as possible after purchasing them. Don't let that Stone Enjoy By IPA languish in your fridge for two months!'

or do a search fresh hopped beer and there are a zillion articles on the matter and the best enjoy by date.
Stone IPA have a best enjoy by date of 3 months. And there are plenty who think 3 months is too long,  their max is 30 days.
As time goes by, in the bottle and the keg, that fresh taste changes into something else,
can be a sour bitter taste eg bottled Fullers IPA   which is dull compared  to the a fresh hopped brew.
My opinion on the matter is also based on experience and consuming my own IPA brews, after 2 weeks conditioning.
The general consensus amongst the fraternity who gather to sample the brew is that it should be all consumed immediately before there is a .005%  flavour dissipation.

PS,,  and féck off back to Tyrone

Fair nuff Main St the pureness of the hop aroma and taste do degrade over time but I will maintain by opinion that the beer overall is best after bout a year or so. It is highly dependent on storage tho.
Americans are big into their craft beers and a bit over focused on the hop thing so unsurprising that the consensus out there is based on the hop flavours.
But I must apologise your clearly a craft beer fan not a slater

BTW anyone had any of Tyrone's finest?
https://www.facebook.com/PokertreeBrewingCompany

No problems Joe,
do you have any pictures from the internals in the Poker Tree brewery?

Dry hopping  is not an American thing as such,  USA craft/small breweries are looking for marketing angles and hyping it up.  IPA and dry hopped beer is equally popular amongst home beer brewers both sides of the atlantic. But you can easily appreciate why there are difficulties commercially - with this type of brew.
Dry hopping in the keg for small breweries was widely practised in England, I came across it in Norfolk in   the mid 1970's (and stayed an extra week)  but nowadays only the smaller craft breweries do it, those small breweries who have access and control to the end sale  environment in the pub.  Dry hopping means the hops are added to the IPA and pale ale keg prior to the journey to the pub, then after 14 days or so  the fresh dry hopped brew is ready to be served.
The hops are  added to the brew  after the fermentation process has finished and that special orgasm of aromatic flavours  gradually dissapates after 30 days to 90 days end life.
These days, pubs have a quicker turn around, will not store a keg for 2 weeks and will have much more  varieties of beer than in days gone by,  therefore handling of dry hopped kegs died out in England in the pubs sometime in the 1980's.
I was curious about Billy's positive review of that IPA, from the keg I suspect, bringing a quality IPA to the public is a challenge to any brewery.

[ardchieftain]

Would highly recommend this, had one at the weekend.  Craft beer. Was lovely and a cool 8.5% alcohol 

I always try and pick up any ales i haven't sampled before when i'm buying beer but every time i reach the till there always seems to be a few bottles of Duvel. What other Belgian beers are in a similar vein to Duvel, anyone?

[omaghjoe]

Had a lovely pint of Chieftan's IPA in Dan Lovery's on McCurtain St. tonight.

Draught or bottle?  and what was lovely about it?

I'd say there's about a window of opportunity of about a month in the life of an IPA brew, after it's bottled or kegged, to experience the
ecstatic pleasures of the indescribable  outburst of  hop flavours. After the month, it's just a question of a gradual decline.

Rubbish!
As beer ages it matures especially bottle/cask conditioned beer so it actually develops deeper and more complex flavours with time, more often than not improving the taste of the beer. For example a bottle of Allsopps Artic Ale sold for $.5million a few years back.

Of course you need 10%ABV and higher to survive this long but 5%ABV beer would probably reach its peak after about a year, the flavours will continue to develop of course, but without alcohol, the bacteria will start to win the battle over yeast and start to sour the beer. However the decline will be slow and will probably be extremely tasty up until the end of the 2nd year,or longer depending on the cleanliness of the conditioning vesel, amount of hops etc.

Cask conditioned beer is a wonderful thing, drink it up and treasure its flavours, don't create urban myths about it!

Up your too, you self important twat.

I'm referring ONLY to IPA and the taste of fresh hops in the brew,
for example this http://enjoyby.stonebrewing.com/fresh-beer

'it's a race against the clock regarding flavor and quality. The flavor- and aroma-producing oils and acids in hops deteriorate with exposure to time, air, light or warm temperatures, so the easiest way to ensure that your hoppy brews are bright and flavorful is to enjoy them as soon as possible after purchasing them. Don't let that Stone Enjoy By IPA languish in your fridge for two months!'

or do a search fresh hopped beer and there are a zillion articles on the matter and the best enjoy by date.
Stone IPA have a best enjoy by date of 3 months. And there are plenty who think 3 months is too long,  their max is 30 days.
As time goes by, in the bottle and the keg, that fresh taste changes into something else,
can be a sour bitter taste eg bottled Fullers IPA   which is dull compared  to the a fresh hopped brew.
My opinion on the matter is also based on experience and consuming my own IPA brews, after 2 weeks conditioning.
The general consensus amongst the fraternity who gather to sample the brew is that it should be all consumed immediately before there is a .005%  flavour dissipation.

PS,,  and féck off back to Tyrone

Fair nuff Main St the pureness of the hop aroma and taste do degrade over time but I will maintain by opinion that the beer overall is best after bout a year or so. It is highly dependent on storage tho.
Americans are big into their craft beers and a bit over focused on the hop thing so unsurprising that the consensus out there is based on the hop flavours.
But I must apologise your clearly a craft beer fan not a slater

BTW anyone had any of Tyrone's finest?
https://www.facebook.com/PokertreeBrewingCompany

No problems Joe,
do you have any pictures from the internals in the Poker Tree brewery?

Dry hopping  is not an American thing as such,  USA craft/small breweries are looking for marketing angles and hyping it up.  IPA and dry hopped beer is equally popular amongst home beer brewers both sides of the atlantic. But you can easily appreciate why there are difficulties commercially - with this type of brew.
Dry hopping in the keg for small breweries was widely practised in England, I came across it in Norfolk in   the mid 1970's (and stayed an extra week)  but nowadays only the smaller craft breweries do it, those small breweries who have access and control to the end sale  environment in the pub.  Dry hopping means the hops are added to the IPA and pale ale keg prior to the journey to the pub, then after 14 days or so  the fresh dry hopped brew is ready to be served.
The hops are  added to the brew  after the fermentation process has finished and that special orgasm of aromatic flavours  gradually dissapates after 30 days to 90 days end life.
These days, pubs have a quicker turn around, will not store a keg for 2 weeks and will have much more  varieties of beer than in days gone by,  therefore handling of dry hopped kegs died out in England in the pubs sometime in the 1980's.
I was curious about Billy's positive review of that IPA, from the keg I suspect, bringing a quality IPA to the public is a challenge to any brewery.

I was actually introduced to the propertier when he was just getting up and running unfortunately i was emigrating to America around the same time and I haven't had the chance to sample his brews, but I am busting to sample his treacle oatmeal stout. Here's a video of his get up.
http://vimeo.com/88705081

Ah yes of course dry hopping is purely for aroma adds no bitterness at all apparently, the aromas are on the wane pretty much immediately as you say. The  story is it started as an extra preservative for IPAs on their journey to India although no ones really sure about that. Anyway as you say most IPAs arent dry hopped and I dont think beers from the keg would be dry hop its usally served up in casks or bottles.

Yeah the market in America is a bit over focused on hoppiness, alot of the IPAs are great but many are way over the top, far to bitter, usually the std Pale Ales are more within by bitterness range. The selection over here is class tho unlike the waste land Ireland is, but there is alot of crap too, they try and brew Belgian stuff for example but they are mostly a total disaster as far as I am concerned, all great fun sampling it tho!

[ziggy90]

I drank a craft beer called 'Barefoot Bohemian' by some shower of crusties from Mitchelstown there a couple of weeks ago. It's a Pilsner, and they are the 8 degrees brewing company. It's nice stuff.

I also polished off a box of Cobra there last week after an Indian, that was nice, but maybe only because I was after eating an indian with their spices. All the lads from India I work with drink Kingfisher.

I'm stocking up with Erdinger Kristal and Staropraman for the Christmas. Any similar beers I should try instead?

I visit Slovakia fairly frequently and the locals beer of choice is Saris or Kosovice, both very nice indeed.

[Billys Boots]

Jaysus, it's great to cause havoc in my absence - it was a draught IPA.  Lovely, hoppy and fruity - quite sweet, but not cloying.