Dublin Beer Views

Latest supermarket super deal 5 X 500ml bottels of Franziskaner for €8 Get it while its in stock

After enjoying a few light ales and euro IPA style beers, such as Haviestoun's Schellalion and Adnam's Innovation. One of the recent warm weekends I had a hankering for some IPA. Might aswell do a spot of US IPA assesment then I suppose. In order of preference Goose Island By far my favourite. It had all that extra American hop taste but it still had soem malt flavour, it was round but clean. Very nice. Now top of my IPA shopping list Big Daddy - Speakeasy The comic bottle and cringey marketing aside ths was very passable. It was jut as the pic shows a little cloudier than expecting but the hop was still all there. Sierra Nevada - Torpedo I was led to believe that this was the king, the benchmark for US IPA. For me it went too far, it was all Hop and that meant it just tasted dry and powdery on the pallet. I really like some SN stuff, their porter is very nice. But this was a step (yeah I'll ay it), a hop too far for me.

I was given the heads up on St Bernadrus by a friend on another forum. He raved about their Apt 12. So I picked up some bottles of each Its a very typical Belgian Triple, smooth and spicey, and in this case it came with built in ice-cream... I jest, it comes in a champagne style bottle and as soon as I released the cage and cork it frothed madly... what fun. I sipped on this for a couple of hours and every pour led to loads of lovey soft foam. The beer is just right against this. I really enjoyed it. The Apt12 is still away, so I must find a world cup match to have that with.

Belzebub, extra forte - 13% Oh look its a very strong 250ml bottle of beer, very very strong, with a demonic name... oh and its well mmmm, well... boring. Yeah its strong but thats it. If I want strong, I'll just buy some supermarket own brand vodka. Not for me

My brother, raves about this stuff, so I ordered me up a couple. What a lovely, sitting by the fire type beer.... its warm and syruppy and the Honey flavour is there whilst not too sweet. Tasty

Williams Bothers is a Scottish brewer who I have blogged about previously http://dublinbeerviews.blogspot.com/2010/04/fraoch-20-year-anniversary.html They have wide range of weird and wonderful brews along the same lines as the Heather Ale, Fraoch. And a top notch range of lager, ale and stout to go with it. Here I have described a selction that I have tried over the last few weeks. Ginger I was a bit worried about this, I like ginger ale, real strong, spicey ginger ale, not Canada Dry, or Schwepps mixer strength soap. I was afraid this might be a bit limp NO CHANCE Its got huge, spicey warm ginger that trickles down your throat warming all the way down. Its fantastic, there is still malt there but the ginger shines through. Its absolutely fabulous Grozet Grozet is a light ale, which has been secondary fermented with Gooseberry. Now its a decent light ale, dry and fresh, but unlike the ginger, it seems to me a bit washed out. I didnt get any citrus as descirbed and certainly no gooseb...

I heard a rumour. The rumour said that Carlow Brewary were making beer for Aldi... hmmm, now Aldi (and Lidl) is great for beer, pick up a slab of lager for a BBQ - mini french bottles, something German, get some decent cheap Weissbeir or a tray of Guinness for the hoardes at a party. But own brand??? So as I was looking for something for the garden that was "on special" I spotted the rumour on the shlf. 4 33cl bottles of Aldi Traditional Irish Red Ale for €4.59... bargain. And yes it is brewed by Carlow. Result. And it tastes lovely, lots of caramel and lots of hop... Magnifico Its not as dark as the picture lends on though

A few years ago the Porterhouse celebrated an anniversary with a special stout brew. It has gone down in legend, the stores keep a single bottle for display purposes only. Now, with their new bottling plant they have released a 2010 Celebration Stout, et voila, here it is Its a lovely dark, 7% stout. less carbonation than some of their other bottles, which is good, the plain and oyster were both very carbonated, overly for me. This is just right. Its thick on the pour and choclatey and liquorice and just delicious. I have two more put away :-)

Beware the onslaught of the last months drinking escapades is on the way. IPA review Williams brothers mega review Plus a few little suprises