Dublin Beer Views

Just waiting for a chance to try these side by side

I love Innis and Gunn, particularly the 750ml bottle as opposed to the 330ml ones. Its got a lovely soft toffee taste BEWARE : the clear glass bottles can lead to awful skunking, and Tesco wont take it back, I've had that arguement. Get yourself a fresh bottle, store in the dark. Enjoy by yourself (I am greedy) Available in Tesco, Superquinn, Super Valu and assorted specialist off licences. Tesco definitely stock 750ml bottles though @ €5.76

Lovely stuff this, its a special addition to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Williams Bros Froach, Heather Ale. Heather Ale is an age old Scottish brew, that Williams Bros re-engineered and introduced to the market. Its light, fresh, strong and fragrant. A tasty wee drop. The 20th Anniversary is a different animal. 11% means its got kick, it has bags of raisin fruit, the heather is there and tangy finish. Its great for sharing, the three glasses in my pic testify to that. I had bought a bottle but was iffy about opening it, waiting for a special occasion, so I bought a second bottle to save for some future date and opened this one on what was a special evening, my little fella's 4th birthday. (after all the kids were gone though)

I've been tracking the price of 330ml bottles of Duvel as a way of guess-timating which establishments offer the best value Dunnes - €3 Superquinn - €3.65 Tesco - €2.56 Drinkstore - €2.99 (but you get the service to go with it) Molloys - €3.24 "cARRY oUT" - €3.19

Ok, was reliably informed (you see where this is going already I take it) that Biera Moretti, an Italian lager, now readily available in the likes of Dunnes Stores (6.79 for 4X 33cl) was the absolute bees knees. Now lager has a place, in someone elses hand... no seriously I dont mind a free bottle of lager when I pay a visit to someones house, I can polish off 3/4 in the space of a football match no problem, and a bottle or two of something ice cold on a hot summers afternoon is delightful. I just woudlnt choose to drink the stuff for taste. So I picked up 4 of these things.... its hmmm lager... yes a slightly less 50p in fizzy water than the usual stuff we get here in boxes stacked high, but none the less "just" lager. As far as value goes, 4 for neigh on 7 quid makes no sense when the cheap fizzy crap is 15-20 quid a box. I'll keep the other 2 for summer, which year that will be I'm not sure.

Well that was a very civilised Friday night in, my brothers dropped over, we watched the match (finally a win for rovers) we shared a few beers, we got Indian food in, we waffled a lot and we watched the Blur documentary - no distance to run but the beers I hear you cry... well.... Adnams Innovation Leffe Triple Whitewater's Belfast Ale Old Engine Oil Budvar Dark My brother's strange Bock And the 750ml swing top is my own homebrew Bock

I don't go to Superquinn that much any more. Many reasons, recession (yes I said it), not a fan of the store makeover in the last few years, its pretty dark and badly laid out, and there are three nearish to me that all feel the same. Oh and don't get me started on some of the developers who bought it out in the noughties... SRFC has a long memory lads. Anyway was in on Paddy's day, felt like treating ourselves to doughnuts Duvel - €3 Adnams Innovation, yes really on a supermarket shelf - €3 (something, look I forgot ok) 59c, actually, which is cracking value to my mind They also had other Adnams brews - Bitter (€2.99), which is very quaffable, Lighthouse too, which is not really for me