Franciscan Well Easter Beer Festival

Franciscan Well Easter Beer Festival

Made an early visit to the Franciscan Well Beer Festival this Saturday afternoon and took my chance to sample some of the newer brews before the crowds started to roll in on this sunny day.

Last year, the Lynch brothers from Mayfield’s Cotton Ball were on the outside of the ring; this time, Eoin and Humphrey were serving their own beers including their latest. This is called Indian Summer and is quite a lovely drink for the days ahead, a mix of lager ingredients and an ale yeast.

Not to be outdone, the now well established Eight Degrees also had new one on offer, the Full Irish, a strong 100 per cent Irish Malt ale. I've had a sneak preview of the publicity shots for this one. X is the letter that springs to mind! Think Full Monty!

Blacks of Kinsale were promising a surprise for later in the afternoon when a special set-up will allow them to add fresh hops (a new one called Equinox) at the very last moment to Kinsale Pale Ale. Can't get fresher than that. Try that and don’t forget to sample their Beoir #1

Beers from new Connemara brewery available at Bradley's, North Main Street, Cork.

Great to meet up with Jamie from White Gypsy and his innovative beers. Tried his lovely refreshing Wheat beer, the beer you need after walking round, Bavarian in style but Irish “engineered”. The 5.2% Pilsner isn't half bad either. White Gypsy are growing their own hops this year and are also hoping that more and more restaurants will offer a craft beer as an alternative to wine.

The gregarious Mountain Man was another brewer I had not met before and he explained that his Hairy Goat was an English Style IPA with a lowish ABV. Nothing low though about the ABV of its American cousin, the 7.5% Crazy Horse. Well worth a try.

Micro-breweries just keep popping up around the country and next up was JJ's from County Limerick. This was their first outing and the 4.8% Pils lager promised much, especially as this is their very first beer.

aAnd another newcomer, the 9 White Deer Brewery from Ballyvourney, was also making its debut. Gordon Lucey tells me their hops, including Amarillo, Cascade and Fast Gold, comes from all over the world but the "mystical" water is local as is the yeast. This will soon be on sale in 500ml bottles and watch out for other beers, including a stout.

Nice to chat with Caroline of Eight Degrees and also with Claire from Dungarvan Brewing Company. I always enjoy the Dungarvan beers and tried a couple this time: their wheat beer and their Comeragh Challenge Irish Bitter. Had a preference for the former but isn't that what craft beer is all about. Great to have the choice. Long may the craft revolution continue!

The Franciscan Well Festival continues until late this Saturday evening and is on again tomorrow Sunday with soakage provided by the on site pizza maker! Enjoy.

Getting it Light and Oh So Right at Forest Avenue

Getting it Right and Light at Forest Avenue

A cold wind blew on the banks of the Grand Canal as we strode down to the Forest Avenue Restaurant in Sussex Street (Dublin). But soon I felt as if we were sailing away on a summer’s day, such was the gorgeous lunch served up to us, in a light and delightful style.

Here you’ll be fed well without necessarily getting the traditional “great feed”.Quality over quantity! The relatively new restaurant is run by Sandy and John Wyer (who I found out is from Glanmire, the parish next door to my Cork base!).

We got a hint of what was to come with a tasting of their Potato soup (above) with pickled mushroom, and ham, and lovage. Simple ingredients but a superb result. The pricing too is pretty simple: 15 euro for a main course, 20 for two courses and 25 for three. Well worth it! Service, led by Sandy, is friendly, informative and excellent and the place itself is casual and comfortable. Very Highly Recommended. They are open for both dinner and lunch and do remember that menus change quite frequently.

They have an appropriately short wine list but, after a tasting that morning, we were happy to see some craft drinks on the list, including that excellent Stonewell Cider. We shared a bottle and it went very well indeed with the food.

The potato soup was one of the three starters on Wednesday’s menu. I picked the Salt Baked Beets (below), celeriac, hazelnuts, house-made ricotta, pear and house-cured duck pastrami, another great mix of ingredients resulting in lovely combination of textures and flavours. And much the same could be said about the other starter, which CL thoroughly enjoyed. That was the Salad of Grilled Leek (above), soft egg with smoked beef and torn bread.

There were also three choices for mains and mine was the Cod with sprouting broccoli, mussels and horseradish. This was so appealing, both to the eyes and to the palate, a deliciously perfect example of the light style referred to earlier.

Again, the second mains was another collection of simple ingredients but, overall, a superb dish: Chicken Breast, smoked potato, parsnip, onion and kale. CL was delighted: “The chicken was succulent, the kale perfectly cooked, the lightly smoked potato had a beautiful distinctive flavour while  the onion and parsnip also added to the textures and flavours.”

The third mains, by the way, was the House-made cavatelli with squash, olive and capers. Desserts too looked tempting but, on this occasion (it was turning into a packed enjoyable day in Dublin), we reluctantly gave it a skip.

Forest Avenue

8 Sussex Terrace - Dublin 4 - Ph: 01 667 8337

email: sandy@forestavenuerestaurant.ie

Opening Hours:

Closed Monday

Lunch: Tuesday – Friday 12pm– 3pm

Dinner: Wednesday – Saturday 6pm – 9:30pm

Brunch: Sunday 12pm – 3pm

 44 Hours in Dublin. Accommodation, lunch, dinner, more. Details all here

Good Food Ireland Conference. And Awards

Good Food Ireland Conference
And Awards

Pádraig Ó’Céidigh

Didn't expect a clinical psychologist to be the star speaker at the annual Good Food Ireland conference in the Shelbourne Hotel (Dublin) yesterday. But that psychologist was Dr Maureen Gaffney and she took the room by storm as she looked at the Feel Good Factor.

Must admit I’m one of those people who just love to see a smile. Maureen says smiles “are all important”. “People are ready to co-operate with you..work on it.. smiles help to form that very important first impression. We all have bad days .. act positively especially when things are bad.” She said there is  evidence that shows that smiling even helps the smiler. “It triggers (even fools) your brain”.

And she also pointed out that a negative mood in the team leader can have a negative influence on the staff, your staff. This is a “high risk” to business. So learn to smile. Cheese!

“Get your self right..then you'll get a whole lot more right. Learn, achieve, grow. Vision is vitally important, start with your vision. Values are really important, not just accessories...There is evidence that people driven by a higher set of values do better.”

Maureen Gaffney (left) and Xanthe Clay

Set challenges, she urged. “Keep learning, growing, have projects, invest time and effort in them. And connect! Not just on digital platforms but also in the real world, family, friends, clubmates. These real connections will provide “personal experience and insight, contextual information, personal recommendations”.

So get social,and get connected, she urged. And she ended with a reminder about that smile. “Nurture your optimism!”

Xanthe Clay, author and journalist, spoke on the fickle British market, especially the fickle press. One day they headline that coffee is good for you, a week later they say it is bad for you. She urged irish producers to give value for money and highlighted the importance of trust (especially after the rocky year that saw the horse meat scandal gallop across the headlines). “Be open, she said. “Show people what you do. If you do add an additive to your food, list it, explain it.” Much better than your customers ambushed by the news in the press later on.

Asked what were the outstanding Irish qualities, she didn't hesitate: “Tradition, warmth, quality. These never go out of fashion.”

Coming into fashion is Origin Green, Bord Bia’s new programme to enhance and promote sustainability and explained on stage by Una Fitzgibbon. This was quite a sombre presentation, no jokes here. Great to see producers such as the Apple Farm’s Con Traas and Stonewell Cider’s Daniel Emerson being very enthusiastic about it on a short film. “This is a big deal,”said conference chair Darragh McCullough. “Only going to get bigger.”

Margot Slattery of Sodexo started with some very impressive numbers: purchases of some 18 million euro in Ireland every year. 420,000 employees worldwide and growing. “We stand for sustainability and fresh food” as client companies are looking for healthy weight and healthy life for their employees. Sodexo run gyms, even detox programmes.

Siobhain from Kalbo's and Yours Truly

Margot said they feed 50,000 a day in ireland. “Not frozen food, these are cooked, from scratch, on a daily basis.”

Just before a break for lunch, there was a panel discussion on Digital Marketing and two bits of advice emerged, at least two that I noted. Check out the recent changes in YouTube as they make it more interesting to business. And also have a look at Vine for short video promotions.

If Maureen Gaffney was the morning star then Pádraig Ó’Céidigh caught the attention in the afternoon. The founder of Aer Arann took us on a flight. He started in the Comfort Zone, then challenged us to enter the Stretch Zone before warning us about the perils of the Danger Zone (here, you can damage yourself, he reported, from experience).

Kevin and Réidín from Sage

Citing the small beginnings of what is now the Kerry group in 1972 and the choice made by Clonakilty Black Pudding’s Colette Twomey to run the company after the death of her husband as examples of leaving the comfort zone.

And Padraig is optimistic right now. “This is a great time to be an entrepreneur. There is great optimism out there, great opportunities. Time to leave the comfort zone.”

“There have never been such a demand for good quality food. Be solid on your own two feet, use what’s between your ears. No reason why we can't have another Kerry.”

The world will go on with you or without you. Make sure it’s with you. Believe it and go for it. Never forget your roots and use that little bit of Gaeilge!”

An afternoon panel discussion on our food future produced some interesting points. Martin Shanahan thought too much of our fish is being exported. Country Choice’s Peter Ward urged the industry to be creative, to re-invent our own Irish produce. Chapter One’s Ross Lewis says he sees confidence building in young Irish chefs, “not necessarily mimicking foreign chefs.The industry has changed more in the last three years than in the previous thirty.”

Minister for Tourism Alan Varadkar launched the Good Food Ireland prepaid MasterCard, a food travel passport for visitors to the county’s producers, shops and restaurants and said he was encouraged by progress in tourism numbers this year and employment growth in the industry. He lauded the “great decision” by government colleagues to retain the 9% VAT and acknowledged that lobbying had had its effect and confirmed that there were no plans to increase the rate in the future. We are very much in recovery mode.”

The delegates assembled in the same room for a cracking dinner in the evening. Skeaghanore Duck and Clare Island salmon were the centrepieces, all washed down by superb wines from Classic Drinks.

The awards were announced as the desserts were being served and the large Cork contingent had plenty to cheer about with Midleton's Sage Restaurant, URRU Culinary Store in Bandon, MIlleens Cheese, Kalbo’s Cafe in Skibbereen and Kinsale’s Fishy Fishy all winning their categories.

One of the loudest cheers of the night went to Ballymaloe’s Rory O'Connell who was declared Ambassador of the Year, mainly for his part in feeding, at short notice, 10,000 delegates at the recent Web Summit. Mount Juliet won three awards including the Supreme Award and Restaurant of the Year Award.

All the awards were presented by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny who smilingly indicated there were three women he must listen to: Mrs Kenny, Angela Merkel and Margaret Jeffares (the dynamo behind Good Food Ireland).

Cornstore's Craft Beer and Food Month. A series of successful pairings

Craft Beer and Food Month at The Cornstore

A series of successful pairings.

Goat cheese starter

 For those who love good food and a good beer to go with it, Cork’s Cornstore is the place to be this month. The popular restaurant is running a Craft Beer and Food Menu every Wednesday and Thursday. I sampled it last week and can highly recommend it. The Menu is proving very popular so the advice is to book ahead.

They have put a lot of effort into the pairings and a beer (or cider) is suggested with each course. You can, of course, swap around to suit yourself. But we went with the suggested beers and found a series of successful pairings.

Ravioli

You have  a choice of five starters. I kicked off with the Porcini Mushroom Ravioli in a game broth with shredded duck leg and celeriac remoulade. This was a lovely dish on its own but, matched with O’Hara’s Curim, perhaps Ireland’s only wheat beer, it was even better, the object of the November exercise accomplished!

The Warm Goat's Cheese was recommended to us and, with poached fig and red pepper and tomato compote, it sure was a gem, But, matched with the flavoursome red ale, the Dungarvan Copper Coast, the balance was spot-on, the result perfectly delectable. 

Venison

Other starters included Crisp Pork Belly with Stonewell Medium Dry Cider, Chicken Wings with Trouble Brewing Sabotage IPA and Pan Seared Scallops with Eight Degrees Barefoot Bohemian. Check the full menu here.

Brown Bread was the unusual but excellent addition to the Wild Venison Stew, also with braised red cabbage and a wild mushroom dumpling. This earthy game dish, a wintery dark in the bowl, had a great complement in the black stout from Trouble Brewing called Dark Arts, an appropriate name indeed. A highly recommended dish!  

Steak

Trouble Brewing’s Sabotage IPA was one of the suggestions to go with the Aged Rib Eye Steak. Recommending it, the Cornstore said that it has a lovely bitter finish. “And really works well with our award winning steak rub and cuts through the little extra fat of the rib eye steak.” Very true indeed, a perfect alchemy of beer and boeuf, the steak served with mushroom and onion fricassee, a half roast plum tomato and pepper sauce.

Dessert and Beer? No problem to the taste team at the Cornstore. The Flourless Chocolate Cake, with fresh cream and raspberry coulis, is a luxury treat, some very expensive chocolate used here, and it was well matched with a small glass of the Franciscan Well Limited Edition Stout, aged in Jameson Whiskey Casks. The stout, a special treat, also doubled up well with the magnificent Cheese Board Selection (with fruit and crackers). 

And then what do you match with their Apple Dessert plate (mini apple crumble, apple sorbet and apple panna cotta)? Why, Stonewell Dry Cider, of course, the dry style of the Nohoval produced cider perfectly complementing the seasonal apple selection. 

Tapas in the Greenroom

The Greenroom at Sage

Called down to Midleton last Tuesday evening to sample the food at the Greenroom, the new all day late night cafe under the ample wing of the adjacent Sage Restaurant. Spotted the 12 Mile Tapas board and immediately saw familiar producers of quality including Woodside Farm, Ardsallagh and Tom Clancy. Five tapas on the board, so we ordered all five.

Next question was what to drink. Easily answered by looking at the next board. Lots of local beers here and also Stonewell cider. Could hardly drink all the beers so settled for the Barefoot Bohemian Pilsner from Eight Degrees and two new Cork beers, both pale ales, the Mountain Man Green Bullet and the Kinsale Pale Ale, each dangerously drinkable!

The tapas are top class, all the dishes perfectly executed and, at seven euro each, very good value. Take the humble Organic courgette and apple fritters with dehydrated goat yoghurt. Didn’t sound the most promising of the five but the tangy yoghurt made the fritters sing.

The Organic baby carrot and Ardsallagh goat cheese with organic leaves and pickled beetroot was another successful combination of taste, colour, flavour and texture. While the cooking here is creative, the food is allowed to speak for itself and this was perhaps best illustrated by the Woodside mini Pork Pie with peas and gravy. The pork flavour and texture were incredible.

The monkfish, coated in the most delicate batter and served with crispy bacon and organic roast garlic aioli, was lyrically light, crunchy and gorgeous and probably CL’s favourite.

For me, the outstanding bite was the first one into those Thomas Clancy free range chicken livers with sourdough and salsa. Honest food so well handled all the way to the table.

The dessert, Red Velvet Cappuccino cake with Bailey’s Ice Cream, was so smooth and seemed designed to put us into a good mood. But, after those brilliant tapas, we were happily already in that zone!

All in all then,  honest food, flawlessly cooked, just perfect. And obviously widely appreciated as the Greenroom was more or less full.

Sage itself was also full. It has gained some extra seating and a different entrance (via the courtyard) after the recent building works that gave us the Greenroom. And the local producers are lauded here in Sage and not just on the tables. On one of the walls there is an excellent photo display of the producers going about their daily work. Well done to Kevin and Réidín for their dedication to their local suppliers!

While it is full steam ahead for Sage, the recently opened Greenroom too has been finding itself quite busy in these early days. It opens at nine and, during the morning, you can pop in for a freshly ground coffee and a freshly baked treat. At lunch time, you’ll have great choices of Salads and Sandwiches and, in the evening, the tapas come into their own.

The new Greenroom, they call it Sage’s little sister, is also proving useful for a pre-meal drink for those booked into Sage or maybe waiting for a table. And, when the sun shines, the courtyard outside is abuzz.

Greenroom details

Opening hours: Tue - Sun: 9:00 am - 11:00 pm.

Address: 8 Main St, Midleton, Co. Cork.

Phone: (021) 463 9682

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/www.sagerestaurant.ie

Best of Local Food at Cronin’s Pub

Best of Local Food at Cronin’s Pub

The warm weather draws us to the seaside and Wednesday was no exception. Enjoyed a short walk along the waters leading to Crosshaven and that soon led to a lovely lunch at Cronin’s Pub in the village.

Didn’t expect so much choice here. Soups and Pate were available. Could have had a lamb burger or the vegetarian dish of the day. Lots of fish choices including oysters, squid, fish and chips, salmon, mussels (regular or large serving) as well as Fish Plates and Meat Platters.

Great to see local craft beers taking their place on the counter of the popular bar and no shortage of bottles in the fridge. With the day being so hot, I sipped from a bottle of that delicious Stonewell Dry Cider, made locally in Nohoval as I studied the menu.

Rope reared Oysterhaven mussels, large portion please, was the order. No sign of the rope but the mussels were plentiful, and certainly very tasty indeed. CL was very impressed with her Fresh organic Irish salmon, poached in white wine, served with garden leaves, homemade salads and brown soda bread. The salmon was gorgeous, really well cooked and the leaves and salads were also high class, all for twelve euro.

Tempted by the desserts but had to pass a menu that included Banoffee Pie, Knickerbocker Glory, and Apple Pie (Dutch style).

As you can see, and as you’d expect given the location, fish is a big part of the lunch menu and that theme continues into the evening, including the cleverly named Seagull Menu (Early Bird to you landlubbers!).

The full dinner menu, available Thu-Sat evenings, starts with their Mad fish soup Not your typical fish chowder! Pan seared scallops (GF) make na appearance here. And there are a couple of specialities including Mad Fish Dish, a tomato based Mediterranean fish stew filled with delicious fresh fish and everything that the boats have brought in from mussels to monkfish. Topped with a Galway Bay whole prawn and crispy potatoes. Then you have the Shellfish platter to share, locally sourced shellfish, depending on availability. Served with salad, home baked soda bread and chips.

Meat eaters are well catered for with tempting dishes including Spiced beef carpaccio Spring lamb ribs, and Sirloin steak. In addition, if fish or meat isn’t your thing, Homemade Ravioli (Please ask your server for current filling) and the Vegetarian dish of the day are available.

All in all, quite a choice. And you’ll be well taken care of. Service at this week’s lunch wasn't the least bit fussy, with time for a crack and a chat, and still very efficient.
Details
Lunch
Monday – Friday : 12.00 – 14.45Saturday : 12.00 – 15.30. Sunday : 13.00 – 16.00
View Lunch Menu

Evening
Thursday, Friday & Saturday evenings : Open from 18.00, last orders 21.00. Bookings advised. Call now on 021 4831829
View Mad Fish Dinner Menu

Seagulls
A light and tasty menu. Tuesday & Wednesdays : 16.00 – 20.00. Thursday, Friday & Saturdays : 16.00 – 18.00

View Seagulls Menu



Local suppliers include:
Atlantis Seafood Ltd, Co. Wexford
Eamon O’Neill, Crab and lobster, Kinsale.
Dermot Cunningham, The Fisherman, Crosshaven.
Good Fish Shop, Carrigaline, Co. Cork.
Haven Shellfish, Oysterhaven, Co. Cork.
Shellfish de la Mer, Castletownbere, Co. Cork.
Sally Barnes Woodcock Smokery, Castletownshend.
Tom Durcan’s Butchers, English Market, Cork.
O’Sullivan Poultry Supplies, English Market, Cork
Mags Curtin, Milis, Crosshaven. Co. Cork.
Hassets Bakery, Carrigaline. Co. Cork
Southern Fruit, Lehenaghmore, Cork.
Clona Dairies, Clonakilty, Co. Cork

Fresh and Local at Bull McCabe’s

Fresh and Local at Bull McCabe’s

Fresh and local is the policy at Bull McCabe’s  on the Airport Road. Meat comes from Ballyburden Meats in Ballincollig, relishes from Christie’s Celtic Kitchen in Carrigaline and fruit and vegetables from Waterfall Farms.

And there is also a good choice of local drinks available. At lunch yesterday, I downed a cool pint of Friar Weisse from the Franciscan Well. Other choices available include Howling Gale Ale from Eight Degrees and Cider from Stonewell in Nohoval. And they have a different guest beer every month.

Let me just stick to the drink for a minute. Their whiskey comes from Midleton Distillery and Bull McCabe’s is a venue where you may enjoy a Jameson Reserve Tasting. It costs just €12.50 to do the tasting which includes a Whiskey Appreciation Guide and 25 mls each of Jameson Select Reserve and Jameson Special Reserve 12 year Old and, wait for it, 25mls of Jameson Gold Reserve.

The tasting is a feature of the regular Tuesday Ruaile Buaile Nights at the Bull where you have a three course meal, the tasting and entertainment for a grand total of €32.50. Sounds like fun.

The carvery lunch there is very good, lots of meat dishes and salads available, also sandwiches and wraps. A bit too hot for the soup so I went direct to the Roast Beef with all the trimmings (€12.90) while CL picked the Baked Salmon (11.70).  Two faultless plates, very enjoyable, especially the cooked to perfection vegetables (carrots and cabbage).

No shortage of homemade desserts available including Strawberry Roulade, Coffee and Walnut, and Apple Pie. My choice (two spoons, though) was the gorgeous Pear and Almond.

They also do a Tuesday lunchtime tenner special and yesterday’s offers, again with all the trimmings, were Roast Stuffed Turkey and Homemade Lasagne.

Owner Derek told me that their Evening Special (two courses for €17.50) is proving very popular. Here, you may have a main course with a starter or a main course with dessert. Other big draws on the evening menu are the Burger, the Chicken Fajita and the Chicken Curry. The Blackboard Specials are available Monday to Friday 5.00 to 9.00pm. Dinner is also served on Saturday, same times.

It is a busy spot. And a lively one. Lots of fun and events there. Not so long ago they had their Iron Man contest, one with a difference as the object was to find a guy who could best handle a clothes iron! Watch out for their Food and Beer Matching event, coming up, most likely in September.

Being close to the airport and to a few hotels in the area, Bull McCabe’s gets quite a lot of foreign visitors. Derek tells me that Irish beef is very highly regarded by them. He wasn't surprised at that but was slightly surprised to hear a group of Austrians declare that the Franciscan Well’s Friar Weisse was the best beer they had come across!

Great to see a bar/restaurant that supports local producers doing well. Long may it continue?

·         Bull MCCABES, AIRPORT RD, CORK

·         CARVERY LUNCH
MON-FRI 12:15-2:30PM, SAT-SUN 12:30-3:00PM

·         EVENING MEALS
MON-SAT 5-9PM

·         021 432 2142

Summer in Blairs County

Summer in Blairs County

Summer time finds us in Blairs County, dipping into some gorgeous salads and sipping ( maybe even gulping!) some terrific craft beer in the gardens of Blair’s Inn.

Don't know of any other restaurant where you get a Beer List as a separate offering from the Wine List. And they have some fantastic beers to choose from. A couple from Dungarvan Brew Company on cask, the hugely popular Howling Gale Pale Ale from Eight Degrees along with Friar Weisse (a favourite of mine) from Franciscan Well on draught and loads more in bottle.

Cashel Blue and Roasted Pears

Top beers in bottle include the tasty West Kerry Brewery Blonde Ale (known as Beal Ban) and don’t forgot you can also have the ace Stonewell cider (dry or medium dry) in bottle from the Nohoval Brewing Company.

And then there is a star studded line-up of imports, including a  couple by Brew Dog and Sierra Nevada from the US. There is a “jokey” presentation employed by the Belgians that make Brugse Zot Blonde Ale but the brewers aren’t clowning around and this 6 per-center is a serious gem and highly recommended. Really enjoyed that one.

Oh, I almost forgot. We did go there for the lunch. And we weren't disappointed on that score either. Those Oysterhaven mussels, neat and tasty, are delicious, especially with  that White Wine and Garlic Cream Sauce.

Copper Coast Ale
from the cask!

It was super hot in the Blair’s Inn kitchen and still the team came up with the goods. Absolutely thrilled with my mains: Warm Salad of Cashel Blue Cheese and Roasted Pears. CL took the cool route and she was impressed with the Cold Meat Platter of the Day (mainly chicken and O’Crualaoi’s corned beef) served with salad, pickle and their own gorgeous Chutney.

What better way to finish off this delightful summer lunch, eaten as the little river bubbled along at the end of the garden, than with a bowl of luscious strawberries!

Now stop clowning around with my Brugse Zot. Wonder if Mr Bradley has some of those in North Main Street!

Down and Dirty in the Cidery

Down and Dirty in the Cidery

2012 Apple Crop: the Elstar (normal size but scarce); Dabinett (plentiful enough but smaller than usual).

How do you know a real craft cider-maker?

Wait until September or October (or November, as I did) and check his hands. Has he got what looks like a false tan on the digits? If he has, that is the confirmation you need that he has handled tons of apples, the “tan” created by the tannins in the fruit.

And tannins weren’t the only link between cider and wine, as Stonewell’s Daniel Emerson explained to me in his base in Carrigaline this week. The press he uses is a wine press on hire from a French wine-maker who uses it for just two weeks each year whereas Stonewell use it for six months.

Stonewell have just moved much of the operation from the family home in nearby Nohoval. “The scale is very different here,” said Daniel as he surveyed his expensively assembled “production line”: the forklift, the wash tank, the mill, the maceration tank, the press and the four huge tanks where the cider is finished off.

New base for Daniel Emerson and his Stonewell cidery.

 It has been a year of progress for Daniel and Stonewell. “We sold more than we expected in 2012 and as a result our stocks of the 2011 are low.”

But it wasn’t the best of years for the apple crop of 2012, quite the reverse in fact. The eating apples (used mainly in the medium dry cider) blossomed abundantly in March only to be hammered by the frosts in April. That made them very scarce and expensive.

In the wash.

The bad summer led to a lack of pollination for the cider apples (varieties here are Michelin and Dabinett) and growth was slow. The supply is pretty good though and with the firm also securing a supply of Elstar eating apples, it is full steam ahead in Carrigaline.

There were some yellow Elstar in the system during my visit. They are first washed and then hand sorted before going through the mill and maceration stages. Next the mix, now known as a pomace, visits the presser where the juice is extracted and is then directed to the tanks.

 At the moment, Stonewell makes two types of cider: a medium dry and a dry. If the dry is too dry, they use apple juice rather than sugar to sweeten it. Both are for sale in many counties. Here is a list of stockists.



By the way, with the exception of the glass bottles, everything in a Stonewell cider is Irish – apples, labels, cartons, elbow grease, Atlantic sea air and all! “We don’t use any artificial sweeteners and we definitely don’t add any chemical additives to tweak the natural flavour of our cider.”

Considering the amazing impact the Nohoval cider has had in its short life, I was quite surprised to find such a small team sharing the workload: Daniel himself, his wife Geraldine, Ralph and Eamon, all dedicated to getting the very best out of those precious apples. The small Nohoval facility is not being abandoned and will be used to tweak the juices, both creative and fruit, to come up with a different cider. Watch this space.

For the third time in five days, it has been my privilege to meet people who are willing to take a chance on and in this country, to get down and get their hands dirty, to invest their time and money in giving us better food and better drink. Support them by buying local and buying Irish.