Showing posts with label Wicklow Wolf. Show all posts

Sunday, September 12, 2021

A Quart of Ale± #68. On the craft journey with a session of Wicklow Wolf, Galway Bay, Whiplash and Kinnegar.

A Quart of Ale± #68

On the craft journey with an impressive session of Wicklow Wolf, Galway Bay, Whiplash and Kinnegar.

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Wicklow Wolf Arcadia GF Lager 4.3%, 440 can CraftDirect

Lovely gold/amber colour on this lager, with a soft white head. Great display of bubbles rising. Aromas are more malt than hop. Straightaway, you notice the refreshing edge, “great cutting in it” as was said some decades back! But it has. Smooth also with a subtle balance of fruit and hop, a little sweetness and a hint of spice. And that crisp finish.

“Slowly conditioned to ensure an exceptional taste,” they say. I’m happy to say I’m quite impressed with this lager which is gluten free.

Hops: Hallertau Tradition & Ariana

Malt: Pilsner, Cara Pils

Galway Bay Weights & Measures Session IPA 3.0%, 330 can CraftDirect

Lemon coloured, hazy, with a soft fluffy head. Resin and citrus really prominent in the aromas. Bitter on the palate, yet juicy enough with floral hints floating around. Quite a concentration for a mere 3.0% abv. Actually quite a beer for that abv. Probably not for craft novices but a really excellent session IPA.

Galway Bay Brewery started life when friends Jason and Niall got fed up of the beer scene in Ireland and decided to do something about it... In 2009 they opened one of Ireland's only brew pubs, The Oslo Bar in Salthill, Galway. From a pretty simple brew kit they produced two beers that went straight from conditioning tank to tap... Over ten years and three moves later Galway Bay Brewery's new home in Oranmore, just outside Galway, gives us the space, light and freedom to expand and experiment. Their old space at the Oslo was taken over by a micro-distillery Micil when last I visited.

Whiplash Il Veliero DDZ Witbier 4.8%, 440 can CraftDirect

This witbier owes much to its WLP410 yeast. Quite often yeast doesn’t get the credit it deserves, not from drinkers anyhow. Brewers know, or should know, better. Craft Beer for the Geeks sums it up: Brewers and beer drinkers owe everything to these single-celled fungi that we can’t see.

This Il Veliero has an orange colour, hazy. A short-lived head. Aromas are zesty and herby rather than fruity or floral. It promises much and that zestiness turns to orange on the palate. Il Veliero is quite interesting, engaging, at this point. And keeps the taste buds on full alert as this zest reinforced beer freewheels towards the finish line taking the yellow jersey as we head to stage two (second can).

To Øl, the Danish brewery is much admired internationally, and they obviously admire Whiplash as the Dublin brewers produced this easy drinking beer, not your regular wheat beer, especially for the To Øl Beer Club.

Whiplash say: Brewed for our friends at the To Øl Beer Club. A base of Pilsner and Wheat for colour and texture lets a Witbier’s other parts shine. It's bittered with Magnum hops before a sprinkling of Coriander seed toward the end of boil. Il Veliero gets a dose of fresh Orange Zest in the whirlpool and is fermented on WLP410 for a round mouthfeel and light phenolics. The beer is then repeatedly assaulted with fresh Grapefruit & Orange Zest at the end of fermentation building to over 15g/L of Double Dry Zest action.

Geek Bits

Malts: Pilsner Malt, Wheat Malt

Hops: Magnum,

Adjuncts: Coriander, Orange Zest, Grapefruit zeal,

Yeast: WLP410. This a Belgian Wit II Ale Yeast and is ideal for witbiers or Belgian table beers.

Kinnegar Bucket & Spade Session Rye IPA 4.2%, 440 can Bradleys

Colour is a foggy mid-gold, white head fades away, slowly enough, leaving the merest lacing on the glass. This easy drinking Rye IPA (one of their core beers) is unfiltered and naturally carbonated. You notice the rye influence in the aromas (touch of spice too) and also as you sip this fresh fruity (citrus) session beer from the Donegal brewery who have more than one rye on their portfolio. Fruit and bitterness are well balanced here and the malt too keeps its end up making it one of my favourites from the list.

Certainly a contender in the session category, easy-drinking but lively and full flavour with a nice bit of grip to the finale. Dún na nGall Abú, I reckon.

Sunday, March 21, 2021

A Quart of Ale± #41. Continuing the craft journey with Red Ale.

A Quart of Ale± #41

On the craft journey with Red Ale.

O’Hara’s Irish Red Traditional Ale, 4.3%, 500ml bottle via Radical Drink

This O’Hara’s has a very dark red robe but that “dense lasting white head” fails to materialise, though I have to admit subsequent top-ups did shape up with a coffee coloured crown. Roasted caramel stands out in the aromatics. And you get that caramel and toffee flavour on the palate as well, thanks to the addition of a “pinch of roast barley during the brewing process”. The sweetness of the malt is perfectly balanced through a touch of traditional hop flavour. A terrific example of the style gets a major thumbs up from this quarter.

They say: This Red stands out in this beer style category. The malt body is as impressive as a bock, albeit in a uniquely Irish way. With an incredibly smooth malt body complimented by caramel tones and perfectly balanced in bitterness, this Irish Red is much more complex than its mainstream rivals. Visually the Red colour is intensified by the finest roast barley, while subtle hop additions in the kettle give just the right bitterness and aroma to craft this distinctive Irish Red Ale.The traditional red ale style is sweet malt based, dominated by caramel malts which give a sweet malt base complimented by nutty flavours in complete contrast to the Belgian Red ale style which has a distinctly sour character attributed to lactic acid.

For the Geek

Style: Traditional Red Ale

ABV: 4.3%

Plato °: 10.75°

IBU: 34

Fermentation: Top fermentation

Availability: Keg (carbonated), Bottle 50cl and 33cl (occasional 41L cask)

Serving Temperature: 6-8°C

Food Pairing: Pairs well with baked and roasted main courses from the oven such as beef hotpot. Also excellent with winter soups. Delicious accompaniment to mature cheddar or soft goats cheeses.

Glass: O’Hara’s tulip glass or O’Hara’s conical glass.

Hope Red IPA Winter Seasonal 2020, 5.2%, 440ml via beercloud.ie

Hope’s winter seasonal is a red IPA, a dark red with an off white head that quickly reduces. A red with a twist they say and I must say I rather like the direction it takes from the first sip, lots of bright and light fruit melding well with caramel overtones, with a touch of toastiness, from the malts. Thumbs up there straightaway and I can see it would be just the job with the suggested wintery stew, weekend cheeseboard or chocolate.

INGREDIENTS:

Malts: Pale malt, crystal malt and wheat malt

Hops: Columbus, Simcoe and Enigma

Dry Hops: Cashmere, Enigma and Centennial

Yeast: English Ale Yeast

Roasted barley.

ABV 5.2%

EBU 55

Hope, in their own words:

Hope Beer started out in 2015 when the brewery was founded by four friends with a passion for beer and business. What began as a series of late-night kitchen table discussions is now a state-of-the-art brewery, producing an extensive range of award-winning premium craft beers.

Hope produces a core range of five distinct beer styles which are available all year round as well as two seasonals and a wide range of limited-edition beers.

All Hope beers are brewed, bottled, canned and kegged at Howth Junction on Dublin’s Northside and are crafted to be the perfect accompaniment to food. Each beer has its own distinct name, story and taste experience....

Crafty Bear “Bimbos” Imperial Red, 8.0%, 330ml via beercloud.ie

A warm amber is the colour of this “Bimbos” Imperial Red from Crafty Bear. An off-white head doesn’t hang about (if you want a better head, give it a “robust” pour). Quite a charge of fruit from the hops in the aromas, the malt too getting a look-in. There’s an initial (and lasting) element of sweetness on the palate. Quite a complex experience, big and malty, with notes of mango and strawberry as the hops too play a role right through to the finish. It has been dry-hopped (lightly) with Citra (a good bittering hop) and Cashmere (known for its smooth bitterness).

They say: We started Crafty Bear January 2018.

With over 18 years in the hospitality industry the move towards opening our very own brewery was a long time dream come through.

Our love for good beer and the fun in making it is what makes our beers stand out.

Hand bottled, hand labeled and hand delivered. You got to love craft.

Not quite the traditional take but pretty good overall. I have no idea why it’s called Bimbos. Anyone?

Wicklow Wolf “Wildfire” Hoppy Red Ale, 4.6%, 440ml via beercloud.ie

This Wildfire from Wicklow has a dark colour and a short-lived head that looks as if it has been dusted with coffee. You smell coffee and caramel. And the two also feature on the palate, the coffee more prominent now, and it, rather than the weakish caramel, stay to the finish, one with the malts holding the upper hand. Almost a creamy feel to this very mild and pleasing enough example of the style. One for the home fire methinks rather than one in the wild.

Geeky Bits

Hops: Sorachi Ace, Sabro

Malt: Pale, Cara Ruby, Melano, Oats, Roasted Barley

IBU: 28

Serve at 8 degrees.

Thursday, March 18, 2021

Cheers on Beer, Spirits and Wine. With Galway Hooker, Wicklow Wolf, Greenes, Shelbourne Bar, Wines of the World, BeoirFest.

Cheers on Beer, Spirits and Wine. With Galway Hooker, Wicklow Wolf, Greenes, Shelbourne Bar, Wines of the World, BeoirFest. #210319

15 Year Anniversary Double IPA is here

As promised, we would be making this Double IPA available to our online customers, and newsletter sign ups as soon as we could. This beer will be canned next week (25th of March) and will be sent out the very same day. There are only 30, 12x440ml cases available. Of course we've got a discount code for you loyal few!

Use code DOUBLE15 , for 15% off.

Buy it here: https://shop.galwayhooker.ie/collections/home/products/pre-sale-15-year-anniversary-double-ipa-12x440ml

Bar that, we just wanted to say a heart felt thank you, to all of you that have supported our little brewery over the last 15 years. We appreciate it more than you know.

The Wicklow Wolf Locavore Project...

Before they became Wicklow Wolf, two friends, Quincey and Simon, Influenced by their time spent in California, a passion for home-brewing and a thirst for craft beer, they began the journey in setting up a brewery in Wicklow. Simon’s background is in horticulture and he wanted to plant hops on his farm in the Wicklow hills. A seed was planted and Wicklow Wolf was born thanks to the coming together of two friends wanting to start a brewery and the desire to plant a hop farm (the first commercial hop farm in Ireland in over 25 years).

Time moved on and now to To celebrate Wicklow, our terroir, the provenance of this great landscape and to push our commitment to brewing beer in a sustainable way. With this in mind, The Locavore Project was born. The Locavore Project epitomises the core philosophy that Wicklow Wolf was founded upon, provenance and pride. The Locavore Project allows us to celebrate the terroir of Wicklow, our home and champion it with small batch, local, experimental beers.

Read more about the Wicklow Wolf project here and check out their beers while you are there!

Frank, the somm in Greene's has been in touch:

"Really looking forward to our 'Meet the Winemaker' online zoom tasting on Friday 19th March at 8pm

@Greenescork

We are teaming up with

@derrickneleman

@WinesDirect

This event will sell out very fast so get your orders in now! greenesrestaurant.com/menus #winetasting #supportlocal"

Shelbourne Bar Will Serve You...

Missing the genuine Irish Whiskey Bar experience?

You can now gather your friends for a personalised Online Whiskey Tasting. We supply the whiskey, the whiskey expert and we can even supply the glass!

Visit

https://www.theshelbournecork.ie/online-whiskey-tasting

Wines of the World - Join the Club!

Did you know that we can deliver specially selected wines to your door each month?

€70.00 every month for 1 year

The perfect subscription for you - The Wine Lover!

Our wine experts select 6 delicious wines from around the world and send to your door each month.

Includes:

A mix of 6 different wines
Free Delivery Nationwide
Tasting Notes for each wine

* Please note subscription plans will dispatch between the 19th-22nd of each month *

Subscribe

BeoirFest Continues this Saturday

This Saturday we have another great Brewers Roundtable organised. We're going to look at lagers and reds, which should make for a nice comparison. And a great chat as usual of course!

We'll have Dublin's Liberator, Four Provinces Poddle, and Craft Bears Imperial Red so feel free to pick one up in advance if you want. Of course you can also just turn up, enjoy the chat and get involved.

We'll have spot prizes as well. See you on Saturday at 3pm at Beoirfest.com!

Wednesday, March 3, 2021

A Quart of Ale± #38. Continuing on the craft trail with a variety of IPAs.

A Quart of Ale± #38

Moving on over to craft with a variety of IPAs.

Cotton Ball “Another Bloody IPA” IPA 6.00% Cotton Ball off licence.

The Cotton Ball’s “Another Bloody IPA” boasts an attractive dark amber colour and a myriad of bubbles, furiously making their way towards a white head that soon loses much of its early “bulk”. The aromas are strongly citrus, no surprise considering that they use blood orange zest and peel as an adjunct.

Quite a rich and flavourful mouthful with that Blood orange a light and pleasant (rather than forceful) presence. Biscuit malt gives it, yes, a biscuity flavour, and is quite a factor here.

This is what the brewery has to say: “This isn’t just another IPA, this is our bloody IPA . Our blood orange infused IPA with a mixture of biscuit and Munich malt to give this beer a pleasant malty undertone.A full bodied IPA with a medley of USA citrus based hops, which is infused with blood orange zest and peel to create a fantastic citrus aroma.”

The Cotton Ball brewery is less than 200 metres from my house but my pleas for a direct pipeline have fallen on deaf ears! At least, their off-licence is open and the beers are otherwise widely available.

Growing up in the bar trade, it was always Eoin Lynch’s dream to put his own stamp on the well renowned Cotton Ball Bar (which was founded by his great grandfather Humphrey in 1874) and in 2013 he established the brewery in the basement of the historic pub. The brewery has taken on a life of its own and their beers are stocked far and wide on the island of Ireland and even in some other European countries.

Wicklow Wolf with Dot Brew “Guardian of the Galaxy” Double Black IPA 8.00%, 440ml can Bradley’s

The collaborating brewers, Wolf and Dot, have an out of this world sense of pun. Astronomical. Intergalactic. Space age. Well yeah, this is (still) the age for all three. And then there’s Cosmic Hops. Really? Galaxy, Strata and Milky Way. Oh sorry, Comet, not Milky Way. Just got my chocolate bars in a melt.

I suppose you could say, you wouldn’t be the first, that the hops are the stars of the show. The chocolate and coffee come through and there’s a pretty decent balance and a genuine bitter finish.

If you’d like to explore the style, why not start at normal strength. Perhaps check out the excellent 5% Kinsale Black IPA (by Blacks, of course).

Dot Brew So Far So Good session IPA, 3.5%, 440ml via beercloud.ie

Colour’s a lot like unclear lemon juice, a murky one, and the head is slim and won’t be around for long. Hops dominate the nose. And on the palate as well, those exotic fruits are to the fore, with mango leading the posse. Smooth and fruity all the way to the satisfying dry and bitter finish. Much more muscle to this one than the 3.5% abv suggests. Chalk it down for those sessions.

No point in looking in on their own website. No beer info at all. Their site just wants three hundred of your euro to continue their work. The label’s more helpful: easy drinking, bright and light. A fruity hop forward New England session IPA. Tropical fruit aromas. A healthy bang of Amarillo and Galaxy hops. Super smooth.

A general web search finds agreement that it is brewed with New England yeast without the murky but retaining all of the big bright stone fruit characteristics offset by a healthy dose of malted and flaked oats for a medium body / velvet mouthfeel. A double charged dry hop of Amarillo / Galaxy for a super tropical fruit bowl aroma. Hints of peach & pineapple. Finishes with a light dry bitterness.

Contradictions abound. It is not bright. It looks

muddy. It is not without “the murky”, it is as murky as a welly disturbed woodland pond. It is however smooth and satisfying, no shortage of hops and no doubt a contender for your, and my, session nights. More than happy to have one in my fist and at least one or two more in the fridge.

Larkin’s & Catalyst Coffee Rwandan Coffee Rye IPA 7%, 440ml can via Bradley’s

This limited edition from Larkin’s, with the coffee roasted by neighbours Catalyst, was a lovely surprise. It has a murky orange colour. There seems to be a fair bit of carbonation present. And, yes, the aromas are of coffee. This is a complex mouthful, a smooth one too, where the harmonious combination of the hops and the coffee characteristics is rather impressive, something special. Exotic citrus stuff from the hops give bitterness enough with fruity notes from the coffee, notes (plum, apricot) I’d be hard pushed to find in the cup. A good deal better than I expected.

They say: We teamed up with the coffee masters in @catalystcoffee_ in our home town of Bray for this collaboration. We chose a coffee from Rwanda this time round which gives hints of chocolate on the nose and a really velvety smooth flavour on the palate. Cold brewed so don't expect this to be a dark bitter coffee experience. It’s subtle and gentle and balances with the hops and malt rather than trying to over power them. Limited edition.

Thursday, February 11, 2021

Cheers - Beer, Wine, Spirits. With Red Nose Wine, Bradley's, Wicklow Wolf, Waterford Whiskey Society, BeoirFest, Whiplash, Teeling

Cheers 211202

Beer, Wine, Spirits

with Red Nose Wine, Bradley's, Wicklow Wolf,

Waterford Whiskey Society, BeoirFest, Whiplash, Teeling

Its Spring(ish) & more wines just in

"Thank you for your patience as we have had the shop on a partial closure ( i.e. take orders for collection and in some cases delivery ). We felt it was the right thing to do with the numbers so high.

The good news is that the bare shelves have been restocked and a few new wines have arrived including a big winter Malbec Gran Reserva.

We hope to open up again properly soon but for the moment we will keep the the call/email to order for collection model. You can pay over the phone and we can drop it out to your car without any contact when you collect. In some instances, for our more vulnerable customers, we can arrange to drop it to locally.

You can email brendan@rednosewine.com with an idea of what you want or alternatively call 085-8889045 and we will get back to you with options asap. Ideally we plan to facilitate collections twice a week as the shop won’t be manned at regular hours."

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Wicklow Wolf Strikes Again

Apex Espresso

Endangered Species No. 16

We have taken our delicious Oatmeal Stout, Apex and let our brewer’s imagination run wild. The result? An Espresso Oatmeal Stout. We enlisted the help of our friends in Java Republic to add over 2,500 fresh shots of AA Single Origin Costa Rican Dota espresso to the brew.

Apex Espresso is a delicious, 6.5% oatmeal stout that is packed full of fresh dark fruits, chocolate, honey and of course a strong burst of fruity espresso. These flavours are all supported with a hint creamy sweetness and a smooth, lingering finish leaving you wanting more.