It's all Dutch to me, or is that Flemish....

It was with great disappointment I learned that there was going to be a new beer festival in Northern Ireland. Why? Because it immediately dawned on me that I wouldn't be there to attend. Knowing the people involved in organising it, and the venue they had planned, it could only be a hit. Looking at Twitter over the weekend it took place I was not wrong. Seems like they nailed it on every level, so a big congrats go out to Matt, Michael, Darren and Felicia! This success will hopefully mean a repeat performance that I will be able to attend!

So why wasn't I able to attend this momentous occasion? I had already booked a trip to Belgium! So every cloud does have a silver lining and this particular lining was oh so silver. Belgium has been on the hit list for a while, but with my increased interest in all things beer and several viewings of 'In Bruges' it had to be done. Now I am not going to go through my whole trip and every beer I drank, anyone who follows me on UnTappd would understand how long this blog would be if I did. Instead I am going to call out a few places that I think are a must visit and some of the exceptional beers I drank.

 

Grub!

We had a variety of foods in different establishments, but as we were celebrating two birthdays we decided to pre-book a restaurant. Scouring the internet for eateries in Bruges, The Park Restaurant stood out as one highly recommended and a fairly good deal for a fixed price wine pairing dinner for 4. I know, wine pairing! Where is the beer I hear you cry! Don't worry it is coming, but as for the best meal we had, this is it.

Despite not really knowing what we were going to get, this exceeded all our expectations. From the Champagne to start through to the coffee at the end, the quality and service did not dip. The wine wasn't actually limited to one glass per course as we thought, which was mad given the price and wines on offer. But it is one thing to watch out for, as you could end up on your ear come dessert. We even got a free mini birthday cake to help aid the celebrations. All of this took place in a great setting, so pack a shirt or dress people. No jeans! The owner even came past to thank us for choosing the restaurant and to ensure that we had a good time.

Drinking venues.

Café Rose Red - Top of the list has to be this little gem. Along with a great beer menu they have 5 rotating taps - their blog will give you an idea on what is on and has been on. Thankfully for me they had some Cantillon on, which is just superb on draft. They also do beer flights and have very knowledgeable staff who are happy to assist with your choices should the menu be too daunting.

Red Rose Cafe beer flight.

t'Brugs Beertje - This is more of a pub type affair but has a bottle selection to die for which let me work my way through De Struise's output and tick a few other beers of my 1001 BTTBYD list. Very relaxed atmosphere and great staff.

Photo courtesy of http://www.visitflanders.com/

The beer!

Well what beers knocked my socks off? Why not start with getting some Cantillon Classic Gueuze on draft, absolutely beautiful!

Outside of that the main beers all came from De Struise which just blew me away. Special mentions go to their Cuvée Delphine imperial stout, Struise Tsjeeses Reserva (Bourbon Barrel Aged) and Ypres Reserva black sour. But all of their output was stunning, and I am definitely looking forward to sampling the bottle of Black Damnation III that I brought back.

Then we have the awesomeness of 3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze, Duvel Triple Hop, Bourgogne Des Flandres.... damn it was all good!

As for bottle shops, it definitely is worth shopping around and doing a bit of price checking before blowing your load in the first shop that is wall to wall beer. It is fairly overwhelming to say the least. I found a lot of what I was looking for in De Biertempel set back from the main square, however there is also one in Brussels that was way over priced.

Also worth doing is a tour of De Halve Maan brewery, really interesting tour finished with some Brugse Zot Blond unfiltered and unpasteurised straight from the maturation tanks. The food it pretty decent and a reasonable price, with which we got to have some of the Straffe Hendrik Wild seasonal release, a sour version of the Straffe Hendrik Blond.

Where to stay?

We stayed at The Hotel Patritius which I couldn't fault, helpful staff, clean, walking distance to everywhere and a great breakfast to line the stomach.

I am not really going to go into the day we spent in Brussels, suffice to say don't visit it on a bank holiday Monday as most of it was shut. We did end up eating in an Ethiopian restaurant, food was great but the beer wasn't and don't even ask about the final drink of the evening. A shot of Katikala! I tried it so you don't have to.

All in all a great holiday and one I want to repeat. I would probably stay longer, venture to the surrounding districts of Bruges and take in more breweries. 

My name is Bruce!

PS) 1001 Beer to try before you die update, hit number 216!

Crafty enough...

I have had this discussion with a few people of late and have seen it crop up more often than not on blogs and forums. What is a craft beer? What defines a beer as a craft beer? Who cares?

Bizarrely I have had this discussion before, years ago but in terms of music. Being a lover of all things heavy, back in the 80s/early 90s metal was metal and we were all happy that's what it was. Of course, there were/are different styles of metal as people love to pigeonhole things. We had rap metal, black metal, the new wave of British heavy metal, doom metal... the list was endless and still grows to this day, anyone for some Djent? But styles are easily definable in the main - the vocals, the timbre, the aggression, the production, the tempo - all factors that can be described to detail what makes something fit into that style. But something started to happen in the 90s. A split between the underground and the mainstream. But what was underground and what was mainstream was open to wide debate, a debate that still rages on today. When does an underground band become mainstream? Album sales, ticket sales, change of musical direction, radio airplay, MTV? These are all subjective opinions and have left a bad taste in many a mouth, mine included. People who refuse to like the mainstream because it is just that, never mind if it is actually good. Elitists who will only listen to obscure recordings of a black metal band who were together for one week and only recorded one EP in a cave that can only be played on a gramophone. Everything else is false metal! Leave the hall!

I am getting the same view of craft beer. What makes it craft? Is it low sales, low volume, the effort put into brewing it, taste, availability, quality (don't get me started on that)? All subjective and not very helpful. I have seen breweries that have been bought over by the big boys being slated, with some even stating they will never buy their beer again. But it is the same beer they have enjoyed for years, so why the stance? Why deprive yourself of what you enjoy? Why not see the potential positive in having better backing. I for one see bigger distribution on the table, meaning I will get to try some awesome beers that I never thought I would. Or let the brewers do what they do best and concentrate on making awesome beer rather than worrying about the business risk that sometimes comes with it. Obviously people fear the influence some of this may have over the brewery, but why not wait to stop drinking the beer if your fears become a reality and the beer suffers because of it.

Why not just let beer be beer. Not all mass produced beer is bad in the same way not all 'craft' beer is good. Why look down on someone for liking something mass produced if that is what brings them happiness on a warm summer's day. Some folk have yet to be introduced to great beer and are unaware of the variety of styles out there. We were all there once, but I am thankful I wasn't confronted by the sometimes inaccessible world of 'craft' beer that exists currently. How are you going to convince someone to try a hop laden IPA when you have just ridiculed them for drinking a pint of generic larger, never mind get them to try a sour! It takes a while for someone's palate to adapt to these new flavours, in much the same way as any other food or beverage.

So can we all not sit in the sun and enjoy what makes us happy without the name calling and fretting over what we consider mainstream or craft?

Mine will be a massive barrel aged imperial stout, with me stinking of factor 50 while EYEHATEGOD crawls its way out of the stereo speakers.

My name is Bruce.

Boundary breaking...

I have held off on making a post about Boundary Brewing mainly because I wanted to wait until they had some beer on the shelves and more importantly beer that I had tasted.

Now I could go into detail about where they have come from, but they do a great job of that themselves here . I could explain about all the great people who were involved in getting this venture up and running, but they do a great job of introducing themselves here. I could give you a rundown of the story so far, but they do a great job on their own blog here. As you can see they are already doing a great job and that is one of the many reasons I became a member of the CO-OP. Did I mention that it was a CO-OP? It is, which means I own a brewery!

I could also explain what those other reasons why I signed up with Boundary are, but I think I did an alright job with my guest blog post here.

This is turning into the laziest blog post ever, but I am not a fan of reinventing the wheel.

So now to the good stuff, the beer! What we currently have is the core range of an American Pale Ale, an India Pale Ale and an Export Stout. I think the packaging alone looks ace.

I had a sneak tasting with everyone else who attended Belfast Beer Club, but due to my excitement (and some extra libations) I can't remember in detail my musings. Suffice to say I was impressed with what I tasted. The Stout being my favourite that I will no doubt be tasting quite frequently. The APA is the entry level beer for the masses, but taking that into consideration and the low ABV it is packed with flavour with a decent mouthfeel. The IPA was the only one I believe didn't 100% hit the mark as I thought it was a bit under-carbonated and lacked some of that hops punch I like from an IPA, but these aspects can be tweaked so I look forward to tasting future batches.

Now it is on the shelves I intend to pick more up to relax at home and enjoy them while taking notes, so look out for a fuller review soon.

Now for a few newsy type things:
The next Woodworkers tap takeover is going to be a belter. On May the 6th To Øl is coming to Belfast, details as follows. You really don't want to miss this.

May the 15th also in the Woodworkers, Boundary may be having a wee shindig.

Lastly don't forget the ABV Festival on the bank holiday weekend 22nd-23rd May in the awesome venue that is the Titanic Drawing Offices. This is shaping up to be something special and although it has sold out there is a bit of hope. You can put yourself on a waiting list just in case a ticket becomes available or the Woodworkers are running a competition for some tickets.

As you can see Belfast is really coming alive with beery type goodness, so go forth and drink responsibly!

My name is Bruce....

Don't believe the hype...

I was intrigued by the hype in the US around the Founders KBS 2015 release and more recently in the UK the Magic Rock Brewery's UnHuman Cannonball 2015  launch, and the twitter discussions it raised, see #UHCDay2015.
They follow the same set-up; organised your launch day and venue, limit availability to the wider beer community through geography and volume, sell your beer!

Perhaps nothing new if you are living in the states, where this sort of thing happens quite frequently, but relatively new to the UK. But it is starting to happen more often, off the top of my head Sirencraft Brewery even released a video heralding the release of their Maiden 2014 barley wine. In Ireland, a similar experience can be seen with the release of Galway Bay's 200 Fathoms but not to the same extremes.

So is this type of thing good for the beer market or more importantly the consumer?
From a marketing perspective, no one is reinventing the wheel here and it makes perfect business sense. Generate some hype, limit the stock, raise the price and you are almost guaranteed to shift units. But the product has to be at least good if not great to make it more than a one-off. If the beer is rubbish no one will return, if the beer is good you will be forgiven but probably forgotten, if the beer is great you can create a yearly release where the hype will grow and grow. In the latter case, you will create a great white whale, for the whale hunters in the beer community to go on a quest for. I have been lured into this myself, mainly by Founders KBS, which I finally managed to get a bottle of and may review in the not too distant future.

Photos courtesy of Rick Fortier

This turns my attention to the effect on the beer consumer. A bit of hype generates excitement, creates a bit of buzz in the community and encourages friends to share the odd hard-to-get beer or two. With particular launches, a whole day (for KBS this is a whole week) is set aside including music, food and beer. A bit of community building is never a bad thing, so all good? Well, when you look at it like that, it is hard to see the issue. But one problem is that due to the limited availability not everyone will get the beer, and some of those people will invariably take to the internet to pay large sums of their hard earned cash to obtain these legendary beers at over-inflated prices. Or end up in a very lopsided beer trade. So what? That is their problem if they are willing to pay the price or are willing to trade the beer. But what if the people who are buying up this beer, don't even like the beer and are looking to make a few bucks or use as currency for beer trading. Much like the modern day ticket tout, who I have a deep-seated disliking for, but that is a different story. I suppose that is a moral question for the beer tout and the whale hunter.

Another fallout of all this is hype and legend being built around a beer that isn't actually that great, it is simply just a good beer. Or a beer that was awesome but hasn't moved on, and in amongst the current raft of beers wouldn't even register. Yet queues of people turn out every year to get that one allocated bottle or four pack. You can actually see this happen with Stone Brewing (http://www.stonebrewing.com/) who have taken it upon themselves to admit this with such beers as Ruination IPA which they are stopping production of. This will be replaced by Ruination 2.0 (http://blog.stonebrewing.com/index.php/goodbye-stone-ruination-ipa/) which will up the game for the current market and will ensure the legend continues. Should more breweries follow suit and move with the times, or would that ruin some of the nostalgia for that particular taste people want from that particular beer? File this one under thoughts and musings.

My name is Bruce!

PS) I recently read a similar, if not more eloquent opinion on this by The Beer Nut read it in his post Why beer doesn't matter.

Galway Bay Brewery the arrival....

So finally beer-heads north of the Border get a chance to purchase Galway Bay Brewery’s offerings right on our doorstep. Twitter nearly had a fit as it followed the first shipment from Galway to the bottle shop shelves and quite rightly so! This is a great thing, not only because it is a wider variety of Irish produced beer on our shelves, but in my opinion their Of Foam and Fury is currently the best core-range beer produced in Ireland.

So it is with a celebratory tone I have decided to do my first review post on these three beauties from Galway Bay: the aforementioned Of Foam and Fury, their recent pilot beer Desperate Mile and last but not least the legendary 200 Fathoms.

Desperate Mile

Let's start with a 5.4% hoppy sour beer from their pilot series.

Pours bright golden with a puffy white head that doesn't stick around. The aroma of this is that lovely funk that comes off sours, mixed with a bit of grapefruit. The taste really wakes up the mouth with a mix of sherbet, more grapefruit and lime. That initial mouth puckering sour gives way to a long dry finish that makes you want to take another mouthful. A cracking beer that I hope becomes a staple, it is definitely a summer beer and one you could drink all day long.

Of Foam and Fury

Up next is their Imperial/Double IPA, clocking in at 8.5% ABV.

Definite caramel colour in the glass with a slightly off-white head, it gives the appearance that it is packed with flavour and unsurprisingly it is. Big tropical fruit smell, think oranges and pineapples, and sweets (yes like sticking your nose in a 10p mix... which probably don't exist anymore). That nose follows through into the taste with lots of orange and pineapple which is followed by a big whack of piney bitterness. All of that is balanced by a strong caramel malt backbone. Altogether this is an awesome beer that fills all the senses and belies the 8.5% ABV. It is even better on draught but be warned, you may have walked into the bar, but you will stagger out.

200 Fathoms

Finally is a beer of legend 200 Fathoms. An annual limited release Imperial Stout, weighing in at 10% ABV and this year aged in Teeling Whiskey Small Batch Rum barrels.

This just oozes out of the bottle completely pitch black with a brown head. You don't even have to stick your head in the glass to catch the aromas of booze, coffee and chocolate. But once you do, you pick up more subtle vanilla and molasses notes. Completely lost for words on the first mouthful! Thoroughly coats the mouth in an oily boozy hug. Lots of that coffee, chocolate, vanilla and molasses from the nose but with the addition of dark fruit and a more pronounced whiskey flavour. This is completely up my street, totally my type of beer and stands shoulder to shoulder with the big named imperial stouts I have tried. As awesome as this is, a bit of aging will mellow out that big booziness that you smell, taste and feel. Glad I have another 3 bottles because this will just get better and better. This is currently like gold dust but if you are looking, McHuges Off License may still have some - but be quick!

To have these all in one sitting was a great way to start my weekend and to say I had a good night would be an understatement. So welcome to Northern Ireland Galway Bay Brewery, can't wait for more of your pilot series to arrive up here but for now I will be content with more Of Foam and Fury!

My name is Bruce. 

One man and his beer hoard....

This post was prompted by the following question on Twitter from Neil Wines 

@MarkC_Belfast @roywillighan @Wattie187 @TheGazzz @StephenStitt @tubboy79 @ Sorry is the fun not in the drinking? Rather than the stashing ?

— Neill Wine (@neillwine) March 29, 2015

So why do I have a cupboard full of beer in my house, rather than just buy what I want to drink there and then?

Well there are a few reasons that I will try to explain:

1/ My love of Imperial Stouts – This for me is the main reason, as most of the beers in my cupboard fall into this category. These beasts have a high ABV, averaging in and around 10%. For this reason I am not sitting down to drink 5 or 6 of them over an evening (not saying that hasn’t happened mind you). I also tend to buy 2, drinking one while the other is put away to see what a bit of aging will do to it. I often find aging will round out the alcohol, giving the beer a smoother finish. These type of beers are similar to good wine in that respect.

2/ Ordering online – when ordering on line it is better to buy more rather than less from an economic point of view. So again when a big box of high ABV Imperial stouts arrives, it fills the beer cave back up for a while and it takes time to deplete the stock for reasons outlined above.

3/ The Pokemon effect – gotta catch ‘em all! There is currently, due to the increase in good bottle shops, plenty of opportunity to buy some exceptional beers or limited editions. When these opportunities arise I have just got to purchase, partly for fear of missing out and partly the excitement of trying something new. This usually means buying more than I can drink, even if the cupboard is full. Despite self imposed buying bans, I often get lured back by some big American stout or Belgian sour.

4/ Special occasions – This follows on from the previous idea of special edition beers, but is more to do with keeping them for special occasions. Much in the same way people buy a bottle of wine to open on an anniversary, I have beers that serve a similar purpose. Think Deus Brut des Flandres and the like.

Bring these 4 together and you have a perfect storm for an abundance of beer knocking about the house. Not always the case, but I do usually have one or two floating about. So instead of having a wine cellar, I have a beer cave and to be fair you probably wouldn’t query why someone has an overflowing wine rack (I was going to say wine cellar but I don’t know anyone with a wine cellar).

All of this could be me just trying to justify a hoarding compulsion, but I like to think it is all above board and normal.

Don’t judge me.

My name is Bruce.

So where is Northern Ireland at...

As mentioned previously, the Northern Ireland beer scene is exploding with 15 breweries currently in production (possibly 16 now or even more if you believe everything you hear) with more to follow this year. Roy Willighan did a good overview of these breweries in his post “Northern Ireland Breweries as of 2014 and beyond...”.

In such a small country and market can they all survive?

I personally think they can but they need to look around them to see what everyone else is doing not just what the status quo up to now suggests. They then need to make sure, if they are not doing something different, they need to be better than the competition. In my general day to day I look at User Experience and User Centred Design. A key point is, if you are going to produce something you need to do it better than what is already out there, otherwise there is no point. Users have an expectation of how something will work/taste/feel and if you fall below that expectation they won’t come back. They can be an unforgiving lot and within the digital world this can be easily voiced.

The benefit that the Northern Ireland breweries currently have is that expectation of great beer is fairly low for the general populace, which will give them time to get their feet under the table. In saying that the times are changing and fast! There is a growing availability of imported beers in off-licenses and bars, some of the current breweries are already pushing their own boundaries and collaborating with others and we are seeing beer clubs popping up all over the place to educate the palates of Northern Ireland drinkers. So the time for thinking outside of the box, growing the community and the industry is arguably now.

I understand the thought that branching out beyond the norm is a business risk, and that risk not paying off is in some cases financially not an option. With that in mind we have seen that the risk isn’t as great as you may at first perceive, just look at the success of people like PokerTree and their Dark Nirvana Dark Cascadian ale and collaborations with Marble (Little Barney) and Inishmacsaint (Crann) Look at the pubs in Belfast, The Garrick that has been in this space for a long time is hardly empty. New kids on the block The Hudson, Sunflower (not new more reinvented) and The Woodworkers again seem to be doing a roaring trade any time I am in. Not saying my presence has anything to do with it mind (If so where do I get my paycheck?). Further afield this is also the case, with places like Kiwis Brew Bar on the North Coast attracting a good crowd and serving a great selection of local and not so local brews. The various beer clubs are always busy and The Woodworkers Tap Takeovers are well attended. We are even seeing the competition possibly pushing the old heads into territories new, Buck’s Head double IPA from Hilden anyone. There is even a new Beer Festival on the horizon the ABV Beer Festival that is selling well from what I have heard.

It isn’t just the locals though, in the relatively peaceful times Northern Ireland finds itself, the tourists are coming in droves. A lot of them from countries with a massive array of beers who want choice, so let’s give them more than Guinness! Let’s give them something they don’t expect to find in our wee country, a diverse range of awesome local beer.

Am I barking up the wrong tree or just kidding myself? Either way I am excited at what the future holds and look forward to see what this year brings!

They call me Bruce.