Irish Craft In London - One Year On...

As we head into the early Spring, it's almost time to get up to speed with a new round of events featuring the best of the Irish Craft Beer Scene.

In 2016, the annual Bord Bia food and drink event served as an appetiser for what in my view, was the best beer festival run at The Rake, in Borough Market, where a handful of brewers from all over Ireland sent beers for a four-day festival, delighting drinkers unaware of the growing Irish scene, and contributing to a memorable St Patrick's Day when, even after the bar shut, ex-pats drawn by the craic turned the place into an Irish pub, and nobody wanted to go home.

Barleywine quality control

During my autumn visit to West Cork, I had a chance to visit a couple of brewers, and also attend to first ever Great Irish Beer Festival. I'd met Englishman Sam Black, of Black's of Kinsale, during that Rake event, and so, from Cork airport, I headed south to say 'hullo'. I caught the team getting ready to rack the first batch of the 2016 Vanilla Imperial Stout, and debating the dry-hopping of their first barleywine (I didn't get a vote, but said 'yes' anyway).

Meet Sam Black...

I was interested to see they were quick to the canning game, shipping beer north for packaging. Their delicious Hi-Viz double IPA had just been delivered; a juicy, refreshing beer that carried its 8.5% easily. I saw their taproom - a small shipping container tucked inside the corner of the main building, a cosy nook to sample Black's beers, and the products of their small distillery.

Next day, I did the tour at Killarney Brewing, I'd sampled beers from Torc, and noticed the SuperValu supermarket in Bantry had added Killarney beers to their impressive Irish craft range. The chain seems keen to support local artisanal producers, whatever they're making, so you can wash down local cheese from Durrus with beer from Ballyvourney.

Killarney's shiny BrauKon kit

Killarney is a story slow in the telling - located on the main N71 into the town centre, the owners set out in 2011 to build a brewery and visitor centre, recruited a brewer from the US who could make full use of quality local ingredients, principally the local water, and then had to wait for three frustrating years to get their beers to market. As they will tell visitors, a business plan devised when there was fewer than a dozen breweries in Ireland, makes things difficult when that market has five times that number, all jostling for shelf and bar space. Still, the beers were pretty solid, and they seemed able to sell most of their production into the local market, which is heavily dependent on tourism.

Phil and Sue Cullen

After a few days around Beara, it was back to Cork City, and the inaugural Great Irish Beer Fest, hosted at the City Hall. Most of the Cork breweries were in attendance, backed up with representation from all over the island of Ireland. I was finally able to meet Phil Cullen and wife Sue of Mountain Man Brewing. They were the first of the West Cork brewers, and the first 'local' beer I drank in Beara. I take a bit of credit for it being on the bar at Casey's Hotel in Glengarriff, after I'd been drinking it at Ma Murphy's in Bantry, and raved about it when I got back to Casey's. This being W Cork, a girl working in the hotel knew Phil, and so contact was made.

9 White Deer - Illuminating...

GIBF was a first try of Yellow Belly beers (a free comic strip with each) and some well-made and flavoursome sour beers. It was gratifying to see the range of styles on offer from all the brewers - beer made with kelp, big hoppy pale ales, wheat beers, saisons, farmhouse styles... I see the 2017 fest is at the end of August, so it looks like a weekend trip to Cork will be required.

Once again this year, the Irish Embassy hosts Bord Bia, and again they will showcase some new breweries, as well as a couple of old friends, and in the weeks leading up to March 17th, there'll be events in London featuring Irish craft, including, I hear, a collaboration between a poitin distiller and a brewery who made a big impression in London last year. Watch this space for more details...

The Spirit Of Sharing

(It's been 15 months since I last wrote this blog. The waning enthusiasm I was feeling through 2014 finally pushed me into inertia and, although there were some good beery things happening in 2015, I couldn't be arsed to write about them. So far this year, though, I've felt more excited about the beer scene than at any point since early 2014, so I've sharpened a pencil and resurrected the blog. The last thing I wrote about in 2014 was Irish craft beer, and it's the topic of my first post of 2016)

I am summoned to the Irish Embassy in London. Have they decided I'm too plastic, I ponder? No, nothing like that, the Embassy is hosting the Irish Food Board (Bord Bia) event 'Spirit of Sharing', and I've been invited.

The event showcases 20 drinks producers across whiskey, gin, liqueurs, poitín and, of course, beer. The UK is a huge market for this sector, with sales last year of over £280m (€365m) and growth of around 10%. The Food Board are keen to drive this growth further, and presumably this is part of an ongoing programme to connect producers with new markets.

Brewers made up a quarter of the producers, and represented the established - Carlow and Galway Hooker - and the new - Wicklow Wolf, White Hag and Clever Man.

White Hag were voted best new Irish brewer by Ratebeer, and half a dozen of their beers will be featured at The Rake's 'Thank Goodness, No Guinness!' fest over 17th to 20th March. They'll have 36 beers from ten breweries, and I think I'm correct in saying this is the first UK event to profile so many Irish brewers.

Are there still wolves in Ireland?
Quincey from Wicklow Wolf

Wicklow Wolf are a newish 10bbl operation based in Bray, who are already building a new brewhouse twice the size a few miles away. They have around 3 acres of hopfields, growing several varieties including Chinook, Cascade, Bramling Cross and Perle. Their all-Perle porter is excellent. They are keen participants in the local 'Locavore' movement, brewing a fresh-hop beer annually using locally-grown barley.

Malcolm Molloy, a Clever Man

Clever Man are the youngest of the participants, running for just a year, and with a nice line in branding and a solid core range of four beers, including a turf-smoked stout and a tasty American Pale Ale. Galway Hooker had four beers, and Carlow three. Both admitted that the newer brewers had compelled them to think about their ranges. Carlow mentioned they were looking at producing sours, and that was a recurring theme. Wicklow Wolf are aiming to retain the original brewhouse to make sours and look at barrel-ageing, while White Hag are already doing both.

Their Beann Gulban Heather Sour ale is a nicely tart gruit, which had lovely mouthfeel and a gently tart finish. They also showed off Black Boar, which is their Oatmeal Imperial Stout aged in (of all things for an Irish brewer) Scotch whisky barrels. Justin Mason, also in attendance, thought it was a bit 'hot', while I felt the whisky was a bit overpowering. I think we both felt it could do with more time in the bottle.

Caskmates. Unlikely but true...

My palate tends to protest when I drink spirits, but Jameson had something that needed to be tried. As they related it, a conversation at the bar at Franciscan Well in Cork City between Shane Long, FW's head brewer, and the head distiller from Jameson, led to barrels the brewer had used to age a stout, being returned to the distillery, where they filled them with whiskey, The whiskey picked up chocolate and butterscotch and, on a very long finish, I also got Seville oranges. Most of the batch has seemingly gone Stateside, but it's stocked in some UK on-trade outlets.

Leftovers

Finally, poitín. I'd had this twice in my life. Teeling makes one, and though they had a bottle on their stand, the little teases didn't open it. Bán Poitín from Skibbereen in West Cork were there as well, though, and I had my third experience. Made from malted barley, potatoes and some molasses, this stuff is fierce. It bit at the back of my mouth and burned all the way down. It's become popular as a base in cocktails, and Charlie McCarthy of All About The Cocktail was doing a brisk trade at his bar using it.

So, no Ferrero Rocher, although Ambassador Dan Mulhall introduced the event and was a voluble and approachable host. Still, there were some excellent Irish chocolates and some leftovers...

Time will tell whether this event and others like it, represent a breakout for Irish craft. While it's remarkable that a country with a population less than half that of London's can support over 80 breweries, the scene is growing up fast and it's natural for many of those brewers to want to try their luck in other beer markets. If you, and you're curious and in/near London, get along to The Rake for their event. I'll be looking forward to re-acquainting myself with White Hag, and catching up with 8 Degrees and Black's of Kinsale.

Thanks to Bord Bia and Charlie McCarthy for the invite