Courtney's-Craft Beer of Kerry

This past weekend Becky and I took a 2 day Paddywagon tour to the Ring of Kerry and Dingle Peninsula down in the Southwest of Ireland, bordering the Atlantic. We overnighted in Killarney and found a pretty good beer bar in the city. They had a few decent taps, but also an extensive bottle list. It was a decently crowded place, but you could still have a nice conversation. I decided to get the flight which was 3, 7oz pours of local craft beers.

The first beer was Crean's Lager from the Dingle Brewing Company. It pours a crystal clear straw color with a clean malty aroma. When I took a sip I was very surprised at the mouthfeel. It had a surprising amount of body for a pale lager and filled the mouth pleasantly. It has a grainy pilsner malt flavor that finishes cleanly. It has your classic clean lager finish, and overall was a very enjoyable lager. The mouthfeel really did it for me, and this beer is probably one of the better lagers I've ever had.

Next was a blonde ale from Killarney Brewing Company. It has a light gold color, barely darker than the Crean's. It has a malty slightly fruity ale aroma. The taste is nice and light with a yeasty fruitiness which keeps it light in the mouth. There is also some sweet maltiness and a hint of wheat doughy graininess in the flavor. This is a decent sessionable beer, which makes this beer a potential gateway beer for some people.

The final beer was Killarney Brewing Company's IPA. It has a red color and smells strongly of oranges. While the aroma is on the sweeter side of citrus, the flavor is much more on the grapefruity citrus side with a strong resiny flavor developing in the mid palate. In addition to the hop flavors, there is some caramely sweetness, but that doesn't stop the beer from finishing dryly, but it is not bitter. This IPA was pretty middle of the road, and lacked intensity, but was still a pretty good drinking beer.

The first day of our weekend started out very early in the morning and with a long drive al the way across Ireland. We stopped first in Killarney and had a few minutes to walk around the town before setting off on the Ring of Kerry. Killarney has about 3 main streets, which makes this tiny town very navigable, but even though it is small it has a good amount of shops, restaurants, pubs, etc. As we made our way onto the Ring, the roads got even worse than the typical narrow bumpy Irish roads. In light of the nauseating drive, the views of the Atlantic were spectacular. There are cliffs on one side and beautiful ocean on the other. Along the way there are a variety of scenic stops, and at most of these, locals bring along crafts to sell, but some even bring some lambs for people to pick up and pet, which was a blast. The ride around takes the whole afternoon, but is really spectacular, and the Ring of Kerry is credited with having the most scenic views on the whole island.

The tail end of the drive takes you through the Killarney National Park with scenic views of lakes nestled in the mountains and the Torq waterfall, nestled in a green wonderland. That night in Killarney we had a decent dinner at a sports bar, which was good for the price before making our way to Courtney's and some fresh handmade ice cream to cap off the night.