Home-Metalman Sgt. Pepper

This saison from the Waterford brewery, Metalman, is spiced with sage and white pepper to give it an extra savory spicy kick. It pours a clear gold color with a fluffy 1 finger white head out of the can. The aroma on this beer is very intense and diverse. Immediately you get the sage along with a slight sweetness, some peppery spice, and even a little white grapey. The flavor follows similarly, but has a little less depth as the sage takes over in dominant fashion. It has a very herbal, spicy flavor with just a hint of grainy maltiness. It has a nice mouthfeel which isn't cloying, but has enough body to hold up with the heavy spicing.

Overall, this beer is very savory, almost like you accidentally spilled some kitchen spices in your beer, and by the end, it is a bit overwhelming and you are very ready for it to be over. Essentially it is spiced way to heavily for my taste, but I am a believer that any spices should be there but not in the foreground. If you want a beer that really tastes like sage then give this one a try, but if you are looking for just a hint of sage on a nice saison, maybe look somewhere else. An interesting concept, but just taken too far.

the Gasworks-Galway Bay Buried at Sea

Finally had a chance to make it to another one of the Galway Bay bars. This time I was at the Gasworks, which had much more of a restaurant feel than the Beer Market, which felt more like a hangout spot. Nevertheless, still a great place with 26 beers on tap, an impressive bottle selection, and even a hand pump for cask ale. I will definitely be back here soon to try some of their other amazing beers.

While it was a tough decision, I decided to go with one of the house beers, a milk chocolate stout, and I'm glad I did. It pours a brownish black color with no light coming through and a 1 finger bubbly receding brown head. The aroma is nice with coffee and chocolate coming out strong and no burnt grain astringency. The flavor is excellent very chocolatey and sweet with a rich luscious filling mouthfeel that turns creamy on the back end leaving your mouth with a lingering sweetness, but it doesn't become unpleasant at all.  This is a great milk stout, really excellent and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a sweeter chocolatey stout.

Home-5 Lamps Brewing the Liberties

This Irish beer, styled after a British Bitter, poured a deep gold color with a thin 1/2 finger fluffy white head, which actually had great retention and lacing as the beer progressed. It has a caramely, bready, floral, spicy aroma, which all comes together very nicely. The flavor starts out really well with a crackery malt character that shifts into a nice breadiness and ale fruitiness. There isn't a lot of distinguishable hop flavor, but there does seem to be a little bit more there than just the malts. it finishes nice and dryly with a bitterness that isn't really bitter, but is definitely not sweet, so it leaves you wanting more. Overall this is a tasty everyday beer and very enjoyable.

Our second day of the tour started bright and early with a carriage ride through Killarney National Park where our guide pointed out to us much of the local plants and animals, including the herd of red deer which roam the park with little regard for humans as there is no hunting allowed inside. This was a really enjoyable hour long ride and allowed you to take in a lot of the scenery in the interior of the park where cars are not allowed.

We next made our way to the town of Dingle, famous for being the place with the most pubs per capita in all of Ireland. It was a cute little fishing village with lots of restaurants and pubs along the waterfront. We had a few hours here, so Becky and I roamed the town before sitting down to a nice lunch and going into all the little tourist shops around.

After Dingle we made our way onto the Dingle Peninsula, which had similar views and roads unfortunately as the Ring of Kerry. Again we were blown away by the incredible scenery on the frequent photo stops. Additionally, we got stalled briefly when two cars tried to go in opposite directions, but reached a jam due to the roads being too narrow to accommodate any maneuvering around. This was finally solved after one car had to drive in reverse for a couple minutes until they reached a stretch of road wide enough where both could fit.

This two day tour was absolutely incredible and I am glad we saved it for our last trip around the island because it truly lived up to its reputation as the most beautiful place in Ireland.

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.

Home-8° Big River

Described as a Tasmanian IPA, this beer is loaded with hops from New Zealand. It pours a light gold color with a voluminous 2 finger dense white head. The aroma is full of sweet hopiness, tropical fruits, marshmallows, mandarin oranges, and pineapple. This aroma is practically a fruit salad mixed with a slight grassiness. The taste is similar, but some of the sweeter flavors fall away to make room for a pronounced grassiness and fruity flavor. This beer finished nice and dryly and has a nice mouthfeel for a hoppy beer, light and crisp, but not watery at all. This being the second hoppy beer from 8° Brewing that I have enjoyed is a great sign that they know what they're doing, especially with the hops, and if I was looking for another super tasty, drinkable, hoppy beer, I would be happy to try one of theirs again.

Home-To ØL Let Maelk

This session milk stout is somewhat special because of the people who make it. To ØL is a pair of Danish guys who instead of brewing the beer themselves, design recipes and have them brewed at other breweries throughout the world. Many in the beer community have given "beer architects" the derogatory name of gypsy brewers because they don't have their own facilities. With that being said they alongside another famous brewer of this type Mikkeller have been well regarded for the quality of their recipes and some of their incredible experimental brews.

This beer pours an opaque black with a lasting 1 finger brown head. The aroma is primarily of coffe and burnt grain roastiness. The flavor is not quite what you expect from a milk stout because it lacks the characteristic sweetness that sticks around in the mouth long after you've had your sip. It starts with a dry burnt grain taste, with only a hint of lactose sweetness on the back end, mellowing out those roasted notes and slightly prolonging the finish. Used in this fashion, the lactose takes on a different character, and instead of contributing a pronounced flavor, the subtlety of it here slightly adjusts the common stout flavors to create something more drinkable and less astringent. Overall, this beer tastes not nearly as sweet as your average milk stout, and might take you by surprise if you come in expecting a load of lactose.

This past weekend, Becky and I went on the final school-sponsored field trip to the Cliffs of Moher. We were fortunate enough to have a sunny clear day, giving us spectacular views out onto the ocean and of the Cliffs below our feet. Even though the drive was long, I understand why this is one of the top tourist attractions in all of Ireland.

Doheny & Nesbitt-Wicklow Wolf American Amber

Back at Doheny's again for another pint. This time I went on a Friday, and it was very packed, and I barely managed to find a seat tucked away in a corner of the pub.

This beer pours an orangish red with a 1 finger dense white head. There is a light fruity aroma on the beer followed by some maltiness. It has a bit of hop flavor before turning caramely in taste, but it never turns sweet because of the firm bitterness in this amber. It has a medium-light body that drinks fairly well. If you like a bitter amber ale this one is a good one to try, but if you tend to want them sweeter, you might not find this one to your liking. Personally, I thought this was pretty tasty, but by the end of this the bitterness was starting to get to me a little bit as I'm not to used to my amber ales having such a hop flavor and bite. That being said this is by no means an IPA in terms of bitterness, just more than your typical amber ale, which gives a nod to the American nature of the style.