Guinness Nitrosurge Device - Does it work?
The Tale Of The Ale
by Reuben Gray - TaleOfAle
2y ago
  Guinness sent this little gizmo to me along with two cans and a glass. I attended a zoom demo and then later tried it myself and made a video which I've now uploaded onto YouTube. Please feel free to take a look or read below to see what I think. It does seem to do what they want it to do, namely it replicates the Guinness two part pour experience in a pub but the main thing is that you can achieve a creamy dome head which I believe is a first for any home version of Guinness.  It's no good for normal cans of beer as it just gives you a massive Belgian style head and lowers the ..read more
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Brewery and Distillery Visits with BYO Magazine
The Tale Of The Ale
by Reuben Gray - TaleOfAle
2y ago
Middleton Distillery Anyone who has been homebrewing for any length of time will know of the American Homebrew Magazine: Brew Your Own (BYO). It has been going since 1995, when I was still in school. They had arranged a trip to Ireland last year for their subscribers and I was asked to help out as a local guide. Then, Covid hit and the trip was postponed until the end of August this year. I was only too happy to provide my services. BYO usually get Zephyr Adventures in Colorado to organise their trips and Zephyr used to run the European Beer Bloggers conferences. I myself hel ..read more
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Metalman Brewing - Ten Years Strong
The Tale Of The Ale
by Reuben Gray - TaleOfAle
3y ago
  Usually when it's someone's birthday, they receive gifts from friends but in this case, Metalman sent me a gift of some beer for their birthday. It really doesn't seem like 10 years ago that I was having homebrewed beer with brewery owners Grainne and Tim at The Bull and Castle in Dublin, essentially providing market research for their plans to start a brewery. There was a lot of "market research" back on those days..... After many versions of pale ale at the homebrew meetups, Metalman launched with their Metalman Pale Ale and really helped kick off Ireland's love of pale ales after G ..read more
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Hey Bru
The Tale Of The Ale
by Reuben Gray - TaleOfAle
3y ago
  Brú have been knocking around for years, I actually attended a food and beer party at the brewery in 2014 which as I recall involved a lot of stout and chocolate ice cream pairing. Yeah sure, there were other pairings but the stout and ice cream was the winner for me. The one thing that always struck me about Brú in the past was that they were great at contract brewing beer for other brands but never really pushed their own beyond the core range. In late 2019, Brú and Carrig Brewing merged. Carrig operations moved from Drumshanbo to the larger Brú facility in Trim and with Carri ..read more
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Grand Stretch in the Evening
The Tale Of The Ale
by Reuben Gray - TaleOfAle
3y ago
  Spring is in the air and the sun is still up when I'm finished work these days so the odd beer on the balcony after a cycle is starting to become a thing again. That lovely pint is the wonderful Rheinbacher Pils from Aldi, though I've seen it in Supervalu too. One of the best newer beers from Brú is Osiris IPA. It's a hefty 6.2% but seriously fresh. I recall reading The Beer Nut having a less enjoyable experience when it was released nearly a year ago but this was my first time trying it and I thought it was excellent. Whatever the initial issue was must have been resolved.  It ..read more
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Treaty City Rebrand
The Tale Of The Ale
by Reuben Gray - TaleOfAle
3y ago
I think 2020 saw a number of breweries go through a re-brand, and sure why not considering the on-premise market has essentially dried up thanks to Covid. Grabbing shelf attention is more important than ever. I spotted Treaty City had gone all colourful and now can so decided to pick some up. I visited the original brewery in 2017 but they have since moved into Limerick city centre which saves on the short walk out to the industrial park outskirts where I believe the main production brewery remains. Speaking of Covid, 'Rona G'Way is a 3.9% juicy IPA but perhaps not the freshest as I reckon ..read more
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Brehon Brewhouse
The Tale Of The Ale
by Reuben Gray - TaleOfAle
3y ago
Brehon Brewhouse has gone through a little re-branding recently and kindly sent me some samples of the new beers along with some old favourites. Make your own luck is a 4% kettle sour which contains passion fruit apparently but seems a bit more raspberry to me. That's good since prefer raspberry to to passion fruit. It's nice and tart with just a hint of sourness, sort of like an introductory sour beer to someone new to the style rather than throwing them right into the deep end with a Belgian gueuze. Like most session kettle sours, there's no real beer behind it, I get no malt at all nor ..read more
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Zooming all over the Internet
The Tale Of The Ale
by Reuben Gray - TaleOfAle
3y ago
The first virtual session of 2021 happened on January 29th and was of course hosted by Craic Beer Community who have been a real lifeline for the Covid lockdowns. Here are some thoughts on some of the beers in the January beer box. First up was a beer from Hope Brewing which was actually a collaboration with Brian from Craic Beer Community. Miroslav Gose is a 4.5% gose with salt and coriander added. Lots of zesty lime from the coriander or perhaps yeast despite there not being any fruit additions. A touch of salt but not as salty as many a gose I've had. Tart, bordering on s ..read more
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Dublin City Brewing Company
The Tale Of The Ale
by Reuben Gray - TaleOfAle
3y ago
Just before Christmas, I picked up the three available beers from Dublin City Brewing company based on Parnell Street in Dublin. There's a certain irony that I bought them in Cork perhaps.  I know they were getting tanks in last year and opening a tap room but whether they ever got to open last year due to Covid is doubtful. I reckon we are looking at an opening sometime later this year when Covid is no longer keeping us all sequestered at home. Starting off with the Liberator Irish lager, a 4.2% clean, crisp lager, you can see the influence of Head Brewer Fergal Murray here. Having spen ..read more
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Cigar City Brewing - American Beers back on the blog!
The Tale Of The Ale
by Reuben Gray - TaleOfAle
3y ago
Cigar City beers have been available in Ireland for a while now but I've never bought them. In fact, I haven't purchased American beer in Ireland for years because Irish beer choice is so great these days.  I decided to pick these up during a recent trip to the big O'Brien's in Blanchardstown. I had to use my leftover loyalty points before they expired permanently thanks to yet more Nanny State shenanigans by the Irish government. Anyway, Cigar City is a brewery I've come across in the US before so I figured I would break from the norm and try them out again.  Guayabera is a citra p ..read more
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