Irish Golden Pints 2016

There's an online thing that does the rounds in late December called Golden Pints or #goldenpints if you wanna be really nerdy.  It's where folk (usually English) who like beer enough to write about it vote for their favourites. But why should the English get all the glory?  The Irish beer scene, north and south of the border, is thriving and riding the crest of a fantastic hop-filled wave.  So it's time to throw down the stereotypical shamrock encrusted gauntlet, raise up a glass of non-Diageo stout and declare my Golden Pints #goldenpints for our emerald isle.

Best Irish Cask Beer - Lacada Utopian Stout
Irish cask is a rarity to say the least with only a handful of Irish breweries semi-regularly using this dispense method.  This stout from Portrush's co-operative brewery is a smooth blend of bitter coffee and sweet chocolate.

Best Irish Keg Beer - Galway Bay Change of the Guard
This fantastic triple IPA was Galway Bay Will's first brew after joining the brewery and Chris's last before he went to White Frontier in Switzerland, hence the name.  A very limited release, it made an appearance at the 1st Belfast Craft Beer festival in the spring and hop-bombed everyone out of the tent.

Best Irish Bottled Beer - McGargles Francis' Big Bangin IPA
McGargles didn't have the best introduction to the beer scene a few years back with less than favourable reviews but they've upped their game considerably this past year. Big Bangin' is indeed that.  Hoppier than a roo on a trampoline and with such a delicious citrus aftertaste.

Best Irish Canned Beer - I've not had enough Irish cans to make a decent comparison.

Best Irish Collaboration - Kinnegar Cage Fight
Donegal brewery Kinnegar teamed up with Belfast's Sunflower Pub and released Cage Fight to celebrate the popular bar's independence from Diageo and the like.  Also in keg but this porter is better in bottle, there's a bitter choc start with the faintest of sour cherry.  This is soon swept aside with a lingering but not overpowering chilli heat.

Best Overall Irish Beer 2016 - McGargles Francis' Big Bangin IPA
No more needs said.  Buy it if you find it.

Best Irish Cider - Tempted Festival Scrumpy
This deservedly won my best overall drink at the Belfast Beer and Cider Festival.  Smooth apple pie in a glass and all that was missing was custard.

Best Irish Pumpclip or Label - Yellowbelly
Astounding artwork from Odin Graphics' Paul Reck for the Wexford brewery.

Best Irish Brewery - Farmageddon, 
The Co Down co-op just pips bigger boys Eight Degrees and Galway Bay by the tiniest of margins (according to my Untappd ratings)

Best New Irish Brewery Opening 2016 - Bullhouse
Willy Mayne is the man behind this new Newtownards brewery that has already produced an impressive array of brews, including a potato saison and barrel aged imperial milk stout.

Best Overseas Draught Beer - Buxton/Omnipollo Yellow Belly
Not to be confused with the Yellowbelly brewery, this 11% ABV imperial stout is a collaboration between England's Buxton and Sweden's renowned Ominpollo. A beautiful beast.

Best Overseas Bottled Beer - Cloudwater DIPA v2
Everyone knows Cloudwater and everyone knows about their double IPA hype machine.  The first I had of theirs was in February and it was an eye opener.

Best Overseas Canned Beer - Evil Twin Even More Jesus

Best Overseas Brewery - Siren Craft and Cloudwater
I really can't split these two. Siren Craft's BA Caribbean Chocolate Cake, Hillbilly Wine and Blacklight Banana were all amazing as were Cloudwater's DIPA v2, v3, v8 and Three's Company

Irish Pub of the Year - Kiwi's Brew Bar, Portrush
This north coast haven wins for the second year.  It would be all too easy to pick a bar from Belfast, Derry, Dublin, Galway or any other city.  Portrush is a small seaside town on the north coast, not renowned in the past for craft beer or craft bars.  New Zealand born owner Kris is changing all that with a good selection of alternative beers served by great staff.

Best Irish Festival of the Year - Irish Craft Beer Festival RDS Dublin
I love this festival.  It has wide range of Irish brewers serving their own brews with great food sold out the back with a DJ pumping out some tunes while you eat.  Any festival that has music away from the main hall and not drowning out a conversation while you drink is on to a winner for a start.

Supermarket of the Year - M&S
Tesco? Asda? Sainsbury's? Nah, M&S just edge it though I'm not jumping through hoops about it.

Independent Retailer of the Year - 
Support local.  If you don't, your local indy stores will disappear all too quickly.  Neill Wine from Co Down opened a new premise in my Co Antrim town of Carrickfergus in late 2016.  That's why they get this award.  If you're in the area, drop in.

Best Beer Blog/Website - The Beer Nut
Always an informative and educational read from Dublin-based John Duffy.

Best Beer App - Untappd
Ratebeer is dead.  Very few folk I know use it any more, it's rarely up-to-date and is convoluted to use.  Step up to the mark Untappd.  I love it.  It's easy to use, make comments, add new beers and rate them (ironically).  Simplicity is the way forward.

Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer - Beer Doodles
I love this.  Go see it now if you haven't already.

My NI Faves of 2016

In case you hadn't noticed, it's that time of year again.  Apart from continuing the strange ritual of putting trees in our living rooms and seeing plenty of overweight men in ill-fitting red polyester/velvet outfits, mid December means a review of our favourite Northern Irish beer of the past twelve months.  Of course I didn't have every single beer that was locally brewed this past year - though I did have a fair few - so this list isn't exhaustive.  It's also my opinion, yours will be different.  And that's good, so don't be gurning if your favourite isn't listed.

Best Porter -  KINNEGAR in collaboration with The Sunflower Pub - CAGE FIGHT

Celebrating the Belfast bar's independence from Diageo et al.  Although Kinnegar hails from Co Donegal, this has an NI influence as the bar staff helped in the brewing so it counts in this list.  Also available in keg but I preferred the bottle (yes I did have both to make a comparison).  A bitter chocolate start with the faintest of sour cherry but this is swept aside soon after with a lingering chilli heat that stays on the better side of tasty rather than overpowering. 

Best Stout - LACADA - UTOPIAN STOUT 

A cracker of a stout from the north coast co-operative, this appeared as part of Lacada's Limited Edition Salamander Series range.  Rich with hints of chocolate and coffee.  It's also available in cask sometimes if you're lucky - I prefer it in cask just marginally more but others prefer the bottle.  More on this later...

Best IPA - FARMAGEDDON - MOSAIC IPA 

This is also available in bottle form but it's a much better beast in cask, and I had the privilege of enjoying plenty of it in the Ulster Hall where it won overall beer of the Belfast Beer and Cider Festival.  Lots of smooth passion fruit and mango up front with a delicious bitterness that reminds you this is a beer, not a fruit juice.  Praise also for their Citra and Gorse IPAs earlier in the year.

Best Pale Ale - ARDS - HIP HOP 5

Ards Brewing Co from Greyabbey in County Down turned five years old this year (in 2011 Northern Ireland had 5 breweries compared to 30 today) and to mark the occasion, brewer Charles created - in my humble opinion - an improved version of his Hip Hop pale ale.  This one was brewed using five different hop varieties which made the beer a touch sweeter and more aromatic than the original.

Best Red - FARMAGEDDON/RENEGADE - RED EYE 

Collaborative brew between Farmageddon and English outfit Renegade Brewery.  Slight citrus fruits at the start give way to a great Columbus/Galaxy/Centennial hop bite with a slightly sweet biscuity malt remaining constant throughout. 

Best Amber - MOURNE MOUNTAINS - COAST 2 COAST

Mourne Mountains Brewery in Warrenpoint brewed this amber to celebrate the race event of the same name that starts in Co. Sligo and ends in the Mournes in Co. Down.  Tasty chewy hoppiness with a light caramel and butterscotch aftertaste.


Best Speciality - LACADA - IVY HONEY

Another one in the limited edition Salamander Series range, this was launched at the Belfast Craft Beer Festival at Custom House Square.  Shame it was in short supply as I found this to be an outstanding beer with the addition of ivy honey from brewer Laurie's own bees.  Could another one be on the horizon for 2017?

Best Irish But Not Northern Irish -  McGARGLES - FRANCIS' BIG BANGIN IPA

There have been so many great beers from across the border in the past year, coming from the likes of Galway Bay, Yellowbelly, White Hag, Brehon and Eight Degrees among others. But for me McGargles Big Bangin' IPA blew me out of the water.  Hoppy as you like with an aftertaste that oozes subtle citrus fruit - superb.

Overall Best Northern Irish Beer of 2016 - LACADA - UTOPIAN STOUT

If you're drinking this in the company of someone from Portrush and they turn to you and say "it's a wheeker, sham" then it's a good beer.  When I first had this in January I described its qualities as bitter, then sweet, then chocolate.  I've had it quite a few times since and still stand by those words.  A great stout from the Lacada co-op and deserves to be in its core range in future.

This is just a small cross section of the range of styles now available in Northern Ireland.  As well as the list above, expect saisons, sours, wheats, smoked oaks and many more.  And fair play to all the brewers brewing them.

Again I emphasise this blogpost details some of the best Northern Irish beers I had in 2016, there are plenty more.  Go find them!  

The Northern Ireland Class of 2016

It's been a great year for beer in Northern Ireland, with a noticeable increase in the number of beers brewed here and then being sold on shelves/tap, as well as the selection of imported beer from the rest of the world.  There's now such a wide range from so many NI breweries, both new and established - the future is exciting.

At my last count we have 24 physical brewery sites here in Northern Ireland with 6 contracts.

Interactive Google Maps NI Breweries 2016

COUNTY ANTRIM - 
Knockout, Boundary and Hercules (Belfast), 
Hillstown (Ahoghill), 
Barrahooley (Martinstown), 
Lacada (Portrush), 
Glens of Antrim (Ballycastle), 
Hilden (Lisburn) and brewpubs Brewbot (Belfast) & Speckled Hen (Black Mountain brewery, Derriaghy) 

COUNTY L'DERRY -
Northbound (Campsie), 
O'Connor (Greysteel), 
Walled City and Dopey Dick (Derry City)

COUNTY TYRONE - 
Pokertree (Carrickmore) and 
brewpub The Brewer's House (Red Hand brewery at Donaghmore)

COUNTY FERMANAGH - 
Sheelin (Bellanaleck) and Inishmacsaint (Derrygonnelly) - Sheelin has scaled down production recently and Inishmacsaint will make an announcement very soon about its future.

COUNTY DOWN - 
Mourne Mountains (Warrenpoint), 
Whitewater (Kilkeel but soon to be Castlewellan), 
Farmageddon (Ballygowan), 
Ards (Greyabbey),
Bullhouse (Newtownards),
Station Works (Newry - not a micro at all as it's owned by Alltech in the USA. Anyway, I believe it's soon moving to County Louth), 

Contract companies (registered in Northern Ireland but brewed at other breweries) include...

Heaney Farmhouse Brewing from Bellaghy (though currently brewed at Boundary in Belfast)
Clanconnel/McGraths (brewed by Rye River in Co. Kildare), 
Clearsky, (brewed by Hilden)
NightCap/Gallopers, (brewed by Sadler's near Birmingham) 
Cloughmore (brewed by Whitewater) and 
Sailortown (brewed by Carrig in Co. Leitrim)

Maltmeister from Bangor came and unfortunately went in the last year but there's a new brewery in the piepline a few miles down the road in Donaghadee - keep an eye out for Twisted Kettle sometime in 2017.  
I'm sure there are others on the way, let me know if you know.

Let's hope Northern Ireland's Class of 2016 will be able to sell directly to the public in 2017 if Stormont MLAs get their backsides in gear in the first half of the year.  Things are happening folks, slowly, but it's happening.  A Craft Drinks Bill has been launched in the Republic which is proposing a change in the law there to allow breweries to sell onsite.  With any luck and persistent social media contact, a #NICraftDrinksBill won't be far away.