Beer Place Names Part 4

It’s becoming more difficult you know.

In the autumn of 2012 I started a little quest to take as many photographs of locally produced bottles of beer.  Not just any old photos you understand but photos of a bottle in front of a road sign or placename that also bore the ale’s title.  Inishmacsaint beer on Inishmacsaint island in Fermanagh, Hilden’s Titanic Beer in front of the Titanic Museum etc.  In previous ramblings, I had collated twelve such photographs featuring Hilden, Ards Brewing Co, Whitewater, Inishmacsaint and Clanconnel.  They can be seen in earlier blogs on here and on the CAMRA NI website.

But there was always going to be a finite number of shots to take and I’d started to exhaust all local beers with a place name in the title.  However a couple more have been added to the list thanks to Ards Brewing and one of the new kids on the block, Sheelin Brewery. 

Based in the village of Bellanaleck just outside Enniskillen, the thatched roof Sheelin complex accommodates three businesses – brewery, tea room and lace museum.  Now I’m not much into the history of fabric but I am partial to a jam scone and even more interested in a flavoursome local beer.

So one August afternoon en route to County Mayo, Gillian and I called into Bellanaleck and were made to feel very welcome by owner and head brewer George Cathcart.

After the tea and scones were demolished in the tea room we had a whistle stop tour of his brewery before being handed a sample of the new fresh and light Sheelin Blonde Ale.  There’s one for the photo place names album I thought instantly.  Nice one.  

Ards Brewing Co is a microbrewery based outside Greyabbey on the Ards peninsula.  Established in 2011 and mentioned in my previous blogs they produce quality brews such as Pig Island pale ale, Ballyblack stout and Cardy Man stout.  Those three have already been photographed in front of Pig Island in Strangford Lough and Co. Down roadsigns for Ballyblack Rd and Cardy Road. 

A recent Ards brew was Bittles Citra Autumn Ale, exclusively available to Bittles Bar in Belfast.  This zesty 5.1% ABV beer has undertones of grapefruit and passion fruit and is highly quaffable.  If you haven’t grabbed one by now, chances are they’re already gone.  You can follow both Sheelin and Ards on facebook and twitter.

So I said at the start it’s becoming more difficult.  Further beer place name photo opportunities are few and far between now but if you have any ideas or thoughts of where I could go next, let me know here or on twitter @roywillighan

It's your round you say?

Cheers.