Irish Golden Pints 2015

This is the first time I've nominated beers for the Golden Pints awards and I was initially torn between doing a UK list or Ireland list, then quickly realised I've had a lot more Irish beer this year than ones from England, Scotland or Wales.  So that's sorted then.  Also please remember when reading this that it's what I think.  You probably won't agree with a lot here but that's ok - next time you see me you can buy me a beer and we'll talk about it like reasoned adults. 

Best Irish Cask Beer - Farmageddon Mosaic IPA

Cask is a rarity in Ireland, north and south.  The best tasting cask beer I experienced this year was at the Belfast Beer and Cider Festival in November and goes to Farmageddon's Mosaic IPA.  A cracker of a beer, fresh, crisp, fruity and one of the few beers I tried more than thrice, ahem. 

Best Irish Keg Beer -  O Brother Brewing Brutus

My winner by a long way.  I fell in love with it at the Irish Craft Beer Festival in Dublin's RDS in August and I still love it.  Very much.  Also shout outs to The White Hag's Black Boar and 8 Degrees for their new Belgian stout, Signal.

Best Irish Bottled/Canned Beer - Galway Bay 200 Fathoms  

A Teeling Whiskey barrel aged imperial stout is right up my street.  Their chocolate milk stout Buried At Sea is also high up the list as is O'Haras Leann Folláin.

Best Overseas Draught - Brewdog IPA is Dead Citra

I'll class overseas as mainland GB in this list and first place goes go the juggernaut that is Brewdog, had in their self-named bar in Liverpool.  Titanic's Plum Porter and Fallen Brewing's Platform C are crackers too.

Best Overseas Bottle Beer - Williams Bros Froach 22

Loch Ness' 10%abv Double Cask Prince is fantastically smooth but it is pipped to the top spot by the 11%abv Williams Bros Froach 22, a heather ale matured in ex-sherry casks which were previously used to mature Auchentoshan single malt (it just sounds good!)

Best Overseas Canned Beer - Beavertown Gamma Ray

The two top spots here go to Beavertown from that there London town with the American pale ale Gamma Ray coming 1st.  Also look out for their stunning triple IPA Power of the Voodoo, it's a beezer.

Best Collaboration - Galway Bay Goodbye Blue Monday

Another winner for Galway Bay. Brewed in collab with Begyle Brewing from Chicago, it's a hoppy oatmeal IPA.

Best Overall Beer - Galway Bay 200 Fathoms

I've been dreading this category...but had to narrow it down to about 5.  And then 3. 

And then finally 200 Fathoms.  Maybe absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that guff but it pains me to have had it only once this year - I miss you 200F.

Best Branding - 8 Degrees

Respect is paid to Northern Ireland's two new publicly owned co-ops, Lacada and Boundary for having something different but the boys at 8 Degrees take the crown.

Best Pumpclip - O Brother's Brutus.  

Loved it.

Best Label - Red Hand Pale Ale

Small brewer Red Hand pale ale from Co Tyrone - a child's hand.  So simple.

Best Brewery - Galway Bay

Another one for the GB massive.  Although 8 Degrees and O Brother did run them close.

Best Overseas Brewery - Beavertown

Hmmm... Loch Ness, Isle of Skye and Brewdog are right up there but again it goes daaaaan saaaaf to that Landan taaaan brewery Beavertown.

Pub of the Year - Kiwi's Brew Bar, Portrush

I thought I'd venture out of a city and award this to a cracking wee bar with a really good range of bottles in a town not overly known for its craft beer selection. Plus it shows football on tv. Well done Kris and the team.

New Pub of the Year for 2015 - The Woodworkers, Belfast.  

Although it opened in December 2014, it's a winner here. Regular meet the brewer events, great rotating taps and a fantastic food selection to boot!

Best Festival - Irish Craft Beer Festival

Despite being involved in the Belfast Beer and Cider Festival my favourite festival of the year was the ICBF in the RDS in Dublin last August.  So many brewers selling their Irish beer, so many great food stalls out the back with ample seating and a good DJ doing his thang..

Supermarket of the Year - None

A lot of them are still quite rubbish so I'll pass on this until (some chance) they reach somewhere near the level of independents.

Independent Retailer of the Year - The Lighthouse

Within 10 miles of Belfast, it's this fantastic place in Whiteabbey. Also great to see others like The Vineyard, Gap Wines, Lavery's, Wineworks and Neill Wines have a wide ranging selection too. 

Online Retailer of the Year - www.drinkstore.ie

I've used a few but the winner is Drinkstore, primarily for their discount policy!

Best Beer Blog or Website - http://thebeernut.blogspot.co.uk

Always informative.

Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer

@thebeernut for his dry wit or @twattybeer (Twatty Beer Doodles)

Best Brewery Website/Social Media - ......

Anyone who doesn't retweet 50 fecking times a day. 

A County Antrim Hooley with a Kiwi

A new brewery has emerged from the Glens of Antrim.  No, not Glens of Antrim Ale, the other one. "Eh?" Yup, that was also my reaction when I became aware of it.  Barrahooley Brewery based just outside the small village of Martinstown has been flying so low under the radar it was in danger of crashing into Glenravel itself.

Sam Birkett is the man in charge, a Scotsman from Dumfries and Galloway but living in Northern Ireland the past ten years.  His love of craft beer and real ale came about while working in London, "I was struck by the massive choice of beers available in the bars and immediately fell in love with the modern American style craft beers and ales on offer.  At that time I just wasn’t able to find any beers that came close back home in Northern Ireland so decided to try brewing my own".

He became hooked on learning about the brewing process and a few years later Barrahooley Brewery was born.   Over the past couple of months he's been lying very low by distributing some sample beers in the immediate area but is slowly starting to extend his distribution area.  At the moment you can buy a bottle conditioned single hopped (Cascade) pale ale and a black IPA, with moves afoot for a dry stout and Irish red in the next couple of weeks.

The 4.8% abv pale ale is crisp and fresh on the nose with a light, but not overbearing, grapefruit taste.  A good session beer that is just crying out to be consumed again and again on a sunny spring evening.

Moving on to the 4.8% abv black IPA, Sam told me he became inspired to brew it after tasting one at a beer festival in Glasgow last summer.  I'm glad he did because it's a cracking beer.  The hops waft around your nose before the great combination of big hop and slight roastiness upon tasting.  It's my favourite of the two and Sam's also in the same boat. 

I became aware of Barrahooley (it's a townland if you're wondering) when Kiwi's Brew Bar in Portush started stocking their wares.  If you haven't been to Portrush in a while, do yourself a massive favour by going and have a wee jook into Kiwi's.  You'd quickly walk past it if you weren't looking for it though so keep your eyes peeled, it used to be the Playhouse on Main St beside the Port Hotel.

Owner Kris Charteris has lived in NI since 2001 and opened the bar in early 2014 with the aim of stocking something different.  And you're guaranteed of that as Kiwi's is an Aladdin's Cave of beer, stashing some of the latest and tastiest treasures from NI, Republic of Ireland and England (at the moment stocking bottles of Mad Hatter, Eight Degrees, Ilkley, Beavertown, PokerTree, Hilden and Redchurch).  And it's not only the beers.  The bar does an amazing 6 Nations burger menu, the Ireland offering is a rump steak burger with black pudding, potato bread, fried egg and ketchup!  In my opinion this place is undoubtedly the best bar on the north coast, I'd love to live closer to it than I do.   Just make sure when you visit, you're hungry and thirsty.