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I was in here on Sunday evening and was very impressed with their new craft-oriented look. They still have all the usual crap, but also Carlow, Metalman and Hooker taps, plus lots of Irish and foreign bottles. Best of all: lots of blackboards and posters advertising what's available.

Worth a look.

I was in here over the Bank Holiday weekend and was very impressed with their selection of Irish Crafts beers. O'Hara's, 8 Degrees, Galway Hooker & Metalman all on tap. They were also giving out free platters of cheese and samples of Sink the Bismarck & Tactical Nucleur Penguin from Brew Dog. The barman was telling me the Irish micro's are selling really well and they are converting a lot of drinkers in the process. They are thinking about getting more taps in and might even open a new bar on the 2nd floor which will be dedicated solely to craft beer. I was sitting at the bar for two hours and every person who ordered a drink was choosing an Irish craft beer and this included a lot of tourists. Great to see!

Two posts within 8 minutes of each other. Weird.

I was sitting at the bar on Sunday too. I didn't see anyone ordering craft beer though. It was rounds of Heineken at €5.20 a throw (my Metalman cost €4), though one group passed around an unopened bottle of BrewDog Hardcore like it was toxic before handing it back.

But does anyone who works there *care* about craft beer?

Forgive me for being the cynic - I've never quite forgiven them for gutting what was a classic vintage pub in The Norseman to install Celtic Tiger super-pub blandness (and that might not even be the same ownership/management as now, for all I know) - but there's a whiff of the tourist trap about this.

If the staff is knowledgeable, then great. If it's a "pick a pretty label" setup, I'm not as interested.

Of course, the flip side is that if Irish craft beer has reached a critical mass that inspires a pub to make this move, that's good for us.

I'd say "enthusiastic" rather than "knowledgeable", but they seemed like the kind of people who could make it from one to the other.

The cask system goes live this Friday. O'Hara's IPA is to be the first beer out.