TOPIC:

"rebel":1w7033c9 wrote: I thought the site was to promote craft beer[/quote:1w7033c9]Yes. Beer, not styles. I see no reason why we should be trying to encourage brewers to make beers in styles they have no interest in producing. Worse, it may encourage them to "brew to style", which would be very bad for creativity and innovation in the industry, IMO.

"rebel":1w7033c9 wrote: every major style should be honoured.[/quote:1w7033c9]Why? Surely that's just tokenism. Good beer is good beer, regardless of its colour or flavour, and should be judged and rewarded as such.

&amp;quot;rebel&amp;quot;:1w7033c9 wrote: I have no problem with anybody drinking wheat beer from Germany.[/quote:1w7033c9]Me neither. I also don't see the point in trying to create an expectation of brewers making particular styles. After all, it's not like a single one of them is native to Ireland (we need a heather beer[/url:1w7033c9] category <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D --> ).

Without categories, the styles which ICB members prefer to drink will be favoured. However, I don't see this as necessarily a bad thing.

[quote:11frrym6]It does not include ciders, meads or other non-beer brews. [/quote:11frrym6]

I think this is fair enough given the current state of ciders and meads in Ireland. If you were to have a competition for them who would be included?

Philip Troughton Armagh Cider Co. <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="www.armaghcider.com">www.armaghcider.com
Michelle Power Boozeberries <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="www.boozeberries.com">www.boozeberries.com
Oliver Dillon Bunratty mead <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="www.bunrattymead.net">www.bunrattymead.net
John Cashman Cooley Distillery <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="www.cooleywhiskey.com">www.cooleywhiskey.com
David Llewellyn Double L Cider Co.
Joseph Lynch First Ireland Spirits

A whiskey award might be practical at some point. But do people feel they have the expertise needed for that?

Ciders sadly need another few makers. And meads would seem to be purely hypothetical at the moment.

It's not so much the makers of ciders as the availability. How many of these could most of us get our grubby mitts on in the shops and pubs?

Your list missed out Messrs Maguire, who made a damn fine cider -- Blossom -- a couple of years ago.

Surely to Jeebus there's already an Irish whiskey award out there somewhere.

I put the mead in mostly to bulk out that sentence, but you never know...

[quote:2i4ny5u9]Surely to Jeebus there's already an Irish whiskey award out there somewhere.[/quote:2i4ny5u9]

Oddly enough I cannot find one.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="www.barkeeper.ie/News_Item.asp?News_ID=1271">www.barkeeper.ie/News_Item.asp?News_ID=1271

[quote:2i4ny5u9]Kilbeggan 15 Year-Old Irish Whiskey was named the ‘World’s Best Blended Irish Whiskey’ by The Whisky Magazine at the recent World Whiskies Awards in London[/quote:2i4ny5u9]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="www.tyrconnellwhiskey.com/_awards/awards.asp">www.tyrconnellwhiskey.com/_awards/awards.asp
and
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="www.cooleywhiskey.com/news/2008/cooley_collects_9_gold_medals/">www.cooleywhiskey.com/news/2008/ ... ld_medals/
the awards are international (the International Wine & Spirits Competition (IWSC)).


[quote:2i4ny5u9]I put the mead in mostly to bulk out that sentence, but you never know...[/quote:2i4ny5u9]

Some of the honey shows have mead competitions which will have to do for the moment as there are no meads commercially brewed in Ireland.

&amp;quot;TheBeerNut&amp;quot;:kov6xz8a wrote: Your list missed out Messrs Maguire, who made a damn fine cider -- Blossom -- a couple of years ago.[/quote:kov6xz8a]

never tasted that one, anything you could compare it to? pity that it didn't stay around.

How about for example a sales rep from a major macro brand getting a lot of his buddies to join the site and vote for example for a Diageo product on mass, i.e. get 20 people to join over a six month period who would all vote for one product as their favourite. It could not be proven it is a fix but could be planned. I know there was some competition in the past on BBC which was hijacked by mass voting from certain quarters. If 20 people joined ICB indepedently one could not prove it is a planned coup - say 20 new members voting Bud Light as the best beer in Ireland and the world!!!!!!

and having an ICB scroll to prove it!!!!