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Had a pint of the Red ale in the 57 Headline last night

It's a really nice beer, lots of caramel and much nicer than a fair few Irish reds*

*not getting into a debate about whether such a beer style exists and whether a contract brewed beer in the UK really is an Irish red, whatever that might mean...

However, and this may be me being unbelievably picky, but i have massive issues with the name

It's a bit twee. Was having a beer with a mate who likes his craft ale and when I told him i wanted a "Granny Mary's Red Ale" he looked at me as if to say "you are f*cking kidding me, I'm not ordering that"

I may be wrong but the brand and beer names seem like they have an eye on an export market who would find "quaint" Irish names for beers hilarious, part of our legendary "craic of the Irish" shtick.

Not my cuppa though, but the beer is very nice

(I am aware that one of the owners has posted on this thread- so I apologise in advance if i've caused major offence and that you have probably spent lots on product design etc, but I can't see how this will work with Irish craft beer drinkers)

Had a pint of the IPA in 57, it was OK, served in their own rounded dimpled mug. The branding is frankly embarrassing, what were they thinking.

Ive had both the ipa and red. Ipa was horrific in my opinion. Had a real aftershave flavour. Red was ok. But not my preferred style to be honest.

The branding ramp up continues see this link on joe.ie

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="www.joe.ie/joe-life/food-drink/joe-meets...ewers-the-mcgargles/">www.joe.ie/joe-life/food-drink/j ... mcgargles/

That's a sponsored article if ever I saw one. It must be a cut and paste job.

Most definitely it is.
Aiming at readers of fhm et al

Yep. That article is a disgrace. For people that allegedly have so many "years of experience in the industry", this whole thing looks like an epic fail from start to finish. Offensive branding, claiming it's "Irish Craft Beer" when it's brewed in England and this whole shadiness is not doing them any favours. <!-- s:roll: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_rolleyes.gif" alt="" title="Rolling Eyes" /><!-- s:roll: --> The beers are nothing special either. I've only tried the red ale so far [note: I did NOT pay for it, Alan in the Brew Dock wanted our opinion so he gave one to Christina and myself for free]. It was alright but really nothing special and doesn't make up for that ridiculous branding. "Aftershave flavour" doesn't really make me wanna try the IPA either. Rather than the target being younger people as someone suggested on Twitter, I'd say that the only people this would appeal to are tourists.