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Clotworthy Dobbin is one of the best beers I've ever tasted, and I'm pleased to say it's on the short list of beers I knew about before everyone else found out <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->

I'm slightly suspicious of the Belfast "Lager," which I should say I like very much. But on the side of the bottle it talks about Whitewater using the yeast strain from the old Belfast brewery, an ale yeast. I suspect the Belfast Lager is a golden ale, to me it has the same buttery taste as any Kolsch's I've ever tasted. But sssh it doesn't matter the main point is that in the past few years the Whitewater Brewery has done a very good job of marketing their 3 flag-ship ales to a more mainstream audience getting the bottles into a number of pubs in Belfast and surrounding areas. This is no mean feat when you consider that in Belfast itself I'm only aware of a handful of Real ale pumps:

Robinsons 2
John Hewitt 2 plus Continental lagers e.g. Erdinger
Kitchen 2
Botanic Inn 1
McHughs a couple
Bridge House 3
Molly's Yard Restaurant owned by Hilden

Actually it's a lot more than there used to be.

I was brought to the John Hewitt, by a colleague, who also happens to be called John Hewitt! We didn't get free beer, but I thought it was a lovely pub. It was at a time before I was aware of how bloody brilliant CWD is, so to my shame, I have not had it on cask yet, only bottle.

That's not a bad number of pumps compared to Dublin... I thought the Crown had a couple of pumps? (It's been a while since I've been in Belfast so my mind may be playing tricks)

The Crown does indeed have a couple of pumps...

I've done a bit of updating of the Antrim section of the pub directory[/url:7jzewftr], though there are quite a few listed on the Whitewater site that aren't in yet.

What do they have in Robinson's? No mention of it on the Whitewater site, and their own just shows Harp, Carlsberg, Magner's, Stella and (I think) Bass and Heineken.

&amp;quot;mdagnew&amp;quot;:35q0u29i wrote: The Crown does indeed have a couple of pumps...[/quote:35q0u29i]

I've been to Belfast several times recently, and The Crown seems to change between CWD, Belfast Lager / Ale, all on draught, presumably cask.