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Hello from a fellow homebrewer from across the pond. I live outside Washington, DC in the state of Virginia. Northern Virginia, hence the "NOVA" in my name. My wife and I will be staying in a self-catering cottage on the Beara Peninsula in October, and I would love some recommendations for good pubs in the area. Any place down that way making their own? How common is cask-conditioning in Ireland? We've travelled fairly extensively in Britain, but this will be our first trip together to Ireland.

I know I can expect the usual beers in abundance (Guinness, Harp, Smithwick's, Beamish, etc.), but am very curious about the craft brew scene.

Hi NOVA Brewer, and welcome. One of Ireland's tragic ironies is that it's full of superb pubs of which almost none serve good beer. I very much doubt you'll get much other than the usual macrobrews in Beara (Harp's actually pretty rare in the south these days, btw) and your nearest sources for the decent stuff will be either in Cork city (Franciscan Well and The Bierhaus) or over on the Dingle peninsula where two pubs have just set up their own microbrewery. The best of the bad lot for drinking in normal pubs is probably the pint bottle of Guinness from the shelf.

Cask conditioning is extremely rare in southern Ireland. Only the Porterhouse in Dublin makes such a beer full-time, and that's really only because of the demands of their London branch. Most of the others will do cask specials from time to time or for events. Northern Ireland's two breweries do produce full-time cask beers, again because they exist in the UK market, but their beers are rarely seen on tap in the Republic.

For the last half century or so, the Irish publican has been very used to the ease of handling and long shelf-life of pasteurised kegged beers. The big brewers introduced this and have been backing it up with some of the most famous marketing campaigns in the world. Try going into a bar and suggesting that they might like to sell a beer no-one has ever heard of which has to be kept at the correct angle and temperature and be sold within three or four days, and see what reaction you get.

Probably something like "My customers won't drink that. Sure, Guinness is the best beer in the world." <!-- s:roll: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_rolleyes.gif" alt="" title="Rolling Eyes" /><!-- s:roll: -->

Hi NOVA, and welcome. TBN has pretty much covered it. Small point, though: Tara's, as well as the Porterhouse, has a constant beer on cask too. It might be an excuse for a nice day trip.

Where you are heading, it's best to forget about variety of beers, accept what's on offer, and enjoy the pubs for what they do have to offer - good food, music, and chat. There is some amazing scenery along that coastline too.

&amp;quot;noby&amp;quot;:1zc1mr3p wrote: Small point, though: Tara's, as well as the Porterhouse, has a constant beer on cask too.[/quote:1zc1mr3p]Of course. I keep forgetting about Tara's. I really have to get down there some time.

Thanks Noby.

theres a nice pub in Sneem called O'Sheas that stock Rebel Red and Friar Weisse both from Franciscan Well

this is also Beoir Chorca Dhuibhne

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