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"kenmc":25wmat93 wrote: I know that when I go there I rarely drink the same beer twice in a night, but rather flit between many, whereas when I go to a crap pub I will drink my lowest common denominator (guinness) all night. When I go somewhere that has Hooker but not much else, I'll drink that all night.[/quote:25wmat93]

That pretty much sums up my approach, unless I'm in a mood for something specific. I can only see the new additions being a good thing. If nothing else, more variety in similar styles might help to push the perception of craft brewing from being a niche market enterprise (i.e. for beer enthusiasts only) to a more generally available option.

"kenmc":18ley8nz wrote: Hard to know. You could argue that Hooker or Or or whatever should in theory never survive in somewhere like B&C where there's a rotating cask, oodles of bottles of new stuff, and frequent guest beers for folks to always try new stuff, but that clearly doesn't seem to be the case.

I know that when I go there I rarely drink the same beer twice in a night, but rather flit between many, whereas when I go to a crap pub I will drink my lowest common denominator (guinness) all night. When I go somewhere that has Hooker but not much else, I'll drink that all night.[/quote:18ley8nz]

Yeah I'm exactly the same. In B&C I try loads of different stuff whereas in somewhere like Anseo I'll just have Hooker. Lately anytime I've been in B&C I'm drinking other stuff and O'Hara's stout is further down on my list of choices as there's nearly always something I haven't tried.

So from that point yeah, B&C and O'Hara's have actually lost a bit of my custom because of the choice but if they were in more pubs - only two pubs in Dublin's City Centre has O'Haras as far as I know:? - but if O'Haras were in more pubs I'd be drinking that. It's the usual thing - the cool pubs your mates want to go to for the girls and music are the pubs that have crap beers and they don't wanna go to Porterhouse or B&C.

"TheBeerNut":18ley8nz wrote:

"DrJohn":18ley8nz wrote: do you feel that the (welcome) advent of new Irish craft beers (such as Ór) only takes away sales from other existing microbrews?[/quote:18ley8nz]The underlying problem here is that craft beer is largely sold (to us, anyway) in specialty craft beer retailers, like the Bull & Castle and Porterhouses. For the revolution to succeed and stabilise there needs to be a mainstreaming of Irish craft beer.

We don't need any more 50+ beer bars where they already exist; we need one or two craft beer taps or bottles in every pub.[/quote:18ley8nz]

Yeah I agree. It really is time that O'Hara's and Galway Hooker get their act together and get into more bars. I was in the Long Hall last weekend and they had bottles of Budvar and Guinness and I think Hoegarden on tap. Maybe I'm blind to what the problem is - do O'Hara's and Galway Hooker not try to get into these places or do these pubs not want them?

"DrJohn":11cddfit wrote: Indeed. And given the level of control exerted by the MEGA breweries in this country, I think it is a bit harsh to blame the microbreweries for not getting their brews into more mainstream outlets.[/quote:11cddfit]

We as a nation are very very brand concious and although many will say advertising doesn't influence them it clearly does. We also have a terrible distribution system in supermarkets where a few distributors supply the vast majority of shops and hence we see all the same brands in the big shops. Look at the scepticism that people initially had for Aldi and Lidl and their own brands. People even think milk with different names on the carton tastes different even though it's made in the same factory..brand recognition again.

Micro breweries face a huge challenge trying to tear the punter away from the big yellow, ice cold, mega advertising brands. Taste is the biggest factor after price but if one beer can open a persons eyes it has to be good for the entire micro movement in the long run

Anyone in the business willing to share a story with us about the distribution cartels in the drinks industry? Surely it doesn't really happen does it?

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&amp;quot;Irish Party Ale&amp;quot;:2onval7r wrote: What can we do to help get Irish Craft beer into bars?
Every time I go into a bar I ask for Irish Craft beer. Half the time I already know the answer (and its no), but I make a point of asking every time. I'm hoping if enough people request nice beer, the bartenders will start to stock it. If Im wrong, well, I dont think I did any harm by asking.

My 2c worth![/quote:2onval7r]

I don't know what we can do and fear we can do nothing. We Irish people are rubbish at business and rubbish at capitalism. There's pubs dying for some trade yet when you ask if you have some real beers the response is just bizarre. As I said before, where's the problem? Is it the places like Carlow are just rubbish at getting their product out there or are the pubs stonewalling and don't want to take a risk outside of the majors?

Well as for the pubs not taking the risk, there's plety of pubs around with the likes of Pilsner, Budvar, Starro and Erdinger. All the cool young hip people of Dublin have been abroad and sampled "real" beer and these drinks are now fairly commonplace I'd say. Problem is the Irish "Real" beers hvaen't penetrated the market.

I don't really believe in this consumer power thing where I go into a pub and refuse to drink there until they get in some obscure beer with erratic distribution. If you want in to a pub and leave in protest due to the selection of beers YOU'RE the weirdo not everyone else.

I've no idea what to do but there was a letter in the Irish Times a few weeks ago that mentioned taxes. Surely microbreweries should be availing of tax breaks? I'm one of these looney lefties that wants to tax millionaries into obliviion but microbrewies are more than deserving of a little leg up on the official business side of it. It makes total sense from a wispy patriotic sense for a govt. to promote local genuine produce like beer cause all we've heard for ages now is "Oh buy Irish buy Irish, you're a traitor going to Newry and givng the Queen youre money".