TOPIC:

This was a hotly discussed topic on Saturday in the Well at the cask festival.
Why do some, all or at least one of the micro's not bring along a really hoppy beer to events like this.
I can see being hesitant to launch such a product onto the open market, but surely the likes of some of these festivals (where you have a captive audience of beer freaks)would be the spot for it.
Maybe they dont have the capacity to do real small brew length's.

As Lugh stated in another topic, maybe our pallets(sp?) are becoming accustomed to loads of hops.
The only radically different beer that I tasted was White Gypsy's red oak, while it wasn't to my taste it was great to see something that no one else was doing.

Any thoughts?
I think there is a place for some more radical Irish beers (even if it's on a small scale to start with)
Lets see some real IPA's, some Black IPA's and some other beers that we haven't even dreamed of yet <!-- s:wink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s:wink: -->

Yes, this was discussed a good bit on Saturday. Anyone who talked to me for more than a few minutes heard my opinion on it, but I think I did warn someone prior to the festival, that I would be the fella at the bar complaining about the lack of hops. I think I was on rounds with you for a while Shane, so not sure how we missed the dry hopped Howling Gale. Maybe you had it? Would love to see hophead at these festivals but it is never there. Maybe we need to work on Shane Long as well, as he would have bought in most of the Casks for the weekend. I think it's a different story for the Easterfest with the brewers deciding what to bring, so maybe we should start some sort of campaign to persuade the Porterhouse to bring some hophead.

I don't think it's any reluctance on some brewer's behalf... it's just that they're not major hop heads.

I do agree new ground has to be broken tho. For what it's worth that black lager that the PH had on was lovely stuff (and not hoppy at all!)

I personally think Keg/Bottle dispense are more suited to really hoppy and bitter beers and cask is more suited to balanced or malt-forward beers. -Maybe that's just because I haven't had any really hoppy beers on cask but I think it would be a considerable challenge to make a bitter and hoppy beer that would taste good both in cask and in keg.

-Having said that I'd certainly like a try a hop bomb on cask.


Adam

I agree, I personally think that there's a lot of 'playing it safe' done by the micro brewery's, an while I dont blame them with Irish market, it would be nice to see some more Hophead style beers.

Off-license's like Bradley's and Drinkstore surely sell enough highly hopped American and English beers for there to be a market for similar Irish micro brews.

The dry hopped Howling Gale was pretty nice, remind me of some kind of juice more than a beer though, but my taste buds were fried by the time I had a glass.

The All Ireland Craft Beer Festival at the RDS showcased a lot of experimentation, I thought. Although I agree that I'd love to see way more and I'd love to see it on a more year-round basis. Some of these experiments have been wildly successful but haven't been scaled up to full batches and successful full batch experiments haven't been followed-up by more consistently available or year-round offerings. *Cough Shandon Century Stout *Cough!

-I'm just responding to the original thread author's post about a lack of hop bombs at a cask ale festival and I don't think that's probably the ideal venue for experimentation.


The other issue we always come back to is whether or not "Sean Pintglass" is willing to embrace these beers like the typical Beoir member is; personally, I think Beoir members are a "leading indicator" of what consumers may embrace and that these successful experiments could/should be scaled up.

-I also think that a Beoir-organized event promoting experimental beers might provide a venue that would further reduce the risk faced by Irish Micros in experimenting. It could provide a venue for us to get to try and support more experimental brews and it would provide the breweries with a "safe place" to get creative and release some more experimental brews and differentiate themselves from the rest of the market. An event like this would also, by nature attract the target market for these experimental brews and provides the IDEAL venue for a brewery to market to this often more profitable and loyal market segment who also often influence others in their social circles.


-So, in a nutshell, I think a challenge to the micros needs to be more than just words on an internet beer forum, but needs to be action that also mitigates the risk that many of the micros face in releasing more experimental products.


Adam