Franconian Beer Message Board
Cask Ales in Ireland |
| Posted by Mark Andersen on 2013-03-04 06:40:14 |
| "In a sense, the 'craft beer' movement is a bit of a con because, generally, the product is filtered, pasteurised and kegged - the equivalent of packaged convenience foods. " I don't think that's really true Barry. For example, the local "craft" breweries around my neck of the woods. Cape Cod beer, Mayflower, etc. are not filtered or pasteurised. They are kegged. I think same probably goes for the Irish "craft" beer breweries like 8 degree, Porterhouse. They don't pasteurize or filter their beer do they? I realize they don't cask their beers (or don't cask them often) but that doesn't mean they pasteurize or filter them. The Irish craft beer movement reminds me a bit of the earlier days of the movement in the US. There were a handful of craft beers available, you couldn't find them too many places on tap, and the general beer drinking public largely ignored them. But here it definately changed. Now it seems almost every store and pub carries at least some craft beer and it looks like to me that beer consumption is on the rise in the US. There are new breweries popping up every year in Massachusetts alone. Just this year there have been two that opened up (Goodfellow and Bog Iron breweries) just within 10-15 miles away from my office and probably half a dozen (at least) in the state. The question is, is Ireland too conservative in its drinking habits to ever reach this critical mass and craft beer explosion? Unfortunately I think it probably is but I am definately encouraged when I read Fred's blog and see how many beer bars there are now in Dublin and even a few in Galway and while the number of bars with craft beer in Galway city isn't huge it is significant when you consider there was nothing there at all not too long ago. |
| Followups: |
 Cask Ales in Ireland by Mark Andersen on 2013-03-04 06:49:39 |
| Cask Ales in Ireland by barryriley on 2013-03-04 08:59:25 |
| Cask Ales in Ireland by Mark Andersen on 2013-03-04 09:54:52 |
| Cask Ales in Ireland by Mark Andersen on 2013-03-04 10:21:03 |
| Cask Ales in Ireland by Nick B. on 2013-03-04 23:27:13 |