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Beoir is an independent group of consumers with a primary goal of supporting and raising awareness of Ireland's native independent microbreweries. There are some fantastic benefits for members. Find out more about Beoir or learn how to join:
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Festivals/Events
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This Saturday, our friends at the National Homebrew Club will be hosting what is probably Ireland's first homebrew beer festival. This is a completely free event both in terms of entry and beer. In fact, it has been worked out that there are roughly 500 pints of homebrew going for free.

This isn't any old homebrew either, this is award wining homebrew. The winners of the NHC national homebrew competition earlier in the year are back with their brews so everyone can have a taste and ask questions of the brewer. This festival will highlight the sort of quality you can achieve with amateur brewing and this in turn can lead to brewers going on to open their own brewery and add to the ever increasing list of Irish micro breweries in Ireland, a number that should be over 40 by this time next year.

I will be there myself with my Dark Stranger Stout which won silver medal in the stout category and was also one of the few beers to get 44, the highest points on the day.

The beer will be served from corny kegs in a cask setup with hand pumps and since the beers are keg conditioned, this will be a real ale affair.

The overall winning beer, Ormeau Dark will also be there if you haven't had it yet. The beer was brewed commercially by Trouble Brewing.

The event kicks off at the Bernard Shaw at 12pm and all are welcome.

 

By Reuben Gray

News
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Brewery Corner, Kilkenny

It's not a brewery and it's not on a corner, but Kilkenny's leading craft beer pub can now boast national recognition having been awarded the 2013 Craft Beer Pub of the Year by Licensing World Magazine.

Even though the pub has only been in business for less than six months, the award will come as no surprise to anyone who has visited: perhaps uniquely among Irish pubs, every beer on tap comes from an Irish microbrewery and the selection is wide-ranging. Although the premises is owned by the Carlow Brewing Company it is heartening to see such support being given to the smaller producers.

The pub itself is clean and modern with some nice traditional touches including open fires. The staff are well trained, extremely helpful and show a genuine enthusiasm for craft beer.

Congratulations from Beoir to all who have made Brewery Corner such a success in a short space of time.

Brewery Corner: 29 Parliament Street, Kilkenny.

(Picture from Facebook)

News
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Irishtoberfest at The Bull and CastleOktoberfest season is upon us once again, the annual celebration of strong Bavarian lager served in one litre mugs. It's the time of year when you can expect to find even the most traditional of Irish pubs decked out in blue and white and flying the flags of either Paulaner or Erdinger.

Usually, The Bull & Castle in Dublin is no exception to this, but they've taken a different tack for 2013. From 20th September through to 6th October the Beer Hall will be celebrating its first "Irishtoberfest", showcasing limited edition beers from Irish microbreweries.

The line-up includes Eight Degrees Amber Ella, one of the best-received beers at the Irish Craft Beer and Cider Festival earlier this month. Brand new specials include Smokescreen: a dark smoked ale from Metalman, and Fuzzy Logic: the first wheat beer by Trouble Brewing. If you simply must have a maßkrug of lager there's O'Hara's Helles and Eight Degrees Barefoot Bohemian Pilsner to quench your thirst.

Prost!

General Articles
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Reuben Gray of Beoir presents a cheque to Maudeine and Sam Black of Kinsale Craft Brewery

When Black's Kinsale Craft Brewery launched a crowd funding initiative on the Indiegogo platform it immediately captured the interest of Beoir members. Sam even adjusted the offer listing to allow those who just wanted to buy the exclusive beers he has planned.

But Beoir Chairman Reuben Gray noticed an opportunity for something bigger: at the bottom of the listings was the offer of a personalised batch of beer on the Kinsale pilot system: 200 bottles with a price tag of €1,000. Perhaps 20 of us could club together and commission a unique Beoir brew? It took just eight days to collect the necessary number of pledges, with some late joiners just missing the final places. Could we do it again?

A second round was opened and at this point Sam himself stepped in to sweeten the deal, offering a brew on his full-size brewkit and doubling the beer allocation for each pledger. This round took less than a week to fill up and on Sunday 8th September at the Irish Craft Beer and Cider Festival, Reuben presented Sam and Maudeline with a cheque for €2,000.

The beer is due to be brewed in early 2014 and the part of the batch not allocated to pledgers will be available to the public in a strictly limited edition (though the launch party has dibs on at least some of it). We're left with just one important question: what shall we brew?

The Black's Kinsale Craft Brewery Indiegogo campaign is 90% complete but there are still lots of great offers available to funders before the 15th September deadline. Take a look!

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