Recently there's been a lot of new people coming to the website with an interest in home brewing and craft beers. This is great to see and long may it last. Irish Craft Brewer has been going from strength to strength and a few of our members are going to be appearing on the show Oz and James Drink to Britain (Tuesday 27th January, 8pm, BBC2). Hopefully a few of you will be inspired by the quality of beers seen on the show to give home brewing a try yourselves. This article is a run through of the website and some helpful links.
So what's the website all about then? The about us sums it all up.
IrishCraftBrewer.com was launched on the 17th of March 2007 to create an online community for beer lovers in Ireland. This follows two strands: promotion of commercial craft breweries and other good commercial beers, and what we like to term "amateur craft brewing"$$ those people who make really interesting beers at home.
So you're welcome if it's craft beer and Irish craft beer you're interested in. You're also very welcome if you're a craft brewer, from a fanatic with an automatic all grain brewing system in a shed to a complete novice starting out with a tin can kit and a plastic bucket.
There's a handy FAQ for the website here. The heart of the website is the community. Introduce yourself in the forums. Feel feel to enter into any of the discussions.
The recipes forum is very useful when you're brewing up a new batch. If you're starting out, the kit brewing forum will be the place to get answers to any questions you have.
Articles:
There are a wealth of articles on the website written by the members. If you're new to the site and are a brewing or beer expert get in touch with the editorial team (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and write an article! There are articles about beer travel, ICB meet ups and beer festivals.
A very useful article is the list of pubs that stock Irish craft beer. If you know a pub that stocks Irish craft beer that's not on the list post it on this thread.
The Knowledge Base is another great resource. This is the area of the site that has all the how-to's and brewing knowledge of the members collected in one place.
A great place to start is the kit brewing article. This runs through all you need to know to get started making your own beer. Extract brewing is a step on from kits but many people start here as it gives them more control over their ingredients and the taste of the final beer.
There's also a list of suppliers of home brew ingredients and equipment. A special mention must go to the The Homebrew Company which was set up by two members of Irish Craft Brewer.
Finally, Irish Craft Brewer activities are not simply limited to the web: we meet regularly in Dublin and Cork, attend festivals throughout the country and abroad, and have visited breweries such as Galway Hooker and The Porterhouse. New members are always welcome, whether they brew or not. Quite often we will receive free tickets for events, or offers of free pints of top-class Irish beer. If that's your thing, keep watching the Events board.