#ebbc14

Day two started off at the arse crack of dawn or 10 AM for all you early risers. Our first lecture looked at the Irish craft beer industry with Dean McGuinness of Premier International Beers. He brought along 3 tasty craft beers for sampling to start us off on the right foot for the long day of drinking ahead. We tasted Crafty Dans 13 Guns, an American inspired IPA from England with 6 different hops, Black Sheep Brewery Progress Ltd, an English Barleywine with strong plum flavour, and Maisel & Friends Marc’s Chocolate Bock, which had a toasted/burnt taste. To be honest, all I remember about the talk really was that it was important not to be monogamous – I think he was referring to beer… at least I hope.

      From there we delved right into the topic of social media strategy for bloggers given by Cindy Molchany of Zephyr Adventures. She gave a lot of great tips and tricks for navigating Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ in helping to promote blogs. It was a very informative talk and I was surprised at how much there was available that I am not utilising.

    Lunchtime! Out onto the Terrace of The Church for a BBQ hosted by Pilsner Urquell with an array of food being grilled up by the executive chef and pilsner flowing in various forms from taps and kegs seemingly infinite. I was interested to learn that in the Czech Republic they serve their beers in 3 different ways depending on the occasion. The first pour is the MlÍko, known as the milk pour, which is created by slightly opening the tap to fill the glass with just the foam of the beer. This must be drunk pretty quickly before it turns into beer, but it has an added sweetness. Then there is the Na Dvakrát, which is the crisp pour, it is ideal if you are eating a meal and need a beer that will stay carbonated for a longer time. It is done by opening the tap fully to pour beer into the glass and finished with creamy foam by closing the tap down. This adds more of a bitter finish to the beer. If you are at the pub for a few drinks then the Hladinka style of pour would be the one you would choose. It is a smooth pour done by opening the tap first at a 45 degree angle to create foam at the bottom of the glass then the tap is opened fully and beer is poured under the level of the foam creating ½ beer/½ foam final product. It is a smooth, creamy flavourful tasting pour.

        After lunch, it was back for two more sessions on blogging. The first session was with WordPress.com’s Derek Springer who discussed all of the options available to bloggers to enhance existing blogs. I am not currently using WordPress (if that wasn’t obvious), but I am considering the options available and weighing a move over to their platform. The next session was on video blogging and how it can be extremely successful. It definitely see vlogging as a interesting concept and know that there is demand for it, just not sure I want the entire world to see my face. I am a bit camera shy as it is.

    The meat and bones of the conference had ended, but it was announced we still had 3 beer events to attend. Someone had to drink all of this beer – oh go ahead, twist my arm. Out we went to the Beer Ireland reception to taste more of the lovely Irish craft beer on hand. A notable new brew I tried was Independent Brewing Co’s Independent Stout, which had a light roasted chocolate flavour.

    Franciscan Well Brewery then served up a 4 course beer-paired dinner while brewer Shane Long provided his thoughts on the beer, food, and Irish craft beer. My favourite pairing was the Jameson Barrel Stout with macarons, but I might be a bit partial to barrel-aged beers.

      Finally, we ended the night with a party hosted by Carlow Brewing with live music and all of their beers on hand for tasting. I spotted their Barrel Aged Series bottles right away and a plan was put into place to scale down the wall to steal a few bottles. Thankfully, it was not necessary as they did indeed serve it to us. The Barrel Aged Series #2 is an outstanding beer and I am sad it is not available on the regular.

    Overall, I really enjoyed the conference and look forward to attending in the future if I can afford it. I met a lot of really chill beer geeks who understand my obsession with needing the next new craft beer. I gained some knowledge about the industry and blogging that will be useful in the future. And damn this is a really long post. The end. 

This past weekend I spent at the European Beer Bloggers Conference (EBBC), meeting bloggers from all over Europe, listening to lectures on beer & blogging, and drinking a fair bit of craft beer. The event started with registration at 12:30PM on Friday in the tower area of The Church, a bar/restaurant/café formerly St. Mary’s Church. After collecting my name badge, I ambled down to the opening beer reception where I was met with a sea of unfamiliar faces, which was daunting to say the least. Thankfully, I was very familiar with the craft beer so decided to retain a pint as a security blanket.

    I opted for small samples of each beer and tried to go for new releases from breweries that I had not had the pleasure of tasting yet. Some notable additions to the Irish craft beer market are Black Donkey Brewing Sheep Stealer, a sweet tart saison, and Trouble Brewing Big Brown Bear Ale, full on chocolate to the palate and reminded me more of a porter.

    Then it was time to head in for the lectures of the first conference day. First up, was a talk on history of craft beer in Ireland by Declan Moore. He had quite a few interesting stories to tell from his travels and conclusions have been drawn that the many horseshoe shaped mounds throughout Ireland may have been used for brewing the earliest ales. Apparently, in scientific studies done on animals with beer it was found that monkeys tend to lean towards alcoholism whilst rats prefer binge drinking. I wonder then if some people descend from an ancient rodent species based on their beer drinking behaviour? ;)

  Next, there was a lecture comparing cask vs. keg from Brian at Brown Paper Bag Project and can vs. bottle from James Winans of Vanguard Beer Collective. My biggest eye opener from this talk was that cans are a great vehicle for beer storage. Canning beer is more cost effective in the long run and less storage is needed to warehouse them. Cans do not allow any air or light in, so the beer will taste exactly as it does right from the brewery. Mobile canning would be an ideal set-up for Ireland as the country is small and one company could easily drive around offering canning to all breweries. Now if only I had the time and the money to start it up myself!

      Finally, ending the day was a panel of Irish craft brewers: Sarah Roarty (N17), Paul O'Connor (Trouble Brewing), & Cathal O’Donoghue (Rascals Brewing) lead by blogger Ruben Gray of The Tale of Ale. It was great to get the perspectives of the brewers of the industry and what they see for the future of craft brewing in Ireland.

    A short break was allotted before we were to meet to head to Guinness Storehouse for dinner & drinks. A few of us slated for The Norseman for a sneaky pint as there was a Randall infusing extra hops into the Blacks of Kinsale KPA.  It definitely did add quite a burst of extra hoppiness to the beer and I would be interested to see the Randall used in different ways in the future.

    At Guinness Storehouse, Fergal Murray, Master Brewer, treated us to a private tour of the newly constructed Brewhouse 4. Then it was time for some beer and food courtesy of Guinness and Smithwicks. Stations were set up of different finger foods from oysters to fish & chips paired along with a specific beer. My favourite station was situated at the far side of the event and once discovered became quite popular.  This was due to the fact that it contained Guinness Special Export, which is only available in Belgium, and at 8% is probably the only Guinness I would willingly buy. It has more rich flavour and body then its Irish cousin. Only one other beer at the table was worth noting, Night Porter, which was a staff created beer competition winner. It had nice notes of chocolate and vanilla.