Mr. FFID’s Beer Cellar: Christmas Craft Beers

As some of you may know, I was surprised this year with the greatest advent calendar of all time. On the 1^st of December I came home from work, greeted by an excited FFID who was delighted to show me a homemade craft beer advent calendar, filled with 24 seasonal brews, each wrapped in Christmas paper.

It’s been a lovely December, getting to unwrap a different beer every morning while sitting beside our oversized Christmas tree. I haven’t tried all the beers I’ve received, but of the ones I have there have been a few very nice tipples. I’m always a fan of stouts, porters, dark ales and barley wines, so Christmas seasonals are right up my alley. A few of my highlights this year have been:

- Eight Degrees: Full range is great but the Snow Eater Red IPA is my No. 1 (I’ll also keep a Mór barley wine in the cellar for a year or two to see how it matures)

- Mikkeller: Hoppy Loving Christmas – Lovely Hoppy IPA with lots of festive pine

- O’Hara’s: Winter Star Rye Ale – Christmas in a glass, although I think I preferred last year's recipe without the rye.

- To øl: Frostbite – Great beer, clean refreshing ale with plenty of citrus and pine flavour backed up with tasty malt background.

- Jack Cody's: Curly Hole Samhain Ale - A whopper brown ale with flavours of dark fruit. Thoroughly enjoyed a pint of this in by the fireplace in the Beerhouse. 

The problem with the winter months is that it’s virtually impossible to get a decent picture of any of these beers for the blog. My employers frown upon mid afternoon beer drinking so I can never get a shot with sunlight. Luckily FFID and I are now in France and I managed to stash away some of my craft calendar in the suitcase. This gave us a fantastic excuse to try two of the latest Christmas ales I’ve received; Yule Ól by White Gypsy & ‘Our Special Ale’ by Anchor Brewing.

First up we opened the Yule Ól by Tipperary based White Gypsy. This ale pours a very dark ruby red colour with an off white, long lasting head. It smells of toffee and orange peel with a fairly bitter taste, easing off quickly to give mildly spicy seasonal flavours. This would be a perfect beer to share with good company, sitting beside an open fire.

In the words of Papa FFID “Pas Mauvais” (not bad).

We then moved on to the seasonal special from American craft institution “Anchor Brewing”, creators of the modern IPA. I just unwrapped this beer this morning but it wasn't our first time tasting it. Last week I was in Baggot Street wines getting a few beers for a dinner party we were hosting in FFID HQ. While there I saw a show-stopping 1.5L magnum of this beer and just had to pick up a bottle for our guests (and ourselves) to enjoy. It was €28 for a bottle of beer, but worth every cent.

Another dark ale, this beer pours virtually black with a light brown head. It smells of pine, liquorice nutmeg and cinnamon. The seasonal spices really shine through in the taste, with a lingering taste of Christmas.

Christmas really is a great time of year for craft beers so make sure you stock up on some crafty ales before it's too late. Have a Merry Beery Christmas everyone!

Follow Mr. FFID's beer tweets @mrffid. 

Christmas Gift Idea: Craft Beer Advent Calendar

When Mr. FFID was a child his mother put a little present in his stocking every day in the month of December. The first Christmas we spent together he started to apply this same little tradition with me and ever since I get a small gift every day in December each year. Cute, isn't it?

At the start of this year I was browsing Pinterest and saw a Beer advent calendar and thought 'Oh my, this is perfect for Mr. FFID, I will make one for him this December!'. The month of November is dragging so much that I couldn't possibly wait for more one day to give it to him. He was over the moon (he's definitely marrying me next year) and when I posted a picture on my Facebook page I got lots of reaction so I decided to share this here too for anyone who would like to surprise the craft beer nut in their life!

If you google 'beer advent calendar' there are a few ideas out there but I went for the most practical option, I mean some people suggest using Pringles tubes to put the beer in and make a tree shaped calendar, I'm sorry but eating 24 packs of Pringles isn't ever going to happen in my house!

So here is what you need for a craft beer advent calendar 'à la French Foodie':

- a big cardboard box to store them

- Christmassy tissue paper sheets (I got mine in Dealz for €1.49 for 15 sheets)

- Numbered tags from 1 to 24 ( I got mine in Tiger for about €2)

- Sellotape

- Gift wrap

- 24 Craft beers (craft beers start at around €3/€4 so when you do the calculation, a craft beer calendar isn't cheap)

To find the beer I went to the best off licences I could think of. The first place I went to, I think the guy thought I was crazy asking for 24 Christmas beers. You won't be able to find 24 Christmas craft beers but there are quite a lot in fairness, at least 12 were specifically seasonal / christmas beers. For the rest, try to get winter brews, stouts, porters and anything with spicy, coffee or chocolatey notes (it's Christmas after all). I also stuck to beer with green, red and gold labels for a Christmas theme. 

Then go home and start your calendar, if you have cats put them away or they are going to try to ruin your work... 

Wrap the cardboard box with gift wrap.

Wrap each beer in a tissue paper sheet and put a numbered tag on it

Then it's up to you, you can stack them horizontally from number 1 to the top to the 24th beer at the very bottom but vertically is fine too.

I made the box a little tacky and Christmassy by putting tinsels and Christmas baubles around it too.

Now the best bit is when the craft beer lover in your life see the advent calendar...

Beery Christmas!

Mr. FFID’s Beer Cellar: The Chancer by O Brother Brewing

Being from Wicklow myself, it’s great to see that the Garden County is so well represented when it comes to craft brewing. Between the Wicklow Brewery in Redcross, Wicklow Wolf in Bray and most recently O Brother Brewing in Kilcoole, the county now boasts some of the best craft ales and stouts in the country. 

One of the things I love about the Irish craft beer scene is not only the great beer, but also the inspiring stories behind the breweries that produce them. O Brother was set up by three brothers from Bray, who all left their 9 - 5 jobs in pursuit of a career making excellent beers. The first beer of theirs I ever tried was ‘The Chancer’, which got my attention as one of the best American style pale ales I had tasted, so I recently picked up another bottle of it in Martin’s Off Licence to give it a write up. 

Before even pouring this beer, the satisfying sound of opening the bottle is accompanied straight away by a bang of hops with sweet pine and citrus. In the glass it settles a nice golden orange with a head that just about lasts long enough the get a picture of it. The hop forward flavour of citrus and apricot is well balanced with some delicious caramely malts and while there is a fair amount of bitterness, especially towards the finish, the result is a very refreshing and drinkable pale ale. Coming in at 5.4% and without being as floral as some of the American style IPAs out there, its the kind of beer you could enjoy all evening. For me this is up there with some of my favourite pale ales on the market (I’m thinking Metalman and Blacks of Kinsale) and it’s great to see another brewery of such high quality in my home county. 

At the RDS this year I also tried one of O Bother’s special brews, a full-on double IPA named ‘Brutus’. If you spot him, approach with caution as he pretty much knocked me out after two rounds! 

Follow @Mrffid's beer tweets.

Mr. FFID’s Beer Cellar: Three Irish Craft Beers to try before the end of the summer

It’s almost over and yet it feels like summer never really began. Which is a shame as there are plenty of great beers out there at the moment which pair perfectly with a sunny day. There does seem to be a bit of a trend towards wheat beers of late and these pale, citrusy, thirst quenching and refreshing beers are prefect when enjoyed at a beer garden or with a picnic. So for this post I wanted to share a few of my favourite summertime wheat beers before it’s too late.

First up we have a wit beer from one of my favourite Irish breweries, White Hag. I’m a big fan of their IPA and oatmeal stout so had high hopes for their wit beer. Fionnabhair (the name of their ‘Irish Wit Beer’) is a hazy, pale-golden fella with a decent head on him.  A very good example of the wit beer style it’s full of citrus with a light, easy drinking body. A perfect beer garden beer, this will appeal to both the hop-phobic Heineken drinker and the craft connoisseur alike.

Next we have another wit beer, but this time with a twist. The Irish craft beer institution that is Galway Bay Brewery have released a very enjoyable seasonal Gorse flower wit beer. The first thing I noted was that it was considerably less carbonated than the previous beer, with pretty much no head. The colour was much darker than your usual wit beer, very hazy and more orange than gold, with plenty of yeasty sediment floating about.  It smells sweet and earthy and the flavor, while holding on to some citrus is also pretty herbal and complex. French Foodie and I enjoyed a bottle of this as an aperitif with a picnic recently  and I’d highly recommend you give this unusual beer a try before the last of the late evenings are gone.

Last up in our golden trilogy is the Metalman Equinox Wheat Lager. I sampled and thoroughly enjoyed this on draft recently at the Big Grill Festival and was delighted when I say that it was being stocked in cans in my local supermarket. While staying refreshing and drinkable, this beer is certainly one of the more hop forward wheat beers I have had and is full of pine, orange, lemon and freshly cut grass. It’s a little more bitter than the other two but very well balanced with it’s sweet fruity flavours. I could certainly see myself having a few of these little cans by the barbecue and imagine they would go pretty well with some chicken skewers or bbq corn.

Well, it seems there are plenty of great summertime beers out there at the moment, now if only it would stop raining…

Follow Mr. FFID's beer tweets @mrffid

Mr. FFID’s Beer Cellar: Rye Ale by N17 Brewery

Before I even tasted the beer, I was really hoping I would like the N17 rye ale. I had heard about this new brewery last summer who were strong on the ethos of minimising waste and maximising the potential of everything from their grain to the people who work there.

Their website currently claims to have found eight uses for the byproducts of their beer, from dog biscuits to mushrooms. It really shows how creative thinking can cut down on waste.  N17 also see potential where others may not, in their hiring of people who might otherwise find it difficult to find employment, such as those with learning or intellectual disabilities.

I was delighted last year at the Irish craft beer and cider festival in the RDS when I finally got to try one of their beers, only to discover that good people do in fact, make good beer.

In your glass the beer settles with a clear amber to brown colour, with a decent off white head resting on top for the first few minutes. The smells are mainly of grass and sweet toffee and I personally wouldn’t pick out the rye if I hadn’t seen the label. The taste is where this beer really shines, caramel up front and gentle sweet fruits on the finish.

I’ve had a few bottles of this fella over the last 12 months and my advice would be not to drink it too cold. The sweet malty flavour, especially towards the end, will really shine through when the beer is just a tad warmer than usual serving temp. Just give it half an hour in the fridge, to drop a few degrees from room temperature and you should be ready to go.

I’ve only seen N17 beer in some of the better stocked off licenses around town; so if you do see a bottle, make sure to grab it. This is another flavoursome and drinkable Irish beer and I look forward to trying their new Summer Ale, although I might have to give up on waiting for a sunny day to drink it on.

Follow Mr. FFID's beer tweets @mrffid

Mr. FFID’s Beer Cellar: Foreign Affair by O’Hara’s Brewery

After many years of pairing every alcoholic beverage with at least two cigarettes, early last year I finally managed to get off the smokes. Following more than a decade of thinking that beer tasted like sweet carbonated cigarettes, I discovered the world of craft beer. I approached it with cynicism and scepticism, initially half-convinced that these unusually named beers were just re-labelled bottles of their half price equivalents. Then I remember tasting a bottle of O’Hara’s ‘Leann Follain’ extra stout and everything changed… I was almost giddy with excitement that a beer could taste that good. There was no turning back.

Carlow Brewing company (also known as O’Hara’s Brewery) are one of the first wave of breweries in the Irish craft beer revolution. They opened in 1996 when just a handful of other notable breweries (such as Franciscan Well & Porterhouse) were around to pioneer the notion of tasty Irish beer*.  O’Hara’s are one of the best stocked craft beers around and it’s rare enough these days that you’d go to a pub that wouldn’t at least have a few bottles of O’Hara’s Irish Pale Ale in the fridge.

So I was delighted when French Foodie in Dublin and I were invited along to an event in 57 The Headline where brewers and owners from O’Hara’s and American craft brewery Starr Hill were giving a panel talk, hosted by @irishbeersnob.

Starr Hill were on a collaboration tour or Europe and had stopped off for a few days in Ireland to brew up a once off beer with O’Hara’s. It was a fascinating talk, with the guys from Starr Hill talking about the American craft beer scene. They are well ahead of Ireland in terms of market penetration stating craft makes up around 11% of the US beer market (The most recent figure I heard here was 1.5%).

The discussion then turned to the beer that they had collaborated on. They choose a to go cross styles by mixing a traditional Irish red ale with a hefty amount of the American Hop blend Falconers Flight to produce a red IPA. If this beer were a person, he’d be an all American quarterback, white teeth and southern drawl, but with a red Irish beard and freckles.

The result is a very drinkable and flavoursome beer. Coming out of the bottle it’s a clear copper colour, smelling citrusy at first along with biscuit and caramel. The hops are present but not overpowering and compliment the solid red ale underneath. The head disappears pretty quickly and after a few moments there’s very little carbonation but it doesn’t feel flat. The brewers both agreed that they wanted something easy drinking that you could enjoy a few of, so went for a relatively low alcohol content for the style, coming in at 4.8%.

I’ve had a few bottles over the last 3 weeks, from Baggot Street Wines and McHugh’s in Artane. It was also delicious on draft when I had a pint last week in P. Mac’s. The only problem with this beer is that it’s running out fast. If you haven’t already, get out and pick up a bottle cos when it’s gone, its gone!

  

*For more info on the history of Irish Craft beer, pick up a copy of the encyclopedic Sláinte by Caroline Hennessy and Kristin Jensen.

Disclaimer: French Foodie in Dublin and I were invited to the event in 57 The Headline. Like herself, I would never write about events or products in return for invitations or free stuff. All opinions above, whether right or wrong, are all mine.

Follow Mr. FFID's beer tweets @MrFFID