European Beer Bloggers Conference - Day 1
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.
   The last event of the night was a bar hop with Pilsner Urquell, but really most of us didn’t stray far from Candle Bar in Kellys Hotel. Pilsner Urquell Master Brewer Vaclav Berka tapped a keg or four of unfiltered pilsner and there were mugs of beer all around. It was a great way to end our first day of the conference.Â