EBBC – Day 2
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.














