Volume 3 Christmas 2023 www.hopglossy.com Your dose of beerformation Mapping the craft beer scene in ireland and beyondWWW.HOPGLOSSY.COMWWW.HOPGLOSSY.COM IN THIS ISSUE GLOSSY SPOTLIGHT: KATE O’DRISCOLL PAGE 10 GLOSSY ARRIVALS Seasonal Releases PAGE 5 BREAKING NEWS News from the breweries PAGE 16 GLOSSY INTERVIEW: HOPFULLY BREWING PAGE 18 CHRISTMAS DINNER Served this Holiday PAGE 26 GLOSSY INTERNATIONAL Amsterdam Diaries PAGE 32 GLOSSY EVENTS What’s On in January PAGE 34WWW.HOPGLOSSY.COM EDITORIAL Radka IT’S BALTIC. How many times have you heard this in the past couple of weeks? Multiple times a day. A necessary part of the conversation with your postman, delivery driver, bartender, neighbour, partner in crime… you name it. But it is, let’s be honest. The days are short, the nights are endless, the boilers are breaking, and the gasmen are overworked. It’s full-on December, and we are slowly closing down this year. It’s been a huge challenge; let’s not lie to our- selves. Businesses are suffering from the endless price increases, from the lack of business, actually. Trying to scrap up the bits and pieces anywhere possible. It was one challenging ear, and let me tell you – I feel another is just ahead of us. But let’s stay positive and festive! Whether you have a precise holiday strategy for shopping, cooking and relaxing, or jump in and do all your compul- sory tasks at the last minute – don’t forget that this is the season to be jolly. Once all this craziness slows down, we finally have time to raise the glass, eval- uate this year’s ups and downs, and cheers to the new beginnings. And while you are at it and going to fill your plate for the third time, because the Christmas dinner is so delicious this year (it is allowed, and we all do it!), you can read these lines and maybe find an inspiration for what to crack open or get on your next beer shopping round. I would like to wish you a very Hap- py Christ- mas. Spend it in the way that suits you best: Whether you sur- round your- self with loved ones or just want to finally have a proper sleep and a peaceful couple of days without any human in- teraction, all that matters is that it will make you happy. Jump in 2024 with extra motivation and make it the best year ever. Thank you very much for supporting this Hop Glossy journey; it’s been a great challenge and pleasure so far. A bucket of new ideas and improvements are coming down the line in the next couple of weeks, and we hope we will keep serving you well with these pages! Now put on a Christmas jumper, make yourself nice and cozy with a cup of tea (or an imperial stout or two) and flip through the pages of this Christmas Hop Glossy. Happy Christmas, everyone!WWW.HOPGLOSSY.COM This issue is PACKED with the darkness (not mood-wise, thankfully!) but certainly in colour in your glass. We are fully in the season of big and bold imperial barrel-aged double, triple, and quadruple stouts, por- ters and barleywines…but there are some lighter (in colour, not nec- essarily in the alcohol volume) beers to give us a break from it and satisfy that circle of beerheads who are not too deep in knitting their liquid jumpers out of the dark ‘shtuff’, shall we say! CHRISTMAS SEASON HOPFULLY Headlights 2023 STYLE: NEIPA ABV: 6.5% Brewed for the first time ever back in 2021, we have a comeback of the highest-rated beer (on the forever cursed, loved and hated app) from Hopfully Brewing, based in Waterford. This beer combines a very approachable hop combination of Nelson Sauvin and Ci- tra, where Nelson takes over the centre stage, and Citra gets to accompany it with it pillowy softness. There has been a tweak or two to the original recipe, resulting in one nicely balanced beer with settled flavours to shine through. It has a more dry and bitter finish rather than the sweet punch in the OG version. WIDE STREET Plush STYLE: Pale Ale ABV: 4.3% Wide Street are reaching out for a classic combination of Cascade and Centenni- al hops to bring us a nice, easy-drink- ing, very sessionable pale. It showcases the best characteristics of both hops and comes with refreshing citrussy flavours in the first in- stance. Cascade dominates with grapefruit notes, and a hint of the orange peel comes through as a nice bittering balance. Very crushable pale that can be drank over and WWW.HOPGLOSSY.COM over again, and can become the perfect accompaniment for the heavy food ses- sions ahead of us! RYE RIVER Smashed Clogs STYLE: DIPA ABV: 8% Rye River pairs up with Jopen Beer from the Neth- erlands to bring us a full on haze, loud and DELICIOUS double IPA. They’ve decid- ed to go wild a little with some experimental trial hops YCH303: Cryo hops with Phantasm pellets combined with the latest ‘hot news’ on the European scene: Superdelic, making its way all the way from New Zealand. The smell is super aromatic, with the flavours coming through in the taste also. Combination of fruity and tropical notes and flavours, with an unexpectedly dry finish begging for another sip. The ABV is non-existent in this one – so be extra careful to sip on this juice slow- ly. RASCALS Cold IPA STYLE: Cold IPA ABV: 5.8% Crisp and clean. The last limited edition of the year coming from Rascals is no messing about. Just a pure sipper. Using Southern Hemisphere hops: Motueka, Pa- cific Sunrise and Galaxy hop oil. What makes this IPA cold? It is a temperature of the fermentation – basically your usual IPAs would be fermented on higher tem- peratures, and cold IPAs usually take the lager yeast or a mixture of lager and ale yeast to allow for fermentation to happen at lower temperatures. It makes it stronger than a lager (in flavour and in alcohol too), yet clean and crisp, showcasing the flavours of hops on a clean malt bill. This trend burst in 2022 and is still popular amongst many breweries. OUTER PLACE BREWING Sacred Cycles STYLE: DDH IPA ABV: 6.6% Outer Place set their mark in the Irish brewing scene as lovers of all-things-hoppy. Whether it is a super hopped IPA, hazy pale or traditional porter with a dry-hopping twist – you get the full exposure on the hops that are taking the main stage at all times. Sacred Cycles clocks in shy off 7% and this IPA is yet another fantastic example of this modern and still trend- ing style. Strata, El Dorado and Zappa are playing the main trio here, bringing a lot of citrussy flavours on stage with a nice and dank tropical fruity flavours too. It’s a beautifully hazed beer and looks great in the glass too – like a pineapple juice. WWW.HOPGLOSSY.COM O BROTHER High -Tech Pastoral STYLE: DIPA ABV: 8.5% Galaxy, Mosaic, Columbus & Com- et. Hopped to the maximum and giv- ing a nice and proper kick with 8.5% ABV. This is well-hidden and a nice warming beverage for the colder days and nights! It has a certain element of a creamy smooth sip, but packs a proper bitter kick with the amount of hops used. GALWAY BAY Dream Awake STYLE: DDH IPA ABV: 6.3% Galway Bay are launch- ing a new line of labels for their limited edition series! Nicely done by Mark Hill who pre- sented a shiny design working with foil for the first time. In our opinion it is a great refreshing change that fits in the fridges really nicely. Not only does the can shine, but its content, too! We have a timeless combina- tion of Nelson Sauvin, Idaho 7 and Strata to bring this modern juicy IPA, bursting with tropical flavours and making it a pleasant sipping experience. THIRD BARREL Eat. Sleep. Pale. Repeat. STYLE: Pale Ale ABV: 4.8% This is the beer that says it all – and expresses exactly what is due to happen over the holiday sea- son! One very slammable brew to include as your fridge-filling op- tion when you want something nice and easy to drink. It’s a juicy banger brewed with Mosaic and Citra Cryo, that will not knock your socks off with the alcohol content. DOT BREW 3 Way Simcoe STYLE: New England DIPA ABV: 8% Full on juice – and full of Simcoe! Expect earthy undertones and hints of refreshing citrussy notes with a grapefruit and or- ange zesty flavours domi- nating in your sip. Tropical and piny at the same time. Lower on the bitterness side, but hiding its ABV well. Tropical juice in your glass for keeping you warm in the winter season.WWW.HOPGLOSSY.COM WHIPLASH Hoppy Christmas Trio STYLE: 3x IPA ABV: 6.6% - 6.8% For the lovers of extra hoppy beers, Whiplash carries a stamp of quality in this field. We were delighted to see a constant supply of their all-year-rounders with a cou- ple of additions to the core range (growing from Body Riddle, Rollover and Bone Machine, to adding a crispy pils Blue Ghosts and a fresh new westie creation – Another Light), but not only that. Whiplash were also charging up the portfolio with many excellent and fun collabora- tions with breweries coming down to Ballyfermot from all around the world, working their magic togeth- er. The last ones this year were made in collaboration with the Croatians from The Garden Brewery , and on the artsy side with Izzy Rose Grange (who collabo- rated on designing the labels for their special releases before) and a sustainable clothing brand Fresh Cuts with Shane O’Driscoll . Only Shallow (with The Garden), Breathing in Stereo (with Izzy) and Fresh Cuts (with Shane) are what you’d expect: excellent hoppy bangers packed with lots of flavour and on top of that you can admire the art on the can, too.WWW.HOPGLOSSY.COMNext >