VOLUME 4MARCH 2024in this issue-. GLOSSY ARRIVALS WHAT’S NEW ON THE SCENE? GLOSSY INTERVIEW MO CHARA: NEVER-ENDING CYCLE OF PINTS GLOSSY REVIEW GALWAY HOOKER: GALWAY GIRL COMING SOON WHAT’S ARRIVING IN THE COMING DAYS GLOSSY NEWS LATEST HAPPENINGS ON THE SCENE GLOSSY PUBS MO CHARA: BEERS & PIZZA GLOSSY EVENT BAXBIER & LOUGH GILL TAP TAKEOVER 5 20 8 22 26 28 30--editorial. Welcome to the new issue of Hop Glossy! The last two months have been challenging, to say the least. It doesn’t matter if you are a craft beer lover buying their usual beers, brewery that produces this beer, distributor who distributes it or a retailer who sells it. We entered the deposit retail scheme, and it has been one messy and chaotic ride on all levels so far. But challenges aside, we made sure to take some time to explore the scene, taste the newest releases, and let you know about what is trending and what to get excited about. We had a fantastic chat with the lads at Mo Chara - and you can read everything about their impressive Dundalk operation in the in-depth interview covered in the pages inside. We are also heading towards the biggest celebrations in this country, and with that in mind - there will be a lot of new releases appearing on the shelves and in the fridges, quite exciting! This is also very likely the last issue of Hop Glossy in this form and presence. Hop Glossy’s aim and goal led me to re-evaluate the time put into this and everything around it, and think about a better, more efficient way on how to share and spread the information collected in a quicker manner. It’s not the end - it’s just an improvement (hopefully!). In the meantime, thank you all for your support and reading so far! Now crack open the beer of your choice and flip through the pages - they are packed with some juicy info. Much love Radkaglossy new arrivals.-. Rascals & Kinnegar HAYWIRE Farmhouse Ale CANNED: February 2024 ABV: 3.8% An exciting Irish collaboration between two much-loved and respected breweries! Dublin-based Rascals dominating the Inchicore area joined forces with Kinnegar , the legendary bunny crowd from Donegal. Haywire is the first out of ten upcoming collaborations from Rascals to mark the ten- year-on-the-scene milestone for the brewery. Farmhouse ales are the weirdos on the scene, you definitely won’t find a lot / enough of them around. So here’s a light chugger for you created by these two teams! ‘Petite saison’, shall we say, pours a frothy big head, shines through with the nicely spiced cardamon flavour, keeps the body light and refreshing, and packs a huge amount of Motueka hops for a zingy citrussy touch. It is a risky style and may not be hugely popular, but it is very much needed on a scene flooded with all- things-IPAs. No better crowd to pull this off and make people excited about it! Check it out and try it for yourself. Hopfully LAZERGUN Single Hop IPA CANNED: 30/01/2024 ABV: 6.5% Single hop IPA? Amazing! Azacca is one of the hops that has been starring in the market for over 11 years. Surprisingly piney - they say that this hop is excellent for being showcased in the single hop releases. If you remember a seasonal brew from Founders - Azacca IPA brewed back in 2019, Founders was one of the first breweries that made Azacca hops ‘cool’ and ‘trendy’. Lazergun bursts with tropical flavours and citrus, with an intense piney character, which rounds up the flavours of the beer into a very pleasant and enjoyable tasting experience. It does not leave a sticky feeling in WE STARTED A LITTLE SLOWER THIS YEAR, BUT IT DOES NOT MEAN THERE WAS A SHORTAGE OF GREAT BEERS TO TASTE AND EXPLORE. THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING BREWING! LET’S HAVE A LOOK AT SOME OF THE LATEST RELEASES THIS YEAR.your mouth, and it goes down very easily. Galway Bay THARAPITA Baltic Porter CANNED: January 2024 ABV: 11.3% & CELESTIAL FLOODS DIPA CANNED: January 2024 ABV: 7.9% Galway Bay have been busy, releasing a series of their exciting collaborations, working on their core range, and pairing up with a local artist Mark Hill, who gave the brand a little refresh with a line of labels for their latest releases. There are more to come in the coming weeks! Tharapita hit the shelves in the best possible time of the year - when the temperatures out there were pretty low. We are all for liquid jumpers, and this baltic porter is not shy when it comes to ABV. Clocking at 11.3% - this is a nod to the famous dark beers of Estonia. No better brewery to pair with than Pühaste ! Expect an explosion of flavour in your glass: caramel, sticky dates, plums, chocolate, raisins, dried fruits, pecan…If you were in doubt - just go for it. Celestial Floods is yet another higher-ABV brew, which we won’t complain about at all. This time, we are reaching for a DIPA made in collaboration with Bullhouse Brew Co. Bright and vibrant yellow hazy juice, if you are into it! Wicklow Wolf SUGARLOAF Juicy IPA CANNED: 29/01/2024 ABV: 4.3% & SOLSTICE Tropical Sour CANNED: 03/01/2024 ABV: 4% Two new additions to the colourful alpha pack core range from Wicklow Wolf . Favourite all year rounders were just joined by Sugarloaf , a juicy IPA and Solstice , fruity sour. Sugarloaf is a little sibling to the existing tropical Tundra. It packs a more sessionable level of alcohol and body, keeping its drinkability very high. You can have a few on a night out. Solstice is here to keep us motivated towards the hot summer days. It’s not extremely sour (in terms of lemon juice kind of sour); it rather packs a touch of tartness with the tropical fruit juice flavours. Very aromatic and fruity, with the zing of sour hints towards the end of the sip. A nice option for the sour lovers added to the permanent range from the Wicklow mountains. Hope Beer BELGIAN DUBBEL (Ltd Edt. #32) CANNED: 24/01/2024 ABV: 7.5%Belgian Abbey style! We don’t see Irish breweries challenging the iconic Belgian styles very often. Maybe it is out of respect towards tradition, and also the challenges to never achieve the level of quality as expected. Us, drinkers, usually have way too high expectations and the pressure to not disappoint is certainly on. Hope Beer is heading in and and bringing us their first limited edition release this year - Belgian Abbey style! Rich and complex, pouring dark amber colour, packed with notes of dried fruits. There is a hint of spice, caramel, and a touch of sweetness and all of this is balanced with a mild bitterness. You can almost feel like you had a shot of spiced rum, with the warmth spreading down your throat after a couple of sips. Nicely done. Kinnegar BREWERS AT PLAY #37 Low Alcohol IPA CANNED: December 2023 ABV: 1% Released in January, but not just for Dry January! Low-ABV beers are hard to get right, but they are certainly getting more popular. It’s a style that many breweries are looking into and experimenting with these days, and it’s great to see this effort! Brewers At Play #37 packs an unexpectedly rich mouthful with a hoppy kick - satisfying both needs. It’s only 1% ABV, but it keeps its full flavour. Super light and refreshing, It is a great addition to Kinnegar’s Low Tide beer, which has been around for years, and we can imagine this becoming more than just an experimental, playful brew! Whiplash FLAT BEAT IPA CANNED: 09/02/2024 ABV: 6.8% & SKY BURIAL IPA CANNED: 09/02/2024 ABV: 6.4% Whiplash are also not asleep and starting the year off with 2 big on hops releases. Sky Burial made its entrance to the scene towards the end of 2019 (feels like forever ago!) and it was about the time for its big return. It’s what you’d expect from a hoppy IPA, a nicely juiced to the maximum. Flat beat sipping reminds us of the feelings we had when we first sipped their Fresh Cuts. Maybe it is just a psychological suggestion from the brain, based on the artwork vibe - created by Shane O’Driscoll . Imagine biting into a juicy slice of fruit - when you are extremely thirsty. Sipping on Flat Beat fulfils this exact need. Just chewing on the fruits covered with the blanket of fluffy oats and wheat base. It is a textbook example of a modern, juicy, fruity, hazy, crazy IPA. VINNIE: Myself and the lads started hanging out together at secondary school. Paul didn’t go to the same school with us. CILLIAN: He went to the smart school! (laugh) VINNIE: On the first day of school, we did the assessment test and sat alphabetically. I sat beside Cillian and read through the paper, thinking, ‘This is difficult!’ It was pretty hard, so I gave my glasses --glossy interview. WHO IS BEHIND THE MO CHARA CONCEPT? WE HAD A GREAT CRAIC AND EVEN BETTER CHAT WITH THE FOUNDERS: VINNIE MULLIGAN, CILLIAN MULLIGAN AND PAUL KELLY - THE ENERGETIC TRIO BEHIND MO CHARA, PROUDLY POURING THEIR PINTS IN DUNDALK. Never-ending cycle of pints. mo charaa good clean, looked into Cillian’s paper, and copied what he was doing because he seemed quite intelligent! Then, when the results came in, I actually ended up higher than him - but I copied all his answers! (Laugh) As the years passed, Paul was in the same friend group as us. We all hang out together since secondary school. We were about 15-16…sorry, 18, when we started to get into the alcohol industry. When we were coming up to our leaving cert, we all decided to go to the college in Galway. CILLIAN: Most people in Ireland make course decisions based on what they want to do. Our whole plan consisted of the following places on the list: Dublin, Cork, and Galway. When it came to the day, I remember we were all hungover as we went out the night before. We were sitting around, and ten of us went - ‘We’re all just going to go to Galway, it will be a great craic!’ SOUNDS LIKE A LOT OF FUN! VINNIE: Oh yeah! Long story short: We’ve hung around since secondary school, went to college together and have been friends since. CILLIAN: We’ve also travelled a lot together - we’ve been to Canada and France and went to Chicago - 25 of us lived in a 3-bedroom house then. So we’ve done all the usual Irish things growing up. At the college, we started to be interested in craft beer - obviously, we didn’t have any money, but it was our pipe dream: to have a pub or a brewery. So we started a group chat called ‘Mo Chara Brewery’ - that’s when we started talking about it. It all began as a dream when we were very young. SO… ALL THE LADS, HAVING THE BEST TIME AT COLLEGE. WHAT MADE YOU STEP UP CLOSER TOWARDS YOUR DREAM AFTER THE SCHOOL? CILLIAN: After I finished college, I joined the Jameson graduate programme while these guys (Vinnie and Paul) were doing their masters - so they are more qualified than me! (Laugh) I got a job with Jameson, and they sent me all Next >