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VOL. 6 12-05-2024 MAPPING THE CRAFT BEER SCENE IN IRELAND & BEYONDGLOSSY INTERVIEWSGLOSSY INTERVIEWS GLOSSY ARRIVALS WHAT’S ON? IN THIS ISSUE NEWEST BEERS ORIGINAL 7 MAD SCIENTIST GLOSSY EVENTS GLOSSY INTERVIEWS PAGE 6 PAGE 4 PAGE 24 PAGE 14 WHAT A WEEKEND! The summer season is officially here, and what marks the occasion is definitely one of the iconic rotational releases from Hope Beer - Summer Seasonal. This year’s version is so tasty, so make sure to crack open a cold one while reading the new Hop Glossy issue. We had a fantastic visit to Franciscan Well Brewpub and had the privilege of meeting up and chatting with Steve and Páidí, who shared the fascinating story behind their brand. This issue also features our first international entry - the esteemed Márton and Viv travelled all the way from Budapest to Dublin to pour their beers at the Happy Days festival, and we were lucky enough to secure an exclusive interview with them. They were brimming with excitement as they shared their passion for work and beer, and you can read all about it inside. We are also officially approaching the festival season, so make sure to check out on our website if you don’t want to miss all the craic! We will do our best to keep an eye out for all events coming soon. Are you attending any international beer festivals this year? Let us know! Happy reading! RadkaBRAIN FREEZE Wicklow Wolf SOUR 5% ABV The real summer is finally here! This weekend, at least. Fingers crossed. Wicklow Wolf have decided to start the season with a truly refreshing style—a sour beer. Packed with tons of fruit, you can expect a blueberry and raspberry punch on the nose and in the mouth. This beer pours a deep and vibrant purple colour thanks to the amount of fruit used. With a touch of milk sugar and vanilla and a lime for extra refreshing tartness, this is your ‘grab an ice cream’ go-to beer for the summer months ahead. SUMMER SEASONAL Hope Beer NEIPA 5.5% ABV Hope’s annual Summer Seasonal release is a staple concept released twice a year (summer and winter) to mark the season and enjoy it with a trending and fitting brew in your hand. It’s usually a lighter colour and style for the summer and continues with a darker, warming choice for the colder months. After last year’s Juicy IPA, the brewery stayed in the IPA line with the New England variation. Clocking at 5.5% ABV, not too strong or light, is just a perfect number to enjoy in pint measures. Using an experimental HBC 1019 hop that promises a combination of citrus, tropical, and stone fruit flavours, with a hint of coconut, melon, peach and Valencia orange. Paired with cryogenic pellets of Idaho 7 and Azacca to reach a powered-up aroma and flavour experience. To finish the flavour with a final touch of citrus and mango - Mosaic hop comes to the stage. Juicy, citrussy, fruity, flavourful and yet so easy to drink. Hope recommends pairing this brew with sun & friends, and we shall follow this advice. BEYOND THE PINES Galway Bay Brewery WC DIPA 8% ABV The West Coast is the best coast, as they say! Turning into the all- time classic, West Coast style for the latest limited edition, and tuning the volume up to 8%. This beer promises a clean and crisp base. It uses a hefty amount of hops: Galaxy Spectrum, Citra, and Centennial in the whirlpool, dry-hopped with Simcoe, Mosaic, and Galaxy, and with an extra Galaxy Spectrum hopping during the fermentation. The result is nicely balanced piney and resiny notes with fruity undertones. Beyond The Pines celebrates this classic DIPA style and gives it a modern twist, using the latest trends in the ever- evolving brewing industry. CUP OF AMBITION Third Barrel Brewing IPA 6.5% ABV Southern Hemisphere IPA from Dublin’s Third Barrel is the latest arrival for hop-loving beer fans. With every sip, you will find all kinds of fruit tickling your taste buds: passion fruit, mango, guava, peach, and grapefruit, finishing with a bite of orange peel. The silky body is bursting with tropical flavours yet wisely balanced with a pleasant bitterness. Although not in the super sessionable ABV range, this cup drinks very easily at its 6.5% ABV. JIGSAW Rye River INDIA PALE LAGER, 5% ABV The newest release from Celbridge’s brewing luminary brings the best qualities of the most enjoyed styles: IPAs and lagers. Jigsaw is a double dry-hopped India Pale Lager that showcases all the tasty sides of the Mosaic hop. Teaming up with Yakima Chief and combining YCH 701 & 702 trial extracts with classic T90 hop pellets, supported by Cascade, Tradition and Herkules hops. This light and crisp creation is designed for the summer days, quenching the thirst and bringing the extra refreshing mouthful with a heavier dry-hopping of the world’s favourite style. MULLÁN The White Hag EXTRA SPECIAL BITTER 6% ABV Extra Special Bitter is one of the styles that does not get enough attention here in Ireland. This is the second release of its kind from The White Hag - the first one dates back to 2020, when the Sligo team paired with Manchester stars Cloudwater Brew Co. Soft carbonation, mild bitterness, tropical hop forward and citrussy flavours followed by dank and sticky pine. Sweet start to the tasting, finished with a mildly bitter bite. Mullán is a stone perched in Inis Mór. The beer’s name is inspired by a Celtic tradition of lifting stones and this beer was released in collaboration with David Keohan, Ireland’s modern Celtic stone lifter.Cork has a rich brewing history, and Franciscan Well has been pioneering the Irish craft beer scene since its establishment in 1998. The brand has undergone some changes since: it was acquired by Molson Coors group in 2013 (and producing the beers in the original brewpub until 2021, when they built a new, giant, state-of-the-art brewing facility in Cork’s docklands. Franciscan Well Brewpub remained independent and celebrates its origin and home with a brand new name. After the production moved to the new brewery, the brewhouse equipment became available for its new adventure and shouted for attention to keep it in use. That is when the trio of long-term friends and colleagues got together to create something new, with a nostalgic hint of the past, mixed in with a refreshing ORIGINAL 7 CORK’S UNIQUE BREWING SPOT new look. You know the names, you know the faces. There are many years of rich experience in the industry from many different aspects behind, and we are excited to see its growth in the coming future. The brewpub is settled on the queys of Cork, right beside the river, in a central location that offers plenty of options to see around. The bar area is cozy, accommodating your date night, lads’ session, girls' night out, or just a quiet pint to quench the thirst. The outside beer garden is where the buzz is, and is well-known for its annual festival (each year on the Easter bank holiday). If you are hungry, there is an exceptional opportunity to try a finger-licking pizza from Pompeii in the outside heated beer garden. It’s simple: order at the window and get a buzzer that will call you once your pizza is ready. The offer is generous, and so are the portions! The bar’s draft selection houses not only Original 7 beers but also rotational taps from Ireland’s finest breweries. The offering is built to have something for everyone! Steve, the managing director, and Páidí, the head brewer, are bringing further details about their plans, work and Original 7 operation.WHAT IS BEHIND THE NAME AND THE MARKETING CONCEPT OF THE ORIGINAL 7? We were searching for the name that would best suit the brewery as it is today. We wanted to convey that although this brewery is a new brand, it has been around for a long time. When the brewery was built back in 1998, it was the seventh microbrewery in Ireland, and now the latest count is 75. We wanted to convey that we are one of the original breweries, the Original 7! Our branding, logo, and tap badges all take inspiration from branding in the 1990s; a lot of our style is also focused on the ‘90s. That’s where it started and where we built on it. YOUR MARKETING HAS THIS FRESH, MODERN VIBE TO SOMETHING THAT BUILDS ON THE OLDER DAYS. Yes, our market is what we would call ‘a curious drinker’ aged anywhere between 20 and 50 years old. Above 50, they don’t get too curious (laughing). We try to keep things modern and fresh, but at the same time, we want our market to understand that we are here for a long time. There are a lot of new breweries that are starting fresh with very modern ideas, and we want to focus on the fact that we are grounded in our ideas, but we are keeping the styles of the beers fresh and modern. We are not going as crazy as some of the newer breweries; we don’t have any sours, for example, and we don’t have any crazy flavours going on. We keep our focus on the style of beer that would suit a wide variety of people and be fun and fresh at the same time. WHERE CAN WE FIND YOUR BEERS? We have one account in Waterford and one in Dublin. That’s as far as we've got, but if you turn around and see the size of the brewery behind you - it’s absolutely tiny! The max out of that brewery is 100 kegs a week, and we are already selling nearly that in Cork only. It will be really challenging to expand with what we currently have. Our primary focus is the local market in Cork, but we are working on our expansion plans. We are actually bringing another fermentation tank, and we will try to squeeze it somewhere in it, so this will expand the brewery's output. We probably won’t get as far as Dublin, but we will definitely tackle the rest of Munster and see how the brand grows. If it works out well, we will definitely be looking at expanding even further. We are just too popular in Cork! (Laughing) WOULD THE CANS BE ON THE LIST, TOO? Yes, that’s definitely something we are looking into - we are looking for an economic solution. We don’t want to price ourselves out of that market immediately, and that’s what it’s looking like at the moment. If we look at the process of what we have to do to can our beer, it’s costly for now. The deposit return scheme is another challenge we must overcome and find our way within - it definitely had a significant impact on our decision not to package the beer into cans just yet. We are working on the solution, which means we WILL have one. It will probably be a smaller market than we initially intended. It’s in my very own interest and my ambition to be able to go to an off- licence and buy a can of our own beer. IT WOULD BE A GREAT ADDITION TO WHAT YOU CURRENTLY DO. IT WOULD BE NICE TO BE ABLE TO COME IN FOR A PINT AND BRING SOMETHING BACK HOME WITH YOU—TO GIFT IT TO SOMEONE OR BRING THE CANS FOR A TRIP OUTSIDE OF IRELAND, THAT’S FOR SURE! would be another source of revenue for us, and Next >