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"Fishamble":2bg4hp99 wrote: Please let the board know if you get any Dog Fish Head in, Peter. I'll join the queue.

Do you ever get any Rodenbach from Belgium? That's one that I miss, and haven't seen in Ireland.[/quote:2bg4hp99]

No Probs! We can get Rodenbach 25cl's in or even the gift pack (75cl + Glass). It's on the Belgian Pre Order list we have. The Pre Order List is only in its early stages at the moment though so the wait would be around three weeks...

I will try to get out to the Raheny off-license as soon as possible to pick up some of these NZ beers.

On a similar note, does anyone know about how bottled beers are distributed to off-licenses in Ireland? It seems as though almost all of the off-licenses carry the same exact beers. Is it possible for an off-license to source something truly unique without it being cost-prohibitive?

I do know that the realbeers.ie website does have a great variety at your fingertips, but their selection doesnt seem to be that much different from a good off-license.

Isn't there some company in Cork called Eurobeers or something similar and I know they do a lot of the import of 'unusual' or foreign beers.. just a thought..

Abbots ale house, I think rebel will know

EUROBEERS
Eurobeers was founded by Barry Fitzgerald in 1998 to meet the demand for craft beers. Their 230 products come from all over the world - from Australia, USA, Russia, Germany, Belgium, China and Lithuania to mention a few. Due to the expansion of the EU and the changing tastes of the Irish (and the advent of low cost travel) the demand for beers from all parts of the world has risen dramatically. The beers from Eastern Europe have shown a remarkable rise in demand and Eurobeers is supplying these demands. The demand is for quality and Eurobeers has partnerships in place with some of the premium breweries in Europe to meet their customer requirements.

The main distributer of World beers to Ireand is Eurobeers in Cork. Others incude Kooch and Premier but the don't specialise in niche beers only. As far as off licences sourcing there own beers it can be done but the cost is very high. I think Redmonds might source some maybe someone else could clarify?

When importing beer it can be quite hard. In order to keep the cost of transport down and the beer reasonably priced after tax, large quantities must be bought. For a single Off Licence or small Off Licence chain this poses the threat of not shifting it all and being stuck with beer past its date. Also most Off Licences won't have store rooms large enough to keep large quatities of th same beer. I think the brew moon range might have been sourced with some wine we got in from New Zealand. The 33cl bottles ended up at 3.30 a bottle after taking in about 40 or 50 cases. Didn't sell hence €1 a bottle.

The best idea so far has been Eurobeers pre-order list system. Basically, a list of every beer available to them is being compiled at the moment. It's a huge amount of beer with the Belgian List alone consisting of about 250 beers. With this system customers can order from the list in the off licence then this info is given back to Eurobeers, who then include it in a container load they are shiping to Ireland. Only thing is Eurobeers ship a container here every four weeks so the wait can be sometimes as long as that. Not perfect but th best I've seen yet.

The Pre-Order lists will be availabe soon. I'm going to post them up as soon as they are ready