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The more I think about this, the more I think that it is a positive for beer in Ireland. Beoir may be all about supporting "craft beer" but I originally got interested in craft beer because I wanted more choice than fizzy yellow stuff, Guinness and tasteless red ale. Well now we may just get a fourth category in mainstream pubs, tasteless pale ale <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) -->

These days I drink craft beer on principle so probably wont be drinking too much Smithwicks. However I think that it will at least educate people to the existence of the Pale Ale style, so now for the as yet uninitiated grabbing a Galway Hooker will just involve a new brand, not completely changing their understanding of beer.

And hey, if some craft brewers are a little p-ed off that Diageo is muscling in on a style they popularised, well then maybe popularising more new styles could be fun...

*cough, chilli porter, cough*

Lads there is an issue with supply though in large parts of the country. Here in the north east in LMFM land (not a million miles away from Dublin), there is one craft beer outlet, with one craft beer available. I spoke to one of the brewers at the Lughnasa festival asking why there was no craft beer up our way and he said they couldn't guarantee supply and distribution.

I think that's what's known as "a gap in the market" <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->

It's easy to underestimate the power of a distribution network. Goose Island has been mentioned in the thread. We can drink it in Ireland because they leverage AB inbev's distribution network (and were doing so before they were eventually acquired by them).

&amp;quot;dereko1969&amp;quot;:jwy4327m wrote:

&amp;quot;EoinMag&amp;quot;:jwy4327m wrote: I was down in Courtown recently on holidays, we rented a house and her family came over from UK and my family came from Roscommon and we stayed there for the week.

I had a keg of stout with me and a case of lager, all homebrew of course. One of the days we went to Ambrose Moloneys for a few pints, I was disappointed to see only standard macro taps and wondered if at least they had anything good in the bottles. I asked a lady who from her reponse I can only assume was an owner/manager if they had any decent beer, Irish micros, she laughed and told me I was the first one to have asked in 7 years. I said but if you don't have it you can't sell it, I was told that wasn't the way it worked around there.....this was followed up by a "I support ye all the way, by the way", my thoughts were eh up until you have to put your money where your convictions lie and then don't even chance a change.
Are the Irish small boys not going enough to promote their brands or can they simply not fight the likes of a Diageo marketting budget?
I had one pint of some rubbish or other and then refused to drink any more there, due to what I actually considered a rant from yer wan after a simple request. I went back to my homebrew and that was it for spending my money on drink in Courtown.[/quote:jwy4327m]

I'd hardly consider it a rant! And to be fair to the publican, it's all a bit chicken and egg for them, if no-one asks for craft beer (you were the second person in 7 years) and she's not aware of it's availability, why would they order it in?

I'd have engaged her in conversation and said, did you know there are 3 great beers being brewed in the next county over (and more coming soon)? would you get a case of them in? if not, why not?[/quote:jwy4327m]


To be honest you weren't there and she did go on a rant. I did remain friendly and also didn't give her grief but I did say that if she didn't have them she couldn't sell them. I left the counter with the distinct impression that she thought of me in the same vein as some treehugging sandal wearing hippy who should be treated with disdain.
I didn't slag her or the macro beer.

&amp;quot;TheBeerNut&amp;quot;:10fjbnj5 wrote: CAMRA: 40 years of campaigning, 100,000 subscribers, the most successful consumer movement ever, and Carling is still the UK's favourite beer, with cask ale currently available in a little over 50% of potential outlets.[/quote:10fjbnj5]

Brewer's Association figures: American craft brewing sales share in 2010 was 4.9% by volume and 7.6% by dollars.

And that supported 1,753 breweries.

Now, I realize that's for a much larger population. A better comparison would be Denmark's 5.5 million people and 150+ craft breweries supported by <5% of total sales.