Cork (Any Recommendations)?

The "Franciscan Well" seems to be the place ...

Good reviews at:

I haven't been here but I'll be in Cork myself in early May so I'll try it then !

Hth

C.

as to real ale - I doubt it, unless perhaps you include German/Belgie wheats?

a trawl thru, or question posted up on this site might help - seems to be a font of good info.

cheers MikeMcG

AFAIK craft just means small-ish, not necessarily 'real', but hopefully good - i.e. motivated by the desire to make fresh flavourful quality beer.

In the Republic, I think the only place to get real ale (i.e. cask) is one beer at The Porterhouse, Temple Bar, Dublin. cheers MikeMcG

According to my Barry Pepper Irish Pubs book the best pubs in Cork are

An spailpin fanac, South Main Street Canty's 6 Pembroke Street Benchy's 40/41 St Luke's Cross Lr Chateau, Patrick Street Reidy's Wine Bar Lancaster Quay

None of them sell real ale . but they have been selected for the qualityof their beers (Beamish, Guiness, Murphys in the main)

Mmmm, not too much for a beer-lover to get very excited about, but there is something about having fresh pints of these beers in trad & characterful Irish pubs - e.g.in Dublin, I love the Porterhouse beers, but I'd often rather have a Guinness in Mulligan's of Poolbeg St.

It does seem to be quite an old book, though? (amazon suggest 1998?) But I guess things don't tend to change very quick in the Irish pub scene?

cheers MikeMcG

Yes 1998 it was published

But as Barry Pepper says in the book, Irish pubowning families tend to measure their tenure in centuries rather than dacades.

Most of those I listed have been in the same family for years.

And there's certainly nore to an Irish pub than the beer.

They certainly don't - we visited An spailpin fanac, Canty's and Henchy's a couple of years ago and none of them seem to have changed significantly since our first visit some 25 years before.

Same goes for many of the "good" Dublin pubs - Mulligans, The Palace Bar, Doheny and Nesbitts and Kehoes are all pretty much unaltered. Ryans in Parkgate, though, has lost its snug - which is a shame.

We are on holiday again over there soon - this time the Galway pubs will be "inspected"!

As to the real ale scene in Ireland - it's virtually none existent as has been mentioned - which is a pity. Personally I'm quite happy to drink Guinness over there, it still seems better (for some reason) than Guinness in the UK, even though apparently all UK Guinness now comes from Dublin. Malcolm

Since I've got the book here. In Galway it recommends Murphys (High Street) same owners since 1931 Rabbits Forster Street of Eyre Square same owners since 1872 The Quays, Quay Street Tigh Neachtain, Cross Street

Thanks for those - we'll be in Galway for two nights so there'll be no problem in doing all of them - plus a few others no doubt!

Malcolm

Thanks for all the feedback.

I read somewhere that there are actually three (yes, in the whole of the Republic :-( ). Two were in Dublin from memory, and one was out west.

you might well be right - I'm not very 'up' on the subject & haven't been in q a few years now (shame!) cheers MikeMcG

Messrs Maguires (brewpub, Dublin) have brewed cask, I think, but I've never seen it in the pub - only in UK pubs & festivals!

Biddy Early, Ennis, Co. Clare did/do a cask version, I think of their read ale, called Real Biddy - never seen it tho - anyone else?

I still have a feeling the Porterhouse might be the only place you'll find one. cheers MikeMcG

Just remembered I'd seen a recent article Real Ale pubs in Ireland and have found it (Camra "Beer" magazine March 2008). It lists:

The Franciscan Well 14 North Mall Cork

The Porterhouse Strand Road Bray Co Wicklow The Porterhouse Central Nassau St Dublin Porterhouse North Cross Guns Bridge Glasnevin Dublin Porterhouse Parliament St Dublin Tara's Speciality Beer House Main St Ballina/Killahoe Co Tipperary

Other stuff mentioned in the article:

Biddy Early's closed about 2 years ago Kinsale Brewing Co has also closed

Only two regular real ales are now brewed in Ireland:

TSB - Porterhouse Brewery Co - available in the Poerhouses (above) Rusty's Red Ale - brewed by Messrs McGuires brewpub Dublin. The brewpub itself only sells the keg version but Tara's (above) sells the cask.

The Franciscan Well is a Cork brewpub that tends to do summer months/ festivals only.

Malcolm

This sounds like a must. With a 70% chance of rain predicted, I might be looking for shelter:-))

The Sneem beer festival at the end of August sounds interesting. Sneem is on the north side of the Kenmare River in Kerry. About an hour's drive from Cork.

Unfortunately it doesn't say which year :-) (although it was definitely on in 2006), but there is an email address you could try. (Before we went to Ireland I emailed all the local micros I could think of asking them for info. Not one bothered to reply.)

I was in Carlow a year or two ago, in the south towards Waterford; there's the Carlow Brewery there. I chatted a while with the guy there, remarking that there were rather a lot of kegs outside and basically no casks. He told me that pretty much all the cask they produced went to the UK. But there was one pub that took it on the road to Cork, he said.

Couldn't find his stuff in any of the local establishments we tried either, sadly, cask or not.

I read in the 'The Daily Telegraph' some years ago about somebody who was in holiday in Ireland and visiting a pub.

He arrived about 10 minutes before opening time and quite naturally was refused a drink.

The landlord said that he could sit and wait in the bar if he liked until opening time.

However, while he was waiting, the landlord asked him if he would be having one while he was waiting!