We will be spending 9 days in Ireland (Republic) and are wondering if anyone knows of any micro/boutique breweries? After 3 nights in Dublin we will be doing an anti-clockwise circuit - Ballina, Galway, Dingle, Kinsal and Rosslare. If there is anything in the general vicinity I would love to hear about it.
Yvonne
Old article but provides some options to research.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/travel/18journeys.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Or just stay with Irish Nectar of The Gods, Guinness.
As someone from the brewing capital of the US right now I was sadly disappointed by the state of brewing in both England and Ireland. Your average pub in a small town will typically have Guinness, Smithwicks, Harp and probably a cider or other option and the number of larger places that had Coors light on tap was disheartening. The old pubs were usually run by one brewery so they would only carry their brands and this seemed to be still more the case in Ireland than England.
I know Dingle has a local in two flavors in bottles that we enjoyed several times at James G Ashe which I recommend. I'm pretty sure they came from this brewery but I didn't visit the brewery itself: http://dinglebrewingcompany.com
Hope this helps: http://beermapping.com/maps/maps.php?m=ireland#lat=undefined&lng=undefined&z=10
Have a great trip,
=Tod
PS If you need a great beer bar in Edinburgh or London I can help out but not so much in Ireland.
Ireland went through a brief microbrew surge a decade or so ago,,,followed by a collapse, leaving few options.
I use this site as a starter... http://www.europeanbeerguide.net/irlbrew.htm more detailed searches will turn up any options.
That said, there are a couple in County Cork, though Kinsale Brewing is no longer around, and in Dublin there are a couple brewpubs plus Porterhouse Brewing, known maybe best for their Oyster Stout, a style of beer, but they do it with real oysters.
Don't overlook Guinness, do the tour, not really a live factory tour, but an "experience", and their Gravity Bar is as good a place to have a pint as any.
Up and down western Ireland 3 years ago, Guinness was ubiquitous, but we were stunned to see Coors Light on tap almost universally, as well. Living just 5 miles east of the Coors brewery in Golden, we don't drink the stuff, and were told that it had only recently been introduced in Ireland with great success, and was being brewed in Cork. Bartenders told us that younger drinkers tended towards Coors Light (kind-of a redundant name) and that Guinness drinkers tended to be much older. What's with the younger generation??? One bar in Galway carried Murphy's Stout in addition to Guinness, and as Tod noted above, Smithwick's and Harp were sometimes available. We often opted for Bulmer's cider, which we hadn't seen here in the USA.
Coors Light has made a big splash in Europe, as has Bud Light, and just as you have mentioned, it is seen as an easy drinking lager by the younger set. It's appearance really is not that surprising in the big beer world of today, Coors Molson owns dozens of brands including Killians and Caffrey's in Ireland, several in the UK (Worthington, Sharps, Stones Bitter) and Carling which is one of the bigger British lagers.
In Dublin check out Porterhouse. Their 4X stout is really good.
