The following is probably  the most comprehensive listing available on Irish beer as it was taken from the check list prepared by The Porter House for The 3rd Irish Independent Beer Festival (March 1999) held on their premises.   Click on BREWERS below for details.

The 3rd Irish Independent
Beer Festival

Welcome to the Porterhouse for Ireland's Third Irish Brewers Independent Beer Festival featuring 28 beers from 10 different breweries.

We hope you will sample the brewing delights available before you. All the beers are from Independent brewers, as opposed to commercial multinational breweries. Never before have they been under one roof. This year we are featuring 5 new breweries. There are a variety of styles of beer some available in both cask and/or keg.

Albeit difficult to formulate an accurate description of the difference between keg and cask beer, as an introduction, cask beers are less highly gassed and dispensed at a temperature slightly higher than keg beers. This allows all the flavours to flood out.

All the beers at this festival are unpasteurised and lacking in chemical additives which are seen as necessary for large commercial beers.

TASTING NOTES

Stouts

[ ] Black biddy. £2.45
A rich fruity stout, made with Galena hops and Carageen moss
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] D'Arcy's Dublin stout 4.3% abv (Dublin Brewing Company) £2.35
A dry stout with maltiness to balance the roast character of the black barley and bitter tang of the hops giving rise to complex flavours like espresso, berry jam, walnut, cedar and citrus.
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Messrs. McGuire extra stout 5.0% abv (Messrs. McGuires Brewery) £2.45
A double stout, luxuriously smooth, dark and full bodied. A distinct fruity hop flavour note is obtained in the beer by late addition of cascade hops in the copper and late on during fermentation.
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Oyster stout 4.8% abv (The Porter House Brewing Company) £2.40
A smooth drinking aromatic stout with a discernible but unidentifiable aromatic aspect. Brewed with fresh oysters. Not suitable for vegetarians.
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Plain porter 4.3% abv (The Porter House Brewing Company) £2.35
A classic modern light stout with the added complexity of late kettle hop. Aromatic kettle character. Rich roast, dry, clean and bitter without any sourness.
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Wrasslers 4X stout 5.0 % abv (The Porter House Brewing Company) £2.45
This was Michael Collins' favourite tipple - stout like your grandfather used to drink, A fine fulsome stout, full in every way, a pungent aroma of kettle hops. A generous quantity of roost grain for flavour, bitter with flaked barley producing that body. Available Keg [ ]

 Ales

[ ] An Brain Blasta 7% abv (The Porter House Brewing Company) £3.00
A deep copper coloured brew offering the beer connoisseur the complexity of flavour expected from its thrice hopping and longer fermentation leading to fruit character from both the late kettle Goldings and yeast fermentation flavour, balanced by a soft bittemess, malty sweetness and a full floral of fuggles dry hops.
Available Cask [ ] Keg [ ]

[ ] Becketts Gold 4.3% abv (Dublin Brewing Company) £2.40
A honey amber brew that is balanced with a light refreshing finish. A wholesome aromatic ale.
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Finnians Pale Ale 4.3% (Celtic Brewing Company) £2.40
A traditional Pale ale. A clean tasting, aromatic ale.
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Hilden ale 4.6% abv (Hilden Brewery) £2.40
Hilden ale is a dry, well hopped amber coloured beer with a distinctive clean aftertaste.
Available Cask [ ]

[ ] Molings 4.3°/a abv (Carlow Brewing Company) £2.40
Molings is a traditional Irish red ale with a unique malty flavour with a full, well rounded character.
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Porter House red 4.4% abv (The Porter House Brewing Company) £2.35
An Irish red ale with a traditional hop flavour to balance the fruit character of the yeast and the luscious caramel flavour notes derived from the malts used.
Available Cask [ ] Keg [ ]

[ ] Revolution 1798 4.3% abv (The Dublin Brewing Company) £2.45
A rich mahogany red ale brewed with roast barley and two types of crystal malt. A certain spicy, woody character evolved by our specially selected yeast and slow cool fermentation is accentuated by the smoky flavour from the roast barley.
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Rich ruby 4.6% abv (Dwan's Brewery) £2.45
A fruity and aromatic ale produced by the combination of crystal and chocolate malts with nugget and East Kent Golding hops.
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Rusty red ale 4.6% abv (Messrs. McGuires Brewery) £2.45
A fruity auburn red ale. A complex brew balancing malty caramel flavours with an underlying fruit aroma and a lasting and memorable finish. Served cool with a white creamy head for smoothness.
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Round Tower red ale 5.0°/a abv (Franciscan Well Brewery) £2.45
A robust amber ale with a distinct caramel flavour imparted by crystal malt by the English hop varieties Challenger and Fuggles.
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Scullions Irish red ale 4.4% abv (The Hilden Brewery) £2.40
This is a rich red ruby beer rich in dark malts with the traditional hoppy characteristic of all Hilden beers.
Available Cask [ ]

Lagers

[ ] Ballymaguire 4.8% abv (The Balbriggan Brewing Company) £2.55
A full malt lager beer with distinctive fruity/nutty flavour. Handcrafted, unpasteurised with all natural ingredients. First time ever in Ireland or indeed the world!
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Chiller 4.2% abv (The Porter House Brewing Company) £2.55
Brewed with the choicest American tettnang and cascade hops. We know of no other beer so smooth.
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Cool amber 4.3% abv (Dwan's Brewery) £2.55
A European style pilsner made with German lager hops in combination with lager malt and malted wheat. It's a luscious full bodied and satisfying sweet malty lager.
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Finnians lager 4.3% abv (The Celtic Brewing Company) £2.55
A smooth tasting light lager. Available Keg

[ ] Hersbrucker 5.0% abv (The Porter House Brewing Company) £2.55
A classic full bodied Continentol style pilsner with an ample balance of lip smacking hersbrucker hops. A soft quality hop flavour with the matching subtlety of the fine malt and sweetness.
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Haus 4.3% abv (Messrs. McGuire Brewery) £2.55
A classic European pils lager, late hopped with specially imported continental hops. A dry subtle maltiness with a moderate bitterness and a floral/resinous hop aroma.
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Rebel County lager 4.3% abv (Franciscan Well Brewery) £2.55
An all malt premium lager with a noble hop character imported by German Hersbrucker and Czech Saaz hops.
Available Keg [ ]

[ ] Templebrau 4.3% abv (The Porter House Brewing Company) £2.55
Made with the finest German Hallertau hops and premium Irish malted barley. A clean cut pilsner with a beautiful hop fragrance.
Available Keg [ ]

Wheat Beers

[ ] Curim 4.3% abv (The Carlow Brewing Company) £2.65
A distinctive refeshing wheat beer in the American style.
Available Keg [ ]

Note: The above flavour notes have been provided by the various brewing Companies and no responsibility is taken for any errors or omissions.

The following  information was kindly collected by Mr J. Czyrko (January 1999)

The Head of Steam, Euston - Irish Beer Festival, commencing Jan 24th (E&OE)