Salt House

Ireland Day 4, or How Hospitality Makes Galway Feel Like Home…

Hello folks! Sorry for the delay in posting!

So, back to our amazing trip to Galway and the surrounding areas.

So, in the evening on Day 3, we finally met Will Avery, head brewer and absolute lunatic over at Galway Bay Brewery. We had attempted to meet up with him last November when we were in Galway, but he was sick and we were unable to come tour the brewery.

This time around, Holly Kay and I were able to coordinate with Will, and we took my parents and Uncle Gerard to the brewery the next morning. (We were visiting Ireland with 16 relatives, so I asked Will the night before what a reasonable number of people would be, so that we wouldn't overwhelm them while they were, you know, working… He said "Give me six." We ended up with five.)

Will gave us a tour of the massive warehouse space that the brewhouse occupies, and it's filled with absolutely gorgeous stainless steel fermenters and mash tuns, and a large bottling line, churning out palates full of their incredible lineup of beers, including Full Sail IPA, Of Foam and Fury IIPA, and Buried At Sea Milk Stout.

That bottling line tho… Hi Dad!

After the tour of the brewhouse, Will took us over to another massive area of the brewery, occupied by large oak barrels, filled with what one can only imagine are magical elixirs to delight future imbibers at Galway Bay Brewery's flagship bars in Galway, Salt House and Oslo Bar (home of the original brewery, now home to Micil Poitin, run by the Mad Scientist Padraic O'Griallas).

Here's Will, standing next to a giant stack of magic barrels.

Will asked if we wanted to try some of the science experiment aging in those whiskey barrels, acquired from Teeling Irish Whiskey. And who are we to say no to that?

I won't tell you what was in those barrels, because we were sworn to secrecy, but I can tell you that it was unbelievably tasty. All 5 of us were able to have a small taste, and the response was overwhelmingly positive.

I love whiskey barrel aged beers because they take on flavors of oak, vanilla, and caramel (the same flavors I love in whiskey itself) and make an already great beer more complex and interesting. This brew was no exception. Super jealous of those folks who live in Galway and will be able to check out this beer once it comes out of those barrels.

These, I believe, were wine barrels, just another vessel to house Galway Bay's already amazing liquids, and to impart the flavors of the spirit that lived inside that barrel.

We had a wonderful time touring the brewery and watching Will and his team passionately working to create a labor of love. Thanks for letting us come by and share your passion for beer with us!

Later in the day, we booked a ride on the Corrib Princess, which is a 90 minute cruise on the River and Lake Corrib. The ride gives you access to historical ruins and gorgeous Irish landscape. It was a rainy afternoon, so we stayed inside the boat (mostly), but we had a wonderful time sipping Guinness, Irish Whiskey, and Award Winning (seriously) Irish Coffee with homemade cream. No complaints here.

Click HERE to see a video of me being silly on the Corrib Princess. YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS.

The River Corrib!

Loading Dock at the head of the River Corrib…

Guinness x Jameson

Beautiful, rainy ride.

After our rainy, rocky ride down the River Corrib to Lough Corrib, we all went back to rest for a bit, and decided to do dinner at Oslo Bar, as we had yet to see our favorite wildman Alan O'Reilly (who you'll remember from our November Galway post!)

The brewing process, outlined on the wall at Oslo Bar

Family portrait at Oslo Bar (Alan was able to make his way into this photo, positioning himself ever-so-sneakily under Gerard, although he blends in so you'd never know he wasn't one of us.)

Alan was so hospitable (as always) and set us up with giant appetizers and flights of Galway Bay Brewery beer. This was one of my favorite meals of the trip, simply because Alan treated us like family. Thanks again, Alan!

After dinner, we ended up at Crane Bar for an unbelievable traditional music experience. We were surrounded by sound, as people from all over the small room began to sing and join in on the session.

A beautiful moment, as one of the regulars from the Crane Bar began to sing a cappella, it was contemplative and quiet, and yet, everyone was focused on this one man as he sang. It was true magic, and one of our favorite moments from the trip. Please click the link to check it out.

Thank you again to Will Avery and Alan O'Reilly for making us feel at home, and making Galway a place we can always come back to and feel comfortable and happy.

Cheers!

Galway Bay Brewery and the Beard Off Fundraiser, or, How We Made New Beer Friends Across the Atlantic Sea!!

Hello, friends!

***I wanted to FIRST start off this post by saying, Thursday, December 1st, Galway Bay Brewery in association with The Oslo, Salthouse and Gallagher Galway are hosting a BEARD-OFF Fundraiser to raise money for Galway Hospice.  If your means allow, please donate HERE and we will watch all of these grown men’s glorious beards be shaved off for an amazing cause.  Head to the Galway Beard-Off Fundraiser Facebook Page to see videos of the boys talking about how life will be without beards… Now, back to your regularly scheduled Blog Post….***

We have a very special post today, as I will recant the tale of how Holly Kay and I met some of the coolest people in Ireland…  WITH BEER!

The last post I wrote about Ireland left off with us getting a great night’s sleep after a wonderful night out in Killarney.  From there, we drove the unbelievably GORGEOUS Dingle Peninsula, whose vistas are stunning, every way you turn.

img_2298 Come on!img_2263 Come on!img_2314I mean, COME ON!!

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From there, we drove and stayed in Gallow’s View Bed & Breakfast in Bunratty, where we were warmly welcomed by our host.  I’ll write about this part of our trip in a later blog post, so stay tuned.

Our next B&B was St. Judes, in Upper Salthill, just across the river from Galway City.  St. Judes was a lovely, French-style home just about a 10 minute walk into Galway proper, and, if you walk in the opposite direction, about 10 minutes from Lower Salthill, with bars, restaurants, an aquarium, and some casinos.

img_2378Galway City

img_2379Holly Kay in the Latin Quarter, Galway.

Before we left the US, I posted a message on a beer group that I’m a part of on Facebook, asking for recommendations for awesome craft beer in Ireland.  I received a response from Alan O’Reilly, manager of Oslo Bar in Lower Salthill, which is the flagship pub of the Galway Bay Brewery.

Alan wrote, “If you bring me American Craft Beer, I will give you beer.  Galway Bay Brewery beer!”  Holly immediately bought two large wine bottle sized ziplock bags on Amazon (which triple zip, so if anything breaks or leaks, it won’t get all over your clothes), and we brought 4 different American beers over with us.

We arrived at Oslo Bar around 6:30pm, and were on the lookout for Alan, who we found out back, inside what seemed to be Galway Bay Brewery’s brew house.  We soon discovered that GBB had expanded, and the brew house in the back of Oslo Bar is now used as a Distillery for Micil Poitín, an Irish sprit (think of it as Irish moonshine), made from Irish Grain and bogbean, a plant that grows in bogs throughout Europe.  We met Padraic O’Griallais, who quit his job as an Irish Speaking Schoolteacher, to take over his family’s business.  Micil is named after his Great-Great-Great Grandfather, Micil Mac Chearra.  Of course, Holly Kay and I were poured a sample, and it was spicy, herbal, and warmed our hearts and souls with the spirit of Ireland.  Man, it was so cool.

After that amazing introduction, it was time to show Alan the beers we brought!

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We brought two Gose-style sours, Westbrook Brewing Gose, and Stillwater Artisinal Gose Gone Wild, an IPA that our buddy Nathan had brought us from Georgia, Orpheus Brewing Life.Death.Life.Truth, and Peak Organic The Juice, an amazing new beer from this brewery, a hoppy pale ale.

To say Alan was thrilled would be an understatement.  I mean, just look at our faces in the photo above.  It was so cool to make new friends halfway across the world, simply with craft beer!  Alan was giddily showing his coworkers the beer we brought him, and told us to follow him back down to the bar.

img_2368Alan giving us his best smile, and showing some bar patrons some amazing stouts that are NOT Guinness.  (I sent this to my Dad, of course, please refer to my blog post about the Stout Monster)

We sat down at the bar and Alan poured me one of GBB’s newest beers, a collaboration with Cigar City Brewing (!!!), Ceasefire Rhubarb Sloe Sour.  Some lemon and lime pucker, with nice bitterness from the rhubarb.  These guys aren’t messing around with their beers.  They recently hired Will Avery, all the way from Georgia (the United State, not the country) to be their Brewmaster, and expanded their brew house to a location just outside of Galway City.

We were going to visit the brew house itself, but the timing didn’t work out, so that just means we’ll have to go back to Galway soon so I can write another blog post!  Ok, Holly?  😉

Alan poured Holly a Harvest Altar, a delightful brown ale with sweet, nutty caramel from the malts, with some nice hop spice and bitterness.

Next up for me was Full Sail, GBB’s flagship IPA, really well balanced, with some juicy hops (El Dorado and Cascade) and a sweet malt backbone.  This guy clocks in at 5.8%, so, it would be cool to have a few of these and see how the flavors develop.  Again, that’ll be another trip back to Galway!

While at Oslo Bar, we also met Darren Green, Alan’s dear friend, whiskey expert, and manager of Garavan’s in Galway, which won Whiskey Bar of the Year in 2014 and 2015.  As soon as he heard Holly Kay mention the word whiskey, he perked up, and immediately rattled off nearly the entire history of Irish Whiskey, to our surprise, and also to our DELIGHT

Alan was finishing work at 7pm, and told us to meet he and Darren later at Lonergan’s Bar, just a short walk from Oslo Bar, which, as he described it, is unlike any other bar we’d see in Ireland…  “We’re the youngest people there by 50 YEARS…)  But first, we asked for dinner recommendations, and Alan suggested Dough Bros, in Galway City.  We had to go, because you can’t just have one pizza in Ireland…

img_2371It’s Dough Bros, Bro!

img_2372Holly and I shared a Limeburner Pale Ale from Kinnegar Brewing in Donegal.  As Alan put it, these guys don’t make a bad beer.  This bottle was about 6 months from its bottling date, but the citrus of the hops stuck around just enough to balance the malts.  Crisp, and super refreshing, this was a perfect pairing to our pizza…  Bros.

Alright, so…  Lonergan’s.  We took a cab back down to Salthill, and walked into the pub, and, as Alan had described, the place was full of elderly Irish men (and one dog).  The only other lady in the pub was our sweet Barmaid.  She poured us two pints of Murphy’s Irish Stout, and we sipped them as we waited for our new friends to join us…

img_2375Proper Glassware…  Also, can you call this a perfect pour?  Or is that trademarked?

A few minutes later, Alan, Darren, and Sjef (a bartender and another whiskey connoisseur from Garavan’s) came in.  Suffice to say, Alan made good on his promise, (but not before signing up for, and encouraging Holly Kay and I, to donate funds to Galway Hospice for GBB’s BEARD-OFF Fundraiser), as we were chatting with the fellas about The Circus American Politics, Irish television show Father Ted, Craft Beer, Whiskey, and everything else under the sun, every few minutes, another pint of Murphy’s would magically appear in our hands.  By about 11pm, Holly Kay and I looked at each other, and said “We’ve GOT to go.”  We’d been up since around 7am, and had driven several hours that day, and although Murphy’s is less than 5% ABV, when you’ve drank 6 or 7 of them, you start to get a little bit of the jelly leg, if ya know what I mean.  So we drank what we could of that last pint, bid our goodnights, and went back to St. Jude for a gooooood night’s sleep.

I’m going to stop here, and will continue our Galway tale in my next blog post.

I’ll finish by reiterating that TOMORROW NIGHT is Galway Bay Brewery’s BEARD-OFF Fundraiser to raise money for Galway Hospice, and you can donate HERE if your means allow!

Thanks for reading, and until next time!

Cheers!