One of the Irish brewers I most enjoy whenever I find it on cask is Metalman. Perhaps it helps that Gráinne and Tim are extremely friendly and helpful beery people but their beer is what counts and I'm yet to have a duff pint, if only the bottled it! So when there was an opportunity to visit the brewery before the beoir AGM I jumped at the chance.*
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| HLTs and mashtun |
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| Shiny stainless |
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| More bright steelwork |
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| Beorites rapt with attention for Tim's tour |
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| Waterford's other brewing giant |
The brewery itself is on an industrial estate which looks a little run down, though the brewery unit is spick and span. Space wise there's room to expand, though they're limited by their length of brew at the moment. There are a variety of fermenting and conditioning tanks which are juggled to give the best results!
Tim put on a keg of their (then) new seasonal Sahara. Brewed with a mixture of hops including centennial and sorachi ace this poured a clear amber brown with off white fluffy head. Medium carb with gentle
toffee and citrus notes on the nose. Starts off with subtle sorachi hops
balanced by malt, followed by noble hop bitterness. Tangerine pith and
custard creams build through beer to give a very long hoppy finish. I was really impressed by this one and hope it makes a return next year. Indeed I could still taste it 30mins later as we reached the AGM!
The AGM itself was in the Phil Grimes pub where pints of Pale and Windjammer were enjoyed alongside Dungarvan Blackrocks on cask..my pint was perhaps on the turn but the sour edge actually increased the complexity of the beer to something even more enjoyable!
After that a pizza was enjoyed then off to an early bed after the previous evening's excesses at Reuben's house.
*Yes I'm a bit tardy getting this written up, its still the same brewery though!
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