Why no Irish beers in the local off licence!!

MANUTD99

MANUTD99 wrote: »

So I was in Centra this afternoon looking to finish off my Sunday day in the pub with a couple of bottles of guinness extra stout bottles.( I knew they wouldnt have my favourite O Hara's Stout). I was drinking Galway Hooker in the pub and was going down a treat

Well the the only Irish label that was on sale in the local centra was cans of mouldy bulmers even though I was less than 5 minutes walk away from the Guinness Brewery itself. The rest of selection was made up of the usual Bud, Heineken, Miller and a massive selection of Eastern Euro Beer. I bought 4 bottles of Lech and drinking it now. Don't find it too bad and is fairly cheap.

Whats is the opinion on these brands and is there any hope for up and coming Irish beers to make the shelf in local Spars/Centra and overtake the massed produced rubbish. I mean it's is not as if Irish Beer is at a low standard and I'm sure Irish Craft Breweries are finding success but to me thats not the point.

Personally I would love to go to my local Spar and buy some O Hara's Stout

Discuss!!

Had a email response from Londis today, went as follows

"Thank you for contacting us with your query.
It is great to get feedback from consumers such as yourself.

All ADM Londis stores are individually owned and it is the retailers themselves that decide what to merchandise.
I will contact the store later today and get back to you, but, having been in that store, as far as I can recall it is extremely small and space would be limited. Therefore the store would need to be very careful as to what to market when space is at such a low premium".

MANUTD99

Got another reply today from the actually manager of the Londis. Was really happy with there reply.

"Thank you for bringing up your issues with us. We are more than happy to accommodate our customer’s demands.

I apologise if we ran out of Guinness when you came to the shop last Monday, It is on order at the moment and will have it in tomorrow.

Regarding your request for a couple of beers to be merchandised, I will look at my range of beer and probably drop the slowest brand to accommodate your request. As Ann Marie mentioned, we are very much careful with our merchandising considering the limited space I have in the shop but I would have no problem merchandising 1 or 2 types of the beers you have suggested below. I will contact my suppliers and may have the stocks in late next week".

My apologies again for making you feel unhappy with our range but we will definitely try to resolve this issue as soon as possible. I wish to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued custom."

Technocentral

Decent of them to at least reply, I sent Superquinn in Ranelagh a (constructive) email about their lousy choice of beer and never heard back from them.

BeerNut

Technocentral wrote: »

Decent of them to at least reply, I sent Superquinn in Ranelagh a (constructive) email about their lousy choice of beer and never heard back from them.

If I were the manager I'd have invited you in, taken you to the front window, pointed across the road and said "There you go. Bye!"

irish_goat

MANUTD99 wrote: »

Got another reply today from the actually manager of the Londis. Was really happy with there reply.

"Thank you for bringing up your issues with us. We are more than happy to accommodate our customer’s demands.

I apologise if we ran out of Guinness when you came to the shop last Monday, It is on order at the moment and will have it in tomorrow.

Regarding your request for a couple of beers to be merchandised, I will look at my range of beer and probably drop the slowest brand to accommodate your request. As Ann Marie mentioned, we are very much careful with our merchandising considering the limited space I have in the shop but I would have no problem merchandising 1 or 2 types of the beers you have suggested below. I will contact my suppliers and may have the stocks in late next week".

My apologies again for making you feel unhappy with our range but we will definitely try to resolve this issue as soon as possible. I wish to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued custom."

Great result. I might email a few local places myself and see if I get anywhere.

Does anyone know if Dunnes(anywhere in the country) ever stock Irish craft beers? There's a pretty big off license section in the Maynooth one with plenty of European lagers but no decent Irish beers.

BeerNut

irish_goat wrote: »

Does anyone know if Dunnes(anywhere in the country) ever stock Irish craft beers? There's a pretty big off license section in the Maynooth one with plenty of European lagers but no decent Irish beers.

They're getting a bit better with the English stuff, but I've not seen anything Irish since they stopped doing the Celtic Brew stuff in about 2004.

MANUTD99

BeerNut wrote: »

They're getting a bit better with the English stuff, but I've not seen anything Irish since they stopped doing the Celtic Brew stuff in about 2004.

"The difference is, we're Irish"

Isn't that the Dunnes slogan they ram down everybody:)

rubadub

My tesco always has O'Haras, and a few others. Searching stout on tesco Oharas is 2.69, beamish is on offer 4pack SAVE 99c Was 5.99 Now 5.00valid from 4/1/2011 until 1/2/2011, 1.25 a can.

Guinness draught Any 6 For 10.00valid from 4/1/2011 until 1/2/2011

A surprisingly well stocked offie is eurospar in dalkey, it is tiny but they cram loads of selection in it.

also in tesco
Curim Gold Celtic Wheat Beer 500Ml Bottle €2.65 (€5.30/l)

blueshed

@ irish goat

your spot on about the Dunnes in Maynooth= it is very poor for craft beer.
you cant move for slabs of bud-millar etc,and a very limited selection of lagers imo.
Tescos is a little better but i find they are out of stock alot of the beers they say they have.
fullers london pride being out of stock last 3 or 4 times i have shopped there.
where do you buy your beer from.
i also checked out the off license beside the roost and just main stream lagers on the shelf.

Where I work there is zero demand for any of the irish beers mentioned in this thread. We stocked Curim a few years ago but it didn't sell at all and was delisted. Last year the only person that asked for an Irish beer that wasn't guinness etc was polish!
If you want to see them on the shelves in the likes of dunnes/tesco don't even bother asking in store about them. Get onto the head office, and keep pestering them.

Losty Dublin

irish_goat wrote: »

Great result. I might email a few local places myself and see if I get anywhere.

Does anyone know if Dunnes(anywhere in the country) ever stock Irish craft beers? .

In any line of food, Dunnes are about the worst shop to expect craft food/drink of any kind, be in meat or bread or cakes or deli or indeed beer. I'd actually expect Golden Discs to stock craft beer before them.

irish_goat

blueshed wrote: »

@ irish goat

your spot on about the Dunnes in Maynooth= it is very poor for craft beer.
you cant move for slabs of bud-millar etc,and a very limited selection of lagers imo.
Tescos is a little better but i find they are out of stock alot of the beers they say they have.
fullers london pride being out of stock last 3 or 4 times i have shopped there.
where do you buy your beer from.
i also checked out the off license beside the roost and just main stream lagers on the shelf.

Tesco are grand for O'Hara's and have a varying selection of decent European beers.

Normally I go to the Wine Cellar (on the street between Manor Mills and the main street) and they have a decent selection of English ales as well as European beers and sometimes the odd American one.

blueshed

@ irish goat - its funny you mention the wine cellar as i was in there saturday and picked up a few btls.

Abbot ale
Batemans xxxB
Belfast blonde
Headless Dog

matrim

blueshed wrote: »

Belfast blonde
Headless Dog

Supervalue on Aston Quay are selling these now. I picked up a couple of bottles on Thursday

beat root

Here's a bit of a diversion, but I believe my experience has some relevance to beernuts problem. Last Saturday I was in town and i figured I'd have a few pints and watch the Munster/Toulon game. I also wanted a decent beer, so I went to the Porterhouse. Now I'm not a huge rugby fan, but I was a bit surprised when all they were showing was Liverpool/Everton. To add insult to injury, I was told that when that was over, they were showing the Man U game, so I couldn't even get the second half of the rugby. What country are we in I thought? I left and went to the Bull and Castle which has Heineken Cup Rugby flags all over its building front. Guess what, same story, no rugby, only soccer. I went to five pubs before i found a place to watch the rugby. Now I have nothing against soccer, but when an Irish team are playing, i expect to be able to watch it in Ireland. Same way I have nothing against foreign beer (the decent ones anyway), but i'd rather buy and irish beer and support are craft brewers. So what I'm saying is that (most) pubs and off licenses cater to what the majority wants, which is bland commercial beer and football matches played by a bunch of continentals and english men.

BeerNut

beat root wrote: »

(most) pubs and off licenses cater to what the majority wants, which is bland commercial beer and football matches played by a bunch of continentals and english men.

That's also what you'll find in most English pubs too. But an awful lot of them will have something from a local brewery too. It's not a zero sum game: you can have the soccer on one screen and the rugby on another (which I think is what Porterhouse Central usually do, for future reference)

matrim

beat root wrote: »

Here's a bit of a diversion, but I believe my experience has some relevance to beernuts problem. Last Saturday I was in town and i figured I'd have a few pints and watch the Munster/Toulon game. I also wanted a decent beer, so I went to the Porterhouse. Now I'm not a huge rugby fan, but I was a bit surprised when all they were showing was Liverpool/Everton. To add insult to injury, I was told that when that was over, they were showing the Man U game, so I couldn't even get the second half of the rugby. What country are we in I thought? I left and went to the Bull and Castle which has Heineken Cup Rugby flags all over its building front. Guess what, same story, no rugby, only soccer. I went to five pubs before i found a place to watch the rugby. Now I have nothing against soccer, but when an Irish team are playing, i expect to be able to watch it in Ireland. Same way I have nothing against foreign beer (the decent ones anyway), but i'd rather buy and irish beer and support are craft brewers. So what I'm saying is that (most) pubs and off licenses cater to what the majority wants, which is bland commercial beer and football matches played by a bunch of continentals and english men.

I went to about 6 different pubs to find the rugby match but TBH, the reason they all had the soccer was because that's what most people wanted to watch.
We were talking to the barman in some of them and they wanted to watch the Rugby but as there were more people to watch the football that's what they put on.

We ended up the the Palace on Fleet street which had alot of people in to watch it (and I think would always show the rugby) and it served Galway Hooker so it all ended well

Although it does raise a point of why pubs don't work together. 2 of the pubs are next door to each other and even though both pubs only had about 10 - 15 people each watching the football, I think at least the the same amount came and left because they wanted to watch the rugby. If the pubs had of got together and decided one will show football and the other rugby and sent people who asked for the other to the other pub it would have probably worked out better for both pubs and customers.

you can have the soccer on one screen and the rugby on another (which I think is what Porterhouse Central usually do, for future reference)

Only if you pay extra for a multi sky sub (or one of them is on terrestrial)

BeerNut

matrim wrote: »

Only if you pay extra for a multi sky sub (or one of them is on terrestrial)

I think the metaphor just snapped.

Technocentral

beat root wrote: »

Here's a bit of a diversion, but I believe my experience has some relevance to beernuts problem. Last Saturday I was in town and i figured I'd have a few pints and watch the Munster/Toulon game. I also wanted a decent beer, so I went to the Porterhouse. Now I'm not a huge rugby fan, but I was a bit surprised when all they were showing was Liverpool/Everton. To add insult to injury, I was told that when that was over, they were showing the Man U game, so I couldn't even get the second half of the rugby. What country are we in I thought? I left and went to the Bull and Castle which has Heineken Cup Rugby flags all over its building front. Guess what, same story, no rugby, only soccer. I went to five pubs before i found a place to watch the rugby. Now I have nothing against soccer, but when an Irish team are playing, i expect to be able to watch it in Ireland. Same way I have nothing against foreign beer (the decent ones anyway), but i'd rather buy and irish beer and support are craft brewers. So what I'm saying is that (most) pubs and off licenses cater to what the majority wants, which is bland commercial beer and football matches played by a bunch of continentals and english men.

If you head to any pub from around Grafton Street towards Leeson Street and onwards towards the South side you'll find that they attract rugby types and the games will be on in them, its a minority, middle class sport whereas soccer is for the ordinary man in the street and much more popular, the few pubs with a decent range of non macro brews want to attract as big and regular a crowd as possible hence the catering to soccer fans, in my experience most rugby types only drink muck like Heineken anyway.

noby

Some serious sidetracking of this thread going on.

Technocentral wrote: »

...in my experience most rugby types only drink muck like Heineken anyway.

In my experience most [insert demographic here] only drink muck like Heineken anyway. Therein lies the challenge.

Technocentral

noby wrote: »

Some serious sidetracking of this thread going on.



In my experience most [insert demographic here] only drink muck like Heineken anyway. Therein lies the challenge.

Fair enough. But I didn't introduce the sports topic originally.

noby

Technocentral wrote: »

But I didn't introduce the sports topic originally.

Never meant to suggest you did.


Anyway, finished late today, and didn't get to the offie, so enjoying a Copper Coast with a feed of sausages.

MANUTD99

update from Londis

Unfortunately, I can only get Staropramen 500ml Bottle as it is the only craft beer available from the warehouse. I might have it on the shelves this coming Friday.

Kind regards,

xxxxxxxx

I have to say I'm a little disappointed here. I was feeling like I had done a good job with previous emails to get Irish Craft Beers in this store and I was feeling good. I don't like Staropramen anyway.

So the only "Irish" beers available are Guinness & Bulmers

noby

At least he tried, I guess. The multiples have different rules, so not sure about Londis, but sometimes the store owner/manager has the option of dealing directly with smaller distributors/producers, but often they have to go through the central warehouse.

MANUTD99

noby wrote: »

At least he tried, I guess. The multiples have different rules, so not sure about Londis, but sometimes the store owner/manager has the option of dealing directly with smaller distributors/producers, but often they have to go through the central warehouse.

True,, I was wasn't a dick in my reply. I understand he is not solely responsible for what goes on sale in the Londis franchise. I respect the corresponding info I have been receiving.

The amount rubbish beer being sold at large volumes in laughable. I visit Germany quite a bit (my missus is German) Over there they don't sell foreign muck which is brewed outside of their particular region.For example in Erfurt the biggest selling beer is a Erfurt beer Of course they sell other brands in Germany from beers in different regions,,my point is the local beer is in my experience the most promoted and best selling beer


Back to Ireland,,it takes me 1 hour to walk to drinkstore.ie to get Irish craft beer. I'm upset with the lack of sale and promotion of quality Irish Beer.


We all know Ireland as a nation are big drink consumers but yet I find it hard to buy quality Irish craft beer

Bigcheeze

MANUTD99 wrote: »

Over there they don't sell foreign muck which is brewed outside of their particular region.

I hear you but I'd hate to go to that extreme. It would make for a pretty boring beer scene. It sounds like some Germans think all beer brewed outside of Germnay is muck.

MANUTD99 wrote: »

Back to Ireland,,it takes me 1 hour to walk to drinkstore.ie to get Irish craft beer.

They'll deliver it to your door cheaply. I once got a city centre delivery from them the same day I ordered it. The owner delivered it himself.

MANUTD99 wrote: »

I'm upset with the lack of sale and promotion of quality Irish Beer.

It all costs €€€€. Some of the Irish micro breweries just have a handful of employees. The best promotion for them is probably people like yourself introducing them to others.

BeerNut

Bigcheeze wrote: »

Some of the Irish micro breweries just have a handful of employees.

Only the bigger ones have any paid employees. Most are staffed by the owners.

MANUTD99

BeerNut wrote: »

Only the bigger ones have any paid employees. Most are staffed by the owners.

I don't know man,,think small you will stay small. There is a market in this country for beer so I think "smaller" craft brewers should start stepping up to the plate and knocking all the other rubbish off its place.

Look how Galway Hooker is starting to creep its way into lots of pubs now

BeerNut

MANUTD99 wrote: »

Look how Galway Hooker is starting to creep its way into lots of pubs now

With, AFAIK, the same number of paid employees as day 1: 0. And the same kit. There's lots of spare beer-making capacity in the micros, but there aren't the retailers to sell the extra, certainly not within the practical scope of a bloke in a van to distribute it.

The guys from Hooker, Franciscan Well and Dungarvan do a hell of a lot of mileage as it is. It's easy to sit back say "OK, do more" when you're not the one at the wheel all day.

I love that I can get these beers in Dublin, and I appreciate the effort that goes into it by all concerned. But I also think that local beer from local breweries is the key to opening the market and breaking the stranglehold of the foreign multinationals. And I think the answer does not lie with the breweries, nor even the pubs or off licences, but with the drinkers.

irish_goat

I emailed Dunnes about their beers 11 days ago, still no response.

MediaTank

Technocentral wrote: »

in my experience most rugby types only drink muck like Heineken anyway.

Not this one, or my friends!

MediaTank

BeerNut wrote: »

It's not a zero sum game: you can have the soccer on one screen and the rugby on another (which I think is what Porterhouse Central usually do, for future reference)

Correct, though the sound is usually tuned to the soccer.