Man your pumps, Wetherspoons are coming

Krusty_Clown

SteeveeDee wrote: »

I'm looking forward to seeing more Irish craft beers on cask or in bottles. I'll leave the whiskey for another pub in Blackrock.

Meant to say that when I was there, I could see a range of Brú beers on a shelf in their kitchen. Not sure if this was a sign of things to come, a sampler, or just something they use for cooking!

rubadub

SteeveeDee wrote: »

The food.. I ordered the Sirloin rare but was given the Rump. I sent it back and got the Sirloin but more medium rare than rare.

The menu has 2 steaks "sirloin of rump" and striploin. Never heard the term "sirloin of rump" before.

I got a flyer/magazine in the door from them, about as many pages as a lidl magazine talking about the steaks, farmers, brewers, staff, history of the pub etc.

Ravelleman

I went over the weekend and was relatively impressed.

The most striking element to me was the newness - both of the premises itself and of the staff.

For me it was a case of night and day when compared to the Spoons in Belfast, which is also hardly the worst by all reports. The whole place smelled of new wood (veneers) and fresh paint. All of the bar equipment was shiny and the glasses were sparkling - some probably hadn't even been used. The decor is quite nice and certainly fancier than in the other Spoons I've visited. Perhaps somewhat lacking in character but no worse than many restaurants around the country.

The staff left a lot to be desired. The obviously had absolutely no clue about the beers they were serving. In once instance, a lady was asking for advice on beers. The barman suggested a pale ale, which she declined. She then asked what kind of beer the bottled Zwiezec in the fridge was. The barman removed one from the fridge and after about 30 seconds of deliberation determined that it was 'beer'.

Upon arrival I had a cask Broadside, which was very enjoyable and seemingly very well cellared. When I tried to order a Ghostship the whole cask engine ceased to function and a manager had to be called in from home to fix it, as no one else had a clue how it worked. It took about an hour to get a pint. I also observed half a pint that had been pulled for me being poured down the drain as it was all foam, as well as a full pint for my friend being dropped. I'd already tried the other beers I had while there but the prices for the Bengali Tiger and Goose Island I had were really very good. The beers were definitely too cold though. I didn't get to have my ironic pint of Tetley's Smooth Flow as we left beforehand.

On a curious note, my OH's pint of Beamish was utterly heavenly, something with which all four people in my group agreed. It was mysteriously smokey and really full-bodied. Certainly the best pint of it I'd tried. That may be a reflection of the insalubrious places I often drink Beamish in though.

The service to order food was torturously slow. There seemed to be four tills in operation, though the nature of the system meant that each was assigned to one worker in particular. This meant that if they went off to fulfill a drinks order none of the other unoccupied staff could step in and serve anyone else. This may not be possible in other pubs - I have no idea - but here it also seemed that all information had to be input into the machine before anything could be achieved, meaning that long delays occurred. The barstaff also confirmed my order about 5 times before letting me pay, which added to the saga. Perhaps this all comes down to inexperience.

Heroditas

rubadub wrote: »

The menu has 2 steaks "sirloin of rump" and striploin. Never heard the term "sirloin of rump" before.

I got a flyer/magazine in the door from them, about as many pages as a lidl magazine talking about the steaks, farmers, brewers, staff, history of the pub etc.

Hmmm, I can kind of see what they mean by sirloin of rump but it's a very bizarre way to describe it. It's usually one or the other.

Losty Dublin

rubadub wrote: »

The menu has 2 steaks "sirloin of rump" and striploin. Never heard the term "sirloin of rump" before.

Rump is generally the eye end of the joint.

Melendez

This post has been deleted.

Tube

Was there last night for a few hours. Quite busy for a Tuesday evening, which I suppose is to be expected.

Nice spot, staff were very friendly, although there were one or two small screw ups with beer, but nothing serious. I was paying £1.99 for Sixpoint cans in England last week, a bit disappointed to be paying €3.50 here, but it still is probably cheaper than any other pub.

Food is typical WS: portion sizes are carefully controlled, which considering the price difference with England again makes it seem not as good value.

It's a step in the right direction, but there is room for improvement. Hopefully the prices are due to the location and when they open in other locations where property and rates are cheaper they'll reflect that in the prices, just as they distinguish between central London and further out.

SteeveeDee

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Meant to say that when I was there, I could see a range of Brú beers on a shelf in their kitchen. Not sure if this was a sign of things to come, a sampler, or just something they use for cooking!

That does seem promising, Hopefully they are for libation!

SteeveeDee

rubadub wrote: »

The menu has 2 steaks "sirloin of rump" and striploin. Never heard the term "sirloin of rump" before.

I got a flyer/magazine in the door from them, about as many pages as a lidl magazine talking about the steaks, farmers, brewers, staff, history of the pub etc.

My mistake there. I had meant to say striploin not sirloin. I've never heard that term before either. Having a brother who is a butcher it never fails me how mysterious the world of the cuts of the cow can be.

Heroditas

Melendez wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Ah, after seeing Steevee's correction, it makes more sense!

SteeveeDee

Tube wrote: »

I was paying £1.99 for Sixpoint cans in England last week, a bit disappointed to be paying €3.50 here, but it still is probably cheaper than any other pub.

Food is typical WS: portion sizes are carefully controlled, which considering the price difference with England again makes it seem not as good value.

I believe the Sixpoint cans in some of the UK chains are on at 1.99 as they are not selling, they are normally 2.89 so pricing here is currently cheaper and I assume it will stay the same price if they are selling.

In terms of food, I can't really say as I've only gone for the steak night which I thought was good value.

sofireland

Brú cask ales will be on there very soon - was talking to the lads at the weekend and the TTT confirmed on twitter this evening they are coming.
Great to see Trouble and Brú getting into somewhere where they cellar the casks to a very high standard, the Rí and Rua by Bru are very very good on cask in my opinion

Chelon

Sounds like the cellaring standard of pubs here has just taken a quantum leap forward. If only some other pubs could follow suit...

ezra_pound

Chelon wrote: »

Sounds like the cellaring standard of pubs here has just taken a quantum leap forward. If only some other pubs could follow suit...

What's the difference between draught and cask beer? Is Guinness/Beamish a cask beer? A bit confused.

Geuze

SteeveeDee wrote: »

To finish up I wanted a whiskey but it was far too expensive, I just wanted a Powers, I didn't feel like anything too refined as the Redbreast or Powers John Lane which were probably OK value and I do mean OK but Powers at 5.50 is insane. I live in the city centre and in my local it's 4.05 at my folks place in the west it's 3.45, I just can't see the justification.

Yes, the whiskey is overpriced.

I wonder might you give the name and address of the pub in the west of Ireland selling Powers at 3.45, thanks.

This is a very good price.

I pay 4.20 in a rural village for Crested Ten, so 3.45 is a very keen price.

In a town size of 4,000 I pay maybe 4.00 for whiskey.

Geuze

ezra_pound wrote: »

What's the difference between draught and cask beer? Is Guinness/Beamish a cask beer? A bit confused.

Cask beer is a type of draught beer.

Ever watched the barmaids on Coronation Street use hand pumps to draw beer from the cellar? That's cask beer.

It has a shorter life than keg beer, so it must be drank over a few days.

Somebody else here will give you more details.

BeerNut

Geuze wrote: »

Cask beer is a type of draught beer.

Indeed. It's a real bugbear of mine that since cask beer has become a thing in Ireland "draught" has come to refer to keg only, even in the trade. But then I don't have much to worry about generally.

ezra_pound, cask beer is unfiltered and naturally carbonated in the barrel: all of the fizz comes from the action of the yeast creating carbon dioxide. It's served by pumping the beer out of the barrel (or sometimes putting a tap directly on the barrel itself). It's usually warmer and less fizzy than keg beer. The idea is that by having the live yeast in there it's fresher and more full-flavoured.

Keg beer is your standard cold draught beer you get in every pub. It's usually carbonated artificially at the brewery by pumping gas into it, and it's served by pumping more gas into the barrel to propel the beer out. Sometimes it's pasteurised, often it's filtered: neither is true of cask beer.

It gets a bit more complicated with KeyKegs which a lot of craft breweries now use. It's bag-in-a-box beer which pours from a normal keg tap but the gas which propels it out never touches the beer, it just squeezes the outside of the bag. The beer itself can be naturally carbonated like cask or force-carbonated like keg -- it's up to the brewery.

Bigcheeze

Guinness/Beamish is keg beer, not cask beer, gassed using mostly Nitrogen which is a way of giving it a smooth, creamy texture instead of the fizziness you get with carbon dioxide.

ezra_pound

Thanks for all classification posts. I love the hand pumps they have in English bars.

coylemj

BeerNut wrote: »

Keg beer is your standard cold draught beer you get in every pub. It's usually carbonated artificially at the brewery by pumping gas into it, and it's served by pumping more gas into the barrel to propel the beer out.

Bigcheeze wrote: »

Guinness/Beamish is keg beer, not cask beer, gassed using mostly Nitrogen which is a way of giving it a smooth, creamy texture instead of the fizziness you get with carbon dioxide.

I though the process of fermentation involved yeast breaking the sugars in the wort into alcohol and CO2 which is how beer gets it's fizz. Never heard of it involving nitrogen!

BeerNut

coylemj wrote: »

I though the process of fermentation involved yeast breaking the sugars in the wort into alcohol and CO2 which is how beer gets it's fizz.

The gas has to be released during fermentation or the pressure would explode the fermenter. Industrial breweries capture the gas given off and re-use it for force carbonating at the end. You can't be 100% sure how much of the sugar will be eaten by the yeast, so you don't know how much gas there'll be, so it's best to just let all the gas go and then pump more gas in at the packaging stage. It's different for cask and bottle-conditioned beers: they're primed with a controlled amount of sugar to carbonate naturally under pressure.

Krusty_Clown

Geuze wrote: »

It has a shorter life than keg beer, so it must be drank over a few days.

Is that accurate? Is it the oxygen introduced during the 'pumping/delivery' that shortens the lifespan of the beer? Seems at odds with the lengthy beer-brewing process. Not sure how Wetherspoons will keep their 10-12 cask pumps going at that rate, as even using smaller kegs, I'd imagine they'd struggle to turn these over in a couple of days unless there's a huge up-shift in cask beer. As my son pointed out when we were there on Sunday - most of the punters were drinking Heineken (which ironically is priced the same as every other pub in Blackrock).

BeerNut

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Is that accurate?

More or less. You can get a "breather" which introduces CO2 instead of air into the cask to replace the beer.

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Is it the oxygen introduced during the 'pumping/delivery' that shortens the lifespan of the beer?

And the lower pressure -- it goes flat.

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Not sure how Wetherspoons will keep their 10-12 cask pumps going at that rate

I doubt they'll be using all 12 much.

Ravelleman

BeerNut wrote: »

I doubt they'll be using all 12 much.

They had all 12 going when I was there, just with four of each of their core beers. The Trouble casks had disappeared.

Chelon

All very interesting. How much skill and knowledge is involved in cellaring and serving cask ale in optimum condition?

How would it compare to the average Dublin pub with just the standard offerings - in their case is there any more involved than hooking up the keg to the line and pouring the pint (line cleaning arbitrary or even optional:eek:)?

ColeTrain

Chelon wrote: »

All very interesting. How much skill and knowledge is involved in cellaring and serving cask ale in optimum condition?

How would it compare to the average Dublin pub with just the standard offerings - in their case is there any more involved than hooking up the keg to the line and pouring the pint (line cleaning arbitrary or even optional:eek:)?

Line cleaning is done by Diageo, Heiniken do their own. There really isn't much to it excepting changing kegs and serving it out.

BaZmO*

ColeTrain wrote: »

Line cleaning is done by Diageo, Heiniken do their own. There really isn't much to it excepting changing kegs and serving it out.

He's talking about casks though.

ColeTrain

BaZmO* wrote: »

He's talking about casks though.

Ah

Chelon

BaZmO* wrote: »

He's talking about casks though.

I wasn't really, since most Dublin barmen wouldn't know a cask ale if it landed in their soup.

So - Diageo/Heineken clean the pipes - is this a free service or does the pub pay? What if they choose not to?

BeerNut

Ravelleman wrote: »

They had all 12 going when I was there

Actually going, or just with placeholder pumpclips on them?