Moosehead Lager
Brewed by Moosehead Breweries Ltd.
Style: American Pale Lager
Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Haven’t really drank much Canadian beer at all. I think I might have tasted Labatts once and Molson Coors a few times, which was very unimpressive. Noting the rather cool logo of a Moosehead, and with my Canadian friend in mind, I decided to purchase a few bottles of this lager in the local offy.
Moosehead Breweries is Canada’s largest and oldest independent brewer, located in Saint John, New Brunswick. The brewery was founded in 1867 by Susanna Oland. Originally called The Army and Navy Brewery, the brewery is still owned and operated today by the Oland family, now in the sixth generation of ownership under Derek Oland.
They’ve had quite a rocky history, with a variety of name changes, devastating fires that burnt down the brewery, including an explosion that killed Conrad Oland in 1917, regressive trade barriers that stopped them selling all over Canada, and the turmoil of both the Prohibition and the Great Depression, but each time they survived to come back stronger than ever.
In 1931, the symbol of the moose came into existence as George Oland launched Moosehead Pale Ale. The success of its Pale Ale, prompted a name change to Moosehead Breweries Ltd. in 1947.
Sold throughout Canada and the USA, and further afield, Moosehead Lager has won awards, in 2003, winning a Gold award at the World Beer Cup, and in 2005 winning Gold at the prestigious Monde Selection.
They are one of the last independent breweries in Canada and are proud of this fact, not pandering to fashion or the latest fad, this is as real as it gets.
Review: Bottle of Moosehead Lager: ABV: 5.0%
The flagship brand is one of the most consumed beers in Canada
Pours a really lovely clear golden yellow that produces a nice big frothy head which hangs around
Is fizzy, a lot of good carbonation,
A pretty clean lovely looking beer
Aroma: Real lager smell, hoppy, sweet and lovely, liked it, the light grains and malty aromas. Nice
Taste: Extremely smooth beer, very easy to drink, such a shame I only got the two bottles as I would have easily devoured a 6 pack of these no problem.
Very creamy on tongue
No real strong stand out flavours per say, couldn’t really taste the hops, but nice all the same
I did, though, get nice big mouthfuls of barely and malts. Very smooth finish, not a heavy beer, very refreshing, I like it.
So overall I liked it. Looks good, smells good, tastes good and very smooth, and clean and crisp. That’s all the boxes ticked, and its a beer I will pick up again. I wasn’t expecting much from a Canadian beer, so it was nice to be pleasantly surprised. Definitely a beer for a sporting occasion or a hot day, very sessionable.
Charles Wells Brewery was founded by Mr.Charles Wells in Bedford, in the east of England. A family brewery dating back to 1876, and now incorporating the brand Wells & Young, with a history of brewing distinctive beers, from the well-loved Bombardier, Young’s, Courage and McEwan’s ranges through to their quirky brews such as Banana Bread Beer and Double Chocolate Stout. They also run a chain of successful pubs, 200 and counting…..
This unique brew combines all the traditional ale recipes of the brewery with the subtle flavour of ‘Fair trade’ bananas, creating an intriguing and flavorsome pint. In 2002 the banana bread beer was awarded “Beer of the Festival” at CAMRA’s London Drinker Festival
A beer with banana, tastes like beer with banana! But its lovely, very smooth, doesn’t taste a lot like beer at all. Very sweet, but still smooth enough to drink. A bit of caramel noted as well.
Way back in 1979, in Chico, Califronia, the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co was founded by home brewers Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi. The name, of course, coming from the nearby Sierra Nevada mountain range to the south of Chico.
A Vienna style beer is a light coloured amber lager that has a delicate balance between sweet caramel malts and floral hops
Lovely taste, really enjoyed drinking this beer, was dead smooth and easy to drink from start to finish, a type of beer to saviour long into the night, excellent.
Longford (An Longfort) is a smallish town, with a population of about 9600 in the centre of Ireland in the county of Longford, easily accessible from Dublin and beyond by train, bus and road. The town is most known for its St Mel’s Cathedral dominating the skyline of the metropolis. And a certain famous Mr. Gibson was called after the Cathedral, his mother hailing from the town.
First pub ventured into was Andy Byrne’s Pub, a good mid-day crowd in, watching the horse racing and the early afternoon football on the box, good bit of banter from the bar man, decent atmosphere and noticed that they had 
The next beer was in Kavanagh’s Bar, which had a bit of life in it, had a nice long bar to spend the time in good company. Looked like a decent boozer, and had a good atmosphere for that time of day, just buzzing along.
Kane’s Bar had some strange frontage, doubling up as a travel agency, and easy enough to pass by if in search of a pub. Not really a whole lot happening in this bar, was very dead. Got another St Mels beer, and left not long after that.
Pre match pints were to be in J P Reilly’s Bar, where Section O, the Longford supporters group, managed to get a really good deal, all pints for three euros, and a free bus to the ground. Top job.
Founded way back in 1924, the club were only elected into the league of Ireland in 1984, 60 years later! A history of not much happening, usually a low feeder team at the bottom of the first division. That was until a certain Stephen Kenny took the reins of the club in 1998. Kenny was an unknown, having virtually no playing career to speak of (just 4 games for Home farm) and at just 27, it was a gamble I guess a team like Longford, with no real expectations, could afford to make. His three season stint at the club transformed the club, as they won promotion to the League of Ireland Premier Division, reached an FAI Cup final for the first time (losing out to Bohemians), and subsequently, qualifying for Europe in the Uefa Cup, another first for the club. Leaving in 2001, he didn’t win anything but there can be no doubt he laid the foundations for what was to come.
The club will be particularly remembered for a quite simply awful fuck up in the Uefa Cup, 3-1 up in the tie and with an away goal away to the mighty Carmarthen Town, they let in four soft goals in the second half to exit Europe 5-3!
This game was pretty much ninety minutes of pure boredom, offered up by both teams in a wet and cold night. I had brought a friend who hates football, his first time at a LOI game. I think he hates football even more now!
Bray (Irish: Bré, meaning “hill”), with a population of about 32,000, is a long established seaside town in Wicklow, close to Dublin, and popular with tourists and day trippers who like to get in some good cliff walking along the coast line (7km), enjoy the beach views, or hang out in the numerous hotels and guesthouses, shops, restaurants and evening entertainment dotted along the extensive promenade.
First bar of the day, handy location and in close proximity to the Dart, kind of hard not to have a pint here! Very enjoyable pint, good service, nice and clean décor. Not much of a crowd in. Menu looked a bit pricey, or at least too pricey for us…..
Bray was where it all started, having the first Porterhouse way back in 1989
Had a German beer, and ordered some food, fish n chips. The meal was pretty good, albeit a bit pricey for the smallish portion I got, but hell it did the job as I was full and didn’t have to eat again for the rest of the day/evening.
Not a bad place, good lot of cool sports and music memorabilia on the walls, had the horse racing on the go when I was there, good pint, friendly bar man, nice and relaxing place.
Perhaps my favourite bar of the day. Lot of sport going on at the time on the many Tvs dotted around the pub. Was German and English football, horseracing, some gah…..the world is your oyster, fantastic. Good atmosphere in the pub. Lively crowd and all good fun. Nice pints too. Liked it.
This place was buzzing, of all the pubs that we visited this had the biggest crowd in. Very jovial atmosphere, nice pints, good craic, has a nice décor going on, not a bad place with a good friendly vibe to it. Liked it.
Playing out of the small but quaint Carlisle Grounds (7,000/3,185 seated), the team were founded in 1922 but in its present incarnation it really all began in 1942. The Carlisle, is situated close to the Dart station, and is one of the coldest grounds in the LOI, its closeness to the seaside, an Irish sea making it cold throughout the year, Costa del Sol this aint. The ground is also used for international rugby league games and had a bit part as a “body double” for Croke Park, in the Michael Collins blockbuster, where the Bloody Sunday scene was shot.
Recently there has been a lot of shenanigans going on as new directors and ex directors fight it out in the press and behind the scenes, and this was evidenced at the club last season (2015), where Bray had not one, nor two, but actually five managers (including caretaker manager) taking over first team affairs, before finally settling for Mick Cooke, the present man in charge. Despite this the team did relatively well, finishing a very respectable 8th, four places off the bottom, considered a success for the Wanderers!
For Dundalk Ciaran Kilduff scored within five minutes so Bray were already on the back foot early on. Kilduff got another in the first half while Ronan Finn finished it off late in the game with a shot outside the box that took a slight deflection. Finn looked lively all game.
Was with the Dundalk support first half. Great fun, a bit of pyro which is always welcomed, and some good colourful chants as well. Went over to the Bray side for the second half, a bit quiet which was fair considering how the game was panning out.