BeoirFest’s Brian Began His Beer Trail in Belgium.
A trail that is taking him around the craft world.
Coming soon, a Japanese Brewery owned by a Cork man!
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| Brian at the Solo Brewery in Crete with Nikolas, the brewery manager. The brewery is interesting because it’s founded by a Norwegian, Kjetil Jikuin. He’s an ex-airline pilot who founded the first craft brewery in Norway, Nøgne Ø, and moved to Crete when he sold that. |
BeoirFest is operated by Brian O'Connell. “It's basically something that grew out of an interest in beer and the lack of things to do during lockdown.” It is spread across quite a few digital platforms now and well worth dipping into, for either a live session or a recording.
We got the opportunity of talking to Brian recently and found it quite fascinating as I’m hope you will. Make a start at https://beoirfest.com/
How did you get into craft beer?
I guess that depends on the awkward definition of “craft” but for me moving to Belgium was an eye opener. Beers like Leffe, Duvel and Chimay are big brands but they are also really good and available everywhere. And once I discovered them then I slowly discovered some of the other beers like Orval, Flemish Reds, and Lambics.
As a result of this route IPA’s, which arguably still define craft beer for the majority of people, were something I only found much later.
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| On the road: Brian (r) at Leuven Innovation Beer Festival where you can see both Tom Delaney from Land & Labour and Antonio from Lupum in Portugal, both of whom have been on the chats. |
And how quickly did that expand to your interest in the details of production?
I think that would really have been the discovery of Lambics generally. For the first time I became really aware that the way I thought beers were brewed wasn’t the only way it could be done. And over the last few years since I started doing these BeoirFest chats I’ve learned that there is still a rich heritage around the world of traditional beers. As local beer scenes become more established they tend to incorporate those traditions and I think there could be some very interesting beers come out of it.
Have you always had an interest in things digital or did that grow along with wanting to spread the word about craft?
The digital side came first. I’ve been interested in electronics and programming since I was a kid. I actually qualified as an Electronic Engineer and worked for various multinationals. The software side of things was always the one that interested me more than hardware though and I slowly moved to more software development. It was really because I had access to an event platform that I wanted to experiment with at the same time as the lockdowns occurred that made me decide to start the chats. It’s changed quite a bit since then but thaws the start.
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| The grandfather's yeast at Jovaru |
You started with Irish brewers? Did that quickly expand to taking to international brewers? Was it easy to make contact abroad?
I started with this idea that I wanted to learn a bit more about beer and brewing, and since I didn’t know enough I thought if I have a few brewers on BeoirFest at a time I wouldn’t appear so stupid! There really was no reason for anyone to talk to me but I got a great response, and everyone seemed to like the format.
I really thought that would be it but it turned out I enjoyed it so much I wanted to continue, and that meant I had to go outside Ireland. So I just contacted breweries and because I had something to point to by then I think a lot decided to join. As you probably know yourself brewers are passionate about that they do and love talking about beer, plus one of the key things is that the brewers exchange some beers beforehand which gives them a chance to try something new.
I’m kind of adding to it now with individual chats as well, mainly from brewers outside Europe. There are time differences that make those hard of course, but it’s all evolving.
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| Brian at the Jovaru Brewery in Lithuania with owner operator Aldrone |
Any memorable visits, home or away?
On a technical level most breweries are pretty much the same I guess. It’s the people and the story that makes it interesting.
So for that reason I’d really have to say making the trip to Jovaru in Lithuania is the most memorable. This is a legendary Farmhouse Brewery run by one woman. She uses converted dairy equipment in her barn, a special yeast she inherited from her grandfather, and doesn’t boil the beer.
She brews one beer (with one honey variant) but it’s become legendary. I was lucky enough to be the only visitor on the day and spend hours there. Fresh from the tap it really is like no beer I tasted before and seems to change with every sip.
For the beer, the surroundings, and the history it has to be the most memorable visit I’ve had.
What are the notable differences you found in breweries (production methods, ingredients) around the world?
Ingredients are of course the big differentiators as brewers play with what makes their area special. Things like Brazilian brewers using barrels made from rainforest woods or Paracaidista in Mexico City who brewed a Gose using crushed Agave worms to provide the salt. In Ireland Canvas are doing some really interesting stuff with heritage grains while Black Donkey and White Hag have their own yeasts.
When it comes to technique I think most of the breweries around the world follow the style of brewing that we’re all familiar with using but there really are some very interesting differences, mainly in traditional brewing, but also in the more commercial breweries. Things like spontaneous fermentation, or not boiling the wort. Or Keptinis from Lithuania.
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| At work in Crete |
And then there are the beers that are brewed without any malting at all. I recently had a chat with Christian Berger who’s recorded a lot of this information at Beer-Studies.com and the brewing traditions in Bhutan are particularly interesting. That’s a session worth checking out if you have an interest in beer cultures.
Your roundtables and other talks have been going on for quite a while now. Where can people listen see, look in?
Yeah, these started with the intention of making them kind of transitory sessions, but they’ve evolved and now I’m streaming most sessions live to YouTube and Facebook, and publishing them as a podcast.
The podcast is available on Spotify or any podcast player. Just search for BeoirFest.
I’d love to have more interaction on the live sessions so if people want to subscribe to the YouTube channel or Facebook page they can know when the sessions happen and be part of the conversation with their questions or comments.
What is coming up in the near future? Anything special?
I’m still doing all these by the seat of my pants so there’s not a lot of planning. Things like the African Brewing Weekend I think should probably have been planned a lot longer in advance, but when the chance comes to talk to someone I just grab it.
I am starting to chat with brewers farther afield though and in the next few weeks I do hope to talk to a Japanese Brewery owned by a Cork man. I think that could be a great look at what seem a very interesting beer scene. There’s also an American-Iranian lady who’s brewing beers inspired by those her grandfather home-brewed in Iran. Seemingly there’s a still a big home brewing activity in Iran which I’d like to learn more about.
So I’m looking forward to those, but I’m also setting up some of the more regular roundtables with some very interesting European breweries.
I haven’t had an Irish brewery on for some time so I have to change that as well!
Your own favourites (beers or breweries)..maybe five Irish, five non-Irish? Up to yourself!
I think most brewers I’ve come across make really good beers. As I mentioned I discovered IPA’s late in the game so while I like them from time to time I’m not really a big hop fan. I also find that I’ve been tending towards some lower ABV (4%-5%) beers lately. So all that said the breweries I personally search out are
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| Roscommon's Black Donkey, on Brian's short list |
Irish:
- Ballykilcavan. I haven’t had anything from them for a while but everything I have tried has been really high quality. They do a great brown and the annual fresh hop beer with their own hops is fantastic.
- Canvas. Maurice is doing his own thing with a true farmhouse brewery. Most if not all of their beers are made solely with ingredients from their own farm including with heritage grains.
- Black Donkey. Richard has built a big reputation with his core range and especially the beers brewed with his wild house yeast, Morrigan 1.
- Land & Labour. Pretty much the standard bearer of spontaneous fermentation in Ireland.
- Franciscan Well. One of the pioneers and now back in the original owners hands. I’ve never actually had their beers outside of the pub itself, but it’s always a place worth visiting for both the beers and the atmosphere.
Continental:
- Metaphore. I only discovered this Czech brewery last year but they blew me away with some really amazing beers. Light but full of flavours.
- Dundulis. This Lithuania brewery are one of my favourites. They are a mix of craft and tradition and their range include everything from IPA’s to fruits, and even a traditional Lithuanian beer called keptinis.
- Pohjala. For the barrel-aged imperial stouts it’s hard to beat Estonia’s Pohjala.
- Hof ten Dormaal: Like Canvas in Ireland Hof ten Dormaal are a full-cycle farm brewery who produce all their own ingredients, including malt. They make some of the best spontaneous fermented beers around.
- Chimay. One of the few true Trappist breweries around they brew 4 types of ales at their monastery. Chimay Blue is an absolute master of a beer and widely available.
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| Chimay, highly rated by Brian |
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