Bringing the beer back home

"The inspiration for the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy came to Douglas Adams as he lay drunk in an Austrian meadow, gazing at the stars with the absurd brand of clarity that alcohol sometimes brings.”
Not many beer company websites would ever feature such a sentence, but then Aidan Murphy and Ronan Brennan, the makers of a delicious new craft beer launched in the City of the Tribes last weekend, aren’t your typical brewers. They’re not really in it for the money, they’re in it for the pride in their product, so they can afford to have a sense of humour. Or maybe they just can’t afford not to.
As their rambling and surreal online manifesto eventually gets around to explaining: “We were always solving the world’s problems through the end of a beer a glass in the back corner of the local pub, but never really doing anything other than meekly drifting through our short existences like an ostrich in hiding. And so it only seems appropriate that it was from this fountain of pub philosophy that our discontent gradually evolved into resolve and our resolve into a vision. And that vision was simple but symbolic; it was to bring back to Galway what “progress” had stolen: a pint of the local stuff. Nice and simple: pure unadulterated beer. No chemicals, no preservatives, no international acquisition strategies, no deception. Just you, a glass, a pure beer and hopefully some good company.”
Last Saturday night, that “simple but symbolic” vision became a reality when their Galway Hooker Irish Pale Ale was launched in the exceedingly good company of a couple of hundred Cartoon Thieves fans in the recently revamped Roisin Dubh.
Only available on draught, and selling at €3.90 a pint, Galway Hooker is pale in colour, has a foamy head, a carbonation level similar to standard lagers, and an alcohol content of 4.5%. Naturally brewed without chemicals or preservatives, it’s specifically aimed at adventurous, open-minded beer drinkers who are tired of supping solely from the multinational menu.
“There’s always been a terrible selection of beers on the Irish market,” Murphy says. “Market research has shown that 97% of Irish people already know what drink they’re going to have before they even go to the pub – and it’s almost always Guinness, Heineken, Budweiser, Smithwicks, etc. I find that quite shocking. I mean, imagine knowing in advance what meal you were going to have every time you walked into a restaurant?
“Ireland has probably the poorest selection of beers in Europe,” he continues. “There’s over 300 microbreweries in the UK, so there’s always a good selection of local ales and beers on offer in English pubs. Same in Belgium, France or Germany. We’re just one of a handful of Irish microbrewers doing our best to offer alternative niche beers to drinkers.”
But it’s obviously not a case of David versus Diagio. Brewed in small batches, Galway Hooker (the name was voted for on their website by the general public) is currently only available in a select few local pubs: The Beer House, Roisin Dubh, Tigh Neachtain, The Blue Note, Massimo, An Pucan and The Hop Inn.
Seamus Sheridan, owner of the city’s newly opened ‘Sheridan’s on the Docks’, is also selling it. “I think it’s brilliant what the guys are doing,” he enthuses. “It’s absolutely wonderful for Galway to have its own beer. It’s one thing to talk, but another entirely to actually get up and do something real. Without this kind of local venture, the tapestry that is this country will start to unravel and we’ll lose our Irish culture. Their beer tastes fabulous. They should be proud!”
Hot Press wholeheartedly agrees, and so would like to raise a pint glass to wish Galway Hooker the very best of success. In the immortal words of Homer Simpson: “Here’s to beer – the cause of – and solution to – all of life’s problems!” Cheers!