Tag: Galway Bay Brewery

This was another in the series of Galway Bay Brewery pubs that Liam and I visited in Dublin last weekend, just a short walk away from the Paddle and Peel. As noted in my other posts, anyone wanting craft beer in Dublin is unlikely to go too far wrong by looking out for pubs operated by this brewery.

As with the other pubs, it was possible to either look at the menu on-line or on the blackboard by the bar.

I think the staff member seemed a little disappointed when we mentioned that we weren’t ordering food, although she still showed us to a suitable table in the heart of the pub rather than something out of the way. It was a Saturday afternoon and wasn’t yet very busy in the pub, although I saw a few food orders being taken out. I thought that the pub had a traditional and community feel to it, with the craft beer adding an on-trend element.

The floral display…… A pub has to know that it doesn’t have a rough clientele, as this sort of foliage isn’t really something suitable for a venue where the locals take to throwing things about the place.

I went for the Stag Stout from 9 White Deer Brewery and that was a really decent beer, as well as the Weights + Measures from Galway Bay Brewery. Reasonably priced, I was pleased with the quality of both of these, although conscious that I had worked through nearly the entirely beer menu in all the city’s Galway Bay Brewery pubs.

The pub is generally very well-reviewed on-line, although I liked the:

“Ordered the Penne Arrabiata with meatballs, bad idea. Sauce was lukewarm/cold, meatballs were dry, tough and also cold, dish covered in toasted grass?? Which was hugely unpleasant.”

I’m intrigued by the toasted grass and slightly disappointed that the customer didn’t upload their photo.

There’s still table service at pubs in Dublin (or was when we were there) and the staff member was helpful and knowledgeable about the beer options. The food looked tempting, but we’d had pizza in the pub before, so another meal seemed unnecessarily decadent. As a pub, I liked this one and it’s just a short walk from O’Connell Street.

We had enjoyed the drinks offering at the Galway Bay Brewery operated Against the Grain on Friday evening, so our plan for Saturday’s meal was to book a table at the Paddle and Peel, which the company also runs. There was the danger that it might be necessary to actually phone the pub or speak to them, so I decided Liam would be best at doing that.

We arrived to a fairly empty pub, although it was Saturday afternoon and I imagine things hadn’t quite started to warm up yet. The pub had an on-trend feel to it, all modern and comfortable.

There was an additional seating area to the rear of the pub, which was previously the Beer House before the Galway Bay Brewery took it over. It seems from looking at older photos that it has been relatively extensively modernised, although the downstairs toilets appear to have been excluded from that work.

Always good to see a chalkboard as it’s a sign of a regularly changing beer list, but the beers were also easy to find on the pub’s web-site and there were QR codes on the table to access it on-line. There’s a lack of guest beers there though, the selection felt more what I’d expect to find in a brewery’s tap room than in a pub such as this.

I had tried the brewery’s darker options the night before, so this time went for three lighter beers, which are from left to right the Full Sail, the Althea and the Bay Ale, all from Galway Bay Brewery. The Althea was perhaps the best here with a depth of flavour from the variety of hops used, with the Bay Ale being perhaps slightly past its best.

The Diavola pizza, with a huge heap of green stuff dumped on top. I initially wasn’t delighted as the cheese was a bit,well, cheesy, and I would have preferred mozzarella. However, after grumbling about it briefly to Liam, I decided that I liked it and promptly got through it quickly enough.

Anyway, the prices were reasonable, the pub was clean and I liked the food and drink. There was perhaps nothing exceptional and I would have liked to see more guest beers from other breweries on the menu, but this was still a decent pub and worth visiting. The service was always friendly and this was another one of those pubs that I thought it would be easy to linger in for a few hours, but we had more to explore in the day. Next on the list was the Black Sheep, also operated by the same brewery and just a two-minute walk away.

There isn’t really a vast amount of different options for craft beer drinkers in Dublin, although the situation is rapidly improving with bars such as Brewdog opening up. One chain that came up was the Galway Bay Brewery which was established in 2009 and has a number of locations around the Republic of Ireland which are proud to sell craft beer. It was a bit of a walk to go and visit it, but I thought that it would likely be worth it.

We arrived on a Friday evening and it wasn’t clear if we’d be able to get in given the number of people out in Dublin, but a friendly member of staff at the door offered a warm welcome and found a table for us. They complied with all of the health requirements and scanned my NHS app to show I’d been double vaccinated.

In short, this is an exceptionally well run pub which is beautifully on-trend as far as I’m concerned. The beer menu is on chalkboards above the bar and also available by using QR codes on the table. The staff members were efficient, knowledgeable and personable, making for a comfortable visit.

I couldn’t decide which beer to have, so I had three, as that’s the most sensible option when I’m not sure what to do. From right to left, these are the Buried at Sea from Galway Bay Brewery (who also own the pub), the Of Foam and Fury from the same brewery and the Nitro Stout from Bru Brewery who have apparently gone out of business over the last few weeks. The Of Foam and Fury was of particular note, an 8.5% DIPA with a variety of hops which had a real body to it and plenty of flavour.

The vibe inside the pub felt inviting, with a sense of atmosphere without the feel that there might soon be a riot. The pub is well reviewed and also serves food, which we would have likely been tempted by if we hadn’t just visited the Brazen Head. I noted one of the few negative reviews which said:

“Apparently asking for a Corona for my wife is against his morals or something. I work in a micro brewery, people like him give craft a bad name #snowflake”

It’s handy when people put snowflake at the end of their review, as I can then immediately identify where the problem lies without needing to know anything more. We were so pleased (by this I think I mean that I was so pleased, and Liam didn’t disagree to save time) by this visit that we sought out a couple more bars in the chain, more of which in later posts. Very pleased with this visit and there were plenty of staff around for customers who wanted to order more drinks.