Welcome all to The Art of Caesura! If this is your first dalliance into the wonderful world of The Art of Caesura, then an extra big welcome to you! I'd urge you to check out last week's post to get a better idea of what we usually get up to here...because today's a bit different! Today, and for the next few weeks we're bringing beer back to the blog! Beer started out as a semi-regular theme over here on The Art of Caesura because I was brewing my own quite regularly. I happily brewed 23 L of various nice beers every 6 weeks for 11 euro! Unfortunately our current house doesn't really lend itself to brewing, so I haven't been talking about it as much over here.  Well, for the next few weeks that's all going to change.  A couple of months ago I was back home on the west coast of Canada. It seems like every time I go back, the number of breweries has doubled! Anyway I checked out a bunch of new ones (and all the old standards), and for the next fe...

Beer doesn't make you FAT , it makes you lean... against tables and walls. Welcome fellow beer sommeliers to The Art of Caesura! Just a quick diversion from our 5 weeks of Silver Tower content... Long time readers may remember that around this time last year I regaled you all with the great craic I had at the 2nd ever Killarney Beer Festival. In my closing I even uttered the prophetic words: "I'll definately be going again next year!" Well little did I know that this year on the weekend of the festival, I would be working 24 hours, and have an exam...but as if that would stop me! It was another great year for the Irish beer fans (I guess I can just say "the Irish"). The sun peaked out, there was great music, food stalls, entertaining and informative talks, and of course, beer! The first talk we went to was with the Beer Messiah Dean McGuinness who is a regular on the Moncrieff radio show "Movies & Booze". He ...

Here's to a long life  and a merry one. A quick death  and and easy one. A pretty girl and an honest one. A cold beer and another one! Hey all! Welcome back to The Art of Caesura! I hope you've all had fun weeks - I sure have! When the weather is nice in Ireland, full advantage is taken of it! We've been swimming in the Atlantic at Banna Strand and drinking cider on our front lawn (patch of grass) in the blissfully long evenings after work.  Last weekend was the second ever Killarney Beer Fest. It was a total blast! 150 beers on tap from all over Ireland. All the vendors were really friendly (and very generous with their tastings!) I wanted to only try beers I had never come across before so I avoided my usual go-tos (Killarney Brewing Co., Stonewell Cider, Torc, Trouble Brewing). A couple of beers that stood out were: The White Hag's - Irish Heather Ale (Gruit Ale)  In lieu of hops, they use heather from a nearby mountainside in Sligo (Ben...

Without question, the greatest invention  in the history of mankind is beer.  Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention,  but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza. ~Dave Barry Welcome back fellow Caesurians to another tasty beer post! Last week we dispelled some myths around beer; one of those myths might as well have been "wine is way better to pair with food than beer" - Pah!  Some advantages that beer has over wine when it comes to food parings, are: There is way more diversity in different types of beers so you'll be able to find something to perfectly compliment or contrast any kind of food you're serving.  Beer's carbonation and acidity acts as a great palate-cleanser, especially for oily or spicy foods.  I'll go through a few types of beer that are popular in Ireland right now, and give my favourite Irish example of a beer in this category: Lager: Example: 1601 Lager (Blacks of Kinsale) Tr...

Welcome back to another taste of The Art of Caesura! I hope the week hasn’t been too hectic, and that you have a great weekend lined up! Last time I plied you with some of my favourite beers from the west coasts of two small Islands, this week I’d like to show you my recent U-brew efforts. For the past month I’ve been brewing a craft beer from the Mangrove Jack’s line called LordFinster (a dark English bitter-style ale). I just had my bottling day a few days ago, but let me get you up to speed on what I’ve been up to in the background for about the length of time this blog has been running. Here is my set-up. My fiancée got me a robust plastic bucket fermenter with all the fixin’s (water seal, siphons, bottle brush, bottle caps, bottle cap capper, filling wand, hydrometer, thermometer…not to mention the actual kit with the liquid malt extract (LME), dry hops and yeast). I know, she’s a keeper! After five days of fermentatio...

When things go wrong and will not come right, though you do the best you can, when life looks black as the hour of night - a pint of plain is your only man... Flann O’Brien Hey Gang! Grab a pint and settle into The Art of Caesura. Hope you all had loads of pancakes on Tuesday with tons of good ol' Canadian Maple Syrup! As I mentioned at the end of last week’s post , this week is going to be a little bit different. Up until now I have been focusing this budding blog on one of my interests: miniatures, and specifically those from The World of Smog: On Her Majesty’s Service because these are crazy characterful minis that haven’t seen a whole ton of internet attention. In future posts I’m looking forward to talking about the latest miniature game that I’m getting into (and given my interests in Victorian steampunk horror, ten guesses what that game will be!) But today I want to give you a taste of one of my other interests: Beer! Now, I could wax lyrical ab...

Inspiration through fermentation. - Phillips Brewery Hey gang, welcome to The Art of Caesura!! We're on a bit of a beer bender this month on the blog. We've busted beer myths , we've looked at some tasty beer and food parings and now we're going to take a quick glance at my favourite brewery from back home on the West Coast of Canada: Phillips Brewery. Before we start, I should probably note - though I hope it's obvious, because I live in Ireland, that I don't work for Phillips, and am not endorsed by them (le sigh). I'm just a fan.  Anyway, my love affair with Phillips began - soon after they opened in 2001 - with a lager. Phillips' Phoenix Lager was sold in short chubby bottles (can you believe, I can't find a photo of those original bottles) and was a fantastic session beer. It was (and still is) a crowd pleasing beer with just enough buttery depth to be interesting but still appealed to the commercial beer crowd. Many a Canada D...