Meet the Maker of Daragh’s Session IPA!

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Daragh Merrigan started working as an Assistant Brewer with Rye River in March 2015 and got promoted to Shift Brewer not long after. Once Bill Laukitis took up his role as Head Brewer late last year, Daragh became our Lead Brewer.

Daragh is the man behind one of our most popular and successful beers to date, Daragh’s Session IPA, formerly known as Little Bangin’ IPA. This beer has won numerous awards since it’s inception, including Best Session IPA in the World at the World Beer Awards last year. So, needless to say, we’re looking forward to Daragh’s next big idea. We sat down with Daragh earlier in the week and asked him a few questions!

How did you get into Brewing?

I initially became interested in brewing when I moved in with friend of mine, Dean, (who has since started working at Rye River as an Assistant Brewer) was really into home brewing. This opened my eyes to it and I also started trying new beers. The more beers I tried the more interested I became.

What gave you the idea for Daragh’s Session IPA?

At the time, there was a lot of tropical west coast style IPA’s that had come out and it got me interested in exploring the lighter side of IPA’s. I wanted to make something sessionable, without compromising the big hop characters you would normally get from these IPA’s.

Have you any other recipes planned for the future?

So, currently Fiachra is testing a hoppy lager with our 1HL SS Brewtech system. Once he’s finished and it becomes available again, I have a recipe planned that I’m quite excited about, but I’m going to keep it under wraps for now! I have plenty of recipes I’d like to try out though.

Do you still homebrew?

Now that I’m brewing on a large scale and we have the 1HL pilot system, I feel like that satisfies my creative needs with regard to new beers. However, I still try to get a brew done the odd weekend.

Besides brewing – What are your hobbies?

I’ve been playing guitar for 21 years. Although im not in a band, I still find lots of time to play with my friends and the other brewers, many of whom are musicians themselves. We’ve music playing in the brewery non-stop as well, which is great.

What’s your favourite beer style?

My favourite beer style changes very frequently, but one style I’ve always liked is traditional Belgian lambic’s, these are sour ales fermented with wild yeast.

What’s your favourite beer?

My all-time favourite beer is Mariage Parfait by Brewerij Boon. I’m also a big fan of Black Ball Porter by TO OL but they don’t make it any more. If they started to make it again, I’d be all over it. From our McGargles range though, I’d have to choose Uncle Jim’s on Draught!

What was the last beer you had?

A bottle of Orval, a trappist ale I had been aging for about 8 months. It was gorgeous. The bitterness was more rounded due to the aging which also brought forward the floral yeast character.

What beer is in your fridge?

I have a cellar at home and I currently have 3 bottles of Boon stored (vat 94, 108, 110). I also have a Rodenbach Caractère Rouge and a 2015 Lindemans Gueuze Cuvée René. Oh, and more bottles of Orval!

 

Bloom in the Park

McGargles at Bloom in the Park 2018

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Bloom

We’re delighted to announce that we are returning to the Phoenix Park for the 2018 Bloom in the Park by Bord Bia! The event itself takes place from the Thursday 31st of May, right through the June Bank holiday weekend, before finishing up on the Monday 4th June. Our stall will be set up at the Bloom Inn so be sure to drop by. We’ll be bringing a great selection of some of your favourite beers including Francis Big Bangin’, Daragh’s Session IPA and Rosie’s Pale Ale. These beers will be pouring alongside something ver special from Rye River Brewing Company! 

What’s on?

The festival doors open at 9am in the morning and stay open until 6pm in the evening, so plan your day well to make the most of it! There will be plenty of great food, live music and a wide variety of beers on draught. And of course.. Gardens!

At the time of writing this post, we are currently running a competition over on our Facebook Page, where you can be in with the chance to win two tickets to the event by liking the post and tagging a friend who you’d like to bring along!

This is our first outing of the summer so we’re looking forward to it and we hope to see you all there!

McGargles will be at Craft Beer Days 2017 in Hamburg!

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McGargles are delighted to be returning to Hamburg for this year’s Craft Beers Days event. Taking place on the 26th and 27th of August the festival will play host to twenty eight breweries from Germany, Denmark, Austria and of course Ireland! There will be plenty of great food, live music and a wide variety of beers on draught.

This year McGargles will be bringing some of the favourites we brought to last year’s Craft Beer Days. We will be pouring our Dublin Beer Cup winning Francis’ Big Bangin’ IPA which has won the hearts of our friends in Hamburg.

Craft Beer Days takes place in the very relaxed and friendly environment of Altes Mädchen, a very popular brewpub and restaurant on the appropriately named Lagerstrasse. The event is curated by Craft Beer Store who source the finest beers from around the world and they have handpicked the breweries to attend the festival.

See you there, prost!

Three Bangin’ New McGargles’s Beers

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We are very excited to be bringing you three bangin’ new Mcgargles’ beers. The first two are super hoppy with about 6 grams of hops in every pint. This equates to one and a half times the body weight of brewer Darragh in every batch so we are using him as a guide from this point on!

Little Bangin’ IPA is a Session IPA that clocks in at just 3.8% making it the perfect easy drinking beer. It’s a beautiful golden hue with a white foamy head. The aroma is intensely fruity with tangerines, watermelon and pineapple all coming through nicely. This is from the five different hop varieties used in the brew. We have added buckets of El Dorado, Simcoe,Cascade, Mosaic and Amarillo. The taste has some candy sweetness and delicious malty bread flavours. The beer is very smooth thanks to the inclusion of some wheat. Your new regular IPA!

Double Bangin’ IPA is not one to be taken lightly. This big beer weighs in at 8%. It also has a bundle of amazing hops including Cascade, Columbus, Centennial, Chinook and Mosaic. It’s a deeper shade of orange than it’s little brother and the white head hangs around giving a lovely lacing on the glass as you drink it. The aroma is a beautiful medley of pine and grapefruit. The taste is perfectly balanced between pine bitterness and sweet nutty malt. It’s a whopper of a beer!

Our new Export Stout is pitch black with a lovely tan head. This one has an amazing aroma of coffee, toffee and dark fruits. The taste has loads of espresso and dark chocolate flavours from the Chocolate Malt. It’s deliciously chewy. You could while away an hour sipping on one of these tasty Export Stouts.

Your first chance to try the three bangin’ new McGargles’ beers is at the Alltech Craft Brews and Food Fair which runs from 23rd to the 25th of February in the Convention Centre Dublin. A full release will follow in early March. So keep an eye out for these three!

 

McGargles’ Beers with Chef Sham’s Sauces

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McGargles’ Beers go really well with a variety of dishes. Here’s a couple of pairings that we tried recently:

We met Chef Sham at a recent food festival and he gave us some of his sauces to try with our beers. The first one we tried was the Sweet Chilli Sauce which we used in our Kedgeree. The dish is one brought back from India when it was a part of the British Empire. It includes Haddock, Boiled Eggs and Rice. Kedgeree was traditionally eaten for breakfast because we are non traditional sorts here at Rye River Brewing we had it for dinner instead. Of course we had to have a beer with it! We paired this with our Lager and the crisp cool beer provided a pleasant contrast to the hint of spice from the sauce.

Why not give this pairing a try yourself?

McGargles’ Lager with chef Sham’s Sauce

Another food pairing we tried recently was Chef Sham’s Chilli Ketchup with Homemade Sausage Rolls. McGargles’ Big Bangin’ IPA went down a treat with this. Keep it in mind when planning your next picnic.

You can order Chef Sham’s sauces and check out his recipe videos here:

http://chefshamsauces.com/

Why not share your own favourite McGargles food pairing with us?

McGargles’ Big Bangin’ IPA with Chef Sham’s Chilli Ketchup and Homemade Sausage Rolls

 

McGargles’ Beer Can Christmas Turkey Recipe

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Here’s the one you’ve all been waiting for: McGargles’ Beer Can Christmas Turkey Recipe. This is another one from brewer Bill Laukitis, the man is a real all rounder! Take it away Bill…

Ingredients:

1 Large Turkey

7 McGargles Uncle Jim’s Stouts or Toothless Dec’s Brown Ales.

3/4 cup of salt

1/3 cup of sugar

Assorted herbs and spices

Method:

Make a beer brine with a either beer.

I’d say 3 litres of beer and 1 3/4 cup salt and 1/3 cup sugar to make brine. Plus any herbs you might like to add.

Place turkey in brine in a garbage bag in the fridge overnight/12 hours.

Rinse off in the morning on the day it will be cooked.

Prepare the turkey as you like. A spiced rub is a nice change from tradition.

Then cook in the oven or ideally smoke on the grill.

If you do not prepare the turkey stuffed then a great way to keep the bird moist is to do a beer can turkey then. Fill a beer can halfway with stout. Insert in the cavity carefully and let it steam through the bird as it cooks.

Bill added; ‘My turkey this year was one of my best yet… first time I tried it this way. Good one for beer lovers ‘

Thanks for sharing that one with us Bill, and Happy Christmas everyone!

Baked Christmas Ham with McGargles’ Brown Ale

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We promised you more Beery Christmas recipes and we always deliver on our promises! Here’s Brewer Steven Loftus’ recipe for Baked Ham with our Toothless Dec’s Brown Ale. Mouth watering indeed!

Ingredients:

-1  bottle of Toothless Dec’s Brown Ale

-2 tablespoons of brown sugar

-2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard -ham

Method

•Preheat oven to 200c

•Whisk beer, sugar and mustard in a bowl

•Place ham on a roasting tray and pour over the beer mixture

•Bake ham in oven until golden brown, usually about 15 minutes

•Reduce temperature to 175c and cover ham with aluminium foil, bake for 90 minutes then remove foil and bake for a further 15 minutes

• Allow ham to rest for an hour. Slice and serve

Enjoy your ham, maybe pop open another bottle of Toothless Dec’s Brown Ale with your Christmas dinner!

 

 

Beer and Cheese Bread

Beer and Cheese Bread baked with McGargles’ Lager

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We asked our brewers for some seasonal recipes which included beer. Brewer Bill shared this one for Beer and Cheese Bread but was sure to credit his Mom Sally for the original recipe:

Sally’s Beer and Cheese Bread

Ingredients:

8 ounces Gruyere cheese ; 4 ounces shredded and 4 ounces cut into ¼ inch cubes

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon pepper

1 330ml can of McGargles’ Fancy Frank’s Lager

4 tablespoons butter, melted

Method:

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 F/190 c

Grease 9 by 5 inch loaf pan. (Important!) Or better yet use baking paper to line loaf tin.

Combine shredded and cubed cheese, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and pepper in large bowl. Stir in beer and mix until well combined. Pour into loaf pan, spreading batter into corners. Drizzle butter evenly over top of batter. Bake until deep golden brown and toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes.

Cool bread in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto rack. (Important! Run knife around the pan to loosen…may need to use a spatula to ease out.) Cool completely and slice as desired.

Enjoy with some lovely Irish butter and a glass of our Lager!

Toothless Dec’s Sweet Potato Fries

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Toothless Dec’s Sweet Potato Brown Ale Fries
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Feeds: 4-6

It’s come to that dark, dreary time of year when comfort food and dark beer go hand in hand. So…how perfect do a batch of sweet potato fries with a good soak in brown ale sound? We can tell you, only about half as good as they taste!

Ingredients

1.5kg sweet potatoes
1 bottle of Toothless Dec’s Brown Ale
3 Tbsp sunflower oil (or olive, etc..)
2 large garlic cloves, finely minced
1 sprig fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Directions

To make these really tasty sweet potato fries, preheat oven to 220°C.
Scrub potatoes, and cut to a size that suits you. Leave the skins on.
In a large bowl, soak the cut fries, in Toothless Dec’s Brown Ale.
Let soak for 15 minutes, tossing 1-2 times.
Drain Toothless Dec’s Brown Ale and toss with olive oil, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper, until well coated.
Line a large baking sheet with parchment (optional, but nice for quick clean up!) and spread the fries, in a single layer on the pan. Use two pans, if needed. You don’t want them stacked.
Bake for 45 minutes – 1 hour, depending on how done you like them, tossing 3 – 4 times.
Add more salt and pepper to your liking.

The McGargles Clan Gettin’ Ready To Head South!

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kegs-for-cork

Soooo, we’re hitting the road to The Great Irish Beer Festival in Cork tomorrow! The emails, phone calls and Facebook messages have all been taken care of. The out of office is on. The very important kegs are safely loaded up. Loading kegs is the most fun you can have with a Hi Viz on. This is the last festival of the Indian Summer and we are going to make sure it’s one heck of a three day party! We’re bringing three members of the McGargles family to the ‘Real Capital’. You will be able to choose from Fancy Frank’s Lager, Cousin Rosie’s Pale Ale, Granny Mary’s Red Ale and the award winning Francis’ Big Bangin’ IPA.

You already know how great McGargles beers are, and if you don’t then you need to swing by our bar! We are going to be keeping company with many other great Irish breweries including all of the Cork breweries, and there’s a fair few of those. There’s going to be some epic beer and food pairings including my own favourite: beer and pizza! The Frank and Walters, Crow Black Chicken and King Kong Company are going to be providing rockin’ tunes to soundtrack the event.

If you want to have a great weekend you need to hit us up at The Great Irish Beer Festival. Get in the car, hop on the bus or jump on the train, do whatever you need to do to get to Cork City Hall! We will see you there, we start serving at 4pm tomorrow!