Alltech Craft Brews & Food Fair is taking place this week, from the 23rd to the 25th of February at the Convention Centre Dublin. This is the festival’s fifth edition and it is offering craft beer lovers in Ireland the opportunity to try hundreds of beers and meet the brewers.
Today Friday 24th the event served as a stage for The Dublin Craft Beer Cup, which saw 370 craft beers competing to be deemed best in show and win in their respective categories.
Hungarian Saison Witbier from Horizont took home the top prize at the Alltech Craft Brews & Food Fair and was an overwhelming favourite among the 28 independent judges. The Classic Pear Cider from McCashin’s Brewery of New Zealand won The Dublin Craft Cider Cup.
“In the past, stout beers have reigned supreme in The Dublin Craft Beer Cup; we are now seeing the highest quality challenges from other beer types,” said Dr. Gearóid Cahill, head judge of The Dublin Craft Beer Cup and director of brewing science at Alltech. “It was nice to see a new, refreshing wheat beer take top prize this year.”
Regarding the diversity and quality of the ciders on the festival, Gearóid added: “The Irish cider producers impressed the independent judges with their overall quality; however, New Zealand swept the board with the only two gold medals, both awarded to McCashin’s Brewery.”
And the new ‘Best In Category’ awards meant even home accolades with @ryeriverbrewing winning again with their Double Bangin’ IPA 👌🏼 pic.twitter.com/xR2zt1Tley
— Tony O’Carroll (@_tonytoaster) February 24, 2017
Gold medals were awarded to outstanding brews from Ireland, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Spain and Hungary.
Dr. Pearse Lyons, founder and president of Alltech comented: “Our three-day festival is about celebrating the craft brews industry, and it gives us an opportunity to showcase what Ireland has to offer.”
An absolutely solid performance from the Irish breweries saw 10 gold medals being taking home! Well done to all
🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅 pic.twitter.com/POfbpxtwtA— Tony O’Carroll (@_tonytoaster) February 24, 2017
There’s still today’s afternoon and tomorrow’s so you are in time to drop by and try these award winning beers and ciders. The event also features live entertainment, with Hermitage Green headlining today’s show and The Camembert Quartet closing out the festival on Saturday night.
Tickets are available to purchase from EventBrite. For more information, visit alltechbrews.ie