This beer session looks at the fundamentals of beer brewing, concentrating on the primary ingredients of beer: water, malt, hops and yeast. We will look at the various varieties of each — how different types of malts are produced, and the strains of yeast and hops specific to the local brewing styles of different regions of the world — and also what each of them brings to the finished beers.

The beers tasted are all classic examples of their styles and will serve to illustrate the flavours and aromas that specific ingredients create in beer, as well as how they work together to create the complex and diverse range of flavours beer offers.

We are currently living in a very exciting time for Irish beer. With 20 independent microbreweries now operating on the island, and several more in the planning stages, there has never been a better time to explore the range of beers available.

This beer session will look at the history of beer brewing in Ireland and how that has led to the Irish beer styles everyone is familiar with today. The more modern trends in Irish craft brewing will also be explored.

To taste, we will have six different beers in six different styles from six different microbreweries, covering all four provinces. All are exemplary versions of their style, several having won international awards, though they are often overlooked by the general drinking public in the advertising-dominated world of Irish beer.

This session will recap briefly on the subject of ale from the first week before going on to explore the family of beers which, more than any other, has come to epitomise the craft beer revolution: Oale Ale.

We will start with the basics of English bitter and explore its origins in the 18th century through to the glory days of the East India Company and the role India Pale Ale played in British history. We’ll also look at the modern resurgence of pale ale by maverick American breweries in the 1980s; the drive for bigger, better and bitterer hop-driven pale ales; and the spread of the Californian pale ale vernacular to new iconoclastic craft breweries all around the world.

As we go we’ll taste six beers from Britain and the USA which show the differences and similarities in this quarter of the beer world.

No beer is more maligned than lager. It may be the most popular style around the world, but most of the output of the world’s multinational lager breweries is uninspiring to say the least. Yet there is the same diversity of colours and flavours, the same regional specialities and the same crafted attention to quality in the lager world as there is for any other type of beer. This session will show where to find the good stuff and highlight some lager variants you may not be aware of.

Obviously, Germany and the Czech Republic will feature strongly in the six beers for tasting, but there will be at least one or two surprises along the way.

Is there anything more to learn about stout than the history we breathe in on the streets of Dublin every day? Well yes, quite a lot, in fact. The global domination of one particular Dublin stout brand has somewhat closed off discussions about stout in recent years. And yet there is so much to it, not least in Dublin where once dozens of breweries produced black beer for the local and export market.

This session will look at the origins of porter as the London workingman’s drink and its spread through Britain, Ireland and further afield. We will explore the difference between porter and stout in both the historical and modern context and discuss the different ingredients that are used to produce this rich, dark malt-driven beer. And of course there will be examples from around the world to show how the popular classic has been interpreted by different breweries.

The rich beer culture of Belgium is so diverse that it deserves a session all by itself. We will look at some distinctive features of the country’s brewing landscape, including the trademarked spiced Belgian witbier, the unique Brussels tradition of spontaneous fermentation and the tightly-controlled Trappist appellation which permits just six Belgian monasteries to produce their own brand of ales.

The emphasis will be on the special techniques and ingredients employed by Belgian breweries — often copied but seldom equalled. We will also look a little at the historical background which has turned this small unregarded nation into a powerhouse of brewing.