On the day when old fashioned attitudes were overcome by progressive ones in the Republic of Ireland, it was a pleasure to enjoy the progressive opinions toward beer in my home town of Belfast.

You could say the excellent ABV15 logo is slightly reminiscent of the rainbow flag, (hope they don’t mind me borrowing it). It was a day to be celebrated in more ways than one.

Living in Dublin, I’ve been really enjoying the craft beer revolution here. Between the beer festivals, the Galway Bay bars and places like P Macs and L Mulligan Grocer. Hell, even stale old O’Neill’s has undergone a transformation behind the bar.

I also enjoy trying to keep up with the new breweries and beers that launch in Ireland – a hard thing to do! Yet, like the ex-player with his old football team, I’ve been keeping an eye on the goings-on in the six counties up north.

Of course Hilden was the first craft brewery on this island back in 1981 and Whitewater came along in 1996. So the Nordies seemed to be ahead of the game. However, nobody else saw a potential in the market until the second wave of craft brewers started making er… waves in the south.

The northern wave started with Clanconnel’s McGrath’s back in 2008, followed by Inishmacsaint the following year, then there was the Ards Brewing Company. Two years ago, the floodgates opened with Sheelin, Pokertree, Clearsky, Farmageddon and Red Hand.

Then an innovative idea was sprung last year by a man with a background in innovation. Matthew Dick was not content with just being part of the amazing Brewbot – a crowdfunded tech start-up brewing system. He took to social media and asked “If you love beer, come and join us”. Looking for £70,000 to set up a co-operative brewery in Belfast, he got it… and then some…. Boundary launched their first three beers last month.

You’d have thought Matthew would have had his hands slightly full with that, but he was back at that innovating lark again. Based on the culture of his brewery, ‘beer is best enjoyed when shared with others’, he got together with three other like-minded folk and organised the ABV15 Beer Festival, on the 22nd and 23rd April.

Matthew teamed up with Micheal Kerr, a photographer, Darren Nugent who runs Pokertree Brewing Company and Felicia Matheson of Prohibition Drinks, a craft beer distributor.

So what made ABV15 so unique? Well, how about hosting the event in the historic Harland & Wolff drawing rooms where the Titanic was designed? The superb building is due to be turned into a boutique hotel so the guys did well to get the last public event there.

Inside one of the drawing rooms

Then there were the three sessions for the event – Friday evening and two on Saturday. Any beer festival I have been to allows you to buy a ticket for the day or the whole event. ABV15 split their Saturday into the afternoon and the evening. Which, now I’ve experienced it, makes complete financial sense. Four hours sipping strong beers is probably enough for most people. You could buy a ticket for a session at £12 or for all three at £30. Upon entering you were given a nice glass (best I’ve had), a branded pencil and the menu of beers, ciders and beer cocktails! They also had beer tasting events, which I was too late for, but was a great idea.

Gary and RJ, great hosts at the beer cocktail bar

However, what makes or breaks any event is the content, in this case beer. And my God did they deliver. It was a who’s who of the very best brewers on this island, from the UK and Europe and the beers themselves were phenomenal. Well the ones I could try.

Another interesting thing was the beer menu changed according to which session you were attending. At my session I got to try the following:

Boundary and Galway Bay Border Hopper ABV 7.7% – I just had to start with this. It was a double IPA described as ‘Sticky, Pithy, Boisterous’ and that was good enough for me!

Galway Bay Foam & Fury ABV 8.5% – this was voted Beer of the Year 2014 by Beoir. I wanted to see how it travelled over the border and like the Enterprise, it didn’t let me down. Nice and fruity in the Belfast sunshine with the backdrop of the new Titanic Museum. Two IPA’s in a row? Not like me…

The new Titanic museum in the background

Evil Twin Low Life ABV 5.5% – I so wanted to try this from the brother of Danish Mikkeller’s Bjergsø, who is taking the U.S. by storm. It was sold out! 😦

Pokertree Brewing Dark Nirvana ABV 6.5% – When you’re invited by the brewer it’s only polite to try some of their stuff and I really liked this dark ale. Like Anakin Skywalker, I was getting drawn to the dark side….

Buxton Brewery Tsar ABV 9.5% – I was getting heavy, well my beer was. This imperial stout was going down well. This was my first beer from Buxton Brewery in Derbyshire. I will be going again!

The Kernel Imperial Brown ABV 9.9% – I’ve been a huge fan of this brewery since I first tried their Pale Ale. Being a marketer, I love their bottles, really stylishly designed labels. This beer was one of my favourites of the day, it is a quality stout.

Burning Sky Flanders Red ABV 6% – Another one from across the Irish Sea, this was a nice sour.

Mad Hatter Fattest Stout ABV 9.5% – If ever there was an appropriate name… This wasn’t my favourite stout of the day but it was still well put together.

Marble Brewery Brew 900 ABV 9% – My God, there is something great that comes from Manchester! Only messin, there are loads of things I love from Manc-land and one I respect…. But I absolutely loved this ‘Belgian Strong’, they’ve given the great Trappists monks the biggest compliment with this beer. It’s 9% but real easy to drink, nice and fruity. I HAVE to track down where I can buy this. If only I had an app for that…..

Siren Craft Brew White Tips IPA ABV 4.7% – I’d never heard of this brewery either, but then I’m not clued up on English breweries outside Liverpool and London. Was really impressed with this as well, lovely and fresh and fruity. Perfect for the sunny weather we were getting.

I has planned to trying Partizan‘s Saison Grapefruit & Lemongrass and Fuck Art The Heathens Are Coming! from another brilliant Danish brewery, To Øl, but I had run out of time and had probably had my fill for the day.

Nonetheless, I thoroughly look forward to the next ABVfest. The venue was class, the set-up was well run and the beers were amazing. My only snag was there didn’t seem to be an opportunity to talk with the brewers and hear their story. I like attending the Dublin beer festivals early so I can have the craic with the brewers when it’s quiet.

Nonetheless, there was a great buzz at this event. I was only in the door when I met a familiar face working there. Roisin is the wife of Michael, one of the organisers and did a super job on the day. Thankfully, I loved the event, otherwise, could have been a bit awkward… Proof was in the fact I didn’t even ask for my refund on my partially used ticket, was happy to give the extra.

This is a great edition to the NI craft brewery map, much better than the CAMRA one in November IMHO. It’s really great to see Belfast catching up quickly with its peers down south. So I’ll leave you with ABV’s ambition for the festival, which I think they nailed:

“Great beers should be sipped, shared, talked about and debated in the company of some of those who create them. They should unite and divide. But most important of all, they should be savoured and enjoyed with friends, and strangers who might become friends, under one very special roof.”