



2015 has been an exciting year in Craft Beer both in Ireland and the rest of the world. Ireland now boasts 70 physical, independent Irish breweries that are producing beer and more are in the pipeline with about 30 contract brewers hoping to take the plunge soon.



The Golden Pints Awards are just my own personal opinion as is everything on this blog so at the end of the day, it means nothing. However, it's always nice to be appreciated and recognised in a public setting and everyone mentioned below deserves some recognition.





· Best Irish Cask Beer - Still a rare enough sight in Ireland and not always in the best condition but I'm going to give it to J.W. Sweetman's and specifically Barrelhead pale ale with their own brand porter in a close second place. A special mention for Porterhouse TSB which is one of my favourite cask ales produced in Ireland.



· Best Irish Keg Beer - A very hotly contested category as you might imagine. For me, this was best exemplified by the beer that won Best Lager in Ireland at the Trouble Brewing's Remix lager. A special shout out to Goodbye Blue Monday from Galway Bay for being almost as memorable. - A very hotly contested category as you might imagine. For me, this was best exemplified by the beer that wonat the Beoir Champion Beer of Ireland awards in Killarney.. A special shout out tofrom Galway Bay for being almost as memorable.



· Best Irish Bottled or Canned Beer - I fell in love with Eight Degrees Hurricane again recently, so how about that?



· Best Overseas Draught Beer - With the proliferation of Irish draught beer available these days, I have had very little foreign draught other than when I go away and nothing really stood out too much against its Irish counterpart. I'll pick a classic then. Sierra Nevada Torpedo. Nuff said.



· Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer - As with draught, I haven't had as many foreign bottles as in the past. What stands out most for me is another classic. Cantillon Rosé de Gambrinus just nudges the regular Gueuze to be my favourite.



· Best Collaboration Brew - This one was contested by two for me. Galway Bay / Begyle Brewing (Chicago) created an oatmeal IPA called Goodbye Blue Monday. It's one of my favourite Irish beers of the year. A special mention to the 2015 edition of Lublin to Dublin from O'Hara's and Pinta (Poland). This years version was a milk stout and it was outstanding.



· Best Overall Beer - I'm going to be biased and pick O'Hara's Leann Folláin because it's my desert island beer. It just ticks every box in every serving type



· Worst Branding, Pumpclip or Label - I don't think too many other bloggers do this category. It was my own from 2013. Think of it like the Golden Raspberry awards in Hollywood. It's all in good fun. I'm giving this to O Brother for Bonita . The beer was brilliant but the pump clip caused a lot of commotion among men and women alike, especially from the other side of the Atlantic where the symbolism was more relevant. It was considered sexist and also sort of racist. To be fair, I don't think the lads understood just some of the subtle imagery used by the artist. Congratulations to the lads! Great beer though.

Best Branding, Pumpclip or Label - I'm going to pick a 2015 newcomer here. Torc Brewing in Killarney. They have a very simple logo and it's quite pleasing to the eye. It's also one of the smallest brew kits in the country. - I'm going to pick a 2015 newcomer here.in Killarney. They have a very simple logo and it's quite pleasing to the eye. It's also one of the smallest brew kits in the country.

· Best Irish Brewery - For the simple act of being the first Irish microbrewery with their own canning line, I'm giving this to Metalman. They have started a little packaging revolution of their own with others following suit. A number of mobile canning companies are on the prowl for business now. Special shout out to Galway Bay for so many interesting pilot batches this year.





· Best Overseas Brewery - I can't say who the best overseas brewery is. It really depends on your definition of the word. AB InBev has been buying everything in sight over the last week so one could say they are the best at what they do. Or Brewdog for being the best at guerilla marketing tactics. Cantillon still holds to traditional brewing methods almost unchanged in over a century so they might also be considered the best lambic producer for that very reason.



· Best New Brewery Opening 2015 - Boundary Brewing is a cooperative brewery which is owned by members. For this simple concept alone I'm giving them this crown. is a cooperative brewery which is owned by members. For this simple concept alone I'm giving them this crown.



· Pub/Bar of the Year - 57 The Headline on L eonard's corner in Dublin for me. Knowledgeable staff combined with the largest range of Irish craft beer in the country win it for me,



· Best New Pub/Bar Opening 2015 - The winner for me only opened a few weeks ago. It's called Columbia and it's in Mullingar. It comes from the same people responsible for other well known craft beer bars like P.Mac’s and Cassidy's in Dublin and they have a nice formula going in the midlands now. The Beer Market in Dublin deserves an honourable mention. The concept was to have a beer only bar concentrating on small batch, hard to find beers. While it has changed to become a somewhat more normal Galway Bay bar with pints of their regular lineup and full food menu instead of just pies, they still concentrate on beer.



· Beer Festival of the Year - For me, it was the Killarney Beer Festival but then, I'm biased since I was heavily involved in it and to be fair, I missed out on going to the big one (ICBCF) in the RDS at the end of August.



· Supermarket of the Year - I guess it's SuperValu that wins here. There isn't much choice when it comes to craft beer outside of SuperValu and they have started a renewed push in their larger, more upmarket branches. They even have growler filling stations in some!



· Independent Retailer of the Year - Drinkstore in Stoneybatter is the only one I spend much time in so it's the only one I can really recommend.



· Online Retailer of the Year - Drinkstore.ie for the same reason as above but also for their cheap shipping across the whole island. There's no excuse for anyone in the country not to have access to great beer (or any alcoholic drink) even if they live in the arse of nowhere. for the same reason as above but also for their cheap shipping across the whole island. There's no excuse for anyone in the country not to have access to great beer (or any alcoholic drink) even if they live in the arse of nowhere.



· Best Beer Book or Magazine - Beoir Magazine of course. Yeah, I'm a little biased on that one. of course. Yeah, I'm a little biased on that one.



· Best Beer Blog or Website - For beer blog I would say Belgian Smaak . After all, Breandán did just win Beer Writer of the Year along with a couple of others at the British Guild of Beer Writers awards. He has written articles for the last two Beoir magazines and we are proud to call him an expat Beoir member as he is based in Belgium.



· Best Beer App - BeoirFinder because I would be lost without it and it's pretty much the only one I use other than the odd look at the BJCP app.



· Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer - Have I ever not put @TheBeerNut down here?



· Best Brewery Website/Social media - A tough one as most craft breweries are pretty social media savvy. Eight Degrees gets it for me. They have always been good with social media but also, their new website included a shop to buy their beer direct from the brewery. A first for Ireland because of our archaic licencing laws.











And that's it for my Golden Pints. It's Christmas eve tomorrow so I'm off to pick up some Christmas beers at lunch time.