Why Craft Beer and Us

Let me start by telling you who “Us” is. Fourcorners is a small beer import company, with big ideas based in Dublin, Ireland.
My name is Paul Maher and you could say I run Fourcorners. I have been encouraged to put into print what I am passionate about by so many people I have influenced to try craft beer. Fourcorners is now a camaraderie of craft beer Fanatics. We buy it, we sell it, we drink it and we love it.


Why do we do all those things with craft beer?

It is sometimes hard to begin to answer this question, but once you start to talk about it, it comes easy. Beer is a beverage that excites the multitude of people like few other beverages. Whether you are living in a rural community in Ireland or America, or in a city as huge as Tokyo or Rio, people love a beer. Almost uniquely, whether you are a billionaire or not, chances are you may drink the same beer! But in recent years, there has been a large movement towards “Craft Beer”. The surge towards craft beer has now hit Ireland.

Recently I was interviewed by a magazine editor who asked “Why Craft Beer, what’s the big deal, why are people interested in it...what is so special about it?" After a pause while I took in the awesomeness of the question and the opportunity to waffle I answered with a single word......”Taste”. “Taste” he said back to me, “what do you mean taste”. I replied "the taste of the beer". And he got it. Craft beer is beer with a distinctive taste. This is what sets it apart from almost all mainstream beers sold under the well known international brands.

Many people not so familiar with the wonderful world of beer think there is only lager and stout. This is a factor of the domination of the markets by large international brands, for whom producing small batch quantities of numerous beer styles is not a possibility for scale and marketing reasons. There are hundreds of styles and variations of styles of beer, such as Porter, Stout, Imperial Stout, Lager, Vienna Lager, Pale Ale, India Pale Ale, Weisse Beer, Pilsner and on and on. Each has their own distinctive taste. It is influenced by the variety of barley or hops, of which there are countless varieties from all over the world each with a distinctive taste and aroma. The taste of the beer is also influenced by how the beer is produced, for example the fermentation period or special ingredients included in some specialist craft beers, ingredients such as fruit, nuts and herbs. Similar to sampling a superior wine, you can get hints of chocolate, caramel, toffee, roast nuts, malt, citrus fruit, vanilla, coffee etc, depending on which beer style you are drinking and at what temperature you consume it. Like wine, Craft beer can come at any price, depending on factors such as the volume of ingredients such as hops used to create each barrel or extended fermentation periods. There is a craft beer to suit everybody and you should actively experiment not just to find your favourite, but just to explore the wonderful, largely untapped world of craft beer.

I hope this opening blog from me has whetted your appetite for craft beer just a little. I will continue to write more about this incredible topic and whatever else excites or interests me in the world of craft beer.

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