The more observant among you will know that as well as a huge range of wines, we also sell beers by the case. This is part of our business that has gone through enormous customer-driven change over the last few years and we have now delisted most of the mainstream brands (Guinness, Carlsberg, American Budweiser, Bulmers etc.) and listed a big range of the really interesting craft beers now coming from small producers in Ireland, the UK and further afield.

For years, the Irish beer market suffered the dead hand of the multinationals and any new, young brewery was met with fierce competition until it ‘went away'. But then a new breed of local brewer worked out strategies to resist the competition of the multinationals and the move to bottled beers has loosened the big guys' grip even further. So we now have a plethora of interesting new Irish brews. Some of the stars among these are:
• Galway Hooker (going great on draft for a few years now but now in bottle as well)
• Howling Gale from Mitchelstown
• the Dungarvan Brewing Co. Beers from Co Waterford
• the O'Haras' Carlow Brewing Co. beers from, well, Carlow.

Check out John Wilson's article in the Irish Times recently at http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/magazine/2011/0326/1224292819797.html for a good round up of what's out there.

All those mentioned above are available by the case at Cases and many are also available in mixed cases to facilitate experimentation.

So to introduce beer fans to the delights of all these beers, we are holding a Beer Weekend at Cases this coming weekend. A big range of beers will be open on Friday and Saturday to sample and buy by the case. And our own Gerry will be delighted to talk you through what's new right now in the world of beer and the exciting area of food & beer matching. Mention this website article and we'll give you €2.00 off any case of beer you purchase over the weekend. We're open from 10am to 7pm both days so get your palate in shape and come on in!