Dublin O'Neils

The Brew Blog’s mission statement claimed that we would be offering our readers an every man’s opinion on as many of the world’s craft beers as possible. It also claimed to offer reviews of the various drinking establishments to enjoy them in. While I’ve done a decent job of drinking the beer, I’ve failed to live up to my venues promise.

Whether this is a result of me visiting the same bars over and over again or me just being lazy is debatable. Regardless, to date I’ve only done one locale review and it involved making an hour road trip to catch a minor league baseball game. So when Dublin O’Neils opened their doors for the first time nearly a month ago, this Irish lad knew CU’s newest Irish Pub had to be my first local review.

At first look, the location could be a little better. Just off of downtown, the most convenient parking available is located across the street at the pay to park lot in front of The Orpheum. Typically, meter parking is ok seeing as most meters stop charging at the end of business hours. This particular lot takes advantage of the popular venues surrounding the area by actually enforcing the meters until 9 pm.

Aside from the parking lot, Dublin’s itself has a nice little feel to the place. As a smaller restaurant, its wooden finishes and lightly spread out décor give it the very old timey feel one expects to see at ye old pub.  The seating however is limited enough were despite the smaller size of the pub, you are not sitting on top of the people sitting next to you.

The food was good and the portions were more than adequate, but for the prices charged, I would like to have a meal that was more than just good. I hold their beer selection in a similar esteem. I will never fault a bar for having a decent craft beer selection, but for fellow beer snobs, finding a bar that features Founder’s, Moylan’s, and Capital Brewery is hardly difficult this day and age.

All in all, I enjoyed my first visit to Dublin O’Neils. And although I would like to try the pub burger complete with rashers, I don’t envision making a special effort to get back in any kind of hurry.

Ephemere (Unibroue)

When one thinks of fall, you’re typically reminded of the start of football season, major league baseball playoffs, and for anyone familiar with Champaign-Urbana, at least one trip to Curtis Orchard. With this in mind, I felt it would be an interesting change of pace to try an apple beer.

Enter Ephemere (Unibroue).  Brewed in Quebec, Canada, initially I was expecting something similar to a Strongbow or Woodchuck, but Ephemere was much sweeter. Once you pop the cork you are greeted by the welcoming scent of granny smith apples. That smell however, was by and far the best part of this brew. 

When it comes to the taste, the best way I can describe it is to compare it to a Summer Shandy. It carries the light airy taste of a mass produced lager with the taste you’d expect from apple juice. These two distinct flavors blend well and provide you with a beverage that is more than just a generic light lager mixed with apple syrup.

Unfortunately, Ephemere loses whatever positive appeal it has rather quickly. I had purchased this brew in a 22 ounce bottle and wasn’t even half way through when it began losing its chill. As it warmed, and warmed quickly it did, the beer flavor petered out and the apple flavoring went sour.

It went from ok to unbearable in a matter of 10 to 12 minutes getting worse with every passing second. Believing that no beer, no matter how bad, deserves the punishment of a drain pour, I powered through. However, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least warming to the idea with every painstaking drink I took.

Initially I had wanted to give Ephemere (Unibroue) a middle of the road review, but when it came time to put pen to paper I couldn’t bring myself to do it. This was definitely a beer that was unable to endure the slightest bit of casual drinking and its rating reflects that.

Ephemere (Unibroue) comes in at 4 mugs out of 10.