Andrew is a researcher, lecturer and writer on various subjects such as 9/11, UFOs, the climate change scam, alternative health, amongst other topics and has written numerous books on these too, with the latest been “Acknowledged: A Perspective on the Matters of UFOs, Aliens and Crop Circles”, which was out from last year.
Brewed by Binding-Brauerei (Radeberger Gruppe) Style: German Hefeweizen, Weissbier Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Coming out of the Binding brewery in Frankfurt, is the well known and popular Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen brand. They mostly produce wheat beers, the staple of a lot of German beer drinkers.
Review: 0,5l long brown bottle of Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen: 5% vol.
Schöfferhofer’s Hefeweizen Naturtrüb is considered the undoubted classic in their wide range of beers. Naturtrüb means naturally cloudy, ie unfiltered beer that is cloudy because it is bottled while there is still some active yeast naturally carbonating the beer.
Discount supermarket beer, comes in a brown bottle with a rather cheap looking logo that doesn’t inspire, all in orange and rather shite looking. The brewery call it an eye catching mandarin colour!
On pour we get a very active and excitable beer, very carbonated resulting in a quite big frothy white head, as expected but perhaps not as big as we got! Deep gold in colour, once it all settles down it looks not bad at all. Nice white head and golden appearance.
A lot of lacing!
Getting the usual hefeweizen aromas, no surprise there, the malts, cloves, the citrus and fruits, and a hint off the spicy hops. Smell is fine, but not strong, weak and on the low level.
Standard weizen with moderate to weak smell. Wheat and banana aroma.
On to the taste, initially it is all crisp, very soft and refreshing on the tongue, very smooth for a hefeweizen.
Getting a lot from the bottle, which considering all the carbonation, is great.
Not a huge amount of flavours but its going done nice enough, smooth. Nice taste of barley malts and fruits, and of course the wheat, the cloves and the coriander, with only a slight hint of the hops. Overall, the balance of tastes and flavours is perfect in this beer, making it very easy and very enjoyable to drink.
Perhaps a fan of the old weissbier might not be enamored, but I like it, its manageable for me at least who is not a regular drinker of these wheat beer types.
Typical tastes of a hefeweizen on the low level, bitterness toned down, not complex but all simple tastes.
Taste is very creamy mouthfuls, lovely and soft, I like it, very smooth to sit with and relax, very good, very enjoyable with high drinkability.
Brewed by Brasserie Rabourdin Style: French Blonde Seine-et-Marne, Courpalay, France
Hugues and Geneviève Rabourdin founded the brewery in 2001, and produce Bière de Brie with barley from their family farm in Courpalay, in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Located in the heart of Brie country, an agricultural region that has always been considered the grain store of Paris.
Diversifying into the beer market, they first started offering their beer in local markets and direct to sellers. After training at the IFBM (Institut Français des Boissons, de la Brasserie et de la Malterie) and with the installation of the brewery on the farm, the first Brie beers were produced, by the duo, in June 2001. They stick close to their roots using the local produce sourced from their own farm and with respect to their surrounding environment. All beers have an organic certification produced from pure natural farming.
In 2009, Estelle and Hubert Rabourdin took over the family business with the desire to develop the brewery onto pastures new, expanding the brewery and offering more in the range of craft beers, specifically the La Briarde beer in 2010, and also an IPA and a White Brie beer (which sounds interesting!). Their award winning beers now sell to the rest of the Île-de-France region and onto all of France.
Review: 33cl small glass bottle of Briarde Blonde, Brasserie Rabourdin: 5.7% vol.
Comes in a very stylistic jet black bottle, looks the business. very nice.
On pour first thing you notice is that not a whole lot comes out! Not much from the small bottle, which is a damn shame!
What does come out, is a very hazy and cloudy, golden coloured beer with a smallish white head, with a frothy look, but overall it is a decent looking brew.
Very fruity aroma, not bad.
Tastes very spicy, getting hit with those tastes at the back of the throat.
Hops are also very sweet. All a little sickly, but still manageable and goes down smooth.
Second bottle was in the fridge and came out very cold, which kind of killed the taste. Me bad. Resulting in a very tasteless (but cold) beer!
Overall it is an easy beer to drink, light and enjoyable enough for sure, but not going to set the world alight. Relaxing and refreshing but not getting enough from the small bottle for me to return to in the future!
A post mortem with my old buddy, the Irish Identitarian, as we look at the shite show that was the Irish General Election, recently held on the 8th of February 2020.
An overview of the parties running in the Irish Election of 2020.
Good chat with my old buddy, Irish Identitarian, as we look at the runners and riders in the donkey derby that is the Irish Election, set for the 8th of February. We look at all the parties going, talk biros and postal votes amongst other things, and why we think the only way to keep sane and vote well is too choose a candidate on the Nationalist side………………..
Good chat with Ben Gilroy, the evening before he declared his candidacy for the upcoming Irish Election. Ben will be running for the Irish Freedom Party in Dublin Bay North.
Had the pleasure of having a short chat with long time Shels fan, Aidan Geraghty (@Aido1895)
So, my name is Aidan Geraghty and I have been a Shelbourne fan since 1999, first game I came to was the 9th of August 99 against Manchester United, Greg Costello scored and we won 1-0 and I have been coming home and away ever since.
Who brought you to that first game?
My da and my uncle brought me down. At the time I was coming to watch United. As there is Shelbourne history in my family but been a kid at the time I didn’t know that. I came down because I wanted to see Man United, they just won the Treble and little did I know at the time my dad was bringing me down because he wanted to get me into supporting Shels. And I came down, sitting in the Riverside Stand over there, dont know what it was but from the first time I was here, something about the kit just caught my eye and I was hooked. The whole place like, the kind of atmosphere, the ground, the kit…just….I dont know, I can’t really put my finger on what it was but something just kind of caught my eye as a kid at the time and I was hooked, and I have come ever since.
Excellent. So there is something in those pre season friendlies then, yeah?
Ah yeah there is, I suppose it depends on the opposition we play, we played Hearts (Scotland) last week, you probably won’t get too many young fellas from Dublin coming down to watch Hearts and getting hooked but if you get the right opposition, like I know that Shower down in Phibsboro (Bohemiens) played Chelsea the other night, unfortunately they might get a few fans out of that, you never know.
So generally, is it hard to get people out to Tolka Park then?
I think it depends on how the team is doing to be honest. I think Irish people in general when it comes to sport are very fickle, I think as a nation we find it hard to support a team week in week out over the course of a 25/35 game season but as you will see tonight, the place is heaving tonight, there is about 1,200 people here and that’s because it’s coming towards the business end of the season, the team is doing well, there is something to play for, so I think with a bg club like this, a historic club like this, when things are going well on the pitch people will come.
And all that time you were following them what was the highlights for you?
The obvious answer is Deportivo (D La Coruna from Spain) in 2004, or that and that whole European run, that was unbelievable, it was a moment you were proud to be a Shels fan, we played Reykjavík, Hajduk Split (Croatia), Deportivo and Lille in the Champions League and the Uefa Cup.
But to be honest with you my proudest moment was the very first game in the 2007 season. We were champions in 2006 and then we were demoted at the end of the season to the First Division. We were Premier Division Champions but playing in the First Division in 2007, and a week before the season the club hadn’t got two pennies to rub together, and a week before the season it looked like we weren’t able to field a team.
Dermot Kiely, fair play to him, came in and brought a bunch of young lads in. I remember being at a meeting down at the bar there and I was only a teenager at the time and my dad brought me down to this meeting and I remember Olly Byrne (Chairman at the time), God rest him, saying if we do field a team this season it could be just a load of lads wearing red jerseys with Shels on them and we could be getting hammered every week. And at that time we were afraid we wouldn’t have a club so we said “yeah that’s fine”, as long as there is a team out on that pitch and they are wearing red jerseys, fine, and credit to Dermot Keely, he came in, brought in a bunch of young fellas, and a weeks notice before the start of the season.
And we played Kildare County here, we went 2-0 down, and then Darren McKenna scored a last minute equaliser to draw two all. And our previous game was like here against Bohs, and there was about 7,000 here to win the League, and then we played Kildare County and probably about 3,000 here, it was probably the biggest crowd Kildare County had ever played in front off, and they were so close to beating a bunch of kids that had Shels on their jerseys. And to see a team like that, a bunch of young fellas who were playing for the shirt, they weren’t playing for money or whatever, and to see a club rally together, to keep the club, at that time the club was a 112 years old, and was very, very close to dying, a lot of other clubs like Cork City, Derry, Limerick, Galway….they all let their clubs die and reformed in difficult circumstances, that didn’t happen here……….. so that was my proudest moment supporting Shelbourne.
So rivals then, Bohemians it must be, they are not that far off……
Yeah, maybe a mile, mile and a half…………the three biggest rivals are Bohs, Rovers and Pats. For me that’s the order. Bohs first, Rovers second, Pats third. For some people that would vary I think, some older fans and some fans from Ringsend might have Rovers first…some people who started coming round the mid 90’s might have Pats first but I’d say for the majority of fans I’d say Bohs are probably the main rival.
Ok, the club had about 7 or 8 million debt (correction closer to 6 million or less) and then you have Olly Byrne (Ex Chairman)…………….lol……..how do you want to answer that or will we skip that one, lol
I will do my best to answer it. Olly wasn’t perfect and he is probably the main reason we are in the First Division now. But I have to say, in fairness to him, any mistakes he made he wasn’t doing it for personal gain, he was doing it because he was trying to make Shelbourne Football Club be the best that they could be, because he loved Shelbourne Football Club as much as anyone here, if not more. So, did he make mistakes, absolutely yes, he made mistakes that almost killed the club, and I have no problem saying that. But the reason he did it was because he had such ambition for this football club, he wanted this football club to be at the top table of European football.
And I am sure I will find fans that will have an opposite viewpoint.
Yes, absolutely, yeah without a doubt. You wouldn’t even have to ask that many people, he definitely is a controversial figure around here. There is some people that won’t have a bad word said about him and there are some people who will only say bad words about him. The reality is somewhere in the middle, I think he definitely did things that could have killed this football club but he was doing it for the right reasons.
And that leads onto going into the new groundshare with Bohemians Football Club. I mean from me looking in from the outside, I like Shelbourne, I love the set up you have here, I always enjoy myself coming here, people are buzzing all the time here, I dunno I just think if you go to Dalymount, it’s just like two clubs in Dublin, Friday and Saturday night, I dunno, I honestly dont think its going to work……
I agree with you, as far as I am concerned if we do go to Dalymount the club will most likely be out of senior football within 50 years and that’s probably being optimistic. The reason that Dalymount is being developed and not Tolka is because Bohs spent the last ten years lobbying Dublin City Council, the FAI and all the relevant bodies, Bohs got their house in order a long time before we did, and they were lobbying to get their ground and their history preserved.
Meanwhile we were kind of scrambling about, going from year to year with no real long term plan. And I still think if we had have bothered to look for alternatives they would have been there. I dont want to dwell on it too long as it’s a subject that gets me angry!
But could it work?
No, the concept of ground sharing I am not completely opposed to, but it’s the location that is the problem. Bohs have been in that area for over a hundred years. Shelbourne are never going to attract fans in Phibsboro, Cabra, Stoneybatter, and that area, its just not going to happen.
So where do you think that Shels could go?
I dont know to be honest.
There is nothing wrong with here (Tolka Park) if they developed it, maybe?
Yeah, Dublin City Council own this ground now, that was the deal, you mentioned the debt earlier, Dublin City Council took over this ground and cleared our debt in the process. I think Dublin City Council could be open to redeveloping this on a smaller scale and maybe knocking down a house or two for housing, I dont know but I think until you explore those options I dont think it does justice to this football club to just say well Dalymount is the only option and that’s the end of that. I think we owe it to the 125 years of this club to explore other options.
And anyone coming to see Shelbourne play for the first time, just coming up the road and just walking into this club, what should they expect, what’s it like here?
Well for me it just gets in on you, it’s just an addiction, no matter what’s going on in your life, you could be after losing your job, you could have a bereavement, you could be after breaking up with your missus or whatever and when you come down here and The Reds score a goal, for 10 seconds that doesn’t matter, nothing else in your life matters for that 10 seconds after a goal goes in and that’s just it, there is no way to describe it other than its a drug and you have to keep coming back for more and it’s an addiction.
So are you positive for the future then?
I dont know to be honest, if the move down the road happens then there is no future but if something can be arranged in the meantime whether it is to stay here or to move to a greenfield site or whatever then this football club has massive potential. The only club in this country that has won more trophies is Rovers (Shamrock Rovers) so there is absolutely massive potential in this football club but the people who are running the football club now have a duty, not just a responsibility, a duty to make sure this football club stays alive and thrives and if we move to Dalymount that won’t happen.
And just before we finish if anyone wants to follow, is there a supporters club that is for Shelbourne or anything we can follow online?
There is no kind of official supporters club, there is the official club twitter page is @shelsfc, the official facebook page is Shelbourne Football Club, the instagram page is @shelsfc as well, and there are some other unofficial pages as well, there is a Shels fans group on facebook, We’re Not Barcelona page, there are a lot of channels online that they can follow the club, yeah.
Ok, Thanks very much Aiden, I know the game is on now
Brewed by Mira Brewery Style: Festive beer La-Teste-de-Buch, France
Mira, a brewery founded in 2016, by two old friends, Jacques and Aurélien, who got the inspiration while on their travels around the world.
The brewery make their own produced beers and sodas on site using only the best of local ingredients and resources, and with the help of a nearby 22,500-year-old spring
Review: 0,25cl bottle of Mira, Christmas Edition: 5.6% vol.
Colourful logo and bottle.
Fuck all came out, less than half the glass was full, what the hell is that all about.
Over carbonated, very fizzy. A deep amber looking beer, a lot of sediment floating about in glass, a nice hazy deep look .
Despite a lot of carbonation the head is still rather small, overall not a looker.
A very nice smell, very fruity, and a bit like bubble gum! Also hoppy and fruity.
Strong but pleasant aromas, very nice.
On the taste I am getting a kind of bubbly gum taste, kind of fun and intriguing, not bad at all.
Fruity taste with a chocolate nutty undercurrent, getting cinnamon and anise as well.
Very tasty, not bad at all, very festive and fun, perfect for the season that is in it……definitely a festive feel to it alright, not bad………………..
Brewed by Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu Stuttgart Style: Zwickelbier/Kellerbier Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
In 1996, two well established breweries from the city of Stuttgart in South West Germany, came together. Dinkelacker and Schwaben Braeu merged to become The Dinkelacker-Schwaben Brau GmbH & Co. KG, a super brewery ready to take on the world…………..Then Brewing giants InBev came along in 2004 and bought the whole operation!
But before you despair, in 2007, Wolfgang Dinkelacker, the great-grandson of company founder Carl Dinkelacker, buys Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu back from Inbev making the company return into family hands and be an independent brewery once again.
Schwaben Bräu was the first beer in Germany to be delivered motorized, with a truck from Gottlieb Daimler, the pioneers of internal-combustion engines and automobile development.
For the football nut (like me), Dinkelacker was from 1982 to 1986 the main sponsor of German football team VfB Stuttgart.
Review: 0,5l flip top brown bottle of Schwaben Bräu Zwickl Kellerbier: 5.6% vol.
Got from a German supermarket, a four pack, coming in a very cool looking logo of a brewer and his beer, happy with his accomplishment! An unfiltered traditional cloudy beer.
Have to say it looks absolutely fantastic on pour, a very lovely frothy white head appearing with a beer that has a gorgeous golden colour with a deep look.
A very decent head that sticks around, some good lacing, and with the deep hazy orange look, we have a great looking beer to admire.
On the nose one gets a very, very malty aroma, very clear and easy to find. An ok malty and yeasty smell, not bad at all.
On to the taste, very soft and creamy on the tongue initially, crispy and inoffensive, not much flavouring to taste and very, very smooth. Light and not really hitting the spot.
A lot of malts and some light grains, as expected, and a bit of fruit, but very light and very boring. Kind of a waste of time, with nothing really to get stuck into in terms of prominent or excitable tastes or flavours, dont think I will be buying this one again.
A pretentious beer with nice packaging that tastes like cheap supermarket fare, disappointing, was expecting much more.
Brewed by Binding-Brauerei AG Style: Non-alcoholic Pils Germany
Since its launch in 1979, Clausthaler has been one of the non-alcoholic beer pioneers, consistently voted as producing one the best non-alcoholic beers in the world!
See the company has had a few issues with consumer wtahcdogs in Germany and Switzerland over their claims to be alcohol free yet have some minute traces of alcohol. Very annoying as most drinkers know full damn well that a large amount of non alcoholic beers do have some low levels of alcohol in them, it’s a given, its residual alcohol. But that doesn’t mean you are going to get drunk or whatever. I dont really see the point of complaining about this…….silly stuff.
Review: 0,5l, green bottle of Clausthaler Alkoholfrei original: < 0.5% vol.
Comes in a bottle that looks like a regular beer. Certainly fooled me, that’s why I bought the fucking thing, thinking it was normal beer. Damn!!!!
On the pour I have to say the beer looks fantastic, a great big frothy white head, with a lot of good lively carbonation resulting in a nice clear golden coloured beer on appearance.
Head maintains very well, and some good lacing left on the glass. A good looking beer, sparkling, surprisingly good for a non alcoholic brew.…………
Smells pretty good too, getting a nice malty aroma on the nose for sure, but also a rather strange aroma. Guess could put that down to the sweet grains and floral hops.Some stringent corn smells too. Overall not bad on the nose.
Get a lot in the bottle, which is always a big plus.
The taste is a bit urgh, all very sickly sweet and very bitter. First impressions not good at all. Kind of a spicy and creamy off taste to it.
For a non alcoholic beer it is quite hoppy and bitter, which is very surprising to me. It certainly does taste like a beer, with the malts, barley and grains to the fore, which is impressive. Could definitely fool people into thinking it was a regular beer.
But not pleasant really, or very enjoyable, a dry finish with an artificial bitter taste that isn’t going to do it for me, will pass, thank you very much………….
Schöfferhofer’s Hefeweizen Naturtrüb is considered the undoubted classic in their wide range of beers. Naturtrüb means naturally cloudy, ie unfiltered beer that is cloudy because it is bottled while there is still some active yeast naturally carbonating the beer.
Getting the usual hefeweizen aromas, no surprise there, the malts, cloves, the citrus and fruits, and a hint off the spicy hops. Smell is fine, but not strong, weak and on the low level.
Perhaps a fan of the old weissbier might not be enamored, but I like it, its manageable for me at least who is not a regular drinker of these wheat beer types. 
Hugues and Geneviève Rabourdin founded the brewery in 2001, and produce Bière de Brie with barley from their family farm in Courpalay, in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Located in the heart of Brie country, an agricultural region that has always been considered the grain store of Paris. 
Comes in a very stylistic jet black bottle, looks the business. very nice. 
Tastes very spicy, getting hit with those tastes at the back of the throat.
Mira, a brewery founded in 2016, by two old friends, Jacques and Aurélien, who got the inspiration while on their travels around the world.
Despite a lot of carbonation the head is still rather small, overall not a looker. 
In 1996, two well established breweries from the city of Stuttgart in South West Germany, came together. Dinkelacker and Schwaben Braeu merged to become The Dinkelacker-Schwaben Brau GmbH & Co. KG, a super brewery ready to take on the world…………..Then Brewing giants InBev came along in 2004 and bought the whole operation!
Got from a German supermarket, a four pack, coming in a very cool looking logo of a brewer and his beer, happy with his accomplishment! An unfiltered traditional cloudy beer. 
On to the taste, very soft and creamy on the tongue initially, crispy and inoffensive, not much flavouring to taste and very, very smooth. Light and not really hitting the spot.
Since its launch in 1979, Clausthaler has been one of the non-alcoholic beer pioneers, consistently voted as producing one the best non-alcoholic beers in the world!
Comes in a bottle that looks like a regular beer. Certainly fooled me, that’s why I bought the fucking thing, thinking it was normal beer. Damn!!!!
Get a lot in the bottle, which is always a big plus.