This evening the Irish Craft Beer Festival gets underway.  To say we’re burning with the giddy excitement of a kid on Christmas Eve is something of an understatement.  By all accounts, this year’s festival will be the biggest yet and the list of specials compiled by Beoir has ramped our feverish anticipation up to ELEVEN…

Plus the food.  Jesus, the food.  Pies.  Spices.  More pies.  Crisps??!

We’ll be there tonight alright.  And possibly tomorrow.  Certainly Saturday… Sunday?

Those of you who throw the occasional eye to RMTTB will have noticed we’ve been rather silent of late.  Some of it is due to being away: we’re an Irish beer blog, so time spent swilling foreign pints – however lush – doesn’t count.  Real life also occasionally intervenes.  Another new job.  A home-brewing disaster. An expanding waistline.

The latter is an occupational hazard for the beer enthusiast.  We’re no spring chicken & keeping the beer belly beach body ready is no mean feat.  How DOES one balance a love of beer with a BMI below 50?   Vanity, thy name is RMTTB.

Anyways. We think we’ve found a working solution.  Actually it’s a running solution.

In an attempt to keep the jelly belly at bay, we’ve begun pounding the pavements.  Barstool to 1k, that sort of thing.

Dublin-based RMTTB can’t help but notice with envy the proliferation of micro- & nano- breweries beyond the Pale.  And races.  So we’ve decided to combine the two and get out and about.  We’re starting small.  Hoping to combine the Galway Bay marathon, half marathon, 10k with a well earned excursion to sample local produce.  We’re also eyeing the Clonakilty (the brewery town!) half marathon in December.  Watch this space.  We’ll be beer belly ready for Christmas…!

But first there’s the Irish Craft Beer Festival to enjoy…