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Updated by Paul Hugh O'Mahony on Jul 13, 2023
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Smoked Salmon & Micro-Brewers in Lisdoonvarna, Ireland

Audio, video, photographs celebrating the business of smoking salmon & brewing beer & stout.
Began with a road trip from Cork to West Clare - Tanja Buwalda, Jonathan Amm & Paul O'Mahony met Birgitta Hedin-Curtin & Peter Curtin

The most interesting salmon woman in the world (20 mins)

Recorded in "The Wild Honey Inn" Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare, Ireland
@burrensalmon Birgitta Hedin-Curtin of Burren Smokehouse (a local business that sells globally) speaks fluently with Swedish accent about Bord Bia, Irish Embassy in Stockholm ... & so much more

Wild salmon, ChapterOne
http://www.chapteronerestaurant.com/ tasting journey

American Red Oak shavings are used...

Unique ovens specially built in Limerick...

Food technologists...

Swedish journalists in Stockholm...

Michael Moran world champion "Moran's on the Weir"... http://www.moransoystercottage.com/

Guinness & wine... happening

Eels smoked in local smokehouse - the inspiration...

Canadians...Canada... Pacific salmon - the difference from Atlantic salmon... lumberjacks eating habits... Smoked eel lovers... shortage of supply... Ely eels threatened too...

Mackerel also smoked...

Mother-in-law, grandfather, mother (1926)...
Ardnacrusha - stories... ESB eel seller...

Audioboo, @markrock
http://audioboo.fm/ is known in

www.burrensmokehouse.ie
@burrensalmon
Facebook
YouTube

Pinterest may be on the horizon... Women like it & also like smoked salmon...
#foodporn mentioned

BioCoop chair of organic food approached BurrenSmokehouse...

Cliff House Hotel @cliffhousehotel www.thecliffhousehotel.com plugged... general manager & chef @kajuiter both praised - a plan made to visit there... Tasting menu + wine tasting highlighted.

Jonathan Amm 10th wedding anniversary...

A plan hatched... abrupt end (reached 20 minute limit)

Entering Salmon Treasure Trove (9.5 mins)

Recorded first impression of @burrensalmon shop Lisdoonvarna:

Bridgestone Guides back to 1996 - John & Sally McKenna
BIM...
the "Ladies"... Burren Information Point : you hear a reading of stuff on the notice board, including newspaper clippings...
Peadar Reilly master smoker in Burren Smokehouse
Business founded in 1989 with husband
Good Food Ireland...
Omega3...
Why you can't tour the smokehouse... but can have a video tour instead
Doolin Cave advert
North Clare sea kyaking
Wine
Landscape
Dean & DeLuca 2011 Gifting Guide... what they sell includes Burren Smokehouse product...
Doolin Fisherman Platter... hot & cold oak smoked salmon & mackeral
Any lakes in Kilkenny
Background music
Cheese sold - sheep's cheese from Cratloe Hills - Sean & Deirdre FitzGerald
Honey Lemon Pepper flavouring
Whiskey flavoured, fennel
Oak smoked pure Irish salmon
Chocolate lollypops - Áine chocolate
Carrigeen Irish moss
Cider vinaigre
Crisps
Waffles
Fudge from Butlers
Rapeseed oil with garlic
Clare Jam
Apple jelly
Orange marmalade with poitín
German from Jonathan Amm
Tea

Tasting 5 different Smoked Salmon (16 mins)

We finally get to taste @burrensalmon - this is the sound of 3 people tasting, drinking water & drooling over different styles of salmon. None of us guessed which was the wild salmon - but we stood there at the counter of the Burren Smokehouse sampling salmon on cocktail sticks...

You hear reactions to each of the salmon in turn & tasting chat - as if we were tasting wine- pretentiously...

Slow Food Movement...

Salt, bite, smokeyness, melt in your mouth, slides off the palate...

Scoring the taste...

Texture... depth... rotten apple, petrol, bicyle wheel, wood, rain, leaves...

Pint of Guinness... glass of water... mouth wash,

@garyV ...

Clare Spring Water,

Dry-cured... wet-cured...

Alcohol flavour... sweetness...

River-caught with nets, legally... sustainable

In Burren Smokehouse Shop in Lisdoonvarna (11.5 mins)

Recorded while strolling round Burren Smokehouse shop in Lisdoonvarna

Ambient sound, staff in the shop, chat...
Music played by the smoker at @burrensalmon
Local pubs in Doolin...
Live music in Roadside Tavern
http://www.roadsidetavern.ie ...
Audio-visual display...

I'd seen smoking in Ummera, Cork
Anthony Cresswell...
Thinking of buying a postcard...

Listening in to conversation...
build the brand
Birgitta speaking
Ballymaloe features
Storytelling...
Irish products - Kilbeggin Oatflakes -
Gleniline Yogurt
Organic Focus
Minister Shane McEntee
Simon Coveney from Cork

Campaigning to save Organic
Tipperary people
Irish salmon industry...
West coast of Ireland has an "incredible" product

The niche...
so important to have organic sectors
talking of the importance of range...
Fortnam & Masons
Crackers

Asking Birgitta a leading question about how she spends her time...

UK, London, Bord Bia, USA, Miami, New Orleans, Inspiration Tours, Qatar, Kuwait,

Where would you like to go? For Brand You...

Caribbean,
Canada, Jane Boyd @boydjane
April Ennis @aprilennis, Prince Edward Island
Nick Kellet

Mitch Joel, Toronto, Montreal

New Zealand, both islands

Off to the brewery next... "the creme de la creme"

Pic: Two great men meet for first time - West Clare & South Africa

Peter Curtin, the master micro-brewer meets Jonathan Amm, marketing & branding guy

Making Stout & other drink - Peter Curtin micro-brewer tells the story

It was a bit of an adventure climbing up into the micro-brewer's den...
Peter Curtin - brewer - explains a lot about how to be a micro brewer
http://www.roadsidetavern.ie/roadside/asp/page.asp?p=Burren%20Brewery

malted barley
stout most complex
pale malt
flaked barley
religious,political, historical...
brewing is a scientific process
I grind the barley to a recipe
weighing
water ph level
mash
spent grain, starch, sugar, copper kettle
heat 64-66 degrees

Hops, hop pellets from UK
hops White Gipsy Brewery Tipperary
Last man who did hops in Ireland...
Kilkenny farmer
Hop tree grows 20 feet tall

Aromatic... alpha acid level
left to settle
transferred... heat exchanger...

55 degrees

transfer temperature for ale & stout

yeast, continuous cropping... fridge
"mental massage for yeast... no anxiety for the yeast least the excrete...

Yeast is similar to the fungus family... highly intelligent... relationship with humanity...

Yeast on the planet way before us...

hops are very volatile... Peter took a bag from the freezer & gave us a smell...
Taste in hops... USA heavily hopped drink not great for alcoholics because...
Over 6% is too much alcohol...

A neighbour calls in...

Have you seen barley? Grains range from pale to roast coffee black...

In England, Nottingham 900 different ales festival...

Burren Brewery is the only micro-brewery in Clare

Peter lists as many breweries as come to his mind
Roscommon town
Kerry
Dingle
Cork city
Fermoy
Carlow
Tipperary...

Festival in Lisdoonvarna in 2013: August Bank Holiday weekend

Willie Daly, matchmaker... when he was young dressed like a priest because...

Willie
http://www.williedaly.com/
came to town in "nothing at all" - when Lisdoonvarna used to be a serious drinking town... took his time having kids until he got going...

Tanja Buwalda remembers the mystery :

Gruit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruit - three herbs - Yarrow, meadowsweet bog mirtyl... aphrodisiac,

Hops put you to sleep - so you become harmless...

Legal drugs... dancing at the crossroads without any brewers droop..

The poster of the stocking... branded stockings...

Concoction... Tim Hartigan herbalist... who is he?
http://homepage.eircom.net/~herbhelp/index.htm

Countryside here overflows with herbs... dying knowledge...

Peter Curtin worked in the foreign merchant navy...

Napal is his favourite... went up on the ice...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepal

Then the recording time ran out... (abrupt ending)

Pic: Weird to think "Lord of the Rings" was Burren Story

Peter Curtin told us the story of Tolkien in the Burren... He set up this Society - this is the sign on the pub wall

Cead mile failte to the Burren Brewery - YouTube

Welcome to The Roadside Tavern where they serve beers and stout from The Burren Brewery. http://www.youtube.com/user/BurrenSmokehouse http://www.youtube.com/...