This story appears in Birmingham magazine's March 2016 Issue. Subscribe today!
To many, Irish beer means Guinness Draught--you know, the dark stout with a creamy white head dispensed from kegs with nitrogen. For more than 200 years, stout was the main style of beer made throughout Ireland. Sold in some 100 countries, Guinness is the most widely-known Irish stout.
But there's more to Ireland than just the famous dark beer, so we turned to World of Beer in Five Points South for some other St. Paddy's beer ideas.
Look for red ales from two traditional Irish breweries, Murphy's and Smithwick's (Murphy's also makes a dry stout). Lager fans can celebrate with Harp or Guinness Blonde.
Red ales tend to be slightly sweet and have toasted bread flavors. The copper color comes from barley that is roasted just enough to allow sugar from the grain to caramelize.
Irish stouts are not as hefty in alcohol content or calorie count as the name would imply; Murphy's version is a mere 4 percent alcohol by volume (ABV). A 12-ounce Guinness has 125 calories.
In general, look for flavors of bitter chocolate, coffee, and burnt marshmallow from the dark malts and roasted barley in Irish stouts. They have little hop bitterness. Irish stouts dispensed with nitrogen have a lighter, creamier body than stouts dispensed only with carbon dioxide. Guinness even invented a device for its canned stouts to introduce nitrogen to the beer when opened.
Guinness Blonde Lager (5 percent ABV), introduced in 2014, also is comparable to U.S. macrobeers. But the color is slightly darker and the beer has the subtle mineral-sour notes characteristic of Guinness products. Oddly enough, the blonde is not made at St. James Gate. Marketed as an "American lager," it is brewed in Latrobe, Pa. Another new Guinness beer just reaching the market, Nitro IPA (5.8 percent ABV), also has a nitrogen widget for a creamy pour. But the dark-tan beer has very little of the hop flavor associated with India Pale Ales, especially the hop bombs made in the U.S.
Here is a guide to Irish beers for your St. Patrick's Day pleasure:
Smithwick's:
The original brewery opened in 1710 in Kilkenny on a site where Franciscan monks made beer starting in the 1200s. Smithwick's began exporting to the United States in 1950, specifically to capture the St. Patrick's Day beer-drinking market (meanwhile, Irish pubs stayed closed on St. Patrick's Day until the 1970s). Smithwick's Red Ale (4.4 percent ABV) was launched in 1966, a year after Guinness bought the brand. The yeast contributes fruity notes, complementing the sweetness from its malts.
Murphy's:
Murphy's has been brewed in Cork since 1856. The nitrogen widget in cans of Murphy's Irish Stout makes the light-bodied beer (4 percent ABV) creamy. It smooths out some of the roasted flavors and brings out more of the toffee/caramel flavors. Murphy's Irish Red is slightly stronger (5 percent ABV) than the stout, with more of a pronounced, but still mild, hop flavor. Caramel malt adds sweetness as well as color.
Harp:
Fans of U.S. macrobrews like Budweiser also will enjoy Harp Lager (4.5 percent AVB). Guinness introduced Harp in 1960 to meet a growing demand for lagers in Ireland. It was made in a specially-built brewery in Dundalk, but parent company Diageo recently closed the facility and moved most production to St. James Gate Brewery in Dublin, where Guinness has been brewing their stout since 1725. Harp for the U.S. market is brewed in Canada.
Guinness:
The standard Draught (4.2 percent ABV) is dispensed with nitrogen in kegs and cans, and a stronger, Foreign Extra Stout (7.5 percent ABV), is available bottled. The latter originally was stout made extra-strong and with more bittering hops to withstand long ocean voyages in ship hulls to the Caribbean, Africa, and beyond. Low carbonation in Foreign Extra Stout makes the roasted flavors more pronounced and brings out notes of port wine and dark-roasted coffee.
Guinness Blonde Lager (5 percent ABV), introduced in 2014, also is comparable to U.S. macrobeers. But the color is slightly darker and the beer has the subtle mineral-sour notes characteristic of Guinness products. Oddly enough, the blonde is not made at St. James Gate. Marketed as an "American lager," it is brewed in Latrobe, Pa. Another new Guinness beer just reaching the market,
Nitro IPA (5.8 percent ABV), also has a nitrogen widget for a creamy pour. But the dark-tan beer has very little of the hop flavor associated with India Pale Ales, especially the hop bombs made in the U.S.
All of these beers are available at World of Beer's location in Five Points South.
20th St. S. | 205.703.7203