Sláinte!

I once heard it said that God invented beer so that the Irish wouldn't take over the world. While this might not be entirely accurate, there is no denying that over the years, Ireland has become associated with beer. And since tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day (another proper noun that is virtually synonymous with beer), it seems only too obvious a blog topic for this rainy Saturday morning in March. I like to pick the low hanging fruit first folks.

Ireland is known for its beer for a reason. The nation has a long and proud brewing tradition and is home to literally thousands of pubs serving locally made Irish beer. In fact, over half of the total alcohol consumed in Ireland is beer. Today, the Irish produce over 8.5 million hectoliters of beer annually, which ranks them fourth in European beer production behind Czech Republic, Germany, and Austria. Surprisingly, stout ale only accounts for 34% of that total. The most popular and most often brewed beer in Ireland is lager, which accounts for 60% of the total annual production. Ales other than stout make up about 6%.

Beer and Ireland go way back. Back in the day, which coincidentally was a Wednesday, the Irish brewed ale without the use of hops as they were not native to the country. In the 1700s, the Irish began importing English hop varieties and brewing their own versions of English styles, but still most of the beer consumed in Ireland was imported from England and Scotland.

St. James Gate at the Guinness Brewery in Dublin

In the middle of the eighteenth century, the Irish parliament used taxation to encourage brewing beer at the expense of distilling, as they felt that beer was less harmful than whiskey. It was around that time when Arthur Guinness opened a brewery in Dublin adjacent to the Liffey River, and Irish brewing took off. After some years of experimentation with English porter recipes and local Irish ingredients, he created the Guinness stout that is so popular and well known around the world today.

The Irish brewing industry prospered and other brewers shortly joined in and began creating some of the other popular varieties of beer still produced in Ireland today, including Murphy’s and Beamish stout, brewed in County Cork. Murphy’s and Beamish also brewed lager-style beers and red ales that were equally popular in Ireland as their stout was. Smithwick’s brewery, located in Kilkenny, also produced an amber ale that is sometimes sold outside of Ireland under the name “Kilkenny.”

By the early nineteenth century, there were more than 200 breweries in Ireland, with more than 50 of them in Dublin alone. Ireland’s production increased so much that soon, they were exporting more beer to England than they were importing from them. Just like in America, as industrialization took over, many of the Irish breweries consolidated and closed, leaving only a few breweries operating by the middle of the twentieth century.

The Hilden Brewery in Lisburn

Also like in America, the craft beer movement of the 1990s took hold in Ireland and several small-batch breweries and brewpubs began opening across the country, saving the Irish beer industry. Ireland’s oldest independent brewery, the Hilden Brewery in Lisburn, was founded in 1981 and still operates today. Other pioneers of Irish craft brewing that still operate include the Franciscan Well Brewpub in Cork, Dublin’s Porterhouse, and the Carlow Brewing Company from Country Carlow, makers of the O’Hara’s range of craft beer that we can buy here in the States. There are also some newer craft breweries, such as the Beoir Chorca Dhuibhne Brewery in County Kerry, Hooker Brewery in Roscommon, Dungarvan Brewing Company, Clanconnel Brewery, Trouble Brewing, Metalman Brewing, The Dingle Brewing Company in County Kerry, Bo Bristle (formerly Breweyed) and Eight Degrees Brewing. These breweries make it possible for visitors to Ireland today to taste and enjoy many types of Irish beers unavailable anyplace else.

So how does any of this apply to you? Well, as I mentioned earlier, tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday in which millions of Americans, some of Irish decent but most with no connection to Ireland at all, will take to the pubs to listen to Irish-inspired punk rock music and drink Guinness, Harp, or some American industrial fizzy yellow corn-based swill beer with green food coloring in it. If you’re like I am, that last sentence is a depressing, albeit fairly accurate, description of the holiday. Fortunately, there is opportunity here.

The Chicago River on St. Patrick's Day - the source of
the green beer served in bars across the country

First of all, beer that is consumed on St. Patrick’s Day should be Irish, or of an Irish style. Green food coloring does NOT make a beer Irish, and does not count as an Irish style. Therefore, leave the American Light Pilsner Lagers alone!!! Also, while I am on that subject, George Killian does not make Killian’s Irish Red anymore… Pete Coors does. So leave the Killian’s Irish Red alone too.

It is perfectly acceptable to drink beer made by Guinness, Harp, Smithwicks, Murphey’s, and Beamish, as they are all Irish, but as I always do, I recommend you venture out a little bit and try to find some Irish craft beer. I know for a fact that grocery stores all over the country carry O’Hara’s labels and the few that’s I've had are pretty good. If you go to a specialty beer store, you might be able to find some other Irish craft beers too.

The other option is to drink American craft beer versions of Irish styles, such as Irish dry stouts and red ales. For dry stouts, I recommend North Coast Brewing Company’s Old #38 Stout from Fort Bragg, CA, Victory Brewing Company’s Donnybrook Stout from Downingtown, PA, Starr Hill Brewery’s Dark Starr Stout from Crozet, VA, or Three Floyds Brewing Company’s Black Sun Stout from Munster, IN. For Irish red ales, I recommend Great Lakes Brewing Company’s Conway’s Irish Red from Cleveland, OH, Harpoon Brewery’s Celtic Ale from Boston, MA, Flying Dog Brewery’s Lucky S.O.B. from Frederick, MD, or Matt Brewing Company’s Saranac Irish Red Ale from Utica, NY.

The Dropkick Murphys - Pride of Boston, MA

So hopefully I've armed you with enough general knowledge about Irish beer to enjoy your St. Patrick’s Day reveling. Whether you’re actually Irish, of Irish ancestry, or merely pretending, don’t be that guy who shows up at the Irish pub with his green shirt, shamrock button and green food coloring in his Budweiser, quoting lines from The Boondock Saints and claiming that the Dropkick Murphys are the best band ever. Try a little harder. Take pride in your reveling. And please drink proper beer.

Here’s to craft-brewed happiness… Sláinte!