Irish stouts, ales, and lagers have become a staple of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations worldwide. Thanks to such brands as Harp, Murphy’s, and Guinness, everyone can find Irish beer to their taste. We’ve rounded up the best Irish beers to celebrate the occasion. If you need to travel to Ireland to taste all of these – try fire joker demo.
Guinness Draft and Guinness Foreign Extra Stout
Guinness beer is one of the symbols of St. Patrick’s Day. Largely thanks to this brand, the holiday has become popular worldwide. Guinness Draft is considered the most popular dry Irish stout in the world, the most famous example of its style, and the first commercial stout from Ireland. Guinness Foreign Extra Stout is much denser and stronger and has a noticeable bitterness in the taste and burntness in the aftertaste.
Murphy’s Irish Stout
Murphy’s Irish Stout is one of the main competitors of Guinness, which is becoming increasingly popular every year. This is a classic dry Irish stout, drinkable, and quite light, with a bright coffee aroma and chocolate taste with subtle woody notes.
Smithwick’s Irish Red Ale
This red ale has a distinctive aroma that combines the aroma of noble hops with sweet, fruity notes, deep maltiness, and roasted notes of coffee and barley.
O’Hara’s Curim Gold
This golden wheat ale combines the flavors of bananas, peaches, and plums with the aroma of traditional hops, making it smooth and thirst-quenching. Although this is not the most typical Irish beer, it is ideal for those who prefer lighter, more drinkable beers.
O’Hara’s Irish Stout
A rich, dry Irish stout that combines the taste of coffee with milk, caramel, burnt sugar, and dark chocolate. The Irish Times noted that “this full-bodied and fantastically smooth dry Irish stout takes us back to what a stout should taste like.”
Beamish Irish Stout
Beamish Irish Stout’s smooth, malty aroma is achieved by fermenting the wort with Beamish’s original yeast, which has been used virtually unchanged since the brewery’s founding in 1792. By the way, the taste of this beer, more than others, was influenced by the English porter, which was brought to Ireland in the 18th century.
The Porterhouse Brewing Co. Oyster Stout
Porterhouse’s Oyster Stout is a beloved Dublin dark beer with an exciting combination of grain, hop, and fresh oyster aromas. The brewery adds shellfish when producing this beer. Of course, you won’t find them floating in the mug, but you can taste a hint of their presence in the taste of the beer.
Murphy’s Irish Red
A red, hoppy Irish beer, crisp and dry, with notes of fruit and caramel, known since 1856. The ruby-amber color of Murphy’s Irish Red is achieved thanks to special roasted malt, which gives the beer its bright character.
Harp Lager
Harp Lager is one of Ireland’s leading beer brands, created in 1959 by Guinness to celebrate its 200th anniversary. To produce Harp beer, we use water from Cooley Mountains mountain springs, Irish barley hops from the Hallertau region of Germany, and special Bavarian yeast.
Kilkenny Irish Ale
The popular Kilkenny Irish Ale has a bitter, dense taste with roasted malt notes. This beer is said to be similar to the previously mentioned Smithwick’s Irish Red Ale but has a smoother, creamier finish that gives the beer a unique character.
A little bit of history
Ireland gave the world the famous Guinness stout, which currently occupies more than 85% of the beer market in this country and has held its leading position for 50 years. The modern brewing industry in Ireland numbers more than 100 thousand people employed in the production and marketing of beer, which means that every 35th Irishman has in one way or another, become an unwitting participant in the history of this drink. Have you ever wondered why the country is called the “Irish pub”? Judge for yourself: sales of draft beer account for 84% of the total cider and beer sold in the country combined.
Irish pubs are already an integral part of the life of every Irishman. In Ireland, the most popular are stouts – dark ales with a pronounced hop flavor. They are made from a mixture of malt and roasted barley. The origins of porter began in the 18th century in the capital of England, after which the main “headquarters” of production moved to Dublin, from where mass drink exports to the UK began in the 20th century. Modern stout is a robust dark beer, which is prepared using roasted and caramel malt, as well as roasted barley. Recently, stout has begun to lose its popularity, but in Ireland, this type of porter remains the most popular. Darty Brewing Co is the first Irish brewing company to produce lager, founded in 1892 in Dublin.
Today, the work of this company is continued by Guinness in the Great Northern Brewery (Nagr beer). Guinness’s main competitors in lager production are Murphy and Beamish, which managed to license their brands. Until 1965, the three leading companies, Guinness, Murphy, and Beamish, brewed only porter; sometimes, small breweries managed to “bring” ale to the market, but this lasted only until the 1950s. Since 1965, Guinness has remained the absolute owner of the beer kingdom, having successfully bought out all its competitors (today, Murphy and Beamish are producing “red” ale).
