Irish beer
In an era of craft brew arms races to make the most exotic stouts and hoppiest IPAs, the two Irish classics — red ale and dry stout — are often lost in the mix, but that doesn’t make them any less pleasing.
Hart Johnson, bar manager at the technically Scottish, but very Irish-adjacent Piper’s Pub on the South Side, concedes that an Irish Red is “not a style you’re gonna take a picture of and put on Instagram” but notes that they are “easy drinkers” that are akin to a more malty English pale ale.
“Irish Reds skew towards maltiness,” he said. “Smithwick’s is a classic example. It’s not quite as brown as an American amber, and they lighten it up with more malt.”
Among the myriad Irish and Irish-style pints Piper’s will pull this weekend is Criac (pronounced “crack”) from the justshy-of-a-year-old Fury Brewing in North Huntington.
Fury brewmaster Ryan Slicker said, “This was one of the first beers we made. I really like a good red. It’s a style that’s a classic and is fantastic to drink. I think they play the best on cask. When I think of a cask beer, I think of a red ale.”
Brewer Kiel Batanian of Church Brew Works in Lawrenceville ups the ante with a boozier Irish Red, aged in Buffalo Trace bourbon barrels.
Owner Sean Casey explained that this will “impart a bit of smokiness from the charred staves of the barrels, as well as a tad of the residual bourbon that soaks into the staves.”
Dry Irish stout is the best-known Irish style by virtue of Guinness, one of the most popular beverages in the entire world.
“It’s very easy drinking. It’s dark by color only because it has a lightly roasted flavor with a beautiful lacing. That’s what people get caught up on — the stark black liquid with a white foam head. It’s iconic,” Mr. Johnson said.
Over at Hop Farm Brewing in Lawrenceville, they’ll tap a particularly inspired dry Irish stout.
“In the past year, a guy stopped by and gave me a laminated piece of paper, a document for a Miss Mary Mullen, who emigrated from Limerick, Ireland, to our address in 1885,” Hop Farm proprietor Matt Gouwens explained.
“So, we wanted to do something pretty Irish for St. Patrick’s Day this year, and we made a dry Irish stout and named it after her and put a picture of her on the label.”
They emulated the classics — Guinness and Murphy’s — but “with a little more oats so it would be as dry as possible” Mr. Gouwens said.
They ended up with Miss Mary Mullen’s Stout, a 5 percent ABV with Irish pale ale malt, English chocolate and roasted malts, oats, flaked barley and English fuggle hops, served through a nitrogen draft system.
Locally, Zelienople’s ShuBrew and Springdale’s Leaning Cask breweries also made dry Irish stouts for the occasion.
Irish whiskey
Few countries have ever had as complicated a relationship with a spirit as Ireland has with its whiskey, which has inspired