Take 6: Stouts
Celebrating Ireland's Famous Drink this St Patrick's Day
Take 6: Stouts
This deeply researched and meticulously curated special edition of Take 6, written for St Patrick’s Day, is, actually, a bit of a misnomer. Whilst Ireland is forever associated with stout, “porter came first” writes Christina Wade in her excellent book, Filthy Queens: A History of Beer in Ireland.
So, despite the title, we have 5 stouts, and 1 porter, a tribute to the drink that everyone in Ireland drank in the 18th century, of which the most famous was Maddocks’ Irish Porter. To find these beauties, we strongly recommend that you lose yourself in the Craft Beer Section of some of our best drinks Stores, like Bradley’s in Cork, Redmond’s in Ranelagh, Blackrock Cellar in Blackrock, Co Dublin, and The Vineyard on Belfast’s Ormeau Road
Bradleys/Dot Brew: Next Up Imperial Stout 9%abv
Shane of Dot Brew always does interesting collaborations, and this peachy team-up with the sainted Bradley’s Off-Licence of North Main Street in Cork is a worthy celebration of one of the great drinks shops in Ireland, a veritable treasure trove of the best drinks and, in particular, the best craft beers. There is a pot still whiskey note evident straight away, and the texture belies the hulking abv. We were all over this, with its welter of fig, prune, tea-soaked dried fruit and rich tea biscuit.
Whiplash Scaldy Porter 5.5%abv
A big hit of demerara sugar comes racing through, from our sole porter in this line up. It’s a Robust Porter, yet the texture is light, which allows the toffee and chocolate notes to develop. Get a second can so you can cook some nice beef cheek, and enjoy it with the first can.
Whitefield Irish Stout 7.5%abv
Cuilan Loughnane is one of the great Irish brewers, and here he uses Tipperary barley to craft a light, treacly stout with a syrupy sweetness on the finish. We were getting yeasty bread aromas, all held together with a raspy acidity. Lotsa booze, but you probably won’t be aware of that… until maybe it’s too late. A great drink from one of the great family craft breweries, and the day you discover Whitefield beers is a really great day.
8 Degrees Bojanter Irish Stout 4.3%abv
The Bojanter is as crisp as a belt from a Bishop’s crozier. Deeply malty, and it both looks and tastes like an old-style stout, the sort of large bottle your uncle kept in a cool cupboard near the sink. It’s clean and sessionable and would be an ace match for some umami-driven food – think miso, mincemeat, maybe some pork straight off the bbq.
White Deer Stag Stout 4.2%abv
A North Cork double chocolate and Madagascan vanilla stout, but that line-up belies the subtlety and composition of the White Deer. Despite the vanilla there is a pleasing mouth-puckering quality here, and one of us was put in mind of Fentiman’s Cola. Great for drinking, but this would also be marvelous for baking: bet you can already smell that Stag Stout loaf baking happily in the oven.
Lough Gill Shamrock Irish Breakfast Stout 7.5%abv
Come on! An Irish breakfast stout! Truly the Breakfast of Champions, and look at all that booze: there would be no work getting done after a breakfast of this beauty. The deep savoury note puts us in mind of Irel coffee essence, with a caramel undertow and a wee hint of cola. Our breakfast suggestions included bacon and eggs – for the fatty contrast – kippers, and pancakes. Ireland needs more breakfast stouts, no question about it.
There’s both eating and drinking in Stout and Porter, and no better place to start than Caroline Hennessy’s The Official Guinness Cookbook, from which we took the idea pictured here - Beer Can Chicken. The stout keeps the chicken moist, flavours it and makes a really interesting gravy. You can buy Caroline’s book in the Guinness Storehouse. Read more of that below…