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Tuesday, March 6, 2007

SBP #1 Re-visited: Irish Pub Stout

I'm late with this, but I hope no one minds. The Victory Stout I wrote about earlier has been released as it was meant to be: Irish Pub Stout, the new house beer of Philly's Irish Pub. It went on tap March 1st, and yes, there will be plenty for St. Patrick's Day...if you're so inclined.

Myself, as a drinking pro? I'm going to do the same thing on St. Pat's that I do on New Year's Eve and Mardi Gras: stay home and let you amateurs have fun!

8 comments:

Loren said...

How does this puppy compare to Sly Fox's? And I thought they were looking to become the Guinness of Philly? War of the Dry Stouts?

Cheers!

Lew Bryson said...

It's good, and I'm looking for the chance to side-by-side them. The one I had at Victory did need some work on the carbo/nitrogenation, but the flavor was solid.

As for competition...the more the merrier, but as I understand it, the Irish Pub has an exclusive (outside of Victory's taproom) for a certain period of time. Sly Fox better start nailing down taphandles.

Anonymous said...

Normally, I like to stay home on the drinking holidays, but my wife was born on St. Patrick's Day and Brown's Brewing has the Blessing of the Bar, so it looks like I will be out that day, but what better place to be than one of the best brewpubs in NY?

Pionta Guinness, le do thoil.

Lew Bryson said...

Bill, you've obviously got extenuating circumstances. Go, enjoy.

Anonymous said...

A question, what is a dry stout?

Lew Bryson said...

What's a dry stout?

Short answer: like Guinness.

Long answer: http://www.beertown.org/events/gabf/gabf_styles3_3.htm and it's #60.

My answer: a classic black ale that's session-strength (under 4.5%), medium-light in body, firmly hopped (for bittering, not aroma), and made with enough roasted barley (not malt, barley) to give it a dry, burnt, bitterness. It's a real "I'll have another" beer; the dryness gets you set up for the next sip quite nicely.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Lew.

I'm trying to learn more here, so bear with me.

Now, I remember that milk stout has milk sugar added to it at some point, so I guess I can assume that oatmeal stout has oats added at some point.

Are there other stouts out there other than the ones already mentioned?

I know there are numerous porters out there as well (I knda like porters more than stouts).

Now I do confess I like big beers sometimes, especially barleywines.

I appreciate your patience.

Lew Bryson said...

Bill! Learning is what I'm all about!

Other stouts? Yes.

There's foreign or export stout, a stronger version (6+% range) of dry stout with more body to it.

There's sweet stout, a mostly Caribbean type, that's full-bodied, quite sweet, fairly strong, and nowhere near as noxious as it sounds. I actually rather like sweet stout.

There's a variety of flavored stouts: fruit, coffee, and chocolate, mostly. Some suck, some are excellent, as with other flavored beers.

There's "American stout," which is kind of halfway between dry stout and foreign stout, with a boatload of aroma hops thrown in.

Then there's Russian Imperial stout, a really big monster ranging up over 10%, with a ton of burnt barley character to balance the big body.

There are also a number of bourbon-barrel-aged stouts these days, ranging from 5% to 10% and more on either end. They're just what they sound like: stouts aged in bourbon barrels, where they pick up the bourbon wood character (and usually a bit more ABV).

I'm a big fan of porter, myself. And I do like a big beer. Just because I like session beers, doesn't mean I don't like big ones!