You don’t have to wait until March 17th’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations to crack open a can of Irish beer, but the holiday certainly offers a nice excuse. March is a great month for beer drinking and Ireland is home to numerous great beer brands (not just Guinness). Meaning that there’s plenty to explore and dive into.
That’s exactly what we’re doing today. While Ireland is well known for its dry stouts featuring bittersweet chocolate and coffee flavors, the country is also home to thirst-quenching lagers, flavorful red ales, and myriad other styles commonly seen in the craft beer universe. Generally speaking, Irish beer brands aren’t as easy to find in the U.S. (if they’re available at all). To that end, we decided to list the best Irish beers you can actually find at your local grocery store or beer store. We then ranked the beers according to what we think you should give a shot as St. Paddy’s nears.
8) O’hara’s Irish Red
ABV: 4.3%
Average Price: $9 for a four-pack
The Beer:
You might have been curious about where Killian’s Irish Red was on this list. But while it has its origins in Ireland, it’s made by Coors in the U.S. Instead, we dropped O’hara’s Irish Red in its spot. A much more flavorful example of the style, this traditional red ale is known for its balance of sweetness and bitterness.
Tasting Notes:
The aroma is a bit thin with some caramel, toasted malts, and slight spices. The palate follows suit with some caramel and biscuit-like malts, dried fruits, and a slightly nutty flavor. The finish is dry and slightly bitter from the hop presence.
It’s not a bad beer, but not a very exciting one either.
Bottom Line:
If you want to drink an Irish red ale from Ireland this month, you could do worse than O’hara’s. It might not be the most exciting beer you crack open on St. Patrick’s Day, but at least it will be a break from the stouts and whiskeys.
7) Smithwick’s Red Ale
ABV: 4.5%
Average Price: $9 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This red ale touts itself as “Ireland’s most loved ale.” It’s beloved by many drinkers stateside as well. Known for its dark red color and balanced flavor profile of roasted barley, malts, and slightly bitter hops, it’s sweet, malty, and has just enough hop bite to appeal to most drinkers.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is fairly muted with some slight caramel malts, gentle nutty aromas, some dried fruits… but not much else . The palate is surprisingly sweet, nutty, and has notes of butterscotch, toffee, and light coffee, all with very little hop bitterness.
Bottom Line:
This is a very sweet, malty beer that doesn’t have much hop aroma or flavor at all. I’d prefer a little more balance betweenness sweetness and bitterness though. If you’re into that kind of beer, you’ll enjoy this one. Otherwise, stay away and find something that more suits your palate.
6) Murphy’s Irish Stout
ABV: 4%
Average Price: $7 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
While Ireland is most known for Guinness, there are a few other stouts from the country that are readily available in the U.S. One of the most popular is Murphy’s Stout. From Cork, this robust and flavorful stout is brewed with water, malted barley, barley, and hop extract. It gets its creamy, frothy texture when you crack one open thanks to the addition of nitrogen.
Tasting Notes:
Aromas of freshly brewed coffee, dark chocolate, caramel malts, and a slightly nutty scent fill your nostrils. Sipping it reveals more coffee beans, bittersweet chocolate, toasted malts, and dried fruits. It’s creamy, luxurious, and it finishes pleasantly dry with very little hop bitterness.
Bottom Line:
Irish brewers really know how to craft a great dry stout. For some, if you were to put this beer head to head with Guinness, it would be difficult to tell the difference in terms of flavor and quality. Of course, if you say that in Cork, you might get thrown out of the county and asked never to return.
5) Guinness Extra Stout
ABV: 5.6%
Average Price: $10 for a six-pack
The Beer:
If you’re new to Irish beer, there’s a chance you’ve grabbed a sixer of this assuming that you were buying Guinness Draught. This popular “Extra Stout” is just that: extra. Extra alcohol content, extra bitterness, extra carbonation, extra roasted malty dry flavor. It is not, however, the creamy nitro’d stout that comes off the tap or out of widget cans.
Tasting Notes:
Your nose is first met with aromas of bread-like malts, caramel, chocolate, and slight spice. The flavor is very different from the traditional Guinness. First of all, it’s surprisingly fizzy and not at all creamy. There are notable roasted malt, caramel, and chocolate flavors, and a very bitter, almost tangy finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a unique beer. It tastes sort of like the regular Guinness, but it’s fizzier, maltier, and has a bit of a tangy, hard to pinpoint flavor. It’s not for everyone, but should be tried. That’s what makes this beer stand out and make this list, albeit in the middle.
4) O’Hara’s Irish Stout
ABV: 4.3%
Average Price: $9 for a four-pack
The Beer:
The second O’Hara’s offering on this list, the brand’s Irish Stout is well-known for its rich, robust, well-balanced flavor due to being brewed with Fuggle hops and extra roasted barley. It’s sessionable, flavorful, and highly memorable.
Tasting Notes:
Nosing this beer reveals the aromas of coffee beans, bitter chocolate, licorice, and slight nutty scents. The palate continues this flavor profile with more freshly brewed coffee, light licorice candy, chocolate, as well as vanilla, and toffee. The finish is robust, rich, and ends with a nice kick of dry bitterness at the end.
Bottom Line:
While some stouts stick to coffee and chocolate as their main flavors, Ohara’s leans into the hop bitterness to create a very flavorful, well-balanced beer.
3) Harp Lager
ABV: 4.5%
Average Price: $9 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Some drinkers might not think of Ireland and imagine lager. Brewed since 1959, this sessionable, pale lager is known for its refreshing, malty, slightly hoppy flavor. It’s a no-frills beer that deserves attention all year long. Not just during March.
Tasting Notes:
The nose carries aromas of freshly baked bread, dried hay, fresh grass, and spicy, floral hops. Drinking it reveals more bready malts, slight caramel notes, citrus zest, and bright, floral hops.
Bottom Line:
As reasonably inexpensive mass-produced lagers go, there are a lot worse beers than Harp that get a lot more acclaim. It’s an easy-drinking, fairly well-balanced beer. While not the most flavorful lager, it’s refreshing and crushable any time of year — and that’s why it’s ranked pretty high on this list.
2) Guinness Draught
ABV: 4.2%
Average Price: $9 for a six-pack
The Beer:
There are no Irish beers more well-known than Guinness. Hell, there are few beers that are as well-known as Guinness in the entire world. Brewed since 1759 at St. James Gate in Dublin, Guinness is available in more than 120 countries. If you’re throwing a St. Patrick’s Day party, chances are someone will bring some Guinness Draught.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of roasted malts, raisins, dark chocolate, vanilla, and freshly brewed coffee are prevalent on the nose. The mouthfeel is sublimely creamy and rich with notes of roasted malts, caramel, cocoa, dried fruits, and toffee. The finish is dry and slightly bitter.
Bottom Line:
There’s a reason Guinness is such a popular beer. For such a low ABV beer, it’s amazingly complex with rich, deep aromas and flavors. It’s roasty, bold, rich, and surprisingly drinkable. It only missed the top spot due to the next beer having a slight flavor and underdog edge.
1) Beamish Irish Stout
ABV: 4.3%
Average Price: $8 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
Dublin’s Guinness has a long history, but Cork-made Beamish wasn’t far behind in 1792. Not surprisingly, it has a similar flavor profile to its world-famous counterpart. It’s well known for its flavors of roasted malts, freshly brewed coffee, and bitter chocolate.
Tasting Notes:
This beer’s nose is exactly what you expect and that’s a good thing. There are aromas of caramel, roasted malts, bitter chocolate, and a nutty sweetness that tempers the dry, bitter finish very well. While many of the flavors are similar to Guinness, the extra sweetness puts it over the top.
Bottom Line:
The reason Beamish tops our list is that it ticks all of the Irish dry stout boxes and does it very well. There are flavors of roasted malts, coffee beans, vanilla, nutty flavors, but a nice extra sweetness that pairs well with the dry, bitter ending. There’s a reason most pubs in Cork serve this more than even Guinness (or Murphy’s). It’s got that little something “extra” that lands it at number one.
