Lager
Lager beer, which was first brewed in Germany some 500
years ago, has since become one of the most popular beer
styles in the world. The word "lager" stems from
the German lagern ("to store"), and refers to
the practice of storing beer at a cold temperature to allow
the beer to self-filter. Traditionally, the beer is stored
in barrels for several weeks or longer before being served.
Lager
is also a general name that includes several variations,
such as Pilsner (a pale lager) and Märzen (a bottom
fermented lager).
Lagered beers run the gamut from sweet to bitter, and
from pale to black. Most lagers are of pale to medium color,
with high carbonation, medium to high hop flavor, and alcohol
content of 3–5 percent by volume.
The first lager brewery in Ireland was set up in Darty
in Dublin in 1891, but did not survive very long. Lager
was later brewed for a short period in Kells, in the Regal
Brewery.
In 1959 the consumpution of lager in Ireland and United
Kingdom was five times greater than the 1950's figure elsewhere
and the potential of brewing and marketing lager with a
traditional continental character in the islands was realised.
Brands of Lager
• Harp -
Harp Lager (Harp Irish Lager since 1997) is a pale lager
brand owned by Diageo. It
is brewed in the Dundalk brewery in the Republic of Ireland,
the Labatt's brewery in Canada and the Hydes' brewery
in the United Kingdom. In Australia distribution is handled
by Carlton & United Breweries.
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Irish Red Ale
The ales produced in Ireland are now largely
in the Irish red ale style, with a slight red colour,
generally not
very strong (although export versions are often stronger).
The slightly reddish colour comes from the use of roasted
barley in addition to the malt. The beers are typically
fairly low in alcohol (3.5% ABV typically), although
stronger export versions are brewed. A red ale tastes less
bitter or hoppy than an English ale, with a pronounced
malty, caramel flavor.
Brands of Irish Red Ale
• Beamish Red is a sweetish red ale, made to resemble Smithwick's
or Murphy's Irish Red, but apparently solely for export,
notably to France.
• Smithwick's (pronounced
'smit-icks') is an Irish red ale style beer from Kilkenny
in Ireland. Smithwick’s
was originally brewed in St. Francis Abbey Brewery in
Kilkenny, known as 'Smithwicks Brewery' until c.2000.
The brewery is situated on the site of a Franciscan abbey
where monks had brewed ale since the 14th century, and
has ruins of the original abbey on its grounds. It is
Ireland’s oldest operating brewery, founded by
John Smithwick in 1710 on land owned by the Duke of Ormonde.[1]
It is the major ale producer in Ireland. It was purchased
from Irish Ale Breweries in 1965 by Guinness and is now,
along with Guinness, part of Diageo. Smithwick’s
is now brewed in Dundalk as well as in Kilkenny. From the
early '60s until the mid '80s, Smithwick's was the second
most popular beer in Ireland after Guinness
and continues to be Ireland's largest selling brand that
isn't a stout.
• Kilkenny is an Irish cream ale which originated in Kilkenny,
Ireland. The brand is managed and produced by Diageo at
their St. Francis Abbey Brewery. Kilkenny is very similar
to Smithwick's Draught. However, it has
a nitrogenated cream head similar to Guinness
and has a stronger taste (more bitter than Smithwicks).
The 'Kilkenny' name was originally used during the '80's
and '90's to market a stronger version of Smithwick's
for the European and Canadian market due to difficulty
in pronunciation of the word 'Smithwick's'. It now refers
to a similar yet distinctly different beer.
• Murphy's
Irish Red. After
the Murphy's brand was bought by Dutch brewer
Heineken, "Irish
Red" was launched
for the export market, as it was hoped that it would
be more popular than stout overseas. As a consequence,
the Murphy's brand name has become synonymous with the
Irish Red product outside of Ireland, despite Irish Red
being rather unpopular and/or unknown in Ireland itself.
Murphy's Irish Red Beer is a product obtained from wort,
made from malted barley, roasted material
(barley and malt), drinking water and hops, alcoholically
fermented with pure culture yeast of the type Saccharomyces
cerevisiae.
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Stout
Stout is a style of dark beer made using roasted
malts or roast barley. There are a number of variations
including
sweet stout, dry stout, and Imperial stout. Porter, a similarly
dark ale, was first recorded as being made and sold in
London in the 1730s. It became very popular in Great
Britain and Ireland and was responsible for the trend
toward large regional breweries with tied pubs. With
the advent of pale ale the popularity of dark beers decreased,
apart from Ireland where the breweries of Guinness, Murphy's,
and Beamish grew in size with international interest
in Irish (or dry) stout.
Stout brewed by Guinness (and the smaller brewers
Murphy's and Beamish) dominated domestic beer consumption
in Ireland,
with lager (Harp Lager) and ale (Smithwick's, Macardle's
and Cherry's) having much smaller shares. Much more recently
(beginning in the 1990s) small, craft-brewing brewpubs
such as the Franciscan Well Brewpub in Cork, the Biddy
Early Brewery in County Clare, and a number of small breweries
in Dublin have started to brew and sell their own distinctive
and popular beers. Dublin Brewpubs include Messers Maguires
on Burgh Quay and The Porter House on Parliament Street.
Brands of Stout
• Beamish stout
is Beamish and Crawford's flagship product. Beamish
is made from natural ingredients, including water
from Lake Gouganebarra. The daily production is tasted
each day by the Head Brewer to ensure the consistent
quality of his brews. Beamish Stout "ruby rich" is
a black, opaque beer with a thick, creamy head. It has
a mellow, tasty
body, dominated by well-roasted malt. A marked bitterness
is helped down by a silky sparkle.
• Guinness is a dry stout that
originated in Arthur Guinness's St. James's Gate Brewery
in Dublin,
Ireland. The beer is based upon the porter style that
originated in London in the early 1700s. It is one of
the most successful beer brands in the world, being exported
world wide. The distinctive feature in the flavour is
the roasted barley which remains unfermented.
Draught Guinness is served cool with the beer line run
through a cooler to chill the liquid to the required
temperature. Due to the foaming action of the nitrogen
it can take a while for the beer to settle as it is poured,
often requiring a pause. Guinness has made a virtue of
this wait with advertising campaigns such as "good
things come to those who wait" and "it takes
119.5 seconds to pour the perfect pint." Some bartenders
also draw a simple design, using the head of the tap,
such as a shamrock in the head during the slow pour.
The Guinness company also produced the Guinness Book
of Records, which originated in 1955 when a debate in
a pub after a hunt could not be settled with existing
reference books. After merger with the firms of Arthur
Bell and United Distillers, the firm became Guinness
PLC and was no longer headed by a family member. It
combined with Grand Metropolitan to form Diageo PLC in
1997, at which point the Book of Records was sold to
Gullane Entertainment, who in turn were purchased in
2002 by the book's current publishers, HIT Entertainment.
• Murphy's is
a stout ale. The stout is synonymous with Cork, as is
its close cousin Beamish Stout also
brewed in Cork. The Murphy Brewery was founded by James
J. Murphy in Cork, Ireland in 1856.
Murphy's Irish Stout has a less bitter, 'nuttier' flavour
than the more famous Guinness brand of stout. The manufacturers
had a television advertising campaign which played on
this fact — "like the Murphy's, I'm not bitter." Many
drinkers of Murphy's Irish Stout believe it has an aftertaste
of coffee. This is because a small amount
of chocolate is added when brewing Murphy's Irish Stout.
Murphy's Irish Stout also competes with another Cork-brewed
stout, Beamish Stout, from Beamish and Crawford. At one
time, Murphy's was known by locals as the "Catholic
stout" and Beamish was considered the "Protestant
stout" in Cork.
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Breweries
• Beamish
and Crawford brewery
was founded in Cork, Ireland in 1792 by William Beamish
and William Crawford. They purchased an existing brewery
on a site that had been used for brewing since at least
1650 (and possibly as early as 1500). Alfred Barnard, a
noted brewing and distilling historian, remarked in his
book Noted Breweries of Great Britain & Ireland in
1889 that "The business of Beamish & Crawford
in Cork is a very old one dating as far back as the seventeenth
century and it is said to be the most ancient porter brewery
in Ireland." The brewery is situated in the heart
of Cork's medieval city, close to the site of the city's
South Gate. Beamish was known as a Protestant beer, in
contrast to its Catholic neighbour, Murphy's.
Under Beamish and Crawford the brewery prospered and
by 1805, the brewery had become the largest in Ireland
and the third largest in the British Isles, with an output
of 100,000 barrels per annum, up from 12,000 barrels
per annum in 1792. In 1865, the brewery underwent a modernisation
programme and was completely revamped at a cost of £100,000.
The company went public in 1901, issuing a share capital
of £480,000. Further expansion was aided by the
acquisition of a number of local breweries in the early
1900s.
In 1962, it was purchased by
the Canadian brewing firm Carling-O'Keefe Ltd, who embarked
on a modernisation
programme at the brewery. In 1987, Elders IXL purchased
Canadian Breweries (incorporating Carling-O'Keefe).
In 1995, Elders sold the brewery to Scottish and Newcastle.
In addition to their own produce, they brew and distribute
a number of internationally known brands of beer.
• Murphy's
Brewery was founded by James J. Murphy
in Cork in 1856. The name of the company at this
time was James J. Murphy & Co. It was James
J. Murphy, the eldest brother, who led the company
for
its first 40 years. The brewery enjoyed great success
during this period reaching a capacity of 100,000
barrels and opening its first export market, the
U.K.
Francis J. Murphy succeeded James J. as chairman of
the company following his death in 1897. Following the
death of Francis J., three of James J.'s sons in succession
- Charles Eustace, Albert St. John, and finally Fitzjames
- led the company. This generation continued the Murphy
family tradition as key figures in Cork. On the death
of Fitzjames in 1946, his son John Fitzjames was recalled
from service with the British army. At this time he held
the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was affectionately
known in the brewery and in Cork at large as the Colonel.
He served as a company director until becoming company
chairman in 1958. He held this position until 1971 whereupon
he was appointed Honorary Life President of Murphy Brewery
Limited. A position he held until his death in 1980.
The Colonel, grandson of James J. Murphy, was the last
direct descendant to hold office at the brewery.
Since 2001, its official name has been Murphy Heineken
Brewery Ireland Ltd, as part of a previous takeover by
Heineken.
• St. James's Gate Brewery is
a brewery in Dublin, known as the home of Guinness.
Leased in 1759 by Arthur
Guinness at £45 per year,
St. James's Gate has been the home of Guinness ever
since. It became the largest brewery in Ireland in
1838 and
was the largest in the world in 1914. (Although no
longer the largest brewery in the world, it is still
the largest
brewer of stout in the world.) During the 19th and
early 20th centuries, the brewery owned most of the
buildings in the surrounding area, including many streets
of
housing
for brewery employees and offices associated with
the brewery. The brewery also made all of its own power
using its own power plant. There is an attached exhibition
on
the 250-year-old history of Guinness, called the Guinness
Storehouse.
• Smithwick's is
a brewery in Kilkenny in Ireland. It was founded by
John Smithwick
in 1710. It has the ruins
of the St. Francis Abbey in its grounds. It is
the major ale producer in Ireland. It is now owned
by Guinness. St. Francis Abbey Brewery has long and historic
links with Kilkenny and is Ireland’s oldest operating
brewery, stretching back to the 14th century.
