Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Shamrocks and Shenanigans: A new Irish beer enters Louisiana



I spent a lot of my beginning beer drinking years imbibing in a local Irish bar here in New Orleans called O'Flaherty's Irish Pub. To me there was nothing better than knocking back some Guinness and Bushmills. In fact, I remember my then girlfriend and now wife first told me that she loved me while I was drinking a pint and enjoying some Irish tunes right there at O'Flaherty's. How could I not marry her. I told you, my life has always been about the beer.

Anyways, O'Flaherty's is no longer around and I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a pint of Guinness or consumed any Irish beer for that matter. Until last Friday. I received an email a couple weeks earlier from a Brian Smith who represents Irish based brewer Strangford Lough Brewing Co here in the Southeast. He wanted me to sample them and write up a little review for them so of course I jumped at the chance. It's free beer, who wouldn't. So after a first attempt at trying that resulted in us receiving bad samples a bunch of us were able to sample them again this past Friday night.


The beers we sampled that night were Legbiter and St. Patricks Best Ale. I have to admit they were pretty good. Very sessionable and flavorful beers. The way the company operates is a bit unique. They create the wort there in Ireland and then pull out the water to create a malt extract which they then ship here into the US. From there they have US breweries which take the concentrate and ferment it resulting in their beer. Don't ask me that was just what I gathered from the conversation that we had at the pub that night with Brian. What I did understand was that they can avoid alcohol taxes by shipping the malt extract which contains no alcohol. Pretty smart.

Anyways, be on the lookout for these beers in your local bars and stores. Rumor has it that they are looking for a brewery here locally in Louisiana in order to brew(ferment?) the beers for them!

Cheers!

The Beer Buddha

PS I have no link to the Strangford Lough website because it wasn't working.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

You can find out more about the company at www.slbc.ie

The Beer Buddha said...

Brian,

Thanks for posting! The link doesn't work on my computer. Does it work on anyone elses?

Cheers!

BB

Scott-TheBrewClub said...

Link worked for me! I think that its great that some more Irish beers are making it to the States, but what an interesting process. Is it driven solely to avoid the taxes? Does the beer taste the same here and in Ireland?

I suppose that doesn't matter to much as long as its good! Looking forward to trying it.

Unknown said...

try http://slbc.ie/ and then you can get local information by going to the USA territory and individual states.

Anonymous said...

The web site works fine from my computer .
If the website does not work for you just google Strangford Lough Brewing Company. From the main website you can go to USA or individual states to get local information.

The Beer Buddha said...

Works now!

Cheers!

BB

Unknown said...

Paying less taxes is always a goog thing but the main concept behind the beer is BORN in Ireland, Matured in America. Enjoy!!!

John Blutarsky said...

Hey BB,

I hung out at O'flaherty's back in the day too. Very sad that it's not around anymore. Anyway, the best place in town for a pint of Irish Stout is Finns, owned and run by former O'flaherty's employees.

The Beer Buddha said...

John,

Yeah you are right about Finns! Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

BB

PS You're my favorite character in Animal House.