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.
