Irish Red Ale: Neither Hoppy Nor Malty

No—if you were among the dazed and confused in the hall at last year’s Great American Beer Festival Saturday afternoon awards ceremony, you weren’t hearing things. All three medals in the Irish-style Red Ale category—gold, silver and bronze—actually did go to Rock Bottom Brewery.

True, they were won by the company’s outlets in three separate states. But beer watchers would have to do some serious head scratching to recall another sweep like that. “A lot of folks came up to us and thought it was the same recipe that won, because all of them taste similar,” said the brewpub chain’s director of brewing operations, Kevin Reed. “Well, shouldn’t they? I mean, Irish Red Ale is a very narrow category.”

For the record, the recipes weren’t the same. They deployed different malts and even different yeast strains, according to Reed.

But, yeah, they tasted the same because Irish Red Ale is a style without any real edges. It is neither hoppy nor particularly malty. It is satisfying, not provocative. The official Beer Judge Certification Program style guidelines offer descriptors like “moderate caramel flavor,” “light grain flavor,” “medium bitterness,” and “easy drinking.” Another guide unhelpfully describes Irish Red Ale as “an Irish Ale noted for its reddish color.”

Jaime Jurado, the director of brewing operations at the Gambrinus Co. (Pete’s Brewing of San Antonio, Texas), said that, more often than not, Irish Red Ale “may well be some brewer’s imaginings of what an Irish beer should be like.”

In an article he wrote for The Brewer International magazine (now The Brewer + Distiller magazine), Jurado noted that the style’s guidelines are so undefined that almost any amber-colored ale—from Grolsch Amber Ale to Bass—might qualify as an Irish Red. “Maybe it helps with St. Patrick’s Day sales,” he quipped.

Much of the difficulty of getting a handle on this variety stems from George Killian’s Irish Red, whose recipe is ostensibly based on the 19th-century original from Enniscorthy, Ireland. That beer got its red color from lightly toasted Irish malted barley and (some believe) caramelized sugar. Of course, these days, Killian’s—brewed in Golden, Colo., by you know who—is neither Irish nor an ale (though, for the record, it is somewhat red).

So many beer drinkers have that easy-sipping macro in mind that even brewpubs with reputations for pushing the envelope simply steer to the middle of the road when it comes to Irish Red Ale.

“It’s innocuous, not super hoppy or roasty,” Reed said of the style. “It’s comfort beer.”

No shame in that. Samuel Adams Irish Red, for example, may be the finest thing ever crafted by Boston Beer. But ask me to describe this gentle, balanced brew, and even after two or three quaffs, the best I can offer is, “Let’s crack open another bottle.”

Still, I wonder about authenticity. After all, hundreds of years before Arthur Guinness made his famous Black Stout, Ireland was famous around the world for its Red Ale. There is the 2,000-year-old story, for example, of Conn of the Hundred Battles. According to myth, the early Celtic king learned the names of those who would succeed him on the throne from a beautiful, dreamlike maiden, who served him Red Ale ladled from a silver vat.

Would a king drink something as pedestrian as Killian’s? I think not.

IRISH RED ALE
Aroma: Moderate malt aroma, light buttery character, no hops
Flavor: Some malt sweetness, buttery or toffee, low bitterness, smooth finish
IBU: 15–20
ABV: 4–6 percent
Examples: Three Floyds Brian Boru Old Irish Ale, O’Hara’s Irish Red Ale, Smithwick’s Irish Ale, Beamish Red Ale, Caffrey’s Irish Ale, Harpoon Hibernian Ale, Thomas Hooker Irish Style Red Ale, Samuel Adams Irish Red. ■