O'Hara's Irish Stout Nitro
Carlow Brewing Company

440 ml can, best before 28 DEC 2023 stamped on the bottom of the can. Served in a nonic pint glass, the beer pours dark brown/black with a creamy light tan head that stuck around for a very long time. Good amount of lacing, too. The brew smells like roasted malt, coffee, and some earthiness. Taste is similar to the aroma, but there's also some espresso and a bit of licorice flavors noticeable too. Mouthfeel/body is light/medium, it's creamy, smooth and easy enough to drink which I expect from a nitro brew. I liked this brew overall, definitely worth trying if you like nitro Irish Stouts. Wouldn't mind having this one again in the future.

 

Very pleasant stout - creamy and smooth, with hints of roasted malt and a slight chocolatey bitterness. Very quaffable.

14.88oz nitro can stamped BB 28 DEC 2026 poured into a tulip pint glass at fridge temp 4.3% ABV. The beer pours dense black with medium brown colored head. The head recedes to a half inch cap and sticks. Slight lacing. The aroma is mild with ashy, dry roasted malt and hints of very dark chocolate. The taste is more dry roasted malt with flavors (IMO) muted by nitro. There's a hint of coffee and dark cacao before medium bitterness. The feel is thin bodied with typical nitro feel and a dry finish. Overall, good dry stout that would probably be better with CO2...

I picked this up at Purvis Beer in Melbourne in February 2026 and drank it almost exactly one month later.

L: Ritual pour aside, this is a pretty beer, made all the more so by the cascading bubbles achieved by a hard, vertical pour out of the can. Once everything settles, it's ruby-black in the glass, with a classic mocha-coloured nitro-stout-pour head. The beer is still and impenetrable once the head settles.

S: The nose is mild coffee and chocolate with some sweet malts. There's not a lot there, but what is there is pleasant and to spec.

T: The taste is mild coffee and sweet chocolate, and is utterly quaffable. A milky, lactose-sugary sweetness is present, but it simply adds layer to the chocolate and coffee, and everything is restrained and pleasant. There's also something there that borders on minerality but never quite gets there, which is a good thing. I'd say it's slightly more adventurous than its famous cousin, but that's not hard given that one's mass-market appeal.

M: The body is pillow soft. There is almost no carbonic bite on the swallow.

O: Don't get me wrong, this is nice, and marking it as a nitro Irish Dry Stout means it ticks all the boxes and ticks them well. But there are so many more-flavoursome stouts out there (not necessarily Irish Dry Stouts) that it would realistically rank well down on the list if they were all in front of me and ready to drink. That said, it does a great job of being an excellent alternative to you-know-what, and I suspect that's all it's trying to do!

Cheers!
#804

Side note - I ran the review above through an AI to see how it would improve what I wrote. It's safe to say the version it came up with was far better than what I wrote, and I present it below to show how it compares to the flawed human version. While I'm not quite ready for our AI overlords to tell me what I'm tasting, you've gotta admit it does a good job!

Review: Nitro Irish Dry Stout
Purchased: Purvis Beer, Melbourne (Feb 2026) | Tasted: March 2026

Appearance
The "ritual" hard vertical pour is rewarded with a beautiful, cascading nitrogen surge. Once settled, the beer is a deep ruby-black—completely impenetrable to light. It’s crowned by a dense, mocha-hued head with the characteristic "nitro-bead" surface tension. No visible carbonation remains once the head stabilizes.

Aroma
The nose is a study in restraint: mild roasted coffee and dark cocoa nibs underpinned by a clean, cereal-sweet malt base. While the aromatic intensity is low, it is technically "to spec" for the style—no off-esters or diacetyl, just a pleasant, focused roast.

Taste
Utterly quaffable. It leads with a delicate interplay of cold-brew coffee and milk chocolate. There is a distinct lactose-driven creaminess that adds a layer of sugary sweetness without becoming cloying. I detected a hint of minerality on the mid-palate that stops just short of being "metallic," which provides a necessary structural counterpoint to the sweet malt. It is certainly more "adventurous" than its famous St. James's Gate cousin, though it stays firmly within the lines of mass-market appeal.

Mouthfeel
Pillow-soft and exceptionally smooth. The nitrogen treatment completely rounds off the edges, leaving virtually zero carbonic bite on the swallow. The body is light-to-medium, making it dangerously easy to finish.

Overall Assessment
This beer hits every marker for a Nitro Irish Dry Stout with precision. It’s an excellent, craft-leaning alternative to the "global standard," and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. However, in a world of high-viscosity, high-flavor stouts, it ranks as a "reliable session player" rather than a "headline act." If you’re looking for a technical, clean, and refreshing dark ale, this ticks all the boxes.

Cheers! #804

14.88 fl.oz. can
Served in a becker glass

Poured hard, this beer is dark brown in color with a waterfall effect creating a couple inches of creamy tan head that has excellent staying power.

Peaty, roasted malt aroma with hints of dark chocolate and black coffee.

The flavor is more chocolatey than the aroma had me believe. Quite nice actually. Some roasted malt in the finish.

Full bodied with a creamy mouthfeel

I like this better than Guinness.

 

 

Pours a three toned brown, tan with lots of cascading foam as previously mentioned, the aroma is chocolate, a little vanilla, and coffee. The taste is chocolate, some coffee, vanilla, roasted malt, and a good, creamy mouthfeel. I probably prefer this a little more than Guinness as it seems a little richer, and is more coffee forward, and not my fave style tbh, but the pour is spectacular and worth witnessing a few times if able, cheers!

 

 

The pour is motor oil black with a tan & frothy head of foam. The taste is rich roasted malt, dark chocolate, along with some hints of coffee, & black currant. Cheers! B

I love this, for a nitro stout it poured out of the can perfectly, almost no effort to get that beautiful layering and head I expect from a proper bar. Smells roasty, toasty, and chocolatey. I'm not getting as much of that acidic coffee note I get with Guinness or murphy's and for me that's a plus. The mouth feel is just perfectly creamy as well. Would recommend spending the extra few bucks for these if you want an elevated nitro stout at home, would love to see these on tap but I doubt I will in my area.

Canned in a big old tallboy crafty craft can and part of my secret Santa present from the Office
Pours, with a pop so I should imagine there is some kind of widget, to reveal a slow to settle jet black body with huge tan head
Aroma is creamy porridge with brown sugar
Flavour is pontefract cakes but waterery

If a Stout could be watered down. It would be this. Despite a beautiful dark color and nice head, nothing but a slight bit of bitterness and no flavor. Not impressed but to each his own.

 

RB transfer

From a Nitro Can into a beer glass. A very dark pour, beautiful cascading foam, dark roasted aroma on the pour. Excellent head retention and lacing.
Flavor is of dark caramelized malt, mild bitterness. Notes of chocolate, coffee, hints of caramel and vanilla.
Very Guinness like in many ways, as expected.
Mild bitterness and dry on the finish.
As for the style, it is spot-on.
A very good Dry Irish Stout.

 

Looks and pours just like the Guinness Nitro i had earlier. Taste wise, it's also similar but O'Haras is the better beer. It's just like Guinness but with a little more kick in the chocolate roast department. I'm not always a huge fan of Nitro beers anyhow but I would drink this one again, and as long as it's available I wouldn't want a Guinness.