I'm looking for a distinctive Irish red ale

I stand corrected. Twice.
Is this the only one I've overlooked?

 

This. The Harpoon Celtic is the only non-Barrel Room Series or Leviathan they put out that really appeals to me.

 

Pipeworks Sam vs Unicorn was just released this month. It was delicious. Nice hop forward taste with a great sweetness, almost cherry like at the end. was the best ive had.

 

A bit surprised I'm the first one to say Smithwick's, but then again I guess I'm really not surprised.

Great beer I couldn't get enough of living in Ireland.

 

Smithwick's has been mentioned. And there are also Kilkenny and Murphy's Red. Not sure, but I think they might all belong to Guinness more or less.

 

Murphy's is a Heineken-owned brand and, for the US market at least, the Murphy's Irish Red Beer is brewed by the parent company in The Netherlands.

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Diageo-owned Kilkenny is available in kegs only in the US, and is somewhat rare.

 

It seems to be akin to a pale/ amber ale. I am not sure it represents a distinctive style.

 

“Irish beer is generally just terrible. Terrible.” Well, “terrible” is a bit harsh.

I would characterize Irish beers as being unremarkable.

I would be tempted to agree to: “…the craft beer scene took a foothold and starts to shake things up like has happened in the the US, UK etc.” but I have made some statements of support for some ‘shake up’ of the German beer scene on the Germany forum. I am already not too popular with some to the German BA forum folks. I am unwilling to take on the Irish BA folks at the same time. In other words, I will decline to fight a two-front war (I have learned fro history).

Good luck Zimbo on your quest!

Cheers!

Jack

 

For such a place with a rich brewing tradition, Ireland has startling lack of variety. Surely, there are enough craft beer geeks and real ale beards over there to bring about change.

It may already be happening with new Independent Owned Breweries like O'hara's and Galway Hooker. I think Ireland suffered from some extreme consolidation in the brewing industry.

 

No shit? My bad haha

 

Remember when Celtic was released under the name Hibernian. Had it on tap at the brewery in seaport Boston. Twas epic!

 

Boulevard's Irish Red (Kansas City) comes out late winter/early spring and is quite good, if perhaps just slightly hoppier than I tend to think of my ideal Irish Red being...Sam Adams is another good one, again, w/just a bit more Goldings character than I'd find absolutely ideal...

 

Toppling Goliath makes a really good one, but obviously hard to get outside Iowa/Wisconsin.

 

Skimmed the thread - didn't see it mentioned...

Not saying it's amazing or that you should go out of your way to find some, but when the bar I tended at had Porterhouse Red on tap (happened 2-3x), I thought it was pretty decent for what it was and compared to others in the "style". Can't vouch for it in the bottle.

And, guess what? It's from Ireland.

 

At 5.5%? Imperial?

And an Irish red should not remind you of an IPA. It's an Irish red, for what that's worth. It shouldn't remind you of a stout either.
How did it come to this that we measure everything on it's merits compared to an IPA?

 

I think that the main problem with finding a distinct Irish Red is that the style is fairly straight-forward and does not lend itself to extraordinary concoctions. In the past few months, I had a Flying Dog Lucky SOB. That might be the best Irish Red that I ever had, but again I didn’t think it was head-and-shoulders above the rest by any means.

 

Boulevard Irish ale is the best I've had. It is a spring/ st pattys seasonal