Fav Irish Red Ale ?

I can honestly say I haven't had an 'Irish' Red Ale but my favourite example of the style is from Picaroons, a local brewery.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/7739/14064/

 

Unfortunately Brian Boru has been discontinued.

 

Are the Irish familiar with this style, or is it another American invention?

 

I really haven't found one that I've liked. Would like to try Great Lakes offering in the style.

 

It's bitter under a different name.Beoir http://www.beoir.org/ ,an independent group of consumers with a primary goal of supporting and raising awareness of Ireland's native independent microbreweries. have this to say ;
The second proven thesis from the evening's tippling is that Irish Red is not a real beer style. On the night, nobody was confident about which was Smithwick's and which was Bass, even though one is supposedly an Irish "red ale" and the other a British "keg bitter". Kilkenny was easily spotted since it had a nitro head, but had John Smith's or Tetley's Smooth been in the mix, I think there would have been some contention. Likewise there was no way either craft beer was going to be mistaken for a mass-produced ale like Bass, but a quality British red keg ale -- Brewdog 5am Saint, for instance -- would, I believe, have muddied the water considerably. Until further tests are carried out, I think my hypothesis that "Irish Red" is simply keg bitter stands.

 

Yes and no. Irish red ale, in its quintessential form, is really just a degenerate form of English best bitter. It is what you get if you take most of the hops and crystal malt out of a bitter, add a little roast barley to make up for the lost colour and serve it on nitro to disguise its crappiness with a thicker mouthfeel. As the post quoted above suggests, there is not much difference between the Bass brewed in Scotland for the Irish market and the Smithwicks brewed in Ireland.

However lots of new Irish microbreweries now make something they call "Irish red".

 

Red Ales are hard to find in my neck of the woods, although a few local micros had them on tap for St. Paddy's this year. Frankenmuth Brewing sometimes has an Irish Red on tap, but I have not tried it (yet). Many people lump Red's in with Amber Ales but they are not the same, a Red Ale is much hoppier than an Amber. I agree that a Red is really closer to a Pale Ale. I think a Red should have an IBU in the 30's or 40's. I do not know why they are not more popular.