Irish Red Ale
Irish red ale: an easy-drinking amber-red ale with a touch of toffee and a dry, roasty finish, a staple of Irish pubs. Strength, bitterness, glass and classic examples.
An Irish red pours amber to reddish copper, clear, under a modest off-white head. It drinks easily: grainy, biscuity malt, sometimes a soft touch of toffee or caramel, and a light taste of roasted grain at the end that dries the finish. The hops stay in the background. Irish versions run lower in alcohol, grainier and drier than the sweeter, stronger reds brewed elsewhere.
Where it comes from
Ireland brewed ale for centuries, but the modern Irish red is young as a named style. The BJCP reads it as an Irish take on the English bitter, with fewer hops and a little roasted barley for the colour and the dry finish. Caramel malts were imported and cost more, so many Irish brewers left them out.
The best-known red has the longest history. John Smithwick founded his brewery in Kilkenny in 1710, on the site of a Franciscan abbey, and his family ran it until Guinness bought it in 1965. Brewing in Kilkenny ended on 31 December 2013; Smithwick’s now comes from St. James’s Gate in Dublin. Ireland’s craft breweries took the style up again, and most of them now brew a red next to a pale ale and a stout, as O’Hara’s does in County Carlow.
How to serve it
Pour it at 7–13 °C into a nonic pint. It goes with roasted vegetables, a cheddar or poached pears.
Next to its neighbours
Against a best bitter, an Irish red tastes less bitter and less hoppy, with a drier, roasty finish. It has less caramel and less body than a Scottish ale of the same strength.
Irish Red Ale in numbers
- Classic examples
- Smithwick's, Murphy's, Carlow Brewing (O'Hara's), Galway Bay Brewery, Eight Degrees Brewing, Wicklow Wolf Brewing
- Original gravity
- 1.036–1.046
- Final gravity
- 1.010–1.014
- Food
- Roasted vegetables; cheddar; poached pears
- Classic examples
- Smithwick's Irish Ale; Kilkenny Irish Beer; Murphy's Irish Red; O'Hara's Irish Red Ale; Porterhouse Red Ale; Franciscan Well Rebel Red
- BJCP style
- 15A Irish Red Ale
Sources
Checked .
- 15A. Irish Red Ale, 2021 Beer Style Guidelines — Beer Judge Certification Program
- Irish-Style Red Ale — CraftBeer.com, Brewers Association
- Smithwick's — Wikipedia
