Smithwick’s Ale — When You Want To Look Cool
Seeing the Irish beer setups for St. Patrick’s day at the supermarket (during a trip to buy Cadbury eggs, if you must ask) reminded me of Smithwick’s Ale, a beer that’s apparently the true day-to-day beer of choice of the Irish. Most people here in America know Guinness, a few know Harp’s and Murphy’s, but those in the know call Smithwick’s the real best beer in Ireland. By “folks in the know”, I mean our fellow American folks who are just a smidge annoying about how much they know and love Ireland. Thinking of this reminded me that I am a seriously obnoxious Ireland-loving Celtic groupie, and I haven’t inflicted my annoying Irish knowledge on all of you yet. So to correct that deficit, and in honor of upcoming St. Paddy’s day, here’s one of my favorite pictures from my trip to Ireland a few years ago. The view is from a bell tower in Kilkenny, the town where Smithwick’s is brewed, looking into the back storage lots behind a brewery. Those gray things you see stacked in rows behind the houses, the things that look like big gray storage sheds or tractor trailers, are KEGS — hundreds of them, stacked up five or six high, and hundreds deep. Yes, the stereotypes are true — the Irish are not messing around when it comes to drinking. There must have been a good 10 thousand of them here, and this is just the domestic output of one brewery in one relatively small town. Now that’s sightseeing.
And the beer? Well, I like my Smithwick’s as much as anyone else, but the beer in the kegs in the above photo is the actual best beer in Ireland: Guinness. Slainte!
I wasn’t always a beer snob. In fact, I used to hate beer. But when I think back, I can always point to the one brewery that taught me that beer didn’t have to taste like urine (go keystone!). And that brewery was headed by the jolly, slurring, german guy who would pipe up on the radio, “its the best beer you’ve ever tasted, or my name isn’t Karl Strauss”. Now, its not the best beer I’ve ever tasted, but it is damn good, so I’ll give old Karl the credit and let him keep his name.
[A young woman hears a knock at her apartment door...]
I have decided that I just have an affection for “Black” beers. Note the distinction from Porters, Browns and Stouts. Those are awesome too, but there is something special about a 
We like Chris McGowen. Why? Well apart from him being a nice guy, he’s one of the stable of local Favorite Amatuer Brewmasters that routinely supply me with tasty concoctions. His latest edition is one I affectionately call Wheat White Wit. Cause although to beer snobs there’s a distinction, when I asked Chris what he made, those three words all made it into the descriptive response. But hey, whose counting? Its free beer! Super duper cloudy (Chris spilled grain in the beer..doh!), it was a nice easy drinking wheat/white/wit beer. Perfect for a summer BBQ. If you can get your hands on some, I highly recommend taking his advice and mowing the lawn while chugging it down. There’s something about controlling a 3ooo rpm spinning blade of death and alcohol that just go together.
Jon is discussing. 
As I will be heading up to Seattle tomorrow, I thought it appropriate to finally mention how much I dig Naughty Nellie Golden Ale. As a matter of fact, in the fridge these days are several bottles of Nellie’s curves, taunting me to drink. You know how the naughty ones are, “don’t have milk Frosty…look at my sexy yellow bottle.”
Frosty 8:33 am on March 2, 2010 Permalink
Everyone knows Mickey’s is the official Irish beer. House of Pain said so. And it comes in a green bottle! That makes it Irish right?
Randy 7:23 pm on March 2, 2010 Permalink
THE IRISH TRILOGY – PART 2 – SMITHWICK’S
‘Tis sure I’ll be wearing the green,
When the calendar says March seventeen,
To help me to think,
It Smithwick’s I drink,
Just try some, you’ll know what I mean.