Every visitor that comes to Ireland has to drink Guinness, its nearly religious when in Ireland and in fairness its hard not too! Guinness’s stout is in 99.9% of every Irish bar not only in Ireland but globally. Little do these visitors to Ireland know that there is an industry that is growing year on year offering a more sustainable choice! Stout may not be the first drink that comes to mind when discussing the topic of craft beer but as competition and market share has increase so has the offerings of craft breweries.
Stout comes originally from English Porter approximately 300 years ago. In 1817 a roaster that created a bitter roast was invented. The British breweries chose to ignore this breakthrough but the Irish Breweries embraced it. The other key discovery that separated Irish Stout from Porter was the addition of Nitrogen. Nitro was designed to replace a finicky, convoluted draft system that combined mature, still vat-aged beer with fresh, highly carbonated beer.
Microbreweries will tell you there are two different types of the dark stuff, Stout and Porter. According to the Beer Judgement Certification Program a Stout can be described as ‘fairly strong, highly roasted, bitter, hoppy and dark’ and are usually made from roasted, unmalted barley. Porter on the other hand is often made from malted barley and is described as ‘A substantial, malty dark beer with a complex and flavourful dark malt character’ Both in our opinion are delicious!
Although we haven’t a stout or porter available just yet keep an eye on our social media for updates. We will let you know as soon as any new River Shannon Brewery products are available across any of our social media channels!
