When it comes to drinking beer I have a few simple rules. One, you drink it from a glass or a bottle. Two, if you drink it from a glass the beer needs to be dark enough that you can’t see your hand through the glass. Three, micro-brews are good and imported is better.
When I worked for EB Games in North Carolina there was a store in the shopping center called World Market. This was a store that specialized in imported stuff–furniture, glasswear, home goods, food, and… alcohol. If I wanted to try something different–at least until the Total Wine & More opened across the street–I’d go to World Market.
And one day I discovered Beamish Irish Stout.
I love Guinness. Why don’t we get that out of the way. 🙂 Guinness Draught–especially from the bottle–is well-nigh perfect. The Guinness Extra Stout? Not so much a fan of that–it’s a little too dark, and it was the beer involved in the failed attempt at turning Guinness green some years ago.
But man cannot live on Guinness alone. So I thought I’d try the Beamish Stout.
And it was marvelous!
So I’d alternate. I’d go from the Guinness to the Beamish to the Guinness to the Beamish.
And then I noticed. Beamish wasn’t being replenished in the stores.
I found out later the reason why. Whoever was handling the import and distribution of Beamish either went out of business or decided not to handle Beamish any more.
So, a life without Beamish… :/
But there’s good news! There’s a new Beamish importer: Crawford and Carlsberg USA.
Beamish Genuine Irish Stout, the flagship product of Ireland’s oldest brewery, will be widely available throughout the United States in pubs, restaurants and stores. This follows the agreement reached between Beamish & Crawford and Carlsberg USA, one of America’s fastest-growing beer importers, which will make this favorite and iconic Irish stout widely available to retailers, wholesalers and distributors, in both draft and cans, throughout the United States.
Marketing & Sales Manager at Carlsberg USA, Martin Olesen said, “We clearly perceive an increasing demand for Irish authenticity. Bar-goers enjoy those feelings of authenticity in their local Irish pub — Irish decor, Irish bar tenders and beer that you would also find in Ireland. There is a strong market demand for a genuine Irish product. Beamish is the Number 2 stout in Ireland, so people really see it as the exciting challenger. Being brewed exclusively in Cork, Ireland makes it a must-have for the Irish bars making that effort for authenticity.
For someone like me, this is fantastic news. Beamish! Irish! Stout!
Beamish produces a fantastic stout, and if you’re a stout drinker like me, check it out sometime. :cheers: