With Autumn in full swing, the weather changing and the evenings drawing in — October is the perfect month for a traditional Irish red ale.
With the surge in new Irish breweries over the last 15 years or so, there have been many new red ales released into the Irish market. Previously, it was simply a choice between Smithwick’s, Kilkenny and Macardle’s. You might find a Murphy’s red ale in a Irish pub abroad, but that was about it! Some popular red ales around today include O’Hara’s red ale, eight degrees sunburnt red ale and my favorites: Ballykilcavan Brickyard red ale and Wicklow Wolf Wildfire. These — in my opinion at least — are much more flavorsome red ales with a lot more character, and are truer to the style.
Seeing as it’s the perfect month for it (and because it’s also a well known book and film…), wouldn’t it be great to make this month “Red October” each year? A month to celebrate and explore the red ales of Ireland. We could share on social media with the #RedOctober hashtag (along with #DrinkIrish of course!).
Ballykilcavan are getting in on the act, I think this could be a good month! Give your local red ale a go (or whatever you can get your hands on) and let us know what you think on social media (@DrinkIrish1), happy #RedOctober-ing!
