(Above: I enjoyed the Wexford with some Irish Stout cheese and some parmesan cheese crisp)
Wexford Irish Style Cream Ale (Nitro Draught)
Suffolk, England | King Greene 14.9oz Can, 5% ABV
Each year I try to celebrate St. Patty’s Day with some green beer. I had heard of folks drinking green beer but during a visit to St. Paul, MIN, to cover what was supposed to be the last appearance of Robin and Linda Williams on A Prarie Home Companion on March 14, 1987 before Garrison Keillor was going to quit and take off for Denmark with his new wife. (They managed to appear one more time plus Keillor was back in the saddle so to speak just a few years later but without the wife). The St. Paul paper had a story on a local brewer who was canning green beer for the upcoming St. Patty’s Day.
The odds of finding pre-dyed beer was slim down South so I thought I would make my own. I do remember that Matt at Stillwater Taproom downtown used to have a bottle of green food coloring on the bar during the parade but alas … no parades in 2 years due to our COVID mess.
I used to take Catawba’s White Zombie and make a Green Zombie. This year I decided to go all Irish and look for a Irish brew worthy of dyeing green. After a couple of stops the only Irish brew was Guinness and that’s too dark to dye. I found Wexford Irish Style Creme Ale and decided that would have to do. On further inspection it is actually brewed in Suffolk, England and imported via Mt. Pleasant SC. Too late now.
It’s the 16th and I thought I would start celebrating a bit early (I have some Killian’s for St. Patty’s Day chilling… but that is another story). I pulled out the Wexford, pulled the tab and heard the pressurized widget start to charge things up, added a few drops of green food dye to my frosted glass and started pouring. Never had Wexford Irish Style Ale before. Wasn’t exactly the light colored ale I was expecting. It was somewhere between Killian’s and Guinness. The super creamy foam had a hint of green. I couldn’t really describe the color of the beer now. Looks like the color you get when you mix all of the Easter Egg dyes together.
So much for the green beer. Wexford is a nice super creamy brew whose head is almost like whipped cream. But it has that darker biscuity flavor that I’ve tasted in other brews from Ireland and England. The nitro widget adds to the creaminess. The can says served chilled and I drank it chilled. That biscuity flavor adds a bit of dryness on the sides of your mouth that defies the creamy texture that is running across your tongue. It looks dark but I can’t judge that because some idiot put green dye in the beer.
I typically drink beer too fast. This is a beer I can’t drink fast. The flavors are so complex going from biscuit to toasted malt that you have to slow down and enjoy them. Maybe a hint of dark sugar or maybe toffee. But if you slow down too much then it stopped being “chilled” and I think it starts to lose its nice balanced malt flavors.
The can says “Based on a traditional Irish recipe from County Wexford that dates back to 1810, we use only the freshest, most natural ingredients to ensure that our Wexford Ale has a smooth mellow creaminess, we believe you will enjoy.”
I bought the 14.9 oz can. It runs 5% ABV.
Glad I got this out of the way. I wouldn’t want have this spoil my actual St. Patty’s Day toast. That reminds me. I’m in charge of dinner tomorrow night. I got to go find some corned beef and cabbage.
