The Spirit World

On Long Island St Patrick’s Day is not just a day, it’s a season. Starting the weekend before and sometimes running until the week after March 17th are the community parades commemorating… what? St Patrick? The Irish? One would almost think it was the time of year for people to stand around Main Street and watch fire trucks go by. What are all those people standing around doing while the fire trucks are going by?

That’s right, you guessed it. Drinking beer.

The parade in my town was last weekend and I took the family down to Main Street and we stood outside Callahan’s and waved at the fire trucks. Oh, yes. And had a little beer. Callahan’s was having specials on Guinness and Harp, but a lot of people had brought their own beer-like beverages. I admit that I was more tempted by the homebrew than the megabrew. A friend of mine had brought along a tasty pilsener hopped with German nobles from his own yard. There was also a chocolatey porter that I had a hand in brewing. All this we drank our of stylish boot-shaped steins.

One thing Guinness is good for is cooking with. My wife, Denise, made a scrumptious corned beef dish where the meat marinaded in Guinness. When it came time to actually consume the corned beef and cabbage (and carrots and potatoes and onions), I decided to open up a bottle of Snake Chaser from Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

This beer is Lakefront’s Irish Style Stout. It’s not nitrogenated, nor does it have one of those widgets, but there’s more flavor in a bottle of Snake Chaser than in a draught can of Guinness. Instead of the light sourness of the Guinness, Snake Chaser comes across as well balanced between hop bitterness and roasty maltiness. I detected some coffeeish notes too. It’s a decent beer to have with one’s corned beef and cabbage.

Happy St Patrick’s Day!