Brewery: Clanconnel
Location: Waringstown, Northern Ireland
ABV: 4.3%
Source: The Vineyard, Belfast

Northern Ireland has a new bottled beer on the shelves, and it’s the second offering from Clanconnel. I covered their first one back in January 2009 so they’re not exactly flooding the market with new releases. Back then, while I wasn’t totally won over by Weaver’s Gold I did reckon the brewery showed promise so I was certainly keen to try this new one.

McGrath’s Irish Red is named after champion greyhound Master McGrath, of whom you can read a bit more here. Colour is a dark amber, with a reddish glow when held up to the light. The aroma is very pleasant, malty toffee underpinned with some dark fruit notes. On to the drinking and the first taste I got was of smooth caramel and biscuit, then a touch of fruity bitterness coming through and lingering to a slightly dry nutty finish. Personally I felt the two aspects didn’t quite gel, the bitterness on the finish being a bit at odds with the caramel smoothness. Holding back slightly on one or the other would improve the overall taste for me, but it’s still a decent enough beer and I’ll look forward to the next offering from the brewery. Hopefully it won’t be another 18 months until that one.

Elsewhere: the Beer Nut gives it the thumbs up