Reach For These Irish Beer and Whiskey Combos This St. Patrick's Day

Whether you call it a Boilermaker (U.S.), a Half-and-Half (Scotland), or a Tall and a Small (Ireland), the combination of whisky and beer is likely as old as the spirit itself, built upon the harmony between fermented and distilled grain. While that link alone is sufficient to make almost any combination enjoyable, some pairings can be truly fabulous. With St. Patrick’s Day approaching, we decided to keep things Irish in our choices of both the beers and the whiskeys.

Harp Lager & Bushmills Original

Northern Ireland’s most famous whiskey is made to be light and complex, while Ireland’s most famous lager is a more straightforward creation, meant for quaffing rather than contemplation. Bushmills is sweet, a bit honeyed, citrusy, and perhaps surprisingly creamy, while Harp leans toward the grainy side, with hops providing just enough bitterness to accentuate its refreshment. Enjoyed together, the lemony notes of the whiskey bring forth the beer's malty caramel, lessening its cereal impact, while the beer refreshes the palate without disrupting the delicacy of the spirit, making each sip as palate-pleasing as the first.

Sullivan’s Maltings Irish Red Ale & McConnell’s Sherry Cask Finished 5 year old

A revivalist partnership steeped in history, this one is a meeting of a brewery originally established in Kilkenny in the early 1700s and a Belfast whiskey brand born about 75 years later. Neither survived, but have since been revived. Sullivan’s was rebooted a decade ago, and McConnell’s re-emerged in 2020.

Another partnership between Northern Irish whiskey and southern beer, this plays on the biscuity nature of the red ale and the marzipan and raisin notes of the oloroso sherry cask-finished whiskey. The beer’s maltiness accentuates the 40% malt whiskey component of the blend, while the sherry cask’s impact rounds and slightly sweetens the character of the beer.

Guinness Stout & Jameson Triple Triple

Ireland’s two most famous beverage names, known the world over, have been enjoyed beside and occasionally combined with each other for generations. Despite its dark color, Guinness is a very gulpable brew, with a mischievously light body and a roastiness that only reveals itself on the finish. The bourbon, sherry, and chestnut cask-finished Jameson adds a deviously nutty sweetness to the stout even as the beer accentuates the whiskey’s vanilla and light charred-oak notes.

Murphy’s Stout & Glendalough Double Barrel

They say that in Cork, Ireland’s underappreciated second city, you drink Beamish stout, while in the surrounding County Cork, Murphy’s is the beer of choice. Brewed these days in the same Heineken-owned Lady’s Well Brewery, Murphy’s is a touch rounder and maltier than its Cork counterpart, which suits it well to a Wicklow whiskey that speaks loudly of its bourbon and oloroso sherry cask aging.

Rich with vanilla, caramel, and brown spice, the whiskey brings forward the already prominent malt character of the stout, making it seem even richer and fuller, while the beer’s chocolate malt adds extra depth to the already complex, spicy, baked-apple flavor of the whiskey.

O’Hara’s Leann Folláin & Two Stacks Double Barrel Single Malt

This partnership is a meeting of two relative heavyweights: a 6% “extra” Irish stout from Carlow Brewing Company and a distinctively peated, 43% single malt from a Northern Ireland blender. Carlow Brewing was one of the first contemporary Irish craft breweries, and it remains one of the best, while Two Stacks aims to tap into Ireland’s rich history of sourcing, aging, and blending whiskey.

The stout, pronounced “Lan Full-aawn,” is a fuller-bodied, much maltier take on the brewery’s classic O’Hara’s Irish stout, which suits it impeccably to the mix of smoke from the whiskey’s 10% peated malt component and fruit from its 50% triple distilled, oloroso sherry cask-aged side. Expect the peat to accent both the roasted barley and chocolate malt of the beer, while the soft sweetness of the stout brings more depth to the whiskey’s fruity side.