Drinks
Black & Tan Beer
Full disclosure before diving in: this is more about technique than it is a recipe. In our house, March is all about wearing green, eating corned beef the way we love it (despite more than a wee bit of Irish heritage) on reuben sandwiches, and drinking beer during the NCAA March Madness tournament and on St. Patrick's Day (which just happens to be our head of household's birthday). Guinness beer has a history dating back to the mid 18th century when Arthur Guinness bought a Dublin brewery. In the 1950s, nearly two hundred years later, Guinness revolutionized the beer industry by pressurizing the beer with nitrogen rather than carbon dioxide. The creamy luxurious taste and mouthfeel is attributed to this process along and gives it a long lasting foamy head. Harp Lager, a 1960s Guinness Brewery made beer teams up in a traditional black and tan beer cocktail that is a hearty and smooth beer combination of chocolate colored stout and amber colored lager. Use canned Guinness for the best results as it has a "widget" or nitrogen-filled ball in the can that replicates the creamy texture of draught beer served in pubs. Counter intuitive, but dark colored Guinness is lighter in density than lagers and ales which is why it floats when poured over them. While it is easy to float Guinness over another beer, it can be messy (keep a towel nearby) and takes a couple of tries to pour with confidence at just the right height above the glass to get an excellent creamy foam and to minimize spills. Combining two Irish beers on an Irish holiday seems just about the perfect way to enjoy the luckiest of days.
