Galway Hooker Irish Dark Lager - Beer of the Month

KRISTIN JENSEN, co-author of Slainte! The complete Guide To Irish Craft Beers and Ciders, introduces us to Galway Hooker Irish Dark Lager

ABOUT THE BREWERY

Galway Hooker Brewery is an independent artisan west of Ireland brewery, dedicated to the production of high-quality, natural and full-flavoured beers. Their beers have received numerous awards, including being twice named as Ireland’s Best Beer by Beoir.org, an Irish beer consumer group.

Originally established in Roscommon, they are now based near Galway city and have installed a new brewery where they host regular tours and tastings. The brewery was established in 2006 by first cousins, Aidan Murphy and Ronan Brennan. Aidan has over 10 years’ experience in the brewing industry and has worked in several breweries around the world as well as holding a master’s degree in Brewing and Distilling. Galway Hooker was the first microbrewery to produce a pale ale in Ireland and it is available on draught and in bottles nationwide.

Their passion for real beer and their boredom with insipid, mass-produced yellow fizz (otherwise known as lager) inspired them to start a brewery and produce an original and great-tasting alternative for the Irish market. The beer is produced using traditional brewing techniques using only four natural ingredients: malt, hops, yeast and water - and nothing else. Through Galway Hooker, they aim to celebrate diversity, individuality and creativity.

If you’re wondering where the name comes from, in 2006 they ran a website competition in which the public were asked to name their flagship beer. Out of the thousands of nominations received, Galway Hooker was eventually selected. Thus the brewery is named after the Galway Hooker - a much-loved traditional wooden boat with distinctive red sails, designed for transporting cargo around Galway Bay and Connemara in strong and shallow seas.

In 2014 its bottled IPA was awarded a gold medal (in the beer category) at the Irish Food Awards (Blas na hEireann). In addition to their original flagship pale ale, the brewery also now produces a stout, a dark larger and an India Pale Ale as well as seasonal beers.

Scheduled tours of the brewery take place on a regular basis. Contact the brewery or check their website for details.

ABOUT THE BEER

Beer style: Lager
ABV: 4.3%
Colour: Amber

Serve in: Pint glass, pilsner glass, stange, tulip glass or mug

Matches well with: BBQ, burgers, chicken, pizza, seafood, Mexican food, mildly spicy food

Summertime and the sippin’ is easy – which calls for a lighter beer like a lager. The Irish Dark Lager from Galway Hooker is a good one to stock up on during these last few weeks of summer.

It pours a light amber in the glass with a thin film of bubbles that quickly fizzles away. The aroma has lots of sweet brown sugar and citrus with a little whiff of honeydew melon too. Taste wise, it has all the usual hallmarks of a good lager – dry, crisp, with a malty backbone that’s punctuated by a distinctive hop bitterness. The trademark bready, biscuit flavour of a usual lager has a little added complexity here given this beer’s darker roast, which adds a nice nutty, caramel element.

Summer barbecues cry out for a good lager. It’s a great all-rounder beer that will pair well with just about anything you throw at it, whether it’s a burger, grilled chicken, sausages or seafood, especially if you’re slathering everything with the same barbecue sauce, which will probably be both sweet and acidic. And at only 4.3% ABV, you can have a few over the course of an afternoon and evening and not be the worse for wear because of it.

If you want to pair a cheese with a lager, think along the same lighter lines and go for a mild, fresh cheese like a goat or sheep milk cheese or a creamy mozzarella. The key thing here is that you don’t want to overpower the delicate flavours of such mild cheeses.

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Secretary of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild, Kristin Jensen is a freelance editor specialising in cookery and food books and has worked with many of Ireland's top food writers and chefs.  She writes the Edible Ireland blog and is a co-founder of the Irish Food Bloggers Association and, together with Caroline Hennessy, is joint author of Slainte! The complete Guide To Irish Craft Beers and Ciders .