As you most probably know St Patrick’s Day was created to commemorate Saint Patrick, the most commonly recognised of the patron Saints of Ireland, after his expert ability at driving the snakes from Ireland … oh, and also for introducing Christianity!

St Patrick’s Day was made an official feast day in the early 17th century, and has gradually become a secular celebration of Irish culture in general, characterised by the attendance of church services, wearing of green attire and of course the drinking of alcohol. Guinness is far and away the most consumed beer of choice on St.Paddy’s Day with an estimated 350 million pints consumed globally, compared to 10 million pints on any other given day – a massive 350% increase!

Whilst Guinness is the beer of choice in Australia, the day has become an excellent occasion for craft breweries to create their own Irish Stout – a style of beer that at any other time of year would move quite slowly. In New South Wales the Redoak Brewery make their Paddy’s Big Stout, with Schwartz Brewery creating a special edition Stout – they even get in on the action up in Cairns with Blue Sky Brewery putting out a limited edition Dublin Stout. Elsewhere in Australia stouts are a regular feature for Nail Brewing (Nail Stout) and Brew Boys (Ace of Spades). While stouts can be seen as an unappealing drop due to its darkness and often strong bitterness I guarantee if you give a few of these a go and have a bit of patience you’ll be clambering back for more. So next St.Patrick’s Day celebrate the day in style with an Irish Stout from an Australian craft brewery – after all every Australian is a little bit Irish!