Beamish...finally.

I was in a local store the other day, trying to recover from my anger at Best Buy for being completely incompetent, and I found one of the most elusive beers that I've ever run across. I went to the store to find some new whiskey glasses and decided to check out the beer isle. There I found many cans of a beer that I thought was a myth, Beamish Stout.

My bar of choice in my hometown sported something like 300 different beers. Part of my graduate school education was to try every beer on the list. My methodology for this research was to pick a country on the list and try each of the beers from that country and then move on. It's a lot like how some yuppies take a summer and back pack around Europe, except without the hostels and no showers thing. Before moving to Arizona, I finished every country except for Germany.

In the Ireland section there were only a few beers, all of which I had had at some other point in my life. But one always stood out, Beamish. I think I asked for Beamish at least 20 times during my various visits to Dunderbak's and never once did they have it. They claimed that one particular customer would come in and buy all of the Beamish as soon as they got a shipment. So I never once saw a can of the stuff.

When I finally saw the many cans of stout on the shelf at the World Market, I couldn't help but buy one. I have to say that it was a beer worth the wait.

Beamish Genuine Draught Irish Stout comes in a 14 oz can. I generally don't drink out of a can, but I make an exception if the can has a widget, which Beamish does. I've only had beer out of a widget filled can on two other occasions. Once when having a Guinness at a hockey game (something I will never do again) and once when drinking an Irish Cream Ale (an amazing experience).

Beamish stout does much, much better in a can than Guinness, though. It pours out very nicely, with just enough head to fill the top of my pint glass. There's also no waiting for the bubbles to subside like you would from a draught Guinness. It's a stout, opaque and almost black in color like all stouts. The taste is pure Irish stout goodness.

There is a faint hint of bitterness and a lot less of the bready taste that you get from many stouts. Beamish is much lighter than many stouts that I've had and very smooth to drink.

I really enjoyed my Beamish and would definitely not mind having another. The price was a bit steep, $1.50 for a single at World Market. I can only imagine that it would be even better from the tap.

I would definitely recommend Beamish for people who like Guinness and want to drink a good Irish stout from the comfort of their home. It's way cheaper than a St. Peter's (though St. Peter's is worth every cent) and Guinness out of a can is probably one of the worst things I've ever tasted. So go give Beamish a try...if you can find it.