Green is not the only color for beer on St. Patrick’s Day.

Go real. Try any number of beers brewed in Ireland including stouts, red beers, ales and lagers.

Or try a Colorado craft beer, made the Irish way.

-The Gazette’s Colorado Springs beer map-

“Ireland has some great styles, old styles,” said Alyssa Ross, beer manager of Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom on Tejon Street. Old Chicago has its St. Patrick’s Day Irish Beer mini-tour going now to St. Patrick’s Day – eight beers, including three brewed in Colorado.

When one thinks Irish beer, Guinness is the first to come to mind. It’s a dark, chocolate beer with a creamy finish and feel. In Ireland, the blokes may drink it at room temperature. But in the states, the bartenders try to keep it real with a room temperature glass.

Even if you’ve had Guinness beer (4.2 ABV), Ross said, ask your bartender “to make it a Guinness Perfect Pour.” If you’re lucky, the barkeep knows to tilt the glass at 45 degrees under the tap and fill it three-quarters, let it settle and cascade, and then top it off ever so slowly.

“It’s all about the flavor profile,” Ross said. “It releases the carbonation.”

The perfect pour will have a 1-inch head.

“It’s one of the neatest looking things I’ve seen,” Ross said. “If you get real fancy, some people can draw the shamrocks in them.”

The perfect pour takes 120 seconds and is a technique that can be applied to any stout.

“You have to put on your patient hat,” Ross said. “But it’s totally worth the wait.”

But let’s say you want to venture from the Guinness, which is on tap at Old Chicago year-round, and try one of Ireland’s other favorite sons.

Murphy’s Irish Stout (4.0 ABV) is the same beer style as Guinness and also on a nitrogen tap, which gives it that same creamy feel and finish.

“I would say Guinness is a little creamier, a little smoother,” said Todd Wyatt, Old Chicago regional manager. “And Murphy’s has a little more of a bitterness – not a hop bitterness, but more of a roasted bitterness.”

Red beers are part of the Irish color palettes. Red beers are good malty beers that have found balance between a punch-in-the-face hoppy taste and a nice sweetness.

One to try is Smithwicks Irish Red Ale (4.5 ABV) – pronounced Smi’-dikks. If you are familiar with Killian’s Irish Red, think darker, and a more robust red.

“People will know this one, it’s a malty beer, with a flavor of toffee and caramel,” Ross said. “And due to the yeast strain, you will taste a little bit of butter scotch.”

Legend has it that the first cases of Smithwicks ale imported from Ireland to Boston in 1950 “vanished” off the docks.

“It’s a very popular red ale in general,” Ross said.

Not a fan of the dark or red beer? Ireland also gives you O’Hara’s Irish Pale Ale (5.2 ABV). This golden straw-colored ale is “like the younger sister of an IPA,” Ross said. “It’s not as hoppy, but it does have a predominant hop flavor to it.”

What’s interesting about Irish pale ales is that brewers use European hops, which tend to be more earthy, mossy and grassy. It’s very different from the fruity, citrus flavors of American hops, she said.

But let’s say you are devoted to U.S. craft beers. Oregon’s Rogue Brewery has put its Irish spin on Kells Irish Style lager (5.0 ABV), a pale gold beer. It’s a great transition for Coors and Bud light beer lovers.

“It’s that same lager style, very easy drinking; it has a fresh clean flavor and finish,” Ross said.

And it goes great with pizza.

If you want only Colorado brews, try Boulder Beer’s Blarney Brown (7.0 ABV). This beer is made exclusively for Old Chicago. “I’ll give you a little Old Chicago trivia – the founder of Old Chicago, Frank Day, in 1976, is also the founder of Boulder Beer,” Wyatt said.

Anyone who likes craft ales will like Blarney Brown because it’s not super hoppy, Wyatt said.

“They age it in whiskey barrels,” he said. “It takes on a more oak characteristic, you might catch a little malted caramel, or a bourbony taste.”

Aurora’s Dry Dock might be known for is apricot beer, but this St. Patrick’s day it’s put an Irish touch to its beer called Heather Flower (5.4 ABV). Dry Dock also brewed this beer just for Old Chicago and just for the St. Patty’s Day season. Dry Dock used dry hopping technique, the heather flowers, instead of hops.

“It has a floral smell, and you can get a flowery taste,” Wyatt said.

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, Monument’s Pikes Peak Brewing released a Paddy O’ the Peak Stout, which was brewed with traditional Irish yeast and conforms to historical brewing methods of this famous St. Patrick’s Day beer by using a sour mash blended into the final batch.

“This year I wanted to brew our stout the traditional way by blending a sour mash with 30 barrels of stout fermented with an Irish yeast,” said Chris Wright, Pikes Peak Brewing founder and head brewer. Paddy O’ the Peak is featured as the local beer in the Old Chicago St. Patrick’s Day mini-tour.

Old Chicago will serve up the green beer on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17. But if you really want to get your Irish on, head up to Pikes Peak Brewing on Saturday for a daylong event with Irish dancers, bagpipes and Paddy O’ the Peak Stout.

Kilts optional.

A sample of the Irish beers featured now to St. Patrick’s Day at Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom. Old Chicago has eight beers on its Irish beer mini-tour, which means those who complete the tour win a T-shirt.

Monica Mendoza Thursday, March 20, 2014. Photo by Mark Reis

MARK REIS, THE GAZETTE