I'd rather dye

Time was, we used to scoff at the green beer phenomenon that foreign types, Americans especially, seemed to indulge in on St Patrick's Day. You wouldn't get that sort of nonsense here, and especially not in the microbrewed sector. That came to an end about 15 years ago when Dublin's then top beer bar, the Bull & Castle, began squirting food colouring into half litre mugs of Blarney Blonde. These days, it seems that The White Hag have claimed the green beer genre to themselves, with a disturbing number of verdant novelties on their logs.

For 2024 it's The Serpent. We should give thanks that it's not one of their sticky syrupy jobs, even though it looks like one: a luminous, Fairy Liquid, shade of green. In fact it's a pretty simple pale ale of 4.5% ABV. Motueka and Nelson Sauvin hops have been used, and while they're not in there by the bucketload, there's enough to give the beer a distinctive background flavour of eucalyptus and pine. I don't know if this recipe exists without the colouring but it would be worth a go if not.

Here ends your special coverage of St Patrick's Day from Dublin. Nonsense of the regularly scheduled kind returns tomorrow.