Beer of the Week: Sullivan’s Black Marble Stout. "the true taste of traditional Irish stout"

Beer of the Week 

Sullivan’s Black Marble Stout, 5.1% ABV, 

500 ml bottle, Higgins SuperValu

"the true taste of traditional Irish stout" 

Black Marble Stout is a full-flavoured traditional Irish stout with roast coffee and fruit notes balanced by delicious hop bitterness. A dark, deep

stout with rich tan foam and those coffee aromas. 

Black as squid ink on a white plate, this stout is by Sullivan’s of Kilkenny. The off-white head doesn’t hang about. An exploratory finger dipped into that head confirms that this has quite a bitterness and that same quality is tasted on the palate. And there’s a good long lip-smacking finish.

They say: Enjoy the true taste of traditional Irish stout brewed with roast barley, chocolate, wheat malts and choicest hops. A generous stout with extra depth of flavour. The hops are Admiral, Magnum, and Goldings.

The long-established art of brewing had been lost in Kilkenny when its final brewery closed in 2013. Just three years later, the Sullivan and Smithwick families combined and with the help of Ian Hamilton, one of Ireland’s most eminent contemporary master-brewers, they began bringing artisan brewing back to Kilkenny. If people thought that brewing in Kilkenny was dead and buried, they are in for a pleasant awakening.

Hamilton regularly walked past the Beamish brewery in Cork in his youth and enjoyed the smell of the hops. The brewer eventually accumulated over three decades of brewery and packaging experience in Ireland, the United Kingdom and Africa. He is experienced in the production of world-class lagers, ales and stouts and is widely considered to be one of Ireland’s most experienced technical brewers.

Back from his travels, his aim on the banks of the Nore was to produce a traditional Irish dry stout, to give us more taste, more balance, more roast, more character, more flavour, to make it more balanced, more velvety. I reckon he succeeded with this one!

Now where did I go wrong? For many years, I daily drove home past Murphy’s Brewery, opening the car windows to take in those tempting aromas. But I never thought of making a career out of it!