For me, the iconic image of St. Patrick’s Day is neither kilts nor potatoes nor green beer, but a beautiful drink called the Black & Tan.
Trying to create that perfect layering of dark Guinness Stout atop golden Irish Harp Ale as separate as oil and water, I have spent many a March 17 afternoon desperately tilting glasses and dribbling liquids like a mad chemist. Success has nearly always eluded me, but for Shane Canny, the senior bartender at the popular pub Ireland’s Four Courts, the drink took but thirty seconds to concoct on a recent Tuesday afternoon.
Four Courts’ method is idiot-proof: point a soup spoon at the floor and bend the spade up to a 90-degree angle with the handle. Then bend the handle in half in the opposite direction so that it forms a kink which fits neatly on the rim of a tall glass. Pour the Harp Ale in first (the lighter- looking beer is actually heavier than Guinness) up to just below the level of the spoon. Then pour Guinness, preferably from the can, directly into the cradle of the spoon so that it splashes out gently over the Harp. It should foam a little, but if you pour steadily it will not mix with the ale underneath.
Be sure to choose Guinness Draught, which comes in cans and the cute “widget” bottle, and not the “Extra Stout” small-bottle variety.
The result is a beautiful dark brown cloud that twirls and beats itself around the glass, but does not mix with the beer underneath.
Don’t expect to impress your cousins from Ireland, however.
“There’s no such thing as a Black & Tan in Ireland,”said Canny emphatically in his rich Irish brogue. He grew up in Ireland’s County Mayo and learned to make the drink only when he came to the U.S. and started working at Four Courts eight years ago.
Surprised? Perhaps these little bits will shock you even more: nobody eats corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland, and Harp Ale is less popular than Budweiser. The gist of the day is the same, though, according to Canny. Everyone takes off and celebrates in a veritable sea of beer and whiskey.
The Black & Tan can also be made with Smithwicks or Bass Ale as substitutes for Harp. Keep your guest list in mind, however, when making that choice. A hardened Irish-American who loves to drunkenly slur about the IRA might balk at the latter choice, among the most famous of the occupiers’ beers.
Ireland’s Four Courts is located at 2051 Wilson Blvd. in Arlington, Va. It’s next to the Courthouse stop on the Orange Line, and a 10 min. walk from the Rosslyn GUTS bus stop.
