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To further the discussion on the honesty of beer marketing and its origins, perhaps we can give our thoughts on the Marks and Spencers Irish Stout offering available in its Liffey Street store (probably in its other stores too)

Its label reads a 'genuine Irish Stout', brewed in Carlow, bottled in the UK, under contract for M&S.
I can only presume it's the Carlow Brewing Company that is doing this contract brewing for them. However, and this ties in with Joris's post about brewer ambiguity, it does not actually state that it is in fact the CBC thats makes the beer. It states just that it is brewed in Carlow. Mysterious...

The beer seems to have been possibly an old Dublin Brewing Company stout recipe that since their demise the CBC have been brewering for M&S, I don't know. M&S is a UK(?) company. The contract brewer is a craft beer producer in Ireland. So this scenario begs the question - Can this beer be classified as Irish Craft Beer?

I like the taste of it, not as roasted and bitter as O'Haras for example, less heavy and session drinkable. Therefore I want to think of it as an Irish Craft Beer. However if beer resembled tasteless brown swill....who knows what I might think ...!!

What are your thoughts?

Irish stout and red ale are a style of beer produce all over the world, there is noting wrong or misleading about putting Irish stout on it.

There not putting on the label a picture of an picturesque area of Ireland and through the label and web site giving the consumer a very strong suggest that its a product of the area


It would appear the M&S stout is a lot more transparent about its production, although I would prefer it to be bottled in Ireland. Not sure about classifying it as Irish Craft Beer, it does raise an interesting question.

It seems you're right about it being brewed by the Carlow Brewing Company
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I think it probably has a fair claim to call itself Irish, whether its a craft beer is another matter.

Would you rate the other beers made by Carlow to be craft beers? If so, then this probably is too <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) --> Most of the craft breweries here get their bottling done abroad, or am I wrong in thinking that? And as Oblivious said, Irish Stout is produced as a style all over the place, but as M&S say it's "genuine" it suggests it was made in Ireland. In this case, it is, so no problems there either.

Sounds like it's a bloody tasty drop too.

Thanks for letting us know about this Ichiban. I have often searched (well, browsed really) while in M&S with herself for evidence of beer, but had not come upon any; certainly not in Liffey Valley.
The stout described is certainly a Carlow beer, but I'm very interested to hear that it is different to O'Hara's.

I have only ever seen it in Liffey Street, would be nice to see it in the other one's