St. Patricks Day 2011 and 98 yr old beer.

It's St. Patrick's Day again, and although I'm not aware of having any Irish ancestry, they say we're all a little Irish today. Last year was my first real St. Patrick's Day celebration. I didn't do much, but I did buy some O'hara's stouts, and made a corned beef and cabbage for a few friends. Always looking to one-up myself, I decided to take things a little more serious this time around.

It started about three weeks ago, when I decided that a store bought corned beef wasn't going to do it for me this time around. I looked up several recipes online, and settled on this one. I also followed the advice in the comments to double the pickling spices. For the last 22 days, a 6.5 pound brisket has been sitting in a big crock in the back of the fridge, monopolizing valuable space while it cured.

This morning I cut about 2 pounds off the home cured corned beef brisket, and with additional spices and sauce, began smoking it to make a beef bacon/pastrami hybrid in the backyard. The remaining 4.5 pounds went into a crock pot to become this corned beef and cabbage recipe. I made a few changes though. Instead of water, I used a mix of Guinness, apple juice, and water. I also left out the potatoes, because I'm making a delicious colcannon on the side. For the colcannon, I'm using Kale instead of cabbage since we'll already have cabbage with the corned beef, and instead of using ham or bacon, I'm using the smoked spiced home made corned beef in it's place.

I'm pretty stocked up on Murphy's and a few varieties of Guinness, and some friends have pledged to bring over other beers and Irish whiskey.

For entertainment, I've got If I should fall from Grace: The Shane MacGowan Story, Waking Ned Devine, all six Leprechaun movies, and several hours worth of Irish drinking songs.

Finally, the day reminded me of the oldest full bottle of beer that I currently own, which I pulled off the shelf and took a few pictures of to commemorate the day. Here are some pictures of my 98 year old 1913 bottle of guinness foreign stout.