The Irish Stout beer style was once produced by dozens of breweries in Ireland. These days it is only produced by three major breweries in Ireland, none of them Irish-owned, though several small breweries and brewpubs make stout as well. People are often surprised to hear that Irish stouts are among the lightest beers on draft, both in alcohol and in calories. These beers were originally designed as “session pints”, a term denoting beers that one can stick with for a long evening. These days, the major producers of Irish Stout dissolve nitrogen into the beer to produce the trademark head, a practice that started in 1960 (www.brooklynbrewery.com, 2012).