Beannachtam na Feile Padraig! Happy St. Patrick's Day! Believe for a day that you can kiss the Blarney stone and get good luck, or that you can chase a leprechaun to the end of a rainbow and find a pot of gold, and remember to toast the day with a pint of stout, and you too can be Irish for a day. Erin go Bragh! Ireland forever!

St. Patrick's Day honors the saint who spread Christianity in Ireland around 400 AD. Myth has it that he was responsible for driving the snakes out of Ireland. (It is true that there are no snakes in Ireland; however, it is a tall tale that there were ever any there to begin with). In Ireland, St. Patrick's Day was viewed more as a religious holiday than as an excuse to party, as it is in America. But whether you're in Ireland or America, St. Patrick's Day still falls in the middle of Lent. For Irish Christians, this meant that Lenten restrictions on eating meat are lifted for a day. For many years, the Irish-American St. Patrick's Day celebrations not only included feasting on a bounty of meat such as corned beef or brisket, Irish bacon or ham, or beef stew, it also meant that an abundance of Irish stout would be consumed.

Stouts are very important to the Irish. They annually consume more stout than any other country — about 80 to 85 quarts per head compared to America's less than a pint per head. It appears that Americans drink most of their stout on St. Patrick's Day. The same holds true for me. Though I do love beers and ales, I find myself drinking only stout (which is an ale) on St. Patrick's Day, because typically I prefer an ale that is a wee bit lighter.

Stouts can be either dry and bitter or sweet and smooth. Oatmeal, milk or chocolate stouts are examples of sweet stouts. Sweet stouts are brewed with lactose or oatmeal, which adds a bit of sweetness to counter the bitterness from the hops and heavily toasted grains. Typically, the dryer the stout, the more bitter it will be.

Dry stout, also known as "Irish stout," is the most popular category in Ireland. It is dark-colored, displaying toast and coffeelike flavors. The most famous is Guinness, which is brewed in Ireland. Another is Murphy's Irish stout. Murphy's is lighter and smoother than Guinness. Many other countries also brew Irish-style stouts. Look for Australia's delicious Coopers stout, with intense espresso flavors, or one of Oregon's finest stouts from Deschutes Brewery, called Obsidian stout, which is very smooth and rich with traditional bitterness.

Imperial stout, also known as Russian imperial stout, is another type of dry stout. It is a strong, dark stout that was originally brewed by Barclay's brewery in London for export to the court of the tsar. It has a high alcohol content (usually 8 percent, and often higher) intended to preserve it during long transport and to help provide warmth in extremely cold climates. The color is very dark, almost always black. Imperial stout exhibits enormously powerful malt flavors, with hints of dark fruits, and is quite rich. Try Old Rasputin Russian stout from California or Samuel Smith Imperial stout from Britain.

Oatmeal stout, a sweeter type, is brewed with about 5 percent oatmeal to increase the sweetness and complexity. Oatmeal stouts display lots of roasted grain and coffee aromas and flavors. One of the best examples of oatmeal stout comes from Samuel Smith Brewery in Britain.

Chocolate stout, a milk stout, is so named because the beer has a noticeably dark-chocolate flavor through the use of darker, more aromatic malts as well as the addition of fresh chocolate. Rogue Chocolate Stout is among my personal favorite sweet stouts.

At The Wine Stop, we're having a free St. Patrick's Day stout tasting, along with a little green beer, and homemade corned beef and cabbage with Irish soda bread. Stop by from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday.

"Slainte!," pronounced "slawn-cha" — meaning "health" — is a common toast in Ireland, the Gaelic equivalent to "Cheers!"

Kim Karalovich is a wine buyer and consultant at The Wine Stop in Honolulu, www.thewinestophawaii.com. Raise a Glass, written by a rotating group of beverage professionals, appears here every other Wednesday.