Interesting to note that the impending trip of a US President to the ancestral home in Ireland requires the safe supply of beer:
The US secret service is to supply beer kegs to a pub US President Barack Obama is expected to visit in Moneygall, Co Offaly. Security surrounding the trip will be so controlled that the agents will be supplying Ollie Hayes's bar with the barrels, the Herald can reveal. It is understood the decision was taken as President Obama is likely to have a drink if he visits the pub.The tiny village of Moneygall is planning a festival for the historic occasion. President Obama, whose great-great-great-grandfather came from Moneygall, plans to set foot in his ancestral home during his two-day visit to Ireland.
One can only assume that the casks are already in the hands of the state being quarantined and tested, no doubt, by expert secret service beer testers. But would you not have to control the brewery to make sure nothing bad went in at production? Yet what if the danger is not in the beer but somewhere else... in the bung.... or maybe the spile. How would Agatha Christie have imagined the whodunnit playing out?
So, do the US secret service provide everything else, too? Is there a stash of pork rinds, crisps and whatever else might earn the Presidential eye in a pub? And, once the danger passes, do secret service beer testers and pork rind protectors get to take their work home?






Comments
Jordan St.John - May 9, 2011 10:38 PM
I imagine Obama being a Smokehouse Almond kind of guy. Protein, flavour, not too much salt.
Wnitebeer - May 10, 2011 3:34 AM
I think, they will bring their own beer and bungs and spiles and ...maybe barmen)))
The Beer Nut - May 10, 2011 4:16 AM
There's not a pub in the county that would know what a cask is or what to do with it.
Alan - May 10, 2011 8:53 AM
So "The Spile of Moneygall" might make for an excellent Christie twist.
Joe Stange - May 10, 2011 1:39 PM
So basically we are talking about kegs of Guinness. Yep, looks like a Guinness pub: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29487352@N04/3224333926/in/photostream/
And they're probably hauling them from DC to Ireland aboard Air Force One. Oh, the irony.
The Beer Nut - May 11, 2011 7:25 AM
There's no such thing as "a Guinness pub". With maybe a dozen exceptions nationwide, every Irish pub sells Guinness.
They could well be hauling it from DC, though I'd say it's more likely that James's Gate will set aside a keg and equipment to be tested and quarantined by Obama's people. The Secret Service has been in Ireland for weeks now.
Alan - May 11, 2011 7:31 AM
Not much of a secret, then.
The Beer Nut - May 11, 2011 8:15 AM
Yeah, OK, it could just be Peadar O'Driscoll who's known locally for his habits of wearing sunglasses and talking into his shirt cuff.
The Beer Nut - May 14, 2011 9:26 AM
Confirmation that it's a special keg shipped from Dublin:
Link.
Apparently Heineken Ireland offered the pub 30 free kegs if they would serve Obama a pint of Heineken.