It’s pretty easy to be fooled by marketing right? All it takes is a decent name and some on point font skills and voilà… a beer can become anything it wants.

Take today’s beer for example. To look at it, you’d really believe it was the creation of an Irish brewery. But, delving a bit deeper, and it’s all there on the back of the can so we’re not exactly talking high deception… It's actually an “Irish style” cream ale (which let’s not forget is an American style in derivation) made by a UK brand in an English brewery.

Is this naughty? Has the wool been pulled over our eyes? I guess the answer to that is ultimately subjective.

We live in an age when a brewer can literally make any style of beer he or she wants, and, I’d say in general, we’re all for it. Interesting styles, imported from foreign countries, made by small micro breweries, tweaked and improved are, after all, what is driving the evolution of craft brewing. But, somehow it feels different when the big producers do it, such as Greene King in this example.

A beautiful piece of originally crafted can-art that woos you into purchasing it is somehow less disingenuous than a label that fools you into thinking it’s something it isn’t. It’s good to read the back label at the end of the day… or accept that ignorance is bliss and let the quality of the final product do the talking.

On that note, is our faux Irish beer any good?

I'm loving the look of the Nitro as it settles and, once it does, it's a deep amber almost mahogany colour in the glass which has me immediately primed for big malt. The nose is certainly malty with caramel, cola and fruity hints and gives way to a palate that is as smooth as the nitro head looks, offering mild malt flavours and a bitter uplift on the finish. This beer is all about the texture in the mouth, which really is close to a glass of proper handpull.

Well I am most pleasantly surprised by this one which, although not exactly trailblazing, is absolutely effortless in the mouth.

They say, never judge a book by it's cover but, judging a book by its author is as equally bad. At the end of the day, beer should be judged on how good it tastes, not who makes it or where it's from.