Every St. Patrick’s Day, millions of Americans celebrate by wearing green clothing and four leaf clovers, listening to bagpipers at local parades and eating customary Irish food such as corned beef and cabbage. Learn how to make the black and tan cocktail to commemorate this special day

Video Transcription

Host: Millions of Americans celebrate Saint Patrick's Day, but how much you really know about the customs, traditions and history of the Irish Holiday? Joined with me today to shed some light on this festive day is, Jimmy Walker, renowned mythologist and entertaining expert. So Jimmy give us some of the history behind Saint Patrick's Day. Jimmy Walker: The great thing I think about Saint Patrick's Day, is it's shrouded in romance and mystery. I mean, the great man himself, Saint Patrick, nobody really knows where he came from. I mean, he could have been English, he could have been Welsh, he could have been in fact, been an ex Roman soldier, but for me the most important thing is, it was denote a great celebration of the best things in life. It's all about tradition, it's about great food, great music and obviously from my background it's all about great drinks as well. Host: So what are the some of the time on it food and drink choices for Saint Patrick's Day? Jimmy Walker: Well, I think the great thing to remember is when you are preparing food is you want to really enjoy, you know the celebrations yourself, so traditional Irish stews are those sort of things, hop pops, but then again, cheese patches and all those sort of things work really well. When it comes to drinks, for me there is really only choice. That's the best original Black & Tan which is, if you like I can take you right through and show you how to make a perfect one. Host: Sounds good. Jimmy Walker: Okay, what we do. We get the glass here. Obviously make sure that's nice and cold. You then get your Bass pale ale. Okay, and then you want to pour this in, again, this is nice and chilled, and you want this to be about three quarters in. Okay, so pour that like so, and you want quite a nice large head on that as well, okay? Then what would normally happen is, you layer that over the top with some Irish stouts. Normally uses spoons, something like that. What we have got now which is really exciting is this thing here which is called a Bass Brolly, and as you can see, it's shaped in such a way, it's triangular. It's got perforations over it, and in three lips just here, which you then put over the top of the glass like so, and then you get your stout and you pour it in, and all of the liquid starts to get defused just over the top, and as we notice, you are getting a real nice separation of colors. When it comes to drinks for me, the best thing about them is they are simple. Use the very best ingredients, which we are doing here, and also, even the first bite, without being too pretentious is with the eye ad it just looks absolutely fantastic, and more importantly even that, it tastes fantastic also. Once you have done that, you just take off the Brolly like so. Okay, and there you have it. The perfect Bass Black & Tan. Host: It looks fantastic. Now obviously you can enjoy that all year around. Do you have any other non traditional, specially drink that is, that viewers can enjoy beyond Saint Patrick's Day? Jimmy Walker: Absolutely, I mean you know this isn't just a drink just for Saint Patrick's Day. You can have any time round the year, just because it's cooking the balance of stout and pale ale, it's not so heavy. But for me we were talking about food as well. I think this is fantastic to pair with as we said stouts pots with cheese patches that sort of thing. I think there is a lot of snobbery when it comes to wine. Something like this is a fantastically complex drink and it pairs brilliantly with food. Also, you know Halloween, again it's a great celebration. Father's Day, all those sort of things. Again, it's a great celebratory drink and it's a -- now we've got the Bass Brolly here, which if you want to get any information on it. It's on bass.com. You could make the perfect Bass Black & Tan each time. Host: Okay Jimmy thanks a million for joining us today. Jimmy Walker: Thank you very much. Host: Bye-bye!