GUINNESS DRAUGHT:  THE GOLD (LABEL) STANDARD

GUINNESS DRAUGHT, ST. JAMES GATE BREWERY, DUBLIN, IRELAND        Abv  4.2

       

Guinness isn’t the same Guinness company we visited in 1977.  A merger with Grand Met a few years ago created Diageo, a corporation that acts as big as In Bev in most ways.   They’ve stopped short of outright hostility over this series of posts, but refused to provide illustrations and refused our request to upload images – the only brewery we’ve contacted to do so.

There’s a historical context for our lamenting the loss of a personal touch.  There were organized tours of the brewery in 1977, but you could just walk up to the brewery and join one.  Ours was led by the brew master himself.  It felt personal.  Now hundreds of thousands of beer tourists barrel down to the brewery for the Guinness “experience.”  The chance of running into a person with experience in actually brewing the beer is remote.  The new brewery slated to open in Baltimore County this fall will have as much focus on the beer tourism as the beer itself.

There are big brewing companies that we find pretty easy to despise—and maintain our own tiny boycott.   But try as I might, I can’t put Diageo on that list.   The beer is too good and the brewers are too creative.

The Brewers Project has brought new and exciting products to the United States recently and there’s promise of more to come.   The new brewery will be designed to brew beers for the US market—whatever they think that is.  We hope they won’t be as insipid as the Blonde they brewed in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

The Draught Guinness, however, will continue to come from St. James Gate – supposedly until the lease runs out in another 8,800 years. (not a typo)   We don’t have to tell you what this tastes like – you know the clean bracing dark malt, creamy finish and slight lactose bite that keeps it all interesting.   For our money it’s one of the two best big corporate beers in the world.  At 4.2% you can drink those imperial pints all night and still find your pajamas.

Pairings:  Well, oysters, of course.  But burgers, corned beef and meat pies all benefit from the cleanliness of the brew.   Actually we’ve never had a meal with Guinness Draught that didn’t seem to fit together pretty well.   Sláinte!  

•     * Skip It
•    ** Good Craft Beer
•   *** Well Above Average
•  **** Exceptional
• ***** Top 1%

Rating: ****  Value: *****   20170204   ~ this is the last of the Brewers Project daily beers.  But why stop the stouts when we’re on a roll – coming up is a coffee porter from Oskar Blues and a very chocolaty stout from Troegs.

 

GUINNESS BREWERS PROJECT: ANTWERPEN BRINGS THE STRONGEST GUINNESS TO THE UNITED STATES

GUINNESS ANTWERPEN – AKA GUINNESS FOREIGN EXPORT STOUT        Abv  8%

Guinness dedicated at part of their new Brew House No.4 to producing “The Brewers Project” series.  Some of the new creations coming out of this project are based on historic recipes.   See our main post for more details.  Today’s Beer of the Day predates the Brewers Project, but Guinness is bringing it into the US as part of the Brewers Project series.

Belgians have long had access to the strongest beer Guinness makes: Guinness Special Export Stout, a 8% attitude adjuster that is far smoother than it has any right to be.   Guinness says it first brewed it for the Belgian market after World War II.  They don’t say why, though we suspect that the lifting of wartime grain restrictions might have created the demand and the ability to brew it.  Belgian Guinness fans have been pretty smug about how their Guinness is better than anyone else’s.   Now, Guinness is importing the beer to the US under the name Antwerpen, named for Antwerp, Belgium’s largest port and one of Belgium’s best cities for seeking out great beer.  

Tasting notes: Very rich and very smooth with deep malt roast and some perceptible hops. Creamy dark chocolate lingers.  Some dark fruit, dates and prunes, add a bit of an edge that’s a welcome contrast to the unctuousness of the ride.  The alcohol is very much under control and almost got past Ellie, who has a more sensitive booze-ometer than I do.

Pairings:   A dessert beer.  It can both complement and contrast dishes with dark chocolate.   We had some at a steak dinner and it was fine, but in truth this beer is so yummy that I’d rather save it and drink it on its own than have any food distract from the flavor. 

•     * Skip It
•    ** Good Craft Beer
•   *** Well Above Average
•  **** Exceptional
• ***** Top 1%

Rating: ****+  Value: *****       20170203   (Tomorrow – the Gold Standard, Guinness Draught)

GUINNESS BREWERS PROJECT: FOREIGN EXTRA STOUT – EXTRA INDEED.

GUINNESS FOREIGN EXTRA STOUT        Abv 7.5

Guinness fans in the US have long had a choice between two versions of the classic stout.   Order at an Irish bar and you’ll get Draught Guinness; buy a four-pack in a store and you’ll have Guinness Extra Stout.  The bottled version is stronger, 5.5 v 4.2 and fuller, but not the session quencher with the nitro head.   Guinness launched the canned widget version of Draught to allow us to have something approaching the bar version at home.

If you wanted to have the high test version available to most of the rest of the world, however, you had to travel, or have a friend who did.   We did both and were able to track down an Ethiopian and a Nigerian version of the Guinness Foreign Extra Stout.  For the last five years or so, if you knew a good beer store it was much simpler to obtain.

Like most big breweries, Guinness doesn’t talk much about its recipes.  Most sources agree, however, that the Foreign Extra Stout is produced by blending “Guinness Flavor Extract” or GFE with local beer to make the FES, Foreign Export Stout.   We don’t know if Guinness uses GFE at St. James Gate, but our notes show a strong similarity between the Nigerian version we found at a festival in Germany and the Foreign Extra that came with the Brewers Project Package.

 

Tasting notes:  Big rich and complex.  Has a creamy heavy feel with rich dark malts and hints of cocoa.  The big hops show early with spice and fruit and finish with herbs and a bit more fruit.  As it drinks and warms, it takes on a figgy pudding characteristic that echoed the figs and prunes we found in the Nigerian version.

Pairings:   It can complement good chocolate and almost stand as a dessert on its own.  The richness would hold up well to steaks or ribs.  

•     * Skip It
•    ** Good Craft Beer
•   *** Well Above Average
•  **** Exceptional
• ***** Top 1%

Rating: ****  Value: *****   20170202

GUINNESS BREWERS PROJECT: WEST INDIES IS A WELCOME ADDITION TO THE LINEUP

GUINNESS WEST INDIES PORTER   Guinness St. James Gate Brewery, Dublin, Ireland    Abv  6.0

 Guinness dedicated at part of their new Brew House No.4 to producing “The Brewers Project” series.  Some of the new creations coming out of this project are based on historic recipes.   See our main post for more details.  Today’s Beer of the Day is one of the Brewers Project Beers, West Indies Porter, a recreation of an early 19^th century recipe.

Tasting Notes:   The taste was reminiscent of the Guinness we’re used to, but on steroids with a bit of extra fruit and missing the nitro foam and head.   Some dark biscuit and chocolate emerges at the end and the chocolate lasts into the aftertaste.  The extra body allows it to be creamy rather than milky and some ash and lactose grow over time.

Pairings: Ellie really wants to try this with fish on a hot summer’s night.   I’d be happy with the traditional oyster pairing.  Guinness’s website has a recipe for a beef and oyster pie that we may have to play with in warmer weather.

•     * Skip It
•    ** Good Craft Beer
•   *** Well Above Average
•  **** Exceptional
• ***** Top 1%

Rating: ****  Value: *****  20170201