Guinness Special Export (Belgian version)

Brewed by St. James’s Gate (Diageo)
Style: Foreign Stout
Dublin, Ireland

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

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Pours completely black with a small head. Heavy coffee, malt, brown sugar aroma. Beautiful taste of roast coffee with a refreshing hint of sourness. Velvet mouthfeel. Excellent beer - the only problem is you’ll want one of these whenever you try the watery standard Guinness.

Gut haltende Schaumkrone nicht so gut wie beim Draught, dennoch beachtlich, Farbe schwarz. Natürlich ist es wieder schön Geschmacksintensiv etwas nach lakritz, röstmalzig-Kaffee, aber auch Alkohol der sich aber gut einfügt. Im Nachgeschmack ist der Alkohol etwas stärker, aber auch nicht zu aufdringlich, ausserdem etwas Kaffee-bitter. Gut! Test vom 12.4.2009, Gebinde: Glasflasche Noten: 13,12,12,13,12,12 - 12,25

Black with a red edge, large fluffy beige head. Salty roasted liquorice aroma, with some dry, earthy gunpowder notes. Medium bodied. Semi dry, medium bitterness.

Bottle. Black with a small head. The aroma was rather weak with some notes of roasted malt, bread and some smoke. The taste was dry and a bit better than the aroma. Medium body.

Lite tjock pastilldoft. Smaken är ganska rökig, mycket kaffe som gör den mycket torr. Fin fyllighet. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

dry natural smoky woody bitter coffee, bitter chocolate. great body yet silky. middeep yet drinkable. Not really heavy just when I try to drink too quickly i feel the alc taste too dominate. so its tellin’ ya to relax Falls apart towards the mid to end with just alcohol mixed with regular G sensations and taste... just more roasty. A tab bit disappointed yet very pleased at same time. Has a nice wow factor to begin with. Will have to try again.

A blend of malt, smoke, bitterness, licorice, coffee. Nothing stands out in this drink and that’s what I like about it. Great body and nothing overpowering. In my opinion this is greater than foreign extra Ireland or Nigeria.

Fijne koffie aroma, met rijp donker fruit. Smaak is koffie, chocola, wat rozijnen en soja saus (?). Nasmaak is bitter. Traditionele Guinness kraag.

33cl bottle from Kihoskh. Pours black with a light brown head. Aroma of roasted malt, chocolate, caramel and smoke (reminds me of bonfire). I guess the notes of smoked wood comes from the roasted malt, anyway - it’s quite nice. Quite sweet, but well balanced with a subtle bitterness. Smooth and creamy with a mideum body. Easy to drink, and the alcohol is very well integrated. The smokey aroma was the biggest surprise for me, I did not remember that - just that I liked it. It is still a quite nice stout, although a bit to sweet. Clearly one of the best from St. James’s Gate.

330 ml bottle. Pours very dark brown. Generous dark tan head. Quite carbonated. Head disappears slowly. Aroma of sweet alcohol and malt. Taste of sugary malt. Sweetness continues...then gives way to burnt caramel flavours.

This was a live review: I am in my hotel room on the Belgian coast. The wife is dead on her feet, so we stopped at a ’Night Store’ for me to have a night-cap beer. The only beer they sold that I hadn’t reviewed was this one. Can’t believe I’m reviewing an Irish beer in Belgium! 33cl Brown bottle, best before 29 Jan 2012, reviewed in Middelkerke on 26 May 2011. Poured into a glass tumbler, because that is what was available in the hotel room. It’s a Guinness, so it’s dark with a huge tanned head: the smell is of a regular Guinness with alcohol added. Even the head (which refuses to shrink) tastes like an alcoholic infused normal Guinness. Dry and malty taste, the alcohol detected in the aroma is hidden better within the mouth flavours, but appears somewhat in the aftertaste as the mouth drys; and as already mentioned, in the foaming head. Not as well balanced as I expected and not a beer I’d search for, certainly not in Belgium: where there are so many great beers to try.