Guinness Draught

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

Serve in English pint

I have to give props to my first "real" beer. I wish I could be more subjective and give it more points but there are much better, newer draught beers that make it tough. Nonetheless, an all-time, sentimental favorite.

Pours dark brown with a beige head. Aroma is roasted malt, chocolate, coffee and light caramel, Flavour is roasted barley, light malt acidic and light chocolate. Dry aftertaste.

Can. Very delicate dark, almost black, with a thick, creamy and forever staying head. Aroma with strong notes of coffee and lightly burned/ roasted malts, and hints of caramel. Very full, creamy body. Flavour of roasted malts, coffee and light smoke. Nice finish, with a pleasant bitter maltiness.

A classic. Looks fantastic. Swirling black with creamy white head. Nose is subtle. Bit of chocolate, roasted malt and mineral notes. Flavour is minerally, roasted malt, bit of chocolate. Great beer but now bettered by certain other commercial stouts (Murphys, Beamish) and by too many craft beer stouts to mention. But still always worth a drink.

Stout with dark, black colour and creamy head. Aroma is not so strong, some bread and chocolate notes are the main characters. Taste is fresh and a bit watery. Very nice beer, one of the few stouts available on tap but I think it’s very overpriced in Budapest.

0,5 l. can from the supermarket, rating is also based on several samples of the draught version. Fantastic black velvet colour with a creamy, lasting head that laces nicely. Weak, slightly bitter chocolate malt aroma. Very, very smooth and easy to drink, but with a thin texture. Rich roasted malts and a dry sweet finish. A true irish classic, either you hate it - "its bog water!" or you love it. I love it.

My experience with Guiness has been hit or miss, especially from the bottle and by region of the good ol’ USA, so I’m just going to review the good experiences. I’m not a stout drinker but this is such a smooth, great tasting beer. It has all the elements of a stout without the overpowering flavor. The dark malt and coffee flavors are mild and well balanced. It pours near black with the trademark nitrogen head. Not thick like you’d expect. Overall a fantastic and refreshing stout.

UPDATED: AUG 9, 2011 Every time I’ve had this beer has been from a bottle, so that’s what I’ll base this review on. What I’ve found is that this is a hit or miss. I don’t know if it’s my own predisposition or if the quality on each bottle is so inconsistent, but sometimes I really enjoy it and some other times I think it’s rather bland. I like the aroma of this beer very much--it’s not as rich as that of other stouts, but I’ve come to see it as a "comfort smell" of mine. It is dominated by roasted malts which give it a coffee character. The taste is not very bitter, but a bit sweet and, may I say, somewhat sour as well. As the beer goes down the aroma notes of coffee are also present, but not for too long. It is not complex at all, but I like the coffee flavor so much that I will forgive the simplicity of it. Now, as for the palate, it is really watery for a stout. This contributes to its drinkability, yes, and I understand how Guinness would not be Guinness if you couldn’t drink five pints of it per session because of viscosity issues, but the problem is, not all bottles come evenly carbonated, so whenever you get a well-carbonated bottle, you don’t mind the palate feel so much, but when your bottle is not well carbonated, the beer feels really flat. I’ll take this over a lot of other widely available, big-named beers, and I do enjoy it quite a lot every time I get the chance to drink one, but there are far better stouts out there.