Bare Knuckle Stout

Brewed by Anheuser-Busch InBev
Style: Dry Stout
St. Louis, Missouri USA

Looks exactly like a Guinness. Tastes like a very watered-down Guinness. There is no doubt this is an attempt to reverse-engineer Guinness. Does not have the depth of flavor and body that the original has, malts are not as rich, finish is not as creamy.

Dinner in town bout a month ago. A beer I hadn’t heard of rattled off by semi-consious waitress. Ignorant of who made this alkaline over nitroed guinness clone stout. Not the worst stuff in the world and kind of went with the pizza burger but I switched to erdinger as soon as this was being processed by my kidneys and liver. I should have figured that this was an AB product since it came complete with its own neon sign and fancy tap configuration. Eh.

This beer represents everything that is evil about A-B. They cannot make anything with even a modicum of taste or flavor, so they try to copy Guinness draught and come up short. Little flavor, although it looks like a stout.

A-B has done its best to create a carbon copy of Guinness, albeit one notch down. Creamy head, nice coffee aroma compared what you would expect, not bad overall. Still a poor man’s stout.

I had this at seaworld otherwise I would never buy it. Poured black with a thin tan head. Had a faint smell of some roastedness and coffee. Not much to taste at all. It was very watered down with no robust flavors at all. It had a chalky mouthfeel with no flavor. I know AB is attempting to get into the craft side, but this won’t cut it. You would think they could come up with something better with their resources.

yes, a creamy head. This beer was very much like Guinness draught. AB has done a pretty good brew here.

The aroma is subtle - roasted grains and coffee with a touch of earthy hops (less EKG aroma than its Irish counter-part). The appearance is gorgeous like almost all beers of this style - opaque black with a thick, tight-bubbled, ever-lasting, tan head (nitrous pushed). The flavor is mild but pleasant. It starts with a mild thin flavor with coffee and sweet malts balanced by hops and deep, roasted grain flavors. This brew has more malty sweetness (caramel, diacetyl) and a touch of acidity not found in its popular Irish competitor. The mouthfeel is light and extremely creamy thanks to the nitrogen bubbles. Overall, a worthy entry into the field of dry stouts.

Draught at Scarlet O’Hara’s in St. Augustine. The final stop of a haunted pub crawl. Pours dark enough brownish/black with an off-white head. Aroma is dry roasty coffee, a little soy as well. Flavor has the same roasty coffee, in a light way. Very creamy.