Guinness 250 Anniversary Stout

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

12oz bottle. Pours a dark brown near black with a medium fizzy frothy light tan foamy head 3.5. Aroma is... well is... fruity? lightly buttery and a touch sweet, slightly redeeming alcohol and yeast. This is quite the strange brew. I’m not sure what I’m tasting here, its very thin, almost like these massive amounts of ingredients have somehow canceled each other out, like Miller slipped them a recipe or something, light fruit snacks, quite dry, some faint metallic hop bitterness a la Miller Lite, what the hell is going on here? It is not offensive, the flavors are very distant. Slightly finer soda-pop carbonation and feel, medium chalky but very light feeling in the mouth. Super quick and clean finish with a mineral water like aftertaste. This one leaves me scratching my head...

How dissapointing was this. If you package an anniversary beer, isn’t it supposed to be special? This beer was anything but, nothing like Guinness. Maybe the formula for this beer is 250 years old. Available for a limited time? Good. Or the breweries reputation will certainly suffer.

Bottle 330 ml
Appearance: pours as dark brown ale with large frothy , lightly tanned top. Some lace shown.4-
Nose: clean , fresh aromatic , roasty with good hops to it. Some caramel and brown malts. 7+
Flavor/Palate : Mid light bodied. Dark caramel , chocolate , brown sugar with roast at finish. Thinner mineral watery end. Aroma promised much more.

This draft brew from a beer bar poured a small sized head of foamy finely sized tan colored bubbles that were and left behind a opaque no visible carbonation black colored body and a thick foamy lacing. The mild aroma was dark malt. The thin smooth mouth feel was weakly tingly at the start and at the finish. The flavor contained notes of malt and dark malt. A decent one that I would consider buying again.

Bottle from a six and on tap at the Gingerman. Better from the bottle. Like the Extra Stout, but sweeter and more accessible.

pint glass: There can be no argument that if the original brewers of Guinness were around for this 250th they would slap the shit out of the head(less) brewmaster! I’m a guinness fan: solid, dependable, it’s Guinness. This brew, not so much. Subpar compared to the regular brew. Shame on you Diageo!

This beer is a complete failure for me. How can a respected brewery like Guinness just put some dark coloring in regular Budweiser and call it a celebration of 250 years?

12-oz served in Dogfish snifter. Fine lacing rims the edge. Coffee and chocolate roasty malts, with hints of caramel and nuts. Light mouthfeel. Semi-dry finish. Quite sessionable.