Guinness 250 Anniversary Stout

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

Aroma of cigarette butts. Pours like a normal Guinness, but a tad lighter. Monstrous head. Chocolate and butter, extremely smooth. These sound like good traits, but this is a bad beer. Up front taste of sour milk, yuck. Weak aftertaste of roasted malt. Disappointment.

mostly black pour with medium lived beige head. Smell is malty and slightly sweet with a very traditional guinness smell. Taste is similar to guinness, but less creamy with c02 instead of nitro. kind of a dry roasty flavor along with a sweetness and light bitterness. Not too bad, I thought. Nicely drinkable.

Great big foamy head, slow to fade. Dark brown cola colored. Very little aroma, some dark hops, perhaps I’ve got it a little to cold. Really thin with no dominant flavor; I’m used to stouts giving me a bit more but this is really odd. Some lingering bitterness. Nothing wrong with it, just a bit of a disappointment overall; I saw the big "250" label and expected something bigger.

Serving: 12 oz. bottle. Appearance: Pours black with the slightest of garnet highlights and a foamy brown head that fades pretty quickly. Normally I expect Guinness products to look pretty good, but this one doesn’t seem to fit the mold. Aroma: Roasted malt, a little fruitiness (perhaps grapes?), slight caramel notes, and a little chocolate. Aside from the roasted notes, the nose is very light. Somewhat less impressive than I was expecting. Taste: Dark roasted malt, a hint of caramel and coffee. Really watery. Mild roasty bitterness. This one seriously lacks flavor. Palate: Medium-high carbonation with a medium-light mouthfeel. Medium-short, watery finish. Overall: They could have done much better with this beer and it is almost an insult to call this the anniversary beer. Rebuy: Negative.

A foamy, dark ecru head settles slow over a dark mahogany/black body. The nose finds a roasted malt aroma with sweet caramel notes. A light metallic note detracts slightly from an otherwise pleasant flavor of semi-sweet chocolate and roasted grain. Mid-bodied, heftier than the traditional Guinness draught, this finishes long with lingering chocolaty sweetness and roasted nuttiness. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Draught pint, June 2009, B.J. McMahon’s, Oak Lawn, IL

A well developed brew from the boys in the Erie Isle. Combination of extra stout and draught beer with a good flavor and taste. Overall a nice addition to the Guinness name.

Lovely dark black color, with very little aroma on the nose. Smooth flavor that is very pleasant and drinkable. Finishes a little too cleanly for my liking, leaving no discernible aftertaste. All in lall, very enjoyable!

Tap at Lucky Baldwin’s. I tried this because this is a proud brewery and if I were around for 250 years I would put something together that was remarkable. Also, even if it were shit, I wanted the cosmos to know that symbolically, I am behind Guinness. The nose is very faint coffee. The flavor is underwhelming compared to the original. The one thing that is new is a very faint chocolate-honey-amaretto that is faint to the point of hilarity. Had this been at the fore, or the ABV been upped, I could reconcile this as a celebration beer. I hope they do better for 300. I will stay alive to check.