Guinness Draught

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

On tap at O’Mailles. A St. Patrick’s Day favourite. Dark, black pour with a nicely achieved (some of the staff still struggle with this one) tan foam with decent retention. Aroma is very much roasted barley, and malt. Taste is a hint of coffee, and the roasted grain. Thick, frothy, and very worthy. Wish I could drink more in one sitting, though.

Someone tells me they don’t like stouts and I almost immediately ask them what stouts they have tried. 9 times out of 10 their answer is Guinness. That isn’t to say that Guinness is a bad stout, but it is one of the largest mass produced examples of a dry Irish stout; it would be truer to call it an extra dry stout. Those who try it either love it or hate it. I’m about in the middle these days, though Guinness was definitely one of my favorite gateway beers back in the day.

Thanks to the charger inside her bottle (which works better in the can version), she pours out in billowing tan froth. Charged and ready to roll, her waterfall of brownish-black stout delight falls to the bottom as her creamy tan head forms a thick blanket. Careful not to dip my nose too deep into her mousy cover, I smell dry charcoal, ash, burnt white bread, powdered dark chocolates and finally, licorice root. My first quaff is more average then I remember, but memories have that fuzzy habit of being blurred between reality and fantasy. Her body is light and her palate bone dry, of course. Immediately parching my tongue, she goes in for the kill with a mix of ash, charcoal, powered chocolates, wood, burnt toast, and old licorice root. There is nothing to hide and no need to hide anything within her palate; Guinness has always carried her heart on her sleeve which has helped her flourish over the years. Nowadays, I am find her to be simply average. Each quaff is a reliable repeat of the same, and it doesn’t take long at all for her to exit stage left. Before she does though, a whisper of crunchy caramelized sugars tease from the fringes of her palate, but not for long.

The Guinness draught in the can is a far cry better than her bottled cousin, and the Guinness Extra Stout is the better of the two, here in the states anyway. Every exported Guinness stout follows a different recipe depending on its destined country. A fun little random fact. Fun facts aside, Guinness is still alright, not great, but alright and best enjoyed on draft.

Can. Pours black with a dense creamy cappuccino coloured head. Aromas of roasted malt, coffee and grain. The flavours are almost the same. Roasted, sour-ish and mild.

coffee, roasty, black, cloudy, frothy, lightly bitter, creamy, full body, thick feel,

I love this beer! Smooth and refreshing beer. Dark brown with great beige head. Coffee and roasted malt flavor. Great stuff!

Can. Pours a clear dark brown body with a lasting, pillowy, not much lace, beige head. Smells of roasted malts. Flavor is roasted malts and some acidic sourness creating a coffee note.

black with a tan head, smells like brown bread. bitter, bready, malty. very smooth mouthfeel thanks to the ridiculous widget device. i just dont like guinness’ though, what the hell is 4.2%? distinctively lacking balls even compared to guinness extra

It’s black, creamy and over-rated. If you want to p*** off the barman, ask for a Guinness shandy - half Guinness and half fizzy lemonade (actually, it makes for a refreshing shandy) but there’s an art to pouring it!