Guinness Special Export (Belgian version)

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

Bottle. Guinness colour with large tan head. Roasted aroma. Very nice taste of coffee, chocolate, caramel, roast malts and a hoppy bitter finish. Full bodied, smooth and creamy with some warming alcohol which is otherwise well hidden.

Rounder than the Foreign Extra, more like a barley wine. I miss the complexity - here all the edges are rounded off. A bit too sweet, too. Note: I bought my bottle in the Netherlands. The labes sasy clearly that it’s brewed in Ireland FOR John Martin.

0.33l bottle at home. Aroma of roasted barley. Quite bitter in taste but that’s what you expect of this beer. Good stout.

This is the best Guinness out there, no contest. It has substantial off-white head which fades quickly and leaves little lacing. The roasted, creamy taste is strong but not overpowering and the hints of coffee, chocalate, vanilla and black hash don’t dominate but blend into a rounded whole instead. It’s bitter & the alcohol is very noticable but that adds to the beer - with some beers its a problem, but not with this one. A very well-rounded and tasty brew, with a nice alcy-kick as an added bonus. One of the best foreign stouts, for sure. However: the quality seems to be going down recently. The bottles and labels were changed and the beer is alot less deep & complex as it used to be - the last +-10 bottles I had were all somewhat mediocre, not bad, but very dissappointing.

Bottled. picked up at SH Jones Bicester 28-09-06. Black in colour, with a lovely smokey, woody aroma. wonderfully bitter with nice oakiness, and bitter coffee flavours, truly great beer.

Rich deep black brown with a thick creamy head. Sweat caramel coffee and candy aroma. Rich sweet caramel taffy flavor with a malty finish.

chocolate, coffee, licorice, alcohol, black, cloudy, brown foam, medium sweetness, very bitter, full body, oily feel, lively, bitter, long finish,

Bottle at home. Almost black - offwhite head. Funny swet vanilla aroma (koldskål). Taste: burned malts, sweet, light licorice, light hoppy. Light bitter finish.