Guinness Special Export (Belgian version)

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

Pours an opaque black with a frothy tan head. Bready malty toffee aroma has some dark chocolate and honey undertones. Starts with some sticky sweet maltiness, a viscous palate, and a milk chocolatey finish. Nicely balanced and very drinkable and hides the alcohol very well.

Poured a very dark brown with a medium tan head. Sweet roasted aroma with tart chocolate. Almost like a chocolate salt water taffee. Also reminds me of chocolate liquer. Flavor was soft and acidic, almost creamy. Roasted chocolate pudding comes to mind. Medium bodied. Dry roasted bitter finish. WOW! Pure surprise. I need some more of these.

Strong malty aroma features notes of raisins and chocolate. Opaque brown-black body with thick, dense, lasting, fine-bubbled, tan-brown head that coats the glass. Chocolatey malts and nutty marzipan sweetness are nicely balanced with strong roastiness with a background of raisin-like esters and resiny hops. Medium body is very dry with strong, almost aggressive, pointy carbonation that prickles the tongue. Bottle sampled at the White Horse on Parson’s Green in London during GBBF 2005.

Darkest beer with a long lasting head, black body. Roasted malt flavor, bit spicy. Very high alcohol percentage (8% ABV) in comparison with the original Guinness (4.2% ABV).

Nearly black, with a nice steady tan head. Sweet smell, just a hint of roasted malts. Flavor is sweet again, a bit hard to detect other flavours but roasted malt because of the high level of carbonation. Still, despite all this, still a very pleasant beer.

30 c bottle. Sweet flavor with licorice and hints of smoked herring. No chocolate flavor. Bitter finish. Mouth feel is nice and oily and carbonation too powerful.

I’m not so familiar with stout, but I never liked the style. The aroma and taste are coffee and chocolate. A bit bitter with some sweetness. Well you love it are you hate it, but stout will never be my favoute style. (Bottle 33cl)

This pours an absurdly deep brown (almost, not quite, making it to black) body with a light brown (not tan) head, thick and creamy, coating the glass in lieu of mere lacing. The aroma is a rich, sweet dark malt, not much of a roast to it, with maple syrup and dark dried fruits and licorice and chocolate... very inviting. (So I drank, of course). This is extremely creamy and lush in the mouth. The flavor is actually tamed somewhat by the creaminess, yet still delivers enjoyable tastes of roasted malt, sweet caramel, prunes-dates-raisins, chocolate, anise, and a mildly acrid, bitterness like dark chocolate gone bad.
Of course this isn’t bottled for the U.S. We only get that muted, dry stout and other weak-sister products. Boo, I say.

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