Guinness
Guinness Fans, Black Lager Goes Nationwide
Come this September, if you don’t already have it you will. Guinness Black Lager will launch all across the United States.
From the press release:
“With Guinness Black Lager we really wanted to build on all the elements that people love about Guinness. We take immense pride in the quality of our product and ensured that we built on the Guinness legacy when creating this distinctive and refreshing lager. I have no doubt that Guinness and lager fans alike will enjoy this unique tasting new lager,” said Guinness Master Brewer Fergal Murray.
Style: Euro Dark Lager
Availability: 11.2oz bottles
Taste Expectations: Per Guinness: Light and crisp with a subtle hint of malt, and a slight hop finish.
4.5% ABV
Guinness Foreign Extra Stout Hitting Atlanta
Atlanta is a test market for this rollout by Guinness Ltd. (Dublin, Ireland.) The only other test market is New York. Actually fairly interesting if you think about it.
Honestly, I don’t have a lot of details on Foreign Extra Stout – pulling info from a interview with Guinness president on Beer Advocate –
“Craft is a huge opportunity for us. We are the original craft beer, but we haven’t marketed ourselves that way and that’s going to change. GES [Guinness Extra Stout] has been growing for us single digits without much focus or attention other than putting it in craft sets. So there’s more opportunity there. The second piece we’re looking at doing is bringing in Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, which got an A- on BeerAdvocate.com. We are currently testing that in New York and Atlanta. We’re looking to roll that out. It has a higher ABV of 7.5 and a hoppier taste, and so it plays right into those types of craft beers.”
Availability – Arriving in Atlanta today – 5/14. Year round brew. Atlanta is a test market for this beer.
7.5% ABV
St Paddy’s Spotlight – Guinness
It’s St. Patrick’s Day! In honor of this alcoholic holiday, I thought I would feature what is probably the most well known beer on a day like this – Guinness. Craft or no craft, this is one beer that’s hard to ignore.
Guinness was started by Arthur Guinness in 1759, in Dublin, Ireland. Fun fact- the St. James’s Gate Brewery is actually under a 9,000 year lease at £45 per year. By 1838, St Jame’s Gate was the largest brewery in Ireland, and almost 100 years later in 1914, the largest in the world. In 2010, it has lost the title of largest brewery, but St Jame’s still lays claim to the largest stout brewer on the planet. Guinness Brewery is large not only in volume but also in size. At various times in its history, it’s owned almost 70 acres of land, buildings that housed employees, and streets. Guinness has even produced its own power at one point.
The Irish Dry Stout that we have come to know, is based on English Style Porters that originated in 18th Century England. Roasted barley gives it the toasted flavor. The creamy mouthfeel comes from nitrogen, which is infused into the beer under much higher pressures than regular beers, and separated out at the pour. Guinness is made with water, barley, hops, and yeast. Something that you might not know is that this stout is also treated with Isinglass finings, a substance that is obtained from dried bladders of fish. It is used to clarify the beer. (Removing the suspended materials.) Lots of craft beers these days are unpasterized, unfiltered, and even bottle conditioned, Guinness however, is pasteurized and filtered Ever opened a can or bottle of Guinness and heard a hissing bubbling noise? That’s the nitrogen “widget” blowing the gas through the beer, fluffing it up, creating the creamy head.
There is a lot of history surrounding Guinness and St. Jame’s Gate Brewery. I could go on for another page, but hey – it’s St. Paddy’s Day. Drink up!
Slainte!
Guinness is 4.2% ABV, and just turned 250 years old!
