Guinness Foreign Extra Stout

Guinness. In my beer journey, it was one of the first beers I turned to as something different from the BMC beers. For most people, it's as far as they get from the generic American macrobrews. For others, it's something they only have on St. Patrick's Day. In Ireland it's the drink of the masses.

As I learned more about beer, I started to find Guinness to be thin bodied and low in flavor compared to a lot of the other craft stouts out there. I still have it from time to time, usually at a bar or a restaurant when there are no craft options other than Boston Lager, but it's nothing I ever look forward to at this point. That being the case, when I heard about the new release of Guinness Extra Foreign Stout, I wrote it off as a waste of my time and not worth trying. I had heard that it was the closest thing to the Guinness served in Ireland, but I figured that at best it was probably only slightly better than the normal Guinness I've had for years. It surprised me then when Dan picked up some of it and told me that I absolutely had to try a bottle of it.

The first thing I noticed upon pouring was that the had was not the foamy almost white color that I am used to from Guinness, but instead had a slightly deeper tan hue, and more of a rocky quality to it. The smell as before only has a bit of roast to it, but there's a bit of tartness to the aroma as well, with a slightly acidic twinge to it.

The taste did vary quite a bit from the standard that I'm used to as well. Initially it was light and a bit tart, but in the back of the mouth bitterness dominated the flavor strongly. It's hard to determine, but I would say that the bitterness comes less from dark malts and more from hops in this version. I've heard that in Ireland, the Guinness served is a blend of younger beer and an older version that has a strain of Lactobacillus added to provide the tartness. I can definitely see that more in this version than the Guinness I've had before.

Differences aside, there are definitely good and bad sides to this beer. It's hard to separate the expectations built up from years of drinking the standard American version of Guinness, but I'll try to talk about it as it's own entity. First, the tartness is pleasant, and works well with the beer. It adds a layer of flavor that is usually not found in a stout. On the other hand, I found the bitterness in it to be unbalanced, and having a dull quality to it that I didn't find fitting. The body is a bit on the light side. It has a decent amount of flavor to it, and certainly stands up as a real stout.

Overall, I couldn't decide if it was worth trying or not. As academic curiosity about what all the fuss over in Ireland is about, I suppose it makes sense to try. As a stout on it's own, it's ok but not great. I guess the question at this point is whether it's fair or not to consider the Foreign Extra Stout a legitimate style on it's own since the whole basis for the style is to fit this particular beer. I certainly wouldn't be upset if I didn't have it again, but I would choose it over the standard Guinness.

- Adam