Taking it back to basics for this year's St Patrick's day while still being under wider lockdown restrictions, I decided to pick up some Guinness only to notice that there was so much more variety now than I ever remember seeing before (which I know is down to me being "out of touch" with the Guinness market more so than it being some type of well kept secret). Alongside the standard 4-pack of cans of "Draught" (at 4.2%), I also grabbed 1 x bottle labelled "Original" (at 5%) and 1 x bottle labelled "Foreign Extra" (at 7.5%) stating that it's been brewed in Nigeria. The though being that it would be interesting to compare them all. Coincidentally, I also happen to be on annual leave from work this past week, so it also gave me something "thematic" to do while I awaited the end of my husband's work day.
Before digging in to the numerous differences between them each, I thought it prudent to give a very quick understanding of what is to be expected of each. While we did briefly mention Guinness as well as discuss what an export stout was in our latest podcast episode all about stouts (link for anybody interested), the brief highlights are as follows:
Guinness is what is known as a dry Irish stout. According to the BJCP website, qualities that you'd be looking for in a traditional Irish stout would be an overall dark colour with reddish highlights, an aroma that encompasses coffee, chocolate, and roasted grains, and tastes that pulls through flavours of roasted grain/malt, coffee, bittersweet/unsweetened chocolate - all with some creaminess to balance it out. In addition, it should have medium to high bitterness with a medium mouthfeel and, overall, be smooth with the carbonation on the lower end. The tasting notes provided by Guinness directly can be found here and includes the point about it being the "first to introduce the combination of nitrogen and carbon dioxide to draught beer", which therefore resulted in Guinness Draught.
A Foreign Extra stout (or a foreign stout / export stout /foreign export stout) - on the other hand - will have the similar roasted grains, coffee, and chocolate aromas but with the addition of fruitiness on a medium to high level. It will also typically have a higher ABV in comparison. The colour should still range from darker brown to black in hue with the same smoother, creamier, medium mouthfeel. You can expect higher levels of carbonation, however. You can find Guinness's tasting notes for their Foreign Extra here for reference of what they are wanting to come across in the foreign extra and it's also worth adding the tasting notes for the Guinness Original (click here) - which you'll see is based on the original porter recipe brewed in 1821.
While normally with stouts, I tend to take them out of the fridge to sit for 30-60 minutes to warm before serving, I actually chose to have these all from "fridge cold" to start as I know that - rightly or wrongly - that's how I feel I've always had them served to me when ordering (not so much when on draught where the temp is regulated differently) - mostly in the US. I started with Original, then moved on to Foreign Extra and finished with the Draught. Once each was sampled cold, I went back through and did the rounds at a warmer temperature and here were my findings...
As far as appearance goes, the obvious thing to point out is that they were all dark in appearance. They all had the reddish highlight to them, but it was most noticeable on the Original. The other obvious comment to make regarding the differences is that the Extra Stout poured with a bubbly head (like when you get bubbles as you're cleaning a bottle with dish soap) which vanished as quickly as it possibly could, while the head on both the Original and the Draught had more of a thick, foamy appearance and held fairly well. If I were to judge on looks alone, based on my preconceptions about Guinness beers, I never would've pegged the Extra as a Guinness product based solely on the head alone. The Original's head was physically thicker in the glass as well - as it took up a good few inches of glass space, looking like a coffee coloured whipped cream you might get atop a frappaccino - while the Draught was a nice, clean, 1/2 inch thick velvety band sitting on top. The colour between the head on the Original and the Draught was also varying where the Original's was a beige/oatmeal colour and the Draught was lighter and more of a silky, cream colour. Also worth noting that the head of the draught continually looks to be undisturbed regardless of how many sips I had taken until it gets down to at least half the glass (which didn't really happen with the Original).
Calling my other senses off the bench and into the game, I picked up the glass of Original and was met with a delightful oaty (and borderline bready) aroma on the nose. You could really pick up the darker malts and there was almost a touch of a roasty, burnt coffee coming through. There was a low bitterness and mild dry qualities with the taste but, while cold, it did land in more of a "diet coke" type way - though my assumption was that it was more relating to it being at the colder serving temperature. After letting it sit for a bit to warm up, the barley came through stronger in the aroma and the taste of toasted malts/grains increased. It actually felt similar to having breakfast in a glass; like an oat-filled breakfast smoothy if you were to try to interpret that via a sessionable stout. Towards the back-end of the sip once warm, it almost had a slight metallic tinge to it, but it was subtle. The smootheness of mouthfeel increased noticeably from start to finish and it helped to really showcase the darker malts.
From Original, I skipped Draught and moved directly over to the Foreign Extra and took in the very different fruity yet vinegary-like aroma it had to offer - similar in scent to a cider made with red berries. It was so pungent that it was unnecessary to get your nose directly over the lip of the glass to smell it as you could smell it from a at least a foot away. The vinegar quality did pull through to the taste, but I am not completely sure if that was more due to the strength of smell getting into my head or if it was really there. Alongside the bitterness at the back-end of the sip was a consistent cranberry-like taste as well as an overall sweetness when comparing to the Original. It does have some of the more notable qualities you typically find with an "Extra", and because of this (mainly on the fruity front), I can see how the suggestion to pair with meals including pork loin would make for a winning combination. It lacked the hoppiness as you would expect but also lacked the dryness initially...which then increased over time as it warmed up. Another thing I noticed as it warmed was that it grew a new layer of smokiness that went hand-in-hand with some mild nutiness - neither of which were previously there. The harsh vinegar qualities did mellow out over time and I found this beer to be surprisingly complex for what it was (in a good way). As with the appearance (and aroma, if I'm being honest), it very much would not have been anything I expected from a bottle having Guinness slapped on the label (especially if I were a person who was unaware what an export stout was, but did have prior knowledge of traditional Guinness as well as stouts overall). That being said, it was surprisingly more-ish and far better than I had anticipated. Make of that what you will.
To finish, I turned to the old, reliable - Guinness in its "Draught"(from can) form. In comparison to the other pair, it had the fruity notes (though to a MUCH more mild level) from the Extra but also the roastier qualities (again, very mildly) of the Original coming through in the aroma. Even at a colder temperature, it had a fuller, creamier mouthfeel than the Extra specifically and a level of milkiness that came through via the taste. The more it warmed up, the more roasty and toasty the flavours became. And, without fail, I love how the head holds for the majority of the time that the beer lasts; sitting firmly across the top and holding strong until more than half of the glass has been consumed.
While I don't often choose to drink a Guinness, the mood does hit me every so often. This is normally when we're in a pub, however, so it's coming fresh off a tap, resulting in a better flavour (in my opinion) to the cans (though it's fun to rattle the can around as you can hear the widget!). Out of the three, the Draught was my least favourite - not because it was something I'd describe as "tasting bad" overall, but because it just doesn't land like it does when you're ordering it at a bar. Maybe it's the memories associated or maybe it really is just that much more of an improvement to the taste, but I can definitely say the rumour about it tasting better in Ireland is certainly true from my experience (and that was just based on a small bar at a tiny airport, during a layover, at 2AM). I'm tempted to say that the Foreign Extra was my favourite due solely to the complexity, but I'm not certain as it was pretty close with the Original.
Do they rank high compared to their more crafty compadres? The jury's still out on these as I've only knowingly had 1 Extra to compare it with (Verdant's Export Stout) and no dry irishes (to my knowledge). But, what I do know is that the Draught makes some excellent baked (or, erm,no-bake'd) goodies and delicious dinners! For a bit of added food porn, I made a no-bake chocolate Guinness cheesecake (recipe found here) - complete with oreo pie crust from scratch and TWO layers of chocolate ganache - and some Guinness burgers for our first BBQ'd meal of 2021 (recipe for reference).
As an added aaaaadddeedddd bonus, I also made some heavenly smelling beer burger buns for the burgers (recipe here), but this was made with Brewdog's Lost Lager (the free, newly "released" version) instead of with a Guinness. Saying that, it did say you could make it with a Guinness or any beer of your choosing, I just didn't want to over-Guinness the meal.
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