Guinness Special Export Stout / Antwerpen Stout
Guinness Ltd.

 

Olhão 18/7 2016. 33 cl bottle from Oriente Modelo Supermarket. Yellow label with the characteristic harp. Declarations of "Genuine Quality" and "Special Export". Makes you wonder why beers with a high ABV is often "Export Beer"? Are the Brewers afraid that people at home will actually get drunk? So they have to send the strong beer out of the country.

Pours opaque dark brown with light beige head. Head is kind of dense but settles as a flimsy thin layer of foam. Moderate lacing.

Aroma is sweet with chocolate, coffee, roasted dark malts and a whiff of alcohol. Some more subdued bitter notes.

Soft carbonation and thick smooth, creamy palate.

Flavor is intensly sweet and a bit sugary followed by light bitterness.

A quite heavy fellow which would fit in nicely on a cold day in December. A bit misplaced in Portugal in 30 degrees.

 

RB transfer

L - Pitch black with a rocky tan head that dissipates quickly, leaving behind a good amount of lacing
S - chocolate, roasted malt and barley, sweet. Minerals on the nose
T - Rich chocolate, candied sugar, malt and barley but not nearly as roasted as foreign extra or even regular draught. Some caramel. Finishes with minerals. Some bready, yeasty notes. Some dark fruit. Slight coffee. Some licorice and espresso.
F - medium bodied with moderate carbonation
O - probably one of the more unique Guinnesses - sweeter with more chocolate notes, less roasted, minimal hop notes

Purchased at Purvis Beer in Melbourne in February 2025 and drunk in May that year.

L: Jet Black in the glass with a gigantic, mocha-coloured, rocky and moosey head. Streams of tiny bubbles climb up the edges of the glass.

S: The nose is Rich and roasty caramel malt with a slight touch of minerality and some Berry notes.

T: The taste is malty, yet creamy, with a bitter dark chocolate and an earthy, slightly acrid aftertaste. There's also a coffee note, and as always with any dark beer, I pick up berries and cola. Bitterness lingers retronasally and at the side of the tongue.

M: The body of the beer is smooth and silky. Combination and carbonic kick are minimal.

O: A very drinkable beer, which at its 8% ABV could very easily sneak up on you, given how easily it goes down.

Cheers!
#707

 

 

 

Really the only Guinness worth drinking...well ok the Foreign Extra Stout is pretty good too!
Deep, dark and full of roasted malt with a killer mouthfeel
This one goes down full bodied and smooth with a sublime long burnt smoky finish
This one actually tastes like all the marketing BS Guinness throws at their mostly watery low alcohol mass brews

Pours a deep dark color with a medium top of beige head that dissolves slowly.
Aroma is of roasted malts, caramel, chocolate, dark bread, slightly coffee and some dried fruits.
The taste is of roasted malts, allong with with caramel, bready notes and some coffee hints. This is nicely ballanced with dry fruity notes in the flavour. The finish is slightly bitter allong with the roasted notes in the background.
Mouthfeel is smooth and creamy with a medium carbonation and a medium body.
This was actually a really solid and enjoyable stout. A little surprised that it was this nice and enjoyable.

 

a beer ive been wanting to try for a very long time (they don’t sell it in ireland, or at least ive never been able to find it) and it’s quite good indeed, big meaty stout, dark malt flavour, molasses, marmite, liquorice, espresso, dark chocolate, tobacco, a nice dark fruit sweetness to it also, prune, fig, plum, hint of vanilla, slightly oaky, high bitterness on the finish, medium bodied, low carbonation, moderately viscous, a little thin for its strength which is the one drawback, but it is quite nice, happy to have finally tried it

 

Was pumped like a 90’s Reebok, but I was letdown like Jordan not being in NBA Jam. It’s ok, and better than regular Guinness - but not by much. There’s just a lil more taste and body. Maybe like Kim K after her morning Cheerios. Sure, let’s go with that.

Peace.

 

#1746 - Blind-tasted except for the beer's name and brewery/country, zero reviews below read (yet!)...
L- 330ml bottle marked on main front lable as 'Guinness Special Export'.
Superficially black, held up to a halogen actually ultra deep ruby-red. Clear, pours with a 5mm deep tan head (of fine bubbles suggesting it'll stick around). ps It does, and forms lacing, still lingering 20mins later...
S- Toasty-roasty-fireplaces... + some hints of fruit I believe, dark raisons?
T- Here the fruit/raisons... almost a wine-like aspect to it comes first. It's pungent but has a deep + sliiightly sour fruit aspect. It is nothing less that INCREDIBLY different from the swill you would get if you asked to be poured a pint of CO2-forced draft under-license black stuff you'd find in almost all UK pubs
F- It's pretty pungent and somewhat rich. The pungent/rich+slightly sour is a clever interplay.
O- The beer I just had earlier was a Nigerian brewed Guinness. This is different, nothing stands out of place as unblanced or 'wrong [or WTH is this facet]'. It's pungent yet refined, very easy drinking. Expensive but good and an experience, not likely something most will be buying frequently as a specialist import
As I understand it this is brewed in Ireland (shows what they CAN actually brew in Dublin!) and is exported under a special commission contract for the style to Belgium.
I'm not a born Guinness drinker, most UK brewed Guinness is rough. Now if it tasted anything like this I'd happily drink it!
Review/scoring all done, now the reveal, I get to read the bottle lables to see what I missed!
330ml bottle £4.15 BB: 18/06/2021 8% Bought from TremblingMadness, York/UK as part of a large pick-your own consignment to London.
At this shop^ it is described thus: 'Export Stout // 8.0% Abv // 330ml Commissioned by John Martin of Belgium in 1912. The first variety of Guinness to be pasteurised, in 1930.'

 

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