What's your favorite Irish Dry Stout?

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! (That's a 4-way stop.) Instead of 4-way stops (my bold above), you must mean 'crossing roads' and some of them are 2-way stops.

Michigan sometimes uses the "reminder" signs, but I think mostly at intersections where one road is highway speed and there is a history of accidents.

 

Yeah - I always assumed it started with Michael Jackson's way of organizing things for his book chapters - dry stout vs sweet stout (used broadly). I'll never understand the emphasis/importance that people give to stuff like that (and categories on BeerAdvocate) over simply looking at what's on the actual can/bottle... as if some stouts from Guinness are literally things called "Irish Dry Stouts" (in title case) and other Guinness stouts definitively aren't. I guess that works for some people.

Unsurprisingly, I've seen vague/strange/interesting/contradictory stuff regarding Guinness and nitrogen. I've seen it stated that they were experimenting with it (in general) as far back as the 1930s. Michael Jackson claimed that in the 1950s, Guinness would supply beer to publicans who would do their own bottling. Sometimes the beer was too lively and publicans would release carbonation and serve it on draught instead. The beer would be pumped with air and the nitrogen in the air produced a creamy pint - and that's how it started.

I make that mistake all the time.

 

Sorry... I was thinking of Guinness Draught. At 4.2% ABV, it is the lowest ABV of 245 different Stouts I’ve tried, AND the lowest ABV of over 300 “Dark” beers, including Black IPAs, Dark Lagers, and Schwartzbiers. It’s a lower ABV than most Lagers. Not even close to the original, which was nearly 9% ABV before WWI. Even the “Original” Guinness Extra Stout is only 5.0% ABV today. IMO, a Stout should be a bit stronger than a Budweiser (5.0% ABV).

 

The Extra Stout is 5.6.

And whether or not any of the Guinness Stouts are less than, equal to, or stronger than Budweiser doesn't make a difference in that they all *taste* better than Bud.

@patto1ro -- was Guinness actually 9.0 at one point in time?

 

O'Hara's and Guinness from the tap.

 

Who doesn't? Diageo's various Guinness websites (different for each marketing country) show they don't even quite understand it. The US version of the website's FAQ used to state something like "All Guinness stout sold in the US is brewed in Ireland..." even when the Guinness Extra Stout here was being brewed under license by Moosehead in Canada. I even called their toll free number one time and asked about it.

"...but I'm hold a bottle here and it says "PRODUCT OF CANADA".
"Umm...ah...umm....ahhh... Well, the FAQ is referring to Guinness Draught..."
"But it says 'ALL'."

Ain't it the truth... I often have to review the "Guinness" section of the beer library to keep it all straight. Wasn't there something about publicans having 2 kegs of Guinness, one fresh and one aged and pouring from both for one glass of stout? Maybe that was for something different...

And the same confusion exists over the nitrogenated bottles and cans. @steveh and I were just discussing that ultrasonic "surger" unit that predate the canned "widgeted" Guinness Draught and I couldn't remember all the specifics and then found in my files that it was purposely used on the short-lived stout (early 1980s) called "Guinness Cream Stout".

Right? But, yeah, that's yet another problem with Guinness' multiple stouts, the abv of "Extra Stout" varies from market to market and using the term "Original" only confuses things more since there is a "Guinness Original Extra Stout" brand (below left) sold in the UK that's 4.2%! (The US even got that version in the recent 200th Anniversary box from a few years ago.)


And, even though they brewed the 5.6% Extra Stout for the US at times, the Labatt Canadian domestic Guinness Extra Stout was 5% (and appears to be no longer made?).

Guinness brewmaster David Hughes' book notes that 19th century GES was "brewed at 1074°S compared to the 1038°S today, twice the strength".

 

Sure, but I double-checked and the member I was replying to is in Ohio -- no special Guinness Original being imported there, is there?

 

I still see those 200th Anniversary boxes around . Oh, yeah, I agree that's more than likely the ES he was referring to - just pointing out that calling it "Original" (quote marks and all) makes things even less clear these days.

 

That Boston Globe bit is incredible.

 

Which part? The "hypodermic needle = drug connotations" ? I also liked that bartenders rejected the "Surger" 'cause it took too long. But what about the "famous" Guinness Two Minute Pour? (At least the machine did all the work... ).

 

I meant the entire thing but worded things poorly. The needle/drug part being the apex though.

 

You know, when the topic of Guinness Cream Stout used to come up, I used to think, "Oh, I remember that stuff..." but I think I was confusing it with imported Watney's Cream Stout, which was around a bit later.

Now it makes me wonder - so who used the "Cream Stout" labeling in the US first, Watney or Boston Beer...

Speaking of the latter, there was always a question if BBC used lactose in their Cream Stout - since it was often lumped into the "Sweet Stout" segment, along with true Milk Stouts. Apparently it did not - based on info from lactose-intolerant people getting replies from BBC.
And then BBC goes and puts a cow on the !@#$ label (along with the Kosher symbol)? WTF?

 

Yep - But it's still more tolerable marketing than the contemporary cream ale=coffee beer.

 

What? You mean a "cream ale" isn't supposed to be a vanilla-flavored, nitrogenated beer?

Of course, then there is the "oyster stout" style - some using oysters/oyster shells in the brewing process, others just brewed to accompany oysters*. OK, now you'd think that'd be a significant enough difference to put the two sorts of beer in different "styles" but...

*OTOH, USA-brewed Guinness went with lobster.

 

I think the lobster association was in the UK too... along with other seafood beyond oysters. But everybody knows that the best food pairing is Guinness and toucan.

 

They got them there, too?

I only had cockles when I was in the UK. (Sold in cellophane bags by a young woman in a pub, carrying them in a sort of "cigarette girl" tray.)

Well, fowl is fowl I guess. Chicken, turkey, duck, toucan - what's the dif?

Not anymore, tho' - they've got vegan!

Just ain't the same, since you can't taste the fish bladder these days!

 

The fish bladder was used as a clarifying ingredient as I’ve seen, saw it on a special from Bateman’s preparing kegs of beer for a competition. so why add the fish juice to a stout like Guinness?

 

Many years ago I attended a street festival "Oyster Fest" in Chicago sponsored by Guinness. There's also a big oyster fest somewhere in the northwest of Ireland, but I'll need to research it...*

And yeah, lobsters swim in the cold waters off Ireland & England too (didn't see a smiley, so I didn't know if you were "jess kiddin" ).

*https://www.galwayoysterfestival.com/

 

You answered your own question.

No matter how dark it is, Guinness is still clear. Pull out a good flashlight and you'll see.

Oh, and it's not "juice," like a clamato -- but an Oyster Stout can be.

 

Never though of Guinness as a clear beer.