Guinness 250: Can you taste the difference?

Guinness 250Am I so out if it a missed the previous announcement and perhaps considerable discussion?

Last week Guinness launched its 250th Anniversary Stout in the United States. It’s a “new” stout and certainly is being poured in a new manner. The press release states, “This marks the first new stout offering in the U.S. from Guinness since 1966 – more than 40 years ago – when Guinness draught was first introduced to Americans.”

In fact, the press release talks about dispense before what might have changed in the beer itself.

The commemorative stout is carbonated, not nitrogenated like the traditional Guinness Draught. As a result, it has a near-white frothy stout beer head of larger bubble size than that of Guinness Draught, and is poured on draught in a one-part pour or gently from a bottle (as opposed to the two-part pour unique to Guinness draught).

Just so you know, in the press release GUINNESS always appears in capital letters. Yell it from the rooftops.

The press release also states the new stout “uses a unique brewhouse process. This process blends two malt types in a double ‘brew stream’ along with water from the Wicklow Hills, and of course as in all Guinness Stouts, roasted barley to create the deep rich color and enigmatic flavor.”

I will also give you this verbatim because it would seem to indicate the beer undergoes longer fermentation than the non-anniversary stout: “The fermentation process for the Guinness 250 Anniversary Stout uses Guinness’ own yeast which has been extended to allow for more conversion of the natural sugars. The result is a more malty flavor profile.”

“The Guinness 250 Anniversary Stout has a different look and taste than anything our fans have ever experienced,” Guinness brewer Fergal Murray says, “but still retains the familiar character for which Guinness is so well known.”

I’m looking forward to seeing the results of some side-by-side blind tastings.

 

Pilsner Urquell: 5 weeks does not equal 3 months

After touring the Pilsner Urquell brewery last November I promised that when I got a chance I’d take a look at Michael Jackson’s video report from 1989 (the Beer Hunter series) to compare what he saw then with what Pilsner Urquell says is how long they’ve “always” lagered beer.

Michael Jackson at Pilsner Urquell

I tell you, that’s one great half hour of video. Discovery really needs to reissue the three hours of video in DVD form (before our VCR dies). Incredible details about the wooden vessels the brewery was using, the coopering, the whole process. I love watching Jackson wander through the caves, and the Hitchcockian moment where a giant barrel appears to be stalking him. You get thirsty seeing him march around open wooden fermenters, then he climbs a ladder to loom over one and explain that this is one of the things that make Pilsner Urquell different, presumably better. He says that others in the industry have told the brewery it is crazy not to modernize but that its leaders swear they won’t abandon open fermentation. Sigh.

But back to the question at hand. These days Pilsner Urquell lagers its beers five weeks, claiming this is the same amount of time as when Josef Groll first brewed the beer in 1842. On the other hand, the Beer Hunter report in 1989? “Three months,” which on my calendar is one quarter of a year (13 weeks).

Is the beer local if the bottle isn’t?

Let’s say that you drink local beer because you think it is important to support locally produced products and further the environmentally correct thing to do.

So there’s every chance you expect the local brewery to use local products itself. But what if it is much cheaper for the contract mobile bottling company — which happens to be called “Green Bottling” — that packages the beer for the brewery to buy from China or Oklahoma than from a plant three miles away.

Kind of complicated, I know. You’ll find the discussion at the Oregon Economics Blog.

 

Session #27: Beer cocktails

The SessionIt comes to my attention that The Session #27 is Friday and I never pointed to the announcement.

Oops.

Beer at Joes, operated by Joe and Jasime, will play host and the topic is “Beyond the Black & Tan.” Jasime writes:

What’s your favorite beer cocktail (and yes, despite the title of this post, it can be a black & tan or a shandy)? Find a recipe for that or a new one, try it, and tell us why you did or didn’t like it–even if you think beer cocktails are nothing but a good way to waste a beer. Have fun and try something new!

Everybody is welcome to participate. Head to Beer at Joes for details.

 

‘I am’ versus ‘Beer Wars’

OK, time to be cantankerous.

One heck of a lot of people in the beer blogging and twittering world have linked to the “I Am a Craft Brewer” video, including (in the interest of full disclosure) me.

Looks like love.

So who in the beer blogging world is going to slice and dice this puppy like they did Beer Wars?