Beverages and Blades - Traditional of Course

[Jack Black]

Scuttlebutt has it that the best Guinness actually comes out of the Kenyan plant... I have no idea if this is true, but more than a few of the Irish I met were fond of relating that information.

Is the Kenyan stuff stronger Chin?

Excellent post, as always, my friend

 

[Jack Black]

Sorry for the double post folks, my internet connection is so bad today that it's barely usable. Can't even upload a pic

 

[Cambertree]

Is the Kenyan stuff stronger Chin?

Excellent post, as always, my friend

Thanks mate, I think it is - the Foreign Extra Stout being about 6.5-7.5% alcohol bv, depending on where you get it. I had a couple of pints of the West Indies Guinness while in Ireland (with a similar alcohol volume) and while I prefer the richer taste to the standard brew, it's certainly not what you'd call a sessionable drink. I suppose the alcohol volume is increased like the original IPAs to stave off spoilage in hot climates.

Not that I'm any expert on Guinness. They seemed to have a stranglehold on the pub taps all over Ireland. I thought the lagers and red ales they had were a bit ordinary, tbh I preferred the wide variety of craft brews that were on offer at a lot of pubs in Yorkshire. Finding small batch local beers in Ireland took a bit of work.

The pubs themselves were fantastic, of course.

 

[Jack Black]

Thanks mate, I think it is - the Foreign Extra Stout being about 6.5-7.5% alcohol bv, depending on where you get it. I had a couple of pints of the West Indies Guinness while in Ireland (with a similar alcohol volume) and while I prefer the richer taste to the standard brew, it's certainly not what you'd call a sessionable drink. I suppose the alcohol volume is increased like the original IPAs to stave off spoilage in hot climates.

Not that I'm any expert on Guinness. They seemed to have a stranglehold on the pub taps all over Ireland. I thought the lagers and red ales they had were a bit ordinary, tbh I preferred the wide variety of craft brews that were on offer at a lot of pubs in Yorkshire. Finding small batch local beers in Ireland took a bit of work.

The pubs themselves were fantastic, of course.

I sometimes buy a bottle of the West Indies Guinness, but I am not a big fan of Guinness generally, and certainly not of the rotten Irish nitro-keg ales (Caffrey's, etc). I hear that, like most places, beer is getting better in Ireland though, with a number of craft breweries springing up. I reckon the Irish have been starved of good ale for far too long! Hopefully things will have improved for your next visit my friend Great to see Kelly's Cellars, Belfast has some great pubs

 

[donn]

Curse those Kiwis with their full flavoured dark beers and really cool labels.
Anyone support my theory of beer getting darker as the weather (southern hemisphere) gets cooler? And then as it warms up again around september they get lighter again. Weird eh?

Yeah, I do the same, Meako. As winter bites, the taste definitely turns to Porters, Stouts and dark ales, but I won't even look at them all summer. I had some fantastic local brews last winter, looking forward to sampling them again. Look out for Hargreaves Hill stout and Coldstream Porter if you get them up your way.

This one was a tasty brew as well:

Congratulations GT. I've been minded to share a pic of the Guinness brewery at St James Gate before, when reading your posts here, but now with my hostage pics released by PB, I can access them a bit easier.

Looking out over Dublin from the Brewhouse pub at the top of what used to be the old grain storage and malting silos IIRC.

(Yeah I know, I was all Guinnessed out by that point!)


Apparently the secrets of Guinness are access to good water, a very specific barley roasting temperature to induce a Maillard reaction, and the yeast. I've heard of famous old European bakeries locking their mother yeast in a safe at the end of the day, but this was the first time I've heard of a brewery doing it. This is the safe that was used:


This video of the coopers on site at work is very interesting as well. (The sound quality's not the best, unfortunately.)

Apparently at a social event, one of the Guinness family scions said to writer and IRA man, Brendan Behan 'Oh the Guinness family have done a lot for the people of Ireland.' Behan replied 'That's nothing compared to what the people of Ireland have done for the Guinness family.'

I think the production of St James Gate was around 3 million pints a day, 2 million of them destined for export...

Scuttlebutt has it that the best Guinness actually comes out of the Kenyan plant... I have no idea if this is true, but more than a few of the Irish I met were fond of relating that information.

Great posts folks!
I'm the same with winters and dark beers, however I'll keep drinking them throughout the year, but that's more because it's getting increasingly difficult to find a nice amber bitter. It's either stouts/porters or massively hopped "summer" ales. Saying that the difference between summers and winters in the UK as comparison to your Antipodean winters isn't much. Sometimes you just need a nice warming pint of stout in...September...
Unfortunately darker beers can be harder to find in our pubs in the summer. This was a pint of Arctic Convoy in the Tap n' Barrel pub in Wigan in Lancashire. Home to Martland Hill Brewery. Everything else on the bar was hops hops and more hops

Cambertree, thanks for posting those pics of the Guinness Brewery. That safe is great I believe Guinness has a number of breweries in Africa; I'm sure a google search would tell you where. I used to drink Foreign Export Guinness that had been brewed in....Nigeria I think which I seem to recall was 8.5%...? I can't find it anymore near where I live but I can buy Foreign Export Guinness in Asda (one of our major supermarket chains) which is brewed in Dublin and I think is 7.5%
I've a mate who spent a lot of time in Africa (Namibia, Botswana, S.Africa, Lesotho) and apparently over there Guinness is known as 'African beer', and is massively popular throughout most of the continent.

Blimey, that sounds a strange contraption!
You're a braver man than I am!

Aye apparently it was on the bar at Brigantes on Micklegate in York for a time. They were putting stuff like Bounty bars in it...??
I'm not sure about brave but now btb has posted the instructions I'm sure a pack of nuts and can of cola could be sacrificed
In lieu of that another Barley Wine tonight.

 

[Jack Black]

Aye apparently it was on the bar at Brigantes on Micklegate in York for a time. They were putting stuff like Bounty bars in it...??
I'm not sure about brave but now btb has posted the instructions I'm sure a pack of nuts and can of cola could be sacrificed
In lieu of that another Barley Wine tonight.

Minging!! I'll have to check it out!

I enjoyed reading about the cola and nuts thing

That Barley Wine looks smashing, as does your Ablett

Round my way, the stout they drink has dragons in it!



(Old pic )

 

[donn]

Thats the stuff!! I was trying to remember what it was called. It's sold in Tescos in their foreign foods aisle! The few times I've drank that I've really enjoyed it

 

[Will Power]

Cambertree Chin, very amusing anecdote about Guinness and the Borstal Boy 3 million pints brewed per day, most exported and quite a lot of the remainder downed by Brendan Behan himself That Guinness family certainly became exponentially rich due to the worldwide liking for their product but I've never been at all fond of it, very much the opposite.. But all drinks are acquired tastes....fortunately!

Regards, Will

 

[Will Power]

At the end of the day if I've found myself thirsty, usually I go for tea or water to round things off. I've never been that much interested in soft-drinks, my parents didn't give me them when I was a kid and I'm grateful for that. But I do like this French lemonade, it comes in various flavours and contains only sugar no artificial sweeteners or enhancers and it's wonderful not very sweet at all and it tastes citrus. This Mandarine version is very tasty!

 

[Jack Black]

Thats the stuff!! I was trying to remember what it was called. It's sold in Tescos in their foreign foods aisle! The few times I've drank that I've really enjoyed it

That's right it is! My local shops only sell cheap lagers and suchlike, so Dragon Stout is the only beer I ever buy from them. It's a little sweet for me, and I'd only want to drink one or two, but I find it a tasty tipple

Cambertree Chin, very amusing anecdote about Guinness and the Borstal Boy 3 million pints brewed per day, most exported and quite a lot of the remainder downed by Brendan Behan himself That Guinness family certainly became exponentially rich due to the worldwide liking for their product but I've never been at all fond of it, very much the opposite.. But all drinks are acquired tastes....fortunately!

There was a time when virtually every pub in ENGLAND sold Guinness. Not so much now, it has been replaced with better stouts

I grew up listening to so many tales of the wonder of drinking Guinness in Ireland. It came as a real shock when it tasted just the same as the stuff I'd drunk everywhere else! And the stories of the pouring ritual told to me by so many homesick Irishmen were grossly exaggerated!

 

[JTB_5]

Last one. Tasty and full-bodied.

 

[btb01]

I'm not sure about brave but now btb has posted the instructions I'm sure a pack of nuts and can of cola could be sacrificed

If you decide to try it, I would highly recommend Coke in a glass bottle (if you can find it).

One thing I appreciated about soft drinks in the UK (or "cokes" as they're all called where I grew up) is that they're still made with real sugar, as opposed the the high fructose corn syrup they put in just about everything here in the States. You can buy Coke made with sugar here, but you have to find the Coke in glass bottles that's made in Mexico, and (of course) it's more expensive. (I know that it's bad for you either way, but on the rare occasions I enjoy a Coke these days, I'd prefer it be made with sugar rather than HFCS.)

On the other hand, I also had a Dr. Pepper while were on that side of the pond, and quickly learned that at some point they decided to cut down on the sugar in Dr. Pepper by replacing some of it with the artificial sweetener aspartame. I can't stand the taste of that stuff.

I'm enjoying this locally brewed Vienna Lager from Fair State Brewing Cooperative this evening.

 

[Fodderwing]

At the end of the day if I've found myself thirsty, usually I go for tea or water to round things off. I've never been that much interested in soft-drinks, my parents didn't give me them when I was a kid and I'm grateful for that. But I do like this French lemonade, it comes in various flavours and contains only sugar no artificial sweeteners or enhancers and it's wonderful not very sweet at all and it tastes citrus. This Mandarine version is very tasty!

That's a beautiful Laguiole Will. I've picked one out but I'm in the "justification mode" at present. It's a classic 11 cm FP. Soon... soon...

 

[JB in SC]

btb01 Cokes made with sugar are available during Passover. They have yellow caps.

 

[meako]

I'll keep a weather eye out Cambertree.
Cheers. Always like to try something new as long as it is not described by any of these words
Pacific
Tropical
Scented
Passionfruit

Youngs double chocolate stout is another matter.

 

[btb01]

btb01 Cokes made with sugar are available during Passover. They have yellow caps.

Good to know. I haven't seen that before.

This is part of Operation Clean Out the Fridge. I think I picked this up as part of a build-your-own six pack sort of deal. (I'm also pretty sure that it moved from Arizona to Minnesota with us, along with all the other beer I had stocked up in the fridge, all carefully transported in a cooler in the backseat of my truck.) It's pretty good stuff, very easy to drink for 9.4% ABV.

 

[Will Power]

That's a beautiful Laguiole Will. I've picked one out but I'm in the "justification mode" at present. It's a classic 11 cm FP. Soon... soon...

That's very nice of you, thanks. This one is the 9cm locking Lag in Blonde horn, I like the smaller size as the full size Lags are just too massive for my pocket. Very pleased with the quality.

 

[meako]

I looorrve goooolld.
I was so disgusted with that awful NZ slop.
I had to buy a pommy beer just to see if it could be any worse....it is appalling
....from the first satisifying top pop and pour into cold glass to the last thirst quenching malty dreg.

This fine Aussie brew on the other hand is a classic example of how good an overly hoppy brew can be.
Its definitely borderline tropical though. About as close as I like to get.

 

[Will Power]

Nice beer glass you have meako, they look like some Finnish glass designs.

That Spitfire is appalling in my view, just replace the 'p' with an 'h' and there you are

 

[meako]

Yes Will
I got them from an opshop.
1$ ea. Most appealing.
Pouring into good glass is an important part of beer.