Guinness Boycott!

Actually, to the best of my knowledge, Guinness Extra Stout has never used nitrogen, but has always been bottled in the old-fashioned way, with CO2. Plain ol' Guinness has gotten the N2 treatment in cans for a long time and, in the last year or two, bottles.

The Extra Stout is actually a very different beer than the regular dry stout. It's a couple percent more alcoholic, heavier, a touch sweeter. It's also pretty much piss compared to what it used to be, at least as far as the stuff available in teh States is concerned, once Guinness stopped importing it from Ireland and had Labbatt contract brew it.

I've abandoned the Extra Stout since the switchover to the Labbatt-brewed stuff. It's quite possible they've dicked around with it further to further destroy it. Wouldn't surprise me.

Do you get any Sierra Nevada or Anchor out your way? They both have dark beers that most assuredly do not suck.

Too bad Deschutes doesn't send beer out your way. I'm drinking an absolutely lovely Obsidian Stout right now.

If the beer landscape is that dismal where you're at - and now that you've got that whole job thing going on - you might want to start following Mr Becker's example in how to deal with living in a beer wasteland. If possible. I suspect Alabama's one of those enlightened states that won't allow any the proles to order any booze other than what the wholesalers want you to have. No matter: the Supreme Court should fix that one real soon now.

-Steve

Guinness draught and Guinness Extra are 2 completely different animals and.... up till a couple of years ago, the Extra(imported from Ireland) was one tasty son of a gun. Since being contract brewed in Canada, I tried it once. Couldn't even finish the bottle nevermind the 6er. :^( I miss the Irish Extra and to a lesser degree, the Harp.

Best regards, Bill

PS: Any Samuel Smith stuff in your town? For dark beers, the Oatmeal & Impy Stouts, and The Taddy Porter are quite delish.

I did some checking around and it appears that Alabama is not one of the states that beer cannot be shipped to by the online stores I've dealt with.

Best regards, Bill, sippin on a Rockies Brewing Never Summer ale...good stuff.

Thanks for the replies. I still think it was different, for whatever reason, than the last time I had it. It wasn't smooth, slightly sweet, or even dark-tasting. It was almost watery. I must be off my rocker!

They had Sam Smith's, and I almost considered it, but $12 for 4 beers is a little excessive...Considering I would only get 2 after sharing. They were out of Rogue Mocha Porter, and there was Murphy's, but I didn't trust that for some reason.

On a good note, last week I did get the Sam Smith's Welcome Winter Ale. Not bad.

Merry Christmas!

Murphy's stout is way more flavorful than Guinness these days.

Do it the Bill Becker way and order online - you will be amazed! _Randal

Every once in a while I give it a try in the hope they've unscrewed it up. The results are very inconsistent and not hopeful; every once in a while I'll get a drinkable sixpack, but more often than not they're fizzy and cheap on the roasted barley flavor.

This may be a dumb question, but why isn't Guinness Foreign Extra Stout available anywhere in the U.S.? Still brewed in Ireland, it weighs in between 7-8% abv (compared to the 5.5-6.0% abv of the Extra Stout and 4% abv of the nitro, IIRC), and still has that tang the Extra Stout used to have. Found it in Bermuda as recently as last month, and a co-worker says it's available in Canada.

"...they're fizzy and cheap on the roasted barley flavor." That is exactly what I was talking about.

Bill Goodman wrote on 24 Dec 2004:

Guinness gives us the Extra Stout they have contract-brewed in Canada; they can still call it "Imported" in the US market, and it's rather close by the US. It's similar to what Foster's parent company does for Foster's US distribution. The Foreign Extra Stout would confuse and compete, so it's not coming to the US any time soon.

Canada gets the better Extra Stout mainly because it has to come from somewhere not in Canada (or else it can't still be "Imported", naturally). So, they get the better, roastier version that's still produced elsewhere. I would guess Canada's also a much smaller market than the US, so their consumption doesn't tax smaller countries' brewing capacities.

Witzel

I've wondered that, too. Not sure why, and to the best of my knowledge, it's never been offered in the States. For whatever reason, the FES has been largely limited to warm-climates (supposedly it's popular in Nigeria as well as the Caribbean). But why they wouldn't give it a shot in the U.S., I don't know. It's not like Guinness are lacking a distribution channel in this country.

-Steve

Wrong beer. He's asking about the *Foreign* Extra Stout, which is approaching imperial in character. Different bird than the Extra Stout.

-Steve

U.S., I don't

And it can't be because they're afraid of "confusing" their consumers, since most Guinness drinkers are already "confused"- many will tell you it's "thick" or "heavy" or has a lot of alcohol OR they'll tell you they only drink it on tap and hate the bottled stuff (or vice versa) and will look shocked when you tell them it's 2 different beers, Guinness Stout and Guinness Extra Stout*.

And then watch them spill beer on themselves and knock the plastic green derby right off their heads trying to read the label when you tell them that bottle of GES they're drinking is Made in Canada. Or still not understand what's that thing is rattling around in the empty can of GS ("Sshh, it's a secret! You can only find out by --------------READING the side of the can!"

• Somehow, A-B drinkers have no problem knowing there's a different between Bud, Bud Light and Bud Dry Bud Ice or Bud Z [or whatever new Bud that comes along] and Miller drinkers know that Miller Lite, Miller High Life and Miller Genuine Draft are all different, bland beers.