Beer Saturday

Well well well, me auld flowers, Saturday again already. Time keeps trucking on and another week disappears in the rearview mirror. I've something a bit different for you this week, a beer from one of Ireland's most famous families and a beer that is predominantly exported to carribean markets, but I managed to get my hands on a few bottles.

Guinness West Indies Porter

What they say

In 1801, Guinness brewers took on the challenge of creating a porter that could keep its quality in a ship's hold during a 4-5 week voyage into tropical climes. Not only did the new porter survive the journey, but it turned out to be a remarkable beer in its own right. Based on that 1801 export recipe, this is an immensely flavourful porter.

Beer Art

Unsurprisingly this is well designed and stands out. It is not in the realm of craft beer label design and doesn't even really qualify as beer art for me. What I do like is the fact that they have given a nod to the past and I suspect the bottles that made the long trip across the Atlantic Ocean in the 1800s looked pretty similar to this. That old world charm works for me.

Checklist

Beer Saturday ✔
Ice cold beer ✔
Massive Thirst ✔

The Info

Brewery: Guinness and Company, St. James Gate
ABV: 6.0%
Bottle: 500ml

Thoughts

This Porter poured a deep brown color with a nice light golden brown coloured head that lasted. There is a coffee-look to this one as you'll see from the various photos and the taste even has notes of coffee and chocolate coming through.

One of the first things I do when I open a beer is have a nice smell of what I'm about to drink. The smell here was rich with roasted grains, malts and even some hops coming through.

It's tough to notice the 6.00% ABV here, which is always an indicator of good and patient brewing for me. I like to match up beer and food when I can and this went nicely with a Lamb Jalfrezi, although I forgot to get a photo, I did get a snap of the papadams which always go down a treat.

The Grade

3.75/5

Thanks again to @detlev for this excellent contest for beer lovers around the world. Why not join yourself? Just tell a story about beer with a few photos or drink a beer and tell us about it.

The photos used throughout this post are all my own taken on my Samsung smart phone

Sláinte and Peace out.