Guinness Draught vs Guinness Original , vs Guinness Extra Stout vs Guinness Foreign Extra Stout Beer Review.

Lets face it if you're a stout drinker Guinness was probably your gateway drink. It was the one that got you addicted, it was the small drag on someone else's blunt that led to your crack cocaine addiction, and left you in rehab for 6 months. OK maybe I've taken the gateway drink thing a little too far, but you get the idea. Like me you were probably just on a night out with your lager drinking mates pretending to enjoy your Fosters when you suddenly thought there must be something better. What's that black stuff all the old people are drinking? I'll try that. Oh my God that's amazing, it actually tastes of something, get me more. 

From that first taste of stouty goodness you'll have decided to experiment with porters, or milk stouts, or outmeal stouts, or chocolate stouts. You get the idea. For many of us Guinness Draft Beer is the reason we're now sat here with large beer bellies sampling different beers, reading about different beers, and in my case writing about different beers. Lets not forget our first love though, we may have moved on to bigger, and in some cases better things, but Guinness will always be there for us, like it has for the last 260 or so years. But which variety of the black stuff is best?

Guinness Draft Beer Review

Lets get one thing out the way first. While draught Guinness may have been our first love it isn't the best. It also tastes exactly the same in Dublin as it does everywhere else. I know I've been there and I've tried it, I tried a lot of it. At 4.2% if it wasn't so thick it'd be an excellent session stout, but in reality it does take some drinking after the first few pints. There is something satisfying about seeing a draught Guinness poured slowly though, and the care taken in a good bar to place the clover in the head is always a nice touch. Of all the Guiness varieties the draft remains the smoothest, but also the most tasteless. If you were to compare it to a whisky it would appropriately be Jameson, yes it's smooth, but it lacks anything to make it stand out. The truth is though it's precisely due to the relative tastelessness of Guinness draft that it's able to convert so many lager drinkers to better stuff. It's a beginners stout. If I'd reviewed it 20 years ago it'd be a 10/10 but having moved on to better things I realise my first love has aged badly in comparison to the new drinks I've met so it can only be a 5/10.

Guinness Original Beer Review

Stepping up next we have Guinness Original. At 5% it's certainly a step up from the draught version, but it's still far from the most potent Guinness available. We'll get to that later. You'll usually find this in bottle form, although cans are available, but given the choice why would you ever choose a can over a bottle? Like the draught it's black, but not as black, and the head is nice and foamy. Right from the first smell you can tell there's something more to this beer. There's chocolate, some coffee, and a slightly bitter smokey taste. It's certainly extremely drinkable. If you've only had draught Guinness this version will really impress you.

I really can't stress enough that like every beer it's better from a bottle than a can, but either way you're going to enjoy it. Guinness Original is a very good, very respectable, affordable drink 7/10.

Guinness Foreign Extra Stout Beer Review

Welcome to the big daddy of Guinness stouts. Weighing in at an impressive 7.5% this is a beer not to be messed with. Just to be clear this review is based on the Irish version not the Nigerian, although they are pretty similar. 

Of all the Guinness varieties this is the one which will knock your socks off. The high percentage is matched by the level of taste. Yes it still has the darkness you'd expect from a Guinness, but this couldn't be further from the draught version if it tried.  And maybe it is trying. 

There's a proper old school stout taste here, it's bitter, chocolatey, with some coffee thrown in for good measure, but it all blends well. It almost has the taste and texture of an imperial stout, which given the high percentage probably shouldn't come as a surprise. This wouldn't be out of place in any stout collection, and I can't help but think if it came from any other brewery it'd be more respected than it is. This is the very best Guinness has to offer 9/10.