Guinness West Indies Porter

Guinness West Indies Porter

Guinness

Dublin, Ireland

One of two recently launched porters from the Guinness Brewers Project in Dublin, West Indies Porter is based on an 1801 diary entry for the first Guinness purposely brewed to maintain its freshness on long seas voyages to the Caribbean and beyond.

ABV: 6

ABW: 4.8

COLOR: 53

BITTERNESS: NA

ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1057

AVAILABLE: IRELAND, UK

Jet black in color with a ruby edge when held to the light, topped by a heavy collar of foam. It has an inviting aroma of malt loaf, treacle, licorice, sultana fruit and a hint of peppery hops. Roasted grain in the mouth is balanced by burnt fruit, spicy hops and continuing notes of treacle and licorice. Hops fade in the finish, with sweet grain and treacle dominating the long finale. It’s a pity Guinness won’t go down the bottle-conditioned route, as this beer would age well.
- Roger Protz

It’s fantastic to see Guinness putting all its experience in the stout and porter market to good use to create this archive-inspired, typically black-looking beer. It’s a big bruiser of a porter, offering an aroma of salted caramel, molasses and chocolate fudge before an initially sugary but then mostly bitter taste filled with chocolate, creamy coffee and more molasses. Chocolate and coffee continue in the thick, lasting finish, which rounds off with the familiar Guinness bitter roast character. Overall, it’s a solid, tasty brew, if rather one-dimensional. Bottle conditioning, I feel, would add more subtlety and complexity.
- Jeff Evans

Roger Protz
Author of 300 Beers to Try Before You Die and 300 More Beers to Try Before You Die. Respected beer authority and editor of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide and www.protzonbeer.co.uk.

Jeff Evans
Jeff Evans is author of the Good Bottled Beer Guide, The Book of Beer Knowledge and Beer Lover’s Britain. More of his writing can be found at www.insidebeer.com.