These adaptations often included some indigenous grain source because barely was hard to come by. In Nigeria, sorghum, maize, and wheat are used to replace all or some part of the barley grain bill. Being in parts of the world known for sugar production, local adjunct sugars where frequently used to bolster gravity or give added complexity to the beer. It’s an ingeniously simple innovation. One that folks in Ireland have recognized time and again. In fact, in the early aughts, an Irish magazine published a survey for readers asking them questions about the previous hundred years, including: What was the most important invention of the twentieth century? Wagner doesn’t have a problem with that at all, but he wants to make it clear that there are incredible pubs all across the U.S. and the world that pour wonderful pints of Guinness Draught Stout.

It’s a unique beer. “Once you sip through the foam and get the beer, you get roastiness and it’s just a smooth taste, which catches some people off guard,” says Hayden. The publican or bartender had to blend those two together on their own to make the perfect beer. This two-part pour became an integral part of Guinness’ history. One that follows the beer still to this day. Bottle or keg as you would any other beer. Shoot for a carbonation of 2.5 volumes and enjoy your labor! The locally brewed portion ensures freshness, while the Irish component guarantees that the character associated with Guinness can consistently be a part of Foreign Extra Stout regardless of where it’s brewed. For the West Indian Guinness drinker, there is a sense of being part of a global Guinness community since the same barley roasted at the original Dublin brewery is also used in Caribbean brewed Guinness as well as the Guinness sold in Lagos, London, and local pubs all across Ireland. Today, Guinness in the Caribbean is still made via this method and Guinness Foreign Extra is now an important part of West Indian culture. It’s the subject of songs, the secret ingredient in stews, and bottle sales remain steady.If you’d like to try your hand at brewing a tropical stout recipe at home, we would recommend reading over the tips below. Grain Bill: As Guinness approached their bicentennial anniversary, they were the biggest brewery in the world, they successfully released a book, and perhaps even more remarkable; they were still family-owned. Other great achievements were yet to come, and some of them were already in development. Guinness in the 1960s Well, the scientists from the Institute of Food Technologists might say so. They conducted a series of Guinness taste tests in thirty-three cities and fourteen countries, including Ireland. On average the Guinness from Ireland earned a score of seventy-four out of 100, while in other countries the pints averaged a score of fifty-seven. Speaking of sharing it at pubs… Is Guinness Draught Stout Really Better in Ireland? Photography courtesy of Guinness It seems likely that English porter was making it into the West Indies also, including the Caribbean, despite Terry Foster claiming little evidence of these exports in his book Brewing Porters and Stouts. Whether the English porters were making it to the West Indies may be uncertain, but what is certain is that by 1801 Guinness was brewing their “West Indies Porter” and it was being exported into Barbados, Trinidad and the rest of the Caribbean.

For years Guinness fans have spread the sentiment that the best pint of Guinness you can possibly taste in the world comes straight from the source at St. James’s Gate in Dublin. Several things combined at just the right time to make Guinness Draught Stout gain a cult-like following. We wrote that already, but it bears repeating. Why? Because as Wagner mentioned, Guinness is a global brand. A tropical stout makes use of indigenous grain and adjunct sugars where possible and, because most of these “hot clime” breweries are heavily committed to lager brewing, this style often uses lager yeast, instead of the usual ale yeast. Tropical is usually fuller-bodied, sweeter, fruitier, less bitter, and has a smoother roast character. It may be easiest to describe as a higher gravity sweet stout without any lactose undertones and more fruit esters.

Examples of the Style

In 1959, Guinness celebrated its bicentennial, releasing Guinness Draught Stout for the first time. Six years later the beer first arrived in the United States. First and foremost, that two-part ritual is iconically and uniquely Guinness. Plus, the beer just looks so much different than most other beers. “If you’re sitting at a bar and someone has a pint of Guinness Draught Stout in front of them, you normally know it like that,” says Wagner, as he snaps his fingers. Previously only available in Ireland and the UK, Guinness is bringing these two porters stateside for the first time and offering American beer lovers a chance to experience how Guinness might have tasted more than two hundred years ago. Further capturing the essence of the historical recipes, each brew also features a stylized label modeled after the original bottle designs. Lastly, when it first came to the U.S. in 1965, an incredibly big and passionate Irish American community immediately took to it.