Old/New Guinness - new beer, old recipe

So lets face it, at some point or another everyone has had a pint of Guinness. It's the generic first stop if you were going to drink a stout (that or Mackeson's...but we will get to that in a later blog).
It is safe to say that we are currently in a 'Craft Beer Revolution', craft & micro breweries are becoming more and more popular, with many bars focusing on having different beers weekly, instead of just the same old brands that can be found in any pub (even Wetherspoon's have got in on the act, my local Wetherspoon's had a good 8 different guest ales available on my last visit)
The popularity of guest & craft beers can only mean one thing, slower sales for the big brands that we all know....which leads me to todays blog.

Guinness are trying to get in on the craft beer craze that we are going through. Towards the back end of last year they released two new porters, well when I say new... the two 'new' porters have been brewed to the original recipes that Guinness used over 200 years ago. The heritage side of these stouts can be seen straight away with the labelling on the bottles, which if it was not for the word 'Guinness' you would have no idea of the brand behind it, this is what originally drew me to the bottles. I will be honest here, I only purchased these because of the £1.50 introductory price...the fact it was Guinness originally made me want to try a new Brewery.

Seen as I am being honest, these stouts were not 'tonights tipple'. I wanted to write about these beers at this stage in my blog as in my house stouts and porters are mainly purchased in the winter months, so due to the clocks changing yesterday I am going to be heading towards IPA's and Blonde Beer over the upcoming months.


First up:
West Indies Porter

When I originally purchased this beer it was at an 'introductory' price of £1.50. Now in many stores it is around £2.50. The price is pretty justified, it is 6%.
As previously mentioned, the new bottles were brewed to an old recipe. This one being the original export recipe from 1801 (clue is in the name).
I have to say...I loved this porter, the strength really comes through. It has a really full flavour and had a taste of liquorice and chocolate. The taste was unbelievable, it reminded me of a chocolaty version of Old Peculier.
9/10 and a must purchase for any stout & porter fan!

Now, onto the Dublin Porter.
Once again, I purchased this for £1.50 and by looking online the price seems to be the same at the moment. I kind of regret drinking this second bottle (as was the case with Friday's Wychwood beers) as it is the weak one of the two (in more ways than one). To start with this Guinness is 3.8%, so you would think it would be perfect for a session beer. Unfortunately that is not the case, for me it was almost like drinking a watered down version of the Guinness that you can get at any pub in the UK, maybe this was because I had the West Indies first...who knows.
4/10 ... really disappointed, stick with Original (or just buy the West Indies)

On writing this blog I have wondered what was next for Guinness and hope that these Porter's are not a 'one off'. As I mentioned before, we are getting into the time of year where I lean towards Blonde Beer & IPA's...so let's hope that Guinness' new venture 'Guinness Blonde' comes across the pond from the US.

Who has tried the Dublin & West Indies porter....and what do you think of Guinness' venture of the Blonde American Lager?

Wychwood Hot Cross Bunny & Dr Thirsty

So tonight I left work and thought, a beer is definitely due.
If your like me you will spend ages stood in the supermarket just browsing through all the beers. At the moment Morrisons have a couple of Wychwood beers on offer...currently £1.25 each. Bargain !
Everyone has at some point tried Hobgoblin, but Wychwood always seem to have something new on the shelves. They never seems to advertise so I always just stumble on their beers.

The first one that I tried was the 'Hot Cross Bunny', any seasonal beer is really worth a try if you come across it.
Because it is a seasonal beer you would straight away expect it to have a strong individual flavour. This beer did not disappoint. It smelt quite fruity, but as soon as you taste it the spices hit you straight away (predominantly Cinnamon). Once I finished the bottle I had immediately regretted not buying two, however I can imagine that the spices in this beer would make it quite difficult to drink as a session beer.
The fruitiness brought it into the spring season for me, as the spices reminded me of an Xmas beer. 7/10 !

The second offering from Wychwood was Dr Thirsty's No.4 Blonde. This beer is 4.1%, so stronger than the Hot Cross Bunny's 3.8%. However it did not taste as strong as the first beer. 

The label is spot on when it says that this beer gives 'instant refreshment'. To me it is a clear session Blonde Beer, the flavours are not as distinctive as the Bunny, but it is very easily drinkable. I shall certainly be stocking up on this for the summer. 6/10

Writing this blog I have been asking myself, which did I prefer? Now that is a tough one... I enjoyed them both.

As a one off, I would choose the Hot Cross Bunny, purely down to its distinctively individual flavour. Dr Thirsty's Blonde will definitely be on my next shopping list, however to me it was very similar to a lot of the Blonde beers that you can find down the pub.

At the moment, these two beers are £1.25 each at Morrisons.....which is a bargain considering the prices of all the other beers on their shelves !

First Post :-)

So I decided to begin a blog for various reasons. First of all when ever I am out in a bar, or just perusing the beer aisles at the shops, I am constantly looking to try new beers and tipples. Anyone who knows me will agree that I do not have a 'usual' drink, as I tend to swap and change depending on my mood at the time.

In our house we are definitely foodies and trying different drinks has stemmed from wandering around the local food & drink festivals. (York being our favourite !!!)

I spend a lot of time tweeting about what I am drinking, so this seems to be a natural progression....or step back, was blogging before twitter???

Anyway... so the aim of this blog is to review and document all the tipples that I enjoy. So expect lots of pictures and opinions on various different drinks, and hopefully the posts will push people to try a few new drinks.

So here we go.........