The Big BrewBrain Stout-Off

Here in this thread I will be hosting an Irish Dry Stout competition between three English heavyweights: Guinness, Beamish and Murphy's. I will pour three beers - one each - and drink alternating sips with bread or something betwixt. After three beers I'll likely be half passed out and in danger of crapping my pants at work tomorrow, but this is science and It's worth it.

Feel free to add your thoughts, opinions and criticisms of each beer. Also, if necessary, feel free to make fun of me for being a stout NOOB. It's probably my least-experienced style of the majors. Also, I don't think I care for dry stouts, so this should be fun

I begin after SWMBO fills ma bellay. I think it's some sort of salmon tonight, so I'll get plenty of those beneficial fatty amino acid thingies prior to the competition.

Cans are chillin' for now.

Alright, let's get to this. I have three glasses of creamy goodness (I hope) in front of me.

First up: Beamish

It pours a jet black. A ruby highlight just struggles through from the lightbulb behind. It smells of dark roasted grains. I'm having a duh moment.

The flavor is lighter than I was expecting. Creamy and roasty and very, very tasty. I like it a lot.

Next: Guinness:

Also pours very black, but not quite as dark as Beamish. The light sneaks through just a bit easier.

The flavor has lighter than expected roasted grains, but is also somewhat sour. I now remember this from reading clone recipes. YOU"RE RUINING IT!!

Finally: Murphy's:

It pours probably the darkest of them all, but it is close with Beamish. All three have the same widget head that won't go away. They all look like postcards. If I was a male beer and these were females, well.....I'd wish I had the guts to talk to them.

The nose on this one is probably the lightest of the bunch, but they are all close and all very similar. No surprise.

The flavor is a bit stronger roasted malts, with a touch of bitterness and charred grain flavor on the end.

In the end, I declare Beamish the winner based on smoothness. Murphy's is good too, but is just edged out on smoothness.

Guinness is just not good IMO. I do not like sourness in beer. This beer is the reason I didn't think I liked dry stouts. It certainly isn't my favorite style after this experiment, but I like both Beamish and Murphy's enough to drink them again. I'll wait for somebody to come by and drink the other three cans of Guinness for me.

All told, I'll take some chocolate malt in my stouts, please Maybe a touch of crystal too.

BrewBrain said:

Guinness is just not good IMO.

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I knew I liked you.
Guinness is Just Black BMC. IMHO.

It's SF Bay Science night. With you doing stouts and me tasting Belgians.

thataintchicken said:

It's SF Bay Science night. With you doing stouts and me tasting Belgians.

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you win! I'm doing Belgians next time