Craft beer enthusiasts got a special gift from Guinness this holiday season in the form on Guinness Generous Ale, a new holiday brew for 2012. Better yet for the American market, Generous Ale is brewed at the St. James Gate Brewery in Ireland, and not contracted out for brewing in Canada or the United States. The bottle calls this “Arthur’s holiday ale.”
Of course, the only place that you can get a bottle of Generous Ale (actually, three bottles) is in the Guinness Winter Selections 12-pack sampler. At least for 2012 anyway; one hopes that the beer will be released on its own in 2013 and thereafter. Still, you can’t go wrong with the sampler. I picked one up at target for a very reasonable $13.29. An excellent buy at the price.
In addition to the Generous Ale, the sampler came with 3 11.2 ounce bottles each of Guinness Black Lager, Guinness Draft, and Guinness Foreign Extra Stout. The latter is an especially fine score for me, as this is one of my favorite beers. Foreign Extra Stout was long unavailable in the U.S., and while that changed a few years ago, the version we get is contact brewed by Desnoes and Geddes in Jamaica. Here, you’ll get the Genuine article, brewed in Ireland.
From the label:
Guinness Generous Ale celebrates Arthur’s legacy as a brewer of styles with generous flavor and his commitment to the welfare of his employees & the community. Guinness Generous Ale is a full-bodied winter ale, balancing a subtle hop flavor with roasted barley character. Celebrate the spirit of the holidays with this special ale.
Guinness Generous Ale pours to a light mahogany color with a thick creamy head formation and a soft cookie malt nose. Taking a sip, this beer starts out like a brown ale, I think, with some soft cookie malt and spice cake fruit. But it develops a subtle roasty character as it progresses on the palate, more subtle than a stout or Schwarzbier to be sure, but more aggressive than in your average amber ale. The beer is a little nutty, too. A gentle minty hop aroma and bitterness finish the beer off nicely. In the finish, the beer becomes slightly more roasty and ends dry.
This is charming, very drinkable dark ale. It’s best classified, I think, as an eccentric brown ale, and a very good one at that. There may be more of the 12-packs floating around as I type in early February; if you find one, buy it. If not, let’s hope it returns in 2013.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft
(G)=Growler