It just wasn’t fair. For months, I had been seeing all of these great pictures of beers from The Guinness Brewers Project, a collection of three classic Guinness beers resurrected for today’s craft beer drinkers. They included Guinness Original, Guinness Dublin Porter, and Guinness West Indies Porter, the beer I’m here to tell you about today.

Try as I might, though, I couldn’t find them. Folks talked of finding them at Total Wine and Costco; numerous trips to both of those retailers here left me coming up empty. Again and again. Then fate intervened and sent me on a business trip to Charlotte. Knowing I would be passing through Greeneville, South Carolina, I checked the Total Wine website and, sure enough, they had these in stock when I stopped there. I bought one of the last two in the store, but the important thing was I got one.

Guinness Original is the pater familias of th pack and, really, all Guinness beers. Guinness explains why this is.

From the brewery website:

A direct descendant of our archival recipes, Guinness Original is based on a beer first brewed in 1821, when Arthur Guinness II set down precise instructions for brewing his Superior Porter. This beer has since become the precursor to every Guinness innovation you’ve ever enjoyed. Still brewed at our St. James’s Gate brewery in Dublin, Guinness Original is crafted from finest quality malt, hops and Irish barley.

Guinness Original is probably not an exact replica of the "original" Original" recipe, but should be a close approximation. It's sobering (ironically) to think you're drinking a beer much like the one that was drunk almost 200 years ago in Ireland. I love the low alcohol content of 4.2% by volume, too, so I can have a few if I want without ill effect. I paid $23.99 for my 18 11.2 ounce bottles.

Guinness Original pours to a jet black color with a thick creamy tan head and a robust dark roasty nose. Taking a sip, the beer is all roasted malts up front, smooth and silky on the palate, loaded with coffee and bitter roast, and finishes with a soft subtle sourness and a bigger dark roasted bitterness. Smooth, drinkable, flavorful, wonderful! 

I would drink this constantly if I could, it’s that good. It's just behind the West Indies Porter as ny favorite of the lot. Pete Brown likes to remind us that not only IPAs were sent to India and points far, but porters and stouts were as well. Guinness Original appears to be available outside the Brewer's Project 12-pack. If so, you know that I will be drinking it again.



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