Beer expert blind tastes Guinness alternatives
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 เม.ย. 2024
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This week Jonny is risking the wrath of Ireland with a taste test of 12 nitro stouts available in the UK. Will Guinness win out, or will an upstart take the top spot?
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As someone from Cork where Beamish is brewed, it has an almost cult status here. I was honestly nervous that you wouldn't like it but delighted it went down well. Beamish is best!
I've spent forty years believing that Beamish (& Crawford as it was) was miles better than Murphys and Guinness. Glad to see that it is still up there and wish I had some.
I haven't seen it state side in years, I remember it being one of my go-to beers back in the late 90's.
Pleased that London Black rated so highly. Absolutely brilliant beer, love the coffee notes and it's very sessionable!
I spent many many hours in the early to mid 90s drinking Beamish Stout (and Beamish Red) on tap
Beamish on tap was a great beer in the 90's, shame it disappeared
Making a come back in Dublin! Great Pint, plenty more flavour then Guinness!
@@dairesweeney419Never went away in the west of Ireland.
I had Beamish on tap in Galway in February. Bierhaus.
Good to see London Black getting some love. I've had many pints straight from the tap room, it's magical.
Had some Beamish in Cork city and it was the best drink I've had in years. Incredible it's not bigger in Ireland. Super stout.
Heineken not giving it the love it deserves it seems. Mind you, we shouldn't be drinking Heineken products really so probs for the best
A proud day for all of us from the land of Beamish! Been my pint of choice for years!
I've always wanted to try beamish but I can never find it in supermarkets in England, surprisingly I have found murphys a few times which was good. So wouldn't mind finding it someday.
@@kylereed9309 After a quick look, it seems it's not officially sold in shops outside of Ireland. Big disappointment as I'd love to give it a go.
@@Silent002 it's a shame, I am a fan of guinness but I think I'd really prefer this if I got a chance to try it.
Hard to believe Heineken were pushing it off the taps in favour of that Islands Edge sh ite
@@liamo8932 blows my mind why millions were wasted by heino to create a new stout when they have two greats they can hardly figure out how to push beyond the borders of Munster!
Good to see Beamish doing well. The owner Heineken spent a fortune on Island's Edge to compete with Guinness and failed miserably. Seems they should look after Beamish and Murphys instead.
Thought Forged might have done better. McGregor bought the Porterhouse brewery (without the brands) to make Forged. Porterhouse have made great stouts.
I think Porterhouse was pretty notorious for its inconsistency. Last time I was there (just before the brewery sold) I had a pint of their stout that had mercaptan in it - a pretty rare and pretty awful smelling off flavour. Like rotting cabbage.
Island's Edge had no flavour at all. Very creamy, which was nice, but made Guinness taste bold. That the same company had Beamish (creamy, but interesting) and Murphys (bolder, maybe less suited to all tastes) and could have spent half the money promoting Beamish was wild.
Love Beamish which is perplexingly overlooked even in Dublin - it's commonly available but as an afterthought on the shelves.
It's a Cork beer
Great video, I was looking forward to this blind taste. Can we appreciate that an industrial mammoth like Guinness can pull off an alcohol free version that’s not the worst one in the test? They do know their stuff.
It's a very good low alc beer. No wonder it's growing so fast.
It’s the only non-alcohol beer that’s worth drinking IMO. Everything else is like Diet Coke so far.
I've been drinking more of the lo-alc beers myself recently. I have not tried the 0% Guiness yet, but may give it a go! Anything is better than diet-cola when you're the 'designated driver'
I'm not a stout man usually but I do like Broken Dream from Siren, so smooth and satisfying
A wonderful beer, but we didn't want to include flavoured stouts in this. Well, I didn't. But one got snuck in anyway.
Watching this made me run for the bottle of Kernel Dry Stout that I had stashed in the fridge... A beauty!
I really like A&H London Black, great beer and fantastic brewery
Menu dhu is the best Guinness substitute! Cornish stout 😍
Left hand had what i think was a coffee nitro stout a couple of years back. I loved it but i haven't seen it in a long time.
Great great vid I love beamish it’s beautiful. Nice work again in-depth and educational cheers 👍🍻
Not had Beamish for ages, it used to be my preference to Guiness in my younger boozing days, they also used to make a cracking red ale as well
So glad that Beamish scored so highly. I used to drink it all the time in preference to Guinness. Was gutted when my local stopped selling it.
Love the anspach & hobday stout, made its way to France on tap and in cans. Love it
First time I’ve ‘drank along’ with a blind test. Was just the A&H London Black, but fun all the same. Great to see in cans. I think it could also do with being a bit more ‘nitro smooth’.
Did something similar a few years back on my blog, tasted Guinness, Murphy's, O'Hara's, and Belhaven Black - we can't get Beamish over here. Preference for me was O'Hara's, then the Belhaven Black, which was a big surprise for me. Left hand Milk Stout is an absolute delight on draft.
The best Nitro Stout i have had was a small brewery in Maryland USA, Grandmother's Milk by Hysteria Brewing Company
As soon as I saw Beamish, I knew it would score high. It’s the best of the Irish big three stouts in a can. It even competes against draught Guinness pints.
When I visited the UK, Stewart’s Nitro 80 was my favorite. Nitrogen definitely adds something extra.
Campervan brewery's Extra Black is well worth checking out in this category
You really know your stuff , great review
Here in NI we now say all the cool kids drink Beamish. (tongue in cheek) It defo is getting popular in the craft beer circles.
I've always preferred a Beamish over a Guinness, and despite being from Sligo there's very few pubs that actually have it, sadly. Lovely beer.
You may want to try Nightjar stout by the Wye Valley Brewery at some point. Don't think it's available in can or bottle - draft only. It's delicious and a major contender, so definitely worth a trip to English/Welsh border.
Do Guiness still do a bitter? It came in a green can. I haven't been able to find it anywhere.
When we went to Ireland 6 years ago go I ordered a Guinness and the bartender told me to order Beamish because it was better. I didn’t believe him but got it anyways out of curiosity. It definitely was better and said “I told ya.” Wish we got it in the States.
Belhaven Black is delicious
I get cask stout in litre bottles from Bushys Brewery, IOM. Couple of squirts with a syringe and u have pint of smooth creamy stout with flavour (cask) like in the pub. Works out £1.8] a pint
Right, I shall be down to Cork for a big case of Beamish then.
I appreciate that it's a Porter but London Black is by far the best !!!!!
Cloudwater - Piccadilly Porter is the one 😍
Pierce the top of the Beamish with a bradawl or similar to avoid setting off the widget and pour it through the nitrosurge. Thats what i do. Minimal effort and worth it
With the NA rise in populartiy I had high hopes for the Guinness 0.0. I've had one before and liked it but always intresting to see what you get from a blind tasting. And good on you, you knew it was low alcohol!
He knew it was low alcohol because Guinness 0.0 literally tastes like watered down Guinness Draught
belive me you........i am a homebrewer going pro.....but i just love your vids to death guys............u bring so much wonderful vids, we beer geeks can't get enof.............just awesomeness
That Camden stout is so weak and thin it's a travesty.
The Forged is surprisingly ok.
Need to find somewhere in the UK to get Beamish.
Shame you couldn't get any Murphy's, that's a really good pint. Haven't seen Beamish since the 90's, loved that stuff.
'I am not going to drink 12 pints on camera, again... *blank stare in the distance*. A trauma came back to haunt you there.😅
Well, I just learned something new today - Nitro is actually short for Nitrogen with different gaseous characteristics for the texture!
Thank you.
London Black is the shit man. So good :)
3:16 "again"
well, now I am going to need a link to that video^^
Go to the start of CBC.... there is a lot of evidence.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel haha okay thanks!
Beamish is legitimately a delicious beer
Wered you get Beamish? Been desperate to give it a bash
I drank Guinness for decades but with so many local craft breweries make good stout I can't remember the last time I had one.
I love Beamish!! For me, it's the best!!!
Last summer, I discover Island's Edge stout, it's a really good one too.
Then, I'll put Murphys and Guinness.
When the Madri crowd move to Guinness, you know something’s wrong 😂 great video again gents 👍🏻
I find O’Hara’s to be a cut above both Guinness and Murphy’s. I’ve yet to try Beamish. Not sure it’s available in the US but I’ll keep an eye out for it.
Not especially traditional... but Kirkstall brewery's Tiramisu stout 👌
Beamish in Cork City, Murphys in West Cork. Of the lot, a pint of Murphys in West Cork is king.
o haras is a very very underrated stout
their leann foill vanilla stout is fantastic.
Love the tasting videos !! So glad London black performed well (think if it didn’t )🫣! Lucky enough to have that on draft in two of my locals up north ! Great job 👏
Beamish is quality. Probably the only good thing about Cork. As a bonus, it's one of the cheaper pints in Ireland, which is a major positive given the extortionate prices for booze here.
Honestly for me it's dry/irish stout over lager as a session beer; I love those darker, roastier flavours, the bitterness you get from roasted barley rather than the bitterness from alpha acids. There is a lot of dogshit out there though lmao, shame you couldn't get Murphy's!
Great video as usual
I can definitely see nitro stout as a session beer. That whole cliche of Guinness being a meal just doesn't ring true for me. It's a very drinkable style!
Agreed, Dry Irish is the best style, I prefer Murphy's as well.
I only drink stouts and porters
Love malts !!
This style is OK
Prefer i nice imp !
Emporers, nerd,lervig,brew York, left handed giant, an export India too is superb.
HON BEAMISH!!!!!!
It is a very forgiving style to brew at home, be good if you had brewed one yourself and put this into mix. (A nitro set up is relatively inexpensive)
We served our Omnipollo stout on nitro and it worked really well in generating a bit of head for it!
I am Typ2 Diabetic, Guinness is the only stout I have that does not spike my levels, but to me, it's not the best stout but the one I drink 99% of the time. Tonight I will be starting on Guinness and then going on to Titanic Stout, the TS will rocket my blood sugar but tastes better than the Guinness.
I really enjoyed Forged when I had it on tap recently. I've come full circle now and enjoy a beer for what it is instead of trying to dissect every single flavour note. Leave that to whisky drinkers.
Good for you, but someone has to dissect these things!
Pity no Murphy's. A close second but for me its Beamish all the way. " Mother's milk" 😉
O’ Hara’s single dry stout is my favourite stout. Unlike the Irish big three stouts it has a far more natural flavour. John McKenna of the Irish times described it as being how stout used to be. In the off trade I prefer it bottled as opposed to the can.
Is it possible to find Beamish in the UK…? Murphys has all but disappeared, I remember in the 90s you could find all the three Irish stouts on draught with Murphys having big advertising campaign…
Only in cans via NI sadly
Actually thought on launch Black Heart was decent, doesn't seem to be as good last time I bought it.
My go to stout at the mo is Reaper by Hackney Church, really good, not nitro though.
I think in isolation it would be fine, but next to better stouts it was very bland.
I live in the UK and am gutted we cant get Murphys anymore. Tesco and B&M were the last outlets. Hope that a surge in the popularity of stouts will bring my favourite beer back.
It was a few years ago I did my chemistry degree. Didn't know CO2 had become super soluble in water over that time.
Maybe that's why we've got all this ocean acidification.
I love Beamish!
No Siren Broken Dreams? Jet Black Heart from Brewdog was a decent stout, and they did a nitro version, too.
Didn't want to confuse matters with flavoured stouts (outside the trick beer they threw at me)
G'wan Cork! P.s. regular flights there from London and Manchester if you want to try a Beamish on tap :)
Might have to!
Haven't watched the video yet but I clicked because I saw Beamish in the thumbnail. Beamish was my favorite beer for years until it became completely unavailable in the US. I love and miss that beer so much and I hate that they won't import or distribute it over here anymore.
Got to visit Ireland last year and tried every Irish stout I came across. Beamish was hands down my favorite.
Does anyone know...Who pays for the nitrogen when this is served in a pub - the brewery or the pub?
It will vary - the nitro comes in canisters just like CO2 as it's just a different mix (usually 70/30% nitro not 100% CO2) and sometimes the breweries will pay for all the tech and gas. Mostly though it's the pub.
Thank you. That's bugged me for a while. I suppose I really have only seen the standard Guinness or more recently Black Heart fonts. I have wanted to try Beamish for a while now. Interesting vid, as always, thanks.
I think people only like nitro stouts because of the creamy looking head which reminds you of whipped cream on coffee.
I have my porters on cask which has a similar creamy looking foam for less price also a better flavour, in fact the nitro beer was designed to resemble cask beer.
I'm drinking a Pollys Black Brook impy right now, also, technically the number one beer wasn't a nitro. as well as a few others. ace video though. love you guys
What makes you say that? They were all packaged with nitrogen except the Brew York beer - just some have a widget and some don't.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel sorry my bad, just thorough i saw one or two that didn't have nitro, No1 defiantly just a barrel impy though. which i do agree, hella beer. x
@YouveGoneOrbital81 indeed that was slipped in to trick me by the person who poured.
Surprised you didn't include Siren's Broken Dream in the lineup, one of my favourite nitro stouts out there but is a bit heavier on the abv
That being said, Guinness is always my safe bet when I'm in a pub with an underwhelming lineup on tap. You just know that 9 times out of 10 it's going to be decent
We didn't want to include any flavoured stouts as it's a very different proposition - save the one that was slipped in to confuse me. Maybe we'll do a coffee stout blind tasting at some point!
So clearly a fan of BA Impy Stouts (I mean who isn't) so... next blind taste test? 😉 Seriously though, great video and some real curveballs in there, love a Nitro Stout, and agree that a lot of the more supermarkety ones feel a bit safe and feel like they can't stray too far out of the Guiness shadow, so might need to track down some Beamish and see how London Black is in can!
Been thinking about this. Maybe one that doesn't put them against each other (they'd be so hard to compare) but pits me against myself - guessing adjuncts and barrels.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel yeah that sounds a great idea!
Gameshow Format: "What's that Adjunct?"
Brad can break out a sparkly gold jacket and be host 😅
Surely you should have got something from Galway Bay as an Irish alternative? March of the Penguins from Williams Bros or Old Engine Oil from Harviestoun would be the ones from Scotland, although those are not really Nitros - not many Nitros in Scotland to be fair.
I went with what's available in the UK - not seen any Galway Bay for a loooooong time.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Ah really? I thought they were uping their distribution 🤔
Stout is english.
@@theculturebrewingchannel5619 That depends on the type. The video is about Guiness which is from Dublin...
@@RampantLionReviews91 was just throwing a chaos grenade :) But yeh, a Guinness alternative could be from anywhere as long as it the same style and easily available. I can see why you'd want to see more Irish breweries because Guinness is Irish even if the style originates in London and has been adapted in Ireland, but for me i kind of like that a London brewery did well in this.
Please sort out your graphics. It's extremely difficult to tell which beer you are tasting.
If you actually watch the whole video then it’s not difficult at all
lol no it isn’t
Glad to see Beamish outdoing nearly all the pretenders (including Guinness). But I don't think it's available in the UK except for in NI, which doesn't count. If there was ever a time for Beamish to relaunch in the mainland UK surely it would be now? It has the loyal followers, rich history and memes to make it work - plus it's usually cheaper than guinness!
Also really glad that Brewdog stout got served - it's so disgusting, can't believe they tried to do a campaign claiming it was nicer than Guinness!
I tried brewing a stout once, ONCE, it tasted like an ashtray. I went and got myself a Guinness. Turns out mine wasn’t soo bad😂
I think traditional style nitro stouts are a style you can't really go wrong with, just good beer to session, I don't think the craft ones are noticeably better than the macro ones. I want more craft breweries to do nitro esb.
Nitro ESB?! Yikes not sure about that! It was the nitro bitter that nearly killed cask ale!
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Anspach do their ordinary bitter nitro at the taproom, goes down too easy.
Can you please center the thirst quenching poster in the frame, it is aggravating my OCD 😂
One you didn't have but should be available to you is Sullivan's Black Marble Stout. Along with O'Hara's and Bemish, a pretty good Guinness substitute. Murphys's is totally meh.
Glad I missed out on another meh!
I hardly ever drink this type of beer, I know I've ordered Guinness before but I could not tell you the last time. I did however go to a small metal festival 2-3 years back with a pretty weird selection (as in two beers) at the bar. Some bland and boring macro lager I can't even remember and the Iron Maiden Trooper Fear of The Dark Stout. So over that weekend I probably drank 80% of the stouts I've consumed in total in my life... Cant tell if it was any good though, tasted like a low abv stout
I love stouts, but I've never liked Guinness. I know it has a reverence and people love it, and they all go on about how much better it is in Ireland. I guess that means it doesn't travel well, and if a beer doesn't travel well, then to me, that's a bad product.
Oh it travels fine - people are to persuaded by the idea it is better in certain places or pubs. ALL beer is better in certain places and pubs, Guinness is no different.
No Murphy's, that sucks. Actually prefer Murphy's over Guinness, I find it has a little more flavor, not as thin and watery as Guinness.
Oddly, the Guinness coffee version is better than the OG, IMHO
No Murphy's AND a trip to Luton. Influencer life aint glam.
The easiest place to get Murphy's outside of Cork is Amsterdam I've found
Bitterness is absolutely muted with nitro.
Weird. Local bottlo just started stocking the Guinness 0.0
Nothing a shot of good rum can't fix
Guinness is one of the most "it's fine" beers out there, have never understood it's popularity. There are about 100 stouts I'd drink ahead of Guinness.
But 100% draught nitro stouts? It beat many of those here
@@TheCraftBeerChannel True enough, but even so it's still wound up in the middle third of entrants. I suppose middle of the road is what most people want at the end of the day though. The most popular beers in the US are all the most plain Jane beers out there while I personally would rather have an Imperial Stout that many folks will think is too strong, too sweet, and under carbonated.
Tesco said so?! The only stouts they have are Guinness in 2 versions, about 2 from Brewdog and a milk stout from regional brewer. All of them average at best
Sure! But adding more lines doesn't mean more growth. Clearly that interest is being driven by two brands...
My local Tesco currently has Guinness in various forms, Mackeson, Dragon Stout (yes not really a stout I know), BD Black Heart and Grind, Black Sheep Milk Stout, Wilde Child Brownie Hunter, Hobgoblin Stout, Vocation Double Tonka Frappe, and Murphy's.
Since when did they start doing London Black in can?
And BrewDog killed one of their best beers so that they could make a bog standard Guinness knock-off. RIP Jet Black Heart.
Two months ago! Exciting news!
actually guiness may be overrated, but it's serious business when u have 250 years old of brewing experience behind yourself............with the most hi-tech equip ( a brewery the size of a town)..........waiting for the tube, while watching ur vids...........take it all........❤
Can't beat a creamy Beamy
Should have done Guinness 0 first, tasting alcohol free always goes badly if you’ve had alcoholic first
I think you're pretty generous in your ratings. E.g. for the Camden Stout, you award it 16 points while your face makes it quite clear you're not exactly liking the beer at all. Still love the video though!
Haha I don't think Camden will see half marks as generous....
Ahh dark John Smiths-off
I did not know this was a viewpoint of nitro.....
Sort of mostly just being facetious
Wow, I would have expected Lervig to perform better.
Me too - though big stouts are more their speciality and it's quite a different skill.
Maybe you’re still recovering from the book writing, but I live for the dodgy typing
Haha, it's a mix of alcohol and typing stood up I think!
I hate bitterness in a porter or a stout, I think the deluge of ipa's has ruined hoppy notes for me , malt should be celebrated much more
I agree! And the bitterness is a porter and stout should come partly from the roasted malt! But all these beers tried to mitigate that element too much, I think. It's the way palates have gone.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel I understand now , thank you !