Guinness Extra Stout and Rogue Shakespeare Stout

Most American beers are designed to be thirst quenching, consumed relatively quickly and in large quantities. You see this in the ads and commercials and general drinking habits of most Americans. This is all well and good if you are playing beer-pong or other alcohol oriented games, but the beer styles that are appropriate to this environment pale in comparison to truly worthwhile beers.

And they especially pale in comparison to stouts. Looking at a pint of stout is like looking at a pint of press pot coffee: black with a deep brown foamy head. They generally smell of malts and have a deep and almost burnt grain aroma. And they all have a similar, roasted or burnt taste, due to the use of roasted barley, rather than malted barley. The American stouts can sometimes have a hoppy flavor, or they can echo the bitterness found in good coffees. Many have a deep, hidden chocolate flavor and some actually have chocolate as an ingredient. This week, I'm going to look at two epitomic stouts: Imported Guinness Extra Stout and Rogue Shakespeare Stout. Next week will feature more specialty stouts, and true chocolate stouts.

The Guinness Stouts are brewed in Ireland, and are by far the most popular and most common stouts available. You can find them in almost every bar, pub, or restaurant, bottled or on tap, and can be found at any beer store and at most grocery stores. The Guinness Extra Stout is an Irish Dry Stout, which is lighter than the typical stout, but it retains all of its good qualitie. It comes in a 12 fl. oz. bottle, and looks, smells, and tastes like a stout should: black with a deep brown head and smooth, roasted and slightly bitter. The Guinness Extra Stout is lighter that most stouts, which gives it a high drinkability and increases its popularity. This is why it melds perfectly with the atmosphere of bars, pubs, or festivals. It's a good stout for those of you who haven't tried stouts before, and is an old, reliable beer for almost every occasion, in every setting.

The Rogue Shakespeare Stout, brewed in Oregon by Rogue Ales Brewery, stands at the other end of the stout spectrum. The bottle was almost twice as big as the Guinness bottle (in fact, I’m pretty sure if you could bend space and time you could fit the Guinness bottle inside the Shakespeare Stout bottle). The smell is more intense, with chocolate and malt and that roasted smell that makes stouts so darn good looking.

The head on this Shakespeare Stout was remarkable. It was a deep, chocolate brown with a hint of red, and reminded me exactly of a good cup of press pot coffee. The stout tasted of roasted, almost burnt malts, some alcohol, and a slight flavors of chocolate and hops. The flavor of this stout was so powerful as to require only small sips at a time, the quintessential sipping beer. Coupled with the large bottle size, this beer lasted me all night long.

I want to exemplify by comparison the differences between stouts and the typical college beer. College beers are often consumed in those red plastic cups, and beer presentation plays no part in this environment. Stouts, on the other hand, when poured properly in a pint glass, with proper pouring to accentuate the deep brown head, is an experience in and of itself. As for using stouts in a game of beer pong: blasphemy! The mere thought makes generations of brewers weep.

So I implore you, next time you have a stout, be it the reliable Guinness or a specialty stout, do not drink it out of the bottle. Do not drink it out of plastic cups. Pour it lovingly, and carefully, into a clear pint glass or stein, savoring the beauty of its black body and brown head. So smell it first and sip it slow.