slainte, comrades

The stouts [Guinness, Beamish, and Murphy's] are actually Porters, Guinness actually being sold at one time as "Guinness Extra Stout Porter". A chracateristic of Porters and English style Ales [nut browns and reds] is that they are usually very Malty, and quite filling. My favorite beer is something so malty that you can take one sip, along with Rosemary pork roast and mashed potatoes and say "...okay, had enough I'm full...". Because of the maltiness there is a high percentage of starches which convert over to much mroe sugar which adds to the sweetness because of the sugars involved in the brewing, occuring naturally, the final product can be served at a somewhat warmer tenperature. That is not to say, "warm", but not "cold" either. Serving a malty beer such as McEwans Sctoch Ale or a Smithwick's [prnc'd Smith'icks] Irish Red Ale or any of the Porters "cold" is to kill the "back" [the taste that you get at the end of the swallow] depriving the drinker of a very pleasant taste sensation . If you want to really kill an absolutely beautiful Porter serve Fuller's "London Style" [a true London Style Porter] Porter ice cold. But take that same Porter and serve it at 50-55 degF. and it blossoms. You can taste the nuttiness and smokiness of the malting. Nowe, all of this goes out the door, when you introduce "Hops" to the equation. Traditionally American beers are German influenced by virtue of their hopiness. The lone exception to the malted beers of the English palate are the ESBs [Extra Special Bitters} and their stepchildren the IPAs[ India Pale Ales] so named for HMs forces in India and other parts of the Empire, most notably the East India Company in India. Hops were added to perserve their shelf and transportation life to other distant parts of the Empire. Now most German beers use the Hollertau hops or some such variant which imparts a very fruity character. A good domestic example on this side of the Atlantic is Leinenkuegel's [out of Wisconson] Oktoberfest, a wonderful fruity beer that is as good as anything brewed under the Rheinheitsgebot of Germany. The IPAs use a Fuggels [or close variants] hop which is very sharp and has a character all of its own, once tasted will instantly be recognized again and gives any of the IPAs their own character. In either case, but most especially in the case of IPA, the hopping is of such a character that the beer can be quite disagreeable in character if served warmer than "cold". IPAs and the Germans are excellent summertime beers and great thirst cutters. I like a cold Bud longneck when served teeth shattering ice cold, you can really taste the beechwood, and Rolling Rock longneck is a dry and light [nothing to do with Alcholic content] beer when served ice cold. But both lose miserably when allowed to warm.
The stouts when served on draft are absolutely unbeatable in flavor and taste. Guinness served on this side comes off rather badly because it generally is served using CO2 as the dreiving medium rather than Nitrogen. Nitrogen is neutral in character as a gas and does not destroy the character and flavor of a stout, remembering that the presencve of Oxygen at any level promotes oxydation. Murphy's stout when served fresh from the barrel is out of this world in flavor, and Beamish stout which has a very distinct coffee back [remember the "swallow"] is as good as it gets without dieing and going to heaven first.. But, remember here we're talking about the difference between Bentleys and Rolls ,"...hey, hey throw that old Bentleyout...!!!!!!!"
I myself am a habitue of a very small microbrewery in the Berkshires [Western Mass, "Kansas with mountains"]. They make only two beers, a true English style nut brown ale [the ancestor of Porter] and what they market as Blackbear stout, which has some small percentage of liquorice in its brewing that you don't pick up until the back [remember the "swallow"!?!?!!!!] Then the old taste buds light right up, Zowie!!!!!!!. This is not beer for the faint hearted or yuppie Muffie or Bryce. Their nutbrown "Barrington Brown" comes in at 6.5% and their Blacklbear Stout at 8% The best thing about their beers is that they are unpasteurized draft beers and can only be bought in the immediate surrounding area. Pasteurization kills the complex character of a beer and it loses flavor in the trade-off for shelf life, shipping and storage.
I HAVE AN OPEN OFFER, ANYONE INTERESTED CONTACT ME GET A GROUP TOGETHER; I HAVE A TIMNE SHARE UP THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'LL BOOK IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kilt up, get your pipes we'll go pipe Monument Mountain at sunrise and then retire to the barn [the brewery is actually built in a barn] and sample copiously the fare.


dia duit
Anchor'sAway/Semper Fi
CPO Bull