International Stout Day

 

So yesterday may have been all about the boys in green but Thursday was all about the all black - International Stout Day. Yep that's a thing and this was the 3rd year running. I was lucky enough to be invited along to a gathering in The Open Gate Brewery  by friends Kelly's Mountain Brew to celebrate the dark, malty, roasty wonder that is stout! 

5 guest breweries along with some media & bloggers were invited to come along to celebrate stout day. Of the breweries invited there was the aforementioned Kelly's, 5 lamps, Porterhouse, Dungarvan Brewing Co. and from London, 40ft Brewery. All in attendance were showcasing their own stouts/porters and there was a great many takes on the style to taste. 

Try as I might, unfortunately I wasn't able to try them all. The guest breweries had one or two beers each and Guinness themselves had about 8 varieties to choose from. So... what did I get around to tasting? Well, first off I got chatting to Domhnall and a couple of the other lads from Open Gate and decided to try the Sea salt and burnt sugar stout. This was delicious! Desert in a glass. A dry stout (salt effect) with a brown sugar/salted caramel finish. Anyone who thinks that all the big beer companies make is bland beer needs to visit the Open Gate. They are serving some cracking beers in there. 

Of the Guinness beers, I also had their weisen stout and apple stout. The former was a light and smooth stout and probably the most sessionable beer I had that evening. The latter was impressive in that they managed to get the subtle flavour of apple into a dark beer but personally I don't think the two belong together and I didn't enjoy this one. 
 

Also had a long chat with Peter Simpson and he gave us a sample of two different barrel aged stouts on the night. 

The Antwerpen export was the 2nd time the barrel had been used so I don't think it got the full benefit of being aged. It was a bit sour, not bad but in comparison to the other barrel, it didn't compare. The 2nd barrel had the West Indies porter aged in Rye bourbon. This was smooth and had a fine vanilla flavour as well as the bourbon. I really enjoyed this beer. Along with the burnt sugar stout, these were my favourite of what Guinness had to offer. 

Of the other breweries, stand out beers were Wakey Wakey by 5 lamps and 40ft deep by 40ft brewery. Wakey Wakey is a collaboration beer between the Dublin based brewery and coffee roasters that I cannot recall the name of now. If you had served this to me in a cup I would honestly think you had given me cold coffee. Massively roasty coffee flavour and well hidden alcohol. I'm not a coffee drinker myself but I love when a beer tastes of what it is meant to. Too many beers don't quite live up to their names/expectations. 

The 40ft deep was a dry Irish stout style beer. Chatting to Ben he said he had tried an Irish stout and loved the dryness of the style so decided to brew one himself. I think they managed to make a beer that is true to the style and I really enjoyed drinking this and talking to the guys from 40ft. 

A quick note on the non-beer side of things. There was a cheese mongers serving a selection of hard and soft cheeses along with crackers and apple slices and also The Cupcake Bloke was serving up some delicious treats. Blas na hEireann gold winner this year had some delicious cupcakes and brownies to soak up the beers. The nice thing was they had used some Guinness beers somewhere in each of their recipes. 

Hopefully there will be similar events next year, it's a great way to celebrate a lovely and actually quite diverse beer style. All in all, fabulous evening. Hope you all enjoyed some great Irish or international stouts on the day too. 

Cheers - The Beer Hopster 🍻