Guinness West Indies Porter
As part of Guinness’ relatively new Brewers Project, the company is releasing a few modernized takes on recipes derived from the brewery’s long history. Their Dublin Porter was the first beer of this line of releases that I sampled. It was based on a recipe from the 1790s. This West Indies Porter (6% ABV) is based on a fairly modern recipe in comparison — one from 1801.
While the Dublin Porter was sessionable and fairly smooth, the West Indies Porter is much bigger in both potency and flavor, not to mention a more pronounced hop presence. The brewery claims this particular recipe to be the “mother of what we now know as our Foreign Extra Stout, it was the pioneering brew that began it all.” I can see that.
And it’s that hop character that separates this one apart. While both porters have a certain level of robustness to them, the 50 IBU of this West Indies Porter gives it that much more of a raw trait. I just wish both of these had a touch more heft to their body.
This is a review of a promotional sample.