The Tropical stout style is still part of the Export Category in most competitions, so without actually trying the beer it is hard to say which are examples of the Tropical style and which are FES examples. For this reason I am not including any recent award winners. Though I would encourage you to seek out the winners in this category and see if you can figure out which may fall into the Tropical style. In fact, there is actually one man in Ireland whose very job it is to ensure the quality of a pint of Guinness in bars all across the country. In Ireland One Man Is Responsible for Making Sure Pubs in Dublin Pour Peak Guinness Photography courtesy of Guinness Founded by Arthur Guinness in 1759, Guinness has a storied past. And it starts with the Guinness family. Rich meats, scallops, oysters, spicy foods, smooth and creamy cheeses, chocolate desserts, strawberry tart.

From those meager beginnings in a rundown property, Guinness ended up becoming one of the largest breweries in the world at one point,” says Wagner. A tropical stout makes use of indigenous grain and adjunct sugars where possible and, because most of these “hot clime” breweries are heavily committed to lager brewing, this style often uses lager yeast, instead of the usual ale yeast. Tropical is usually fuller-bodied, sweeter, fruitier, less bitter, and has a smoother roast character. It may be easiest to describe as a higher gravity sweet stout without any lactose undertones and more fruit esters. Another fun fact in the brewery’s history: Most people don’t know that The Guinness Book of World Records started with Guinness (and is so aptly named. Although, the original was just known as The Guinness Book of Records). From the time that the company started using the harp logo well into the next decade, Guinness would be engaged in the arduous task of building a global brand identity while also consolidating their bottling operation and modernizing brewing methods. For the first of these tasks, they would deploy brand ambassadors known as travelers to build awareness and report to brewery management about developing beer trends. In 1900, one of these travelers identified what he referred to as Colonial Stout in Australia, a sweeter more affordable alternative to Guinness that was locally brewed. Another reported that stout was the most popular beer in South Africa by a wide margin, but that Colonial Stout had the largest share of the market. Colonial Stout in the Caribbean While popular with British expatriates and soldiers on every continent that they were stationed, Foreign Extra Stout was especially enjoyed by the Irish who saw it as part of their identity. As an ethnic group, the Irish were a complicated people within the greater British Empire. They existed as both colonized and colonizers in different parts of the world. In the Caribbean, some were well respected merchants and plantation owners, while others were indentured servants living in slave-like conditions. The majority of the Irish in the Caribbean, as well as much of the free people of color could not afford the expensive ingredients for rum punch, which was the preferred beverage of the plantocracy. They were stout drinkers, enjoying it fresh from the cask poured into tumblers and jars as well as in a beverage known as flip.Twenty years after the introduction of West Indies Porter, another flagship product was introduced. A stronger version of Superior Porter first called Extra Superior Porter, and eventually Guinness Extra Stout. In a similar manner, West Indies Porter would be renamed Guinness Foreign Extra Stout. I often joke if you’re drinking Guinness Draught in Boston that keg of beer traveled 3,500 miles to get to that pub, but the most important part of that journey is the last thirty feet from the keg to the glass because that’s where we don’t have nearly as much impact or direct influence,” says Wagner. Born in 1725 in Celbridge, Ireland, Arthur grew up in a family that served as groundskeepers on lands held by a very high-ranking official in the Protestant Church, Arthur Price, the Archbishop of Cashel.

Local adjunct sugars, indigenous to the brewery’s local area, often replace a portion of the darker grains in this style. These sugars can bring added flavor complexity and boost gravity. Though, of course, using an adjunct sugar is not mandatory to the Tropical Stout style. Porter was, not only, exported to wider markets than IPA, but according to Ron Pattinson in his book The Home Brewer’s Guide To Vintage Beer, more Porter was shipped to India then IPA. Guinness has long been home to some of the best and brightest brewers from all around the world, and throughout the years, these brewers have been responsible for creating some of the best beers out there which have largely been catalogued within our Brewers Diaries,” said Eibhlin Colgan, Guinness Archivist. “So much of what Guinness was is part of who we are now, and our brewers are very proud of that storied brewing history which makes the Dublin Porter and West Indies Porter so exciting – it’s a collaboration between our brewers past and present.” See, by the mid-twentieth century brewers began using single stainless steel kegs to store beer instead of a two-barrel system.At the end of the day, whether you’re in Dublin, Baltimore, or even Boston, it’s still a pint of Guinness. These two beers dominated Guinness’ world for a long time—all through the nineteenth century, in fact. Still operational today, St. James’s Gate is now officially recognized as the world’s biggest brewer of stout. Two decades later, Guinness launched Guinness Extra Stout, a beer that has been a huge part of the brewery’s history.

These adaptations often included some indigenous grain source because barely was hard to come by. In Nigeria, sorghum, maize, and wheat are used to replace all or some part of the barley grain bill. Being in parts of the world known for sugar production, local adjunct sugars where frequently used to bolster gravity or give added complexity to the beer.

That’s due to America’s three-tier system, which means producers aren’t legally allowed to go into a retailer’s account and tinker with their draft systems. It’s up to the bars and restaurants themselves to maintain their draft lines and maintenance. So in 1951 they hired Michael Ash, a scientist and mathematician. “Everyone is pouring out of one steel keg now, we know this is where the industry is going, so we need to figure out how to recreate what we’ve already been doing, but out of one keg,” says Wagner.

Winning the Queens Prize in the U.K. for innovation the year it came out, the widget “is a remarkable bit of invention because of its simplicity,” says Wagner. Several things combined at just the right time to make Guinness Draught Stout gain a cult-like following.In all truthfulness, Arthur started off brewing pale ales and amber ales. “That was the style of the day in that part of the world,” says Wagner. And Guinness did build up some local cred on them.