Is the new Guinness Black Lager a taste of heaven or so much froth? A Guinness drinker, a lager drinker and a drinks expert give their verdicts
THE GUINNESS DRINKER
I’m not sure how I’m defined in Guinness’s marketing pie chart, but I’m surely in the diminishing slice that says – in some class of jargon – “don’t worry about him”. I’ve been drinking Guinness for as long as I’ve been legally allowed drink, and then some.
But I drink lager occasionally, and like a bit of adventure when it comes to choosing a bottle, so here’s the thing: I wanted Guinness Black Lager to be good. I wanted it to match the attractiveness of its bottle. I wanted it to set off a ceilidh on my tongue. I didn’t want to pop open a bottle, pour it and think “it looks like Coke!” And to follow that thought with: “Now, it looks like flat Coke!”
It tastes okay – more rounded than the watery lagers that dominate the market – but it’s not striking enough to counterbalance the fact that it looks dead in the glass. And just when I thought I should have drunk straight from the bottle, a power cut gave me an impromptu blind tasting. The result was the same. There’s only one black stuff. Even if there are now two.
Shane Hegarty
THE LAGER DRINKER
I was not of legal drinking age in 1979 when Guinness rolled out its deviant “low-calorie” Guinness Light, but I’ve seen the fear in the eyes of people who were.
After their latest spend on R&D, the people at St James’s Gate could save themselves a few bob by recycling Guinness Light’s infamous advertising slogan – “They said it couldn’t be done” – and applying it to the company’s brave new Black Lager. “They said it shouldn’t be done.” Just a suggestion.
Combining the amber, fizzy beauty of lager with the creamy benevolence of a Guinness head might sire a drink with perfect pedigree. Think Shiloh Jolie-Pitt in beverage form. The genetic provenance of Black Lager is more questionable. No head, no fizz . . . no second bottle. I don’t know who is going to drink this. I’m not. It’s a coupling that has gone awry.
Anthea McTeirnan
THE EXPERT
Black lager is not entirely new, having a long history in parts of Germany, where it is known as Schwarzbier. There it is a bottom-fermented beer made with highly roasted malts.
Several other examples are available here, including Budweiser Budvar Dark Pilsner from the Czech Republic, Xingu from Brazil, and Zeitgeist from Scotland. Boston brewer Sam Adams also produces a very good black lager. Sales of these beers have seen healthy growth in the past year or two, and Guinness is looking to revive falling sales.
More dark brown than black, Guinness Black Lager certainly has a refreshing citrus crispness, and not much of the bitterness associated with stout. Light in flavour with a vague caramel maltiness, it is more like a cross between an ale (without the fruitiness) and a lager.
It is clearly aimed at the younger lager-drinking male, who tends to avoid beers with too much flavour. The same group often drinks beer from a bottle rather than draught, hence its release in bottle only.
John Wilson
