Brewed to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Guinness exporting beer to the America, using “black patent malt” which Google informs me is a type of malt that gives “acrid and ashy” flavors but appears to be en vogue right now in craft beer circles.
Anyway, flashlight shows a deep burgundy and the head retention is thin but perpetual; smell is surprisingly weak, some smoke, some fruity ale notes, but not much, really. The taste is extremely smooth and semi-sweet, notes of chocolate, coffee, and smoke, with a crisp bite from the full bodied carbonation. This leads to the dry and actually kinda sweet finish, very faint herbal hopping with a low bitterness and faint kiss of sweet cherry at the very end. Overall, this is a perplexing beer, but I like it, it’s well balanced between the sweet and savory malt flavors and the hopping is appropriate for the style. Sessionability is moderate, I could handle a few of these in a night, but would eventually get bored.
