Good beer or good marketing? Guinness Red

Last Friday I had the chance to try the state-of-the-art in beers here in the UK: Guinness Red.

Before tabling my opinion, let's get a short history lesson. Guinness stout, aka "The Dark Stuff", has been brewed since 1759 in St. James Gate Brewery, in Dublin. It is actually possible to visit the old brewery if you go to that city, indeed it's its main attraction. Even when some other lisenced countries brew the beer under lisence, it is always based on a basic stuff produced in Ireland and shipped to those other countries. As the essence of the beer, the wort extract, loses some properties when it is transported for long distance, that's the reason why the best Guinness allegedly has to been tasted in Dublin itself.

Apart of that, it's one of my favourite ones, and the one that made popular the concept 'stout' more than 200 years ago. Alright, but... what's new?

Well, what is new is that Guinness sales have been soaring down on the last years, and as a result their strategic action has been the development of a new different type of beer, Guinness Red, in origin just for the British market and hoping that sales will come back with a milder product, hopefully more adapted to the youngsters market. If that's going to work out or not, that's something the time will decide...

And I have the opportunity to try it last Friday, as stated above, more specifically in an O'neills pub quite close to Carnaby Street (at the moment O'neills is the only chain offering it). My impression? Well, it's quite good, but it has nothing to do with the original black stuff, with a completely roasted barley. The colour is beautiful, that's true, but, apart of that, it's quite smoother and milder, more like Worthington or Caffrey's creamy bitters. Quite similar to John Smith's as well. My point is: if I want a creamy, low alcoholic bitter, there are several pretty good on the marketplace, so... what's the point about this Guinness-labeled one?

Spot the differences if you can...

The real point, I think, is that this is not about a new beer, but about a huge marketing campaign. And I'm indeed playing their game, as I'm wasting part of my precious time writing about it. Well done, guys!!

PS: have a look at the ad. 'Good things don't just come in black and white'... bloody hell, I would have bet my brother a couple of years ago something like that NEVER was going to be in a Guinness ad. Times changing...

PS2: have you ever asked yourself why Guinness bubbles go downwards instead of upwards as in every other drink? The scientific answer, both here and here.