Diageo I'm not a frog

[Dr Brown Ale]

10% Brown?

do you even brown bro?

[phildo79]

Diageo I'm not a frog,
I was in a pub last night and as often the case with a limited choice to choose from I decided to have a pint of Guinness. The beer was served fine,there was no off flavours but as I drank a few it was apparent that the bean counters are continuing to drive this beer to a dumb downed shadow of what it once was, a great beer.
they apply the cook a frog approach by making continuing slight changes hoping that beer drinkers will not notice.

Well I notice.

This beer today is a thin bodied low gravity ale with low IBU'S probably in the teens. No amount of pixie dust sprinkled by their marketing people can hide the fact that they have gone past their Guinness light beer and have now got it to be Guinness Extra light.

Just what the fuck has happened to Guinness? Several friends and I have been debating this for years. The pint you get nowadays is unrecognisable to the pint 15 or 20 years ago. It's colder, thinner and has less taste.

I remember when Coldflow / Extra Cold came out and everyone and their granny started drinking it. Even young girls that normally drank Bicardi Breezers or bottles of Hooch were suddenly asking for a half pint of Extra Cold. People would ask for Coldflow and when they were told there wasn't any, would leave and go to another bar instead of having a "regular" Guinness. Twats!

But then, all of a sudden, Extra Cold was no more. I found this extremely odd considering how huge a success it had been for Guinness. I'm not exactly sure when this was, because I didn't drink Extra Cold, but the "regular" Guinness started tasting a bit different. Finding a good pint became more and more difficult. ATM a really good pint of G is as rare as hens teeth. I even went on the Guinness tour at the brewery about 10 years ago and the pints in the 2 top bars were nothing special. They were thin and bland. I actually had a nicer pint in the pub down the road when I left.

Rightly or wrongly, I've come to the conclusion that all G is now Coldflow (that, plus I reckon they've dicked around with the recipe). Why would Guinness get rid of something that was so successful, for so long? That would be like they weren't interested in profit...

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

Like all things macro they make their real profit by cutting costs.

Serving colder masks odd flavour s like dirty lines, so you don't have to clean them so often.

You can probably save a bit of money by simplifying your mash and adding the extra character with extract.

[CH]

By cutting body you get more mass market appeal, the bigger market just wants clean thin pints to chug, I spose we have lager to thank for that

[irish_goat]

Rightly or wrongly, I've come to the conclusion that all G is now Coldflow (that, plus I reckon they've dicked around with the recipe). Why would Guinness get rid of something that was so successful, for so long? That would be like they weren't interested in profit...

Extra cold still exists in the Britain. What I think happened is they just gradually turned the chiller down on regular Guinness to bring it more inline with the lagers. Afaik, it's served between 5 and 6c now so wouldn't quite be at extra cold levels, but not far off. Diageo are having to compete with ice cold Coors, Heineken etc so it's no surprise they are dumbing the beer down. It really is a poor stout though.

[phildo79]

Rightly or wrongly, I've come to the conclusion that all G is now Coldflow (that, plus I reckon they've dicked around with the recipe). Why would Guinness get rid of something that was so successful, for so long? That would be like they weren't interested in profit...

Extra cold still exists in the Britain. What I think happened is they just gradually turned the chiller down on regular Guinness to bring it more inline with the lagers. Afaik, it's served between 5 and 6c now so wouldn't quite be at extra cold levels, but not far off. Diageo are having to compete with ice cold Coors, Heineken etc so it's no surprise they are dumbing the beer down. It really is a poor stout though.

I actually stumble across a bar that serves cracking G not that long ago. It reminded me of the G from 15+ years ago. It's in Park, Derry. Now, there are only 3 pubs in Park. 1 doesn't open until the Vivo shop beside it closes and 1 doesn't sell Guinness. But the other does and it's the best pint of G that I've had in years. I think it's called the Bridge House.

But it's a sad state of affairs when you have to travel into the heart of the Sperrins (basically the arsehole of nowhere) to get a good pint of G. Even the G in Donegal is shite now. And for a long time, it was one of the best counties for good G.

[irish_goat]

I'm in Park next month for a wedding. Shocked there's a pub there that doesn't do Guinness. The pint you got in the Bridge House is the same pint every other pub in the country sells though...

[CH]

Maybe the lines have character

[phildo79]

Its a good job it doesn't taste the same though. Its baffling how there is so much difference. Check it out when you get there. Avoid the Guinness in the Rio grand pub. It tastes like shite. The boozer facing it though is worth a visit. Tony Lynch you call it. The girl that owns it is a real character but it's like you've walked into a pub in Royston Vasey! She only sells one draught beer and can talk the leg off a stool. But the pub has been in her family for 300 years. An interesting experience.