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the other day in London I was told an intriguing tale by a man who may well have been knocked off by Diageo hit men by this stage. It went as follows...(Que wavy black and white flashback,Arthur Guinness is seen stepping off a boat,C.V in hand.) So in the early years Arthur was famous for making ale actually I don't know if he was even that famous. His brewery had to compete with tasty London Porters that were being brought in by the boat load and which were much more popular than insipid ale. Arthur seeing an opportunity to undercut the dastardly Sasanachs by producing a domestic porter traveled to London where he worked at Truman brewery in East London. Here he obtained a recipe for their porter and hurried back to Ireland with the aim of having a qausi national holiday founded in his honor, a shop on Westmoreland St selling large black and white novelty hats and a brewery where the queen could happily sup pints of plain. The Truman Brewery would eventually stop producing Export stout possibly due to the popularity of Arthur's product(define irony) and the brewery closed in the 1980's(take that Sasanachs)
Fast forward to 2012 and a new craft brewer is looking for a classic London recipe for porter.He finds a old recipe in the London archives(Londoners are a sentimental bunch and decided against burning all the national archives) for Truman's porter in 1890. Today this porter is The Kernels award winning 1890 Export Porter and is apparently the closest you can get to original Guinness. I have no way of confirming this story but will ask next time I meet the brewer down at the Kernel

"Oscar Wildecat":216zsumc wrote: So in the early years Arthur was famous for making ale[/quote:216zsumc]

&amp;quot;Oscar Wildecat&amp;quot;:216zsumc wrote: Today this porter is The Kernels award winning 1890 Export Porter and is apparently the closest you can get to original Guinness[/quote:216zsumc]But surely "original" Guinness was an ale, not a porter? <!-- s:wink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s:wink: -->

But yeah: roughly 75% pale malt, 15% brown, 10% black, OG 1.080 seems to be the standard early-19th century way of making stout. Guinness had dropped brown malt by 1828 but Truman's and the other London breweries were still using it in a big way.

Is Seasonal Ale going to be such a success as Black Lager ? <!-- s8) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cool.gif" alt="" title="Cool" /><!-- s8) -->

&amp;quot;sbillings&amp;quot;:1q157iwk wrote: I doubt we'll see it here. Guinness brand extensions are seen as sacrilege by much of the Irish market.[/quote:1q157iwk]
True enough. More's the pity. They brought out some seasonal beers a good few years ago. I remember one of them being quite nice, more of a bite to it than the standard drop. Perhaps it was the Toucan stout? From what I remember, the brews were well-received initially but, perhaps true to form, Guinness milked it too much and people got sick of them.