So now that St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner and people will be looking to get their drink on, we decided to put the spotlight on beer for our latest taste test. San Diego is arguably the new microbrew capital of the U.S. (Put down those pitchforks, you PDX hooligans! San Diego area microbreweries won more awards than Portland’s at the last World Beer Cup, so there!). So we figured it would be a fun St. Patty’s Day experiment to see how the San Diego microbrew stouts and porters stacked up against the quintessential Irish stout … Guinness. We conducted a blind taste test of 8 local beers plus Guinness. Yes, life is tough here at FoodieView labs.

And a lot of fun it was, and well-attended. Apparently, the enticement of free beer was enough to attract a large and esteemed tasting panel that included, Candice from SD CityBeat, Eric, Jenne, Jerry, Kim, Lety, Matt, Misty, and Tracie. Also special thanks to our official pourers Liz and Sarah. (I tried all the beers, but didn’t vote since I’m not a beer aficionado.)

I feel like I have to mention a couple of things. My beer snob friends told me that I brought the wrong type of Guinness to the tasting. Apparently, the proper way to enjoy Guinness at home is with the canned version. I got the 11oz bottles labelled Draught. They may be right, but I also figure, “Hey, you put that Guinness label on the bottle, so it better be worthy of the name, right?” And in another way, this might not be a fair comparison since Guinness is a dry stout with a lighter taste than most of the beers in our tasting. You might want to keep that in mind when you see the results. A proper beer geek might not want to put stouts and porters in the same tasting or even different types of stouts. So try to think of this as more of a general dark ale taste test.

So enough disclaimers… here are the results!

9th Place	Guinness		Guinness had a very poor showing at this taste test (hence the above disclaimers). I hope we don’t make the whole country of Ireland mad at us, but compared to the heavier, richer beers in the tasting, the Guinness tasted downright watery. Tasters called it “Watery”, “Bland”, “Tasteless”. I’m going to duck now.
8th Place	Stone Smoked Porter from Stone Brewery		The Smoked Porter from Stone was strongly disliked by several tasters: “Tastes like cough syrup”, “Thin, not very complex”, “Not much flavor”, but it definitely had its advocates: “Fruity and smoky”, “Hoppier, but not harsh”.
7th Place	Stone Imperial Russian Stout from Stone Brewery		This other stout from Stone fared a little better, but many complained about an unpleasantly bitter aftertaste: “Strong bitter aftertaste even after eating a pretzel”, “A little too bitter”, “Tries, but ultimately fails”. But some liked the sweet aroma of this beer: “Very fruity smell”, “Very caramelly”.
6th Place	Black Marlin Porter from Ballast Point		The consensus on the Black Marlin is that it was on the lighter side and pleasant, but not earth-shattering . “Nice finish, but lacking body”, “Not any complex flavors, but tasty”, “Not a lot of personality, but tasty”
5th Place	Serpent’s Stout from Lost Abbey Port Brewing		This offering from Port Brewing’s signature brand was generally well-liked. “Dark, rich coffee-like flavor”, “Strong, espresso aftertaste”, “Complex, nice”. But there were some dissenters: “Bitter aftertaste”, and just “Eeew”.
4th Place	Black Lightning Porter from Lightning Brewery		This porter from Lightning Brewery was notable for its sweetness, which apparently could be a good thing or bad thing depending on your taste: “Chocolate, light candy taste”, “Pretty good, bit too sweet”, “Too sweet, tastes like candy?”.
3rd Place	Port Old Viscosity from Port Brewing		Old Viscosity was quite popular with a lot of tasters. It garnered a bunch of 2nd place votes. “Really chocolatey flavor, creamy & clean”, “Lighter and sweeter, but still bitter”, “Very full… more complex”
2nd Place	Speedway Stout from AleSmith Brewing		Almost everyone loved this stout from AleSmith. It actually garnered the most first place votes, and only narrowly missed taking the top spot. Compliments included “Smokey, roasted, yummy”, “Very well-balanced and classic”, “Very roasted flavor, hearty, smokey”. But a couple of tasters noted a metallic aftertaste.
1st Place	Green Flash Stout from Green Flash Brewing		And the winner is this stout from Green Flash (and it was my personal favorite). “Smooth, slightly sweet”, “Chocolatey, malty, creamy”, “Light coffee, bittersweet spice lingers”

So that’s it for this taste test. If you’re interested in trying out some of these beers, you can find them at some of San Diego’s finer watering holes like Hamilton’s Tavern and Toronado. Also, I wanted to give a special mention to South Bay Drugs and Liquor in Imperial Beach, which probably has the most complete selection of local beers in the county.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 10:53 am and is filed under San Diego. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.