A new limited edition brew, Guinness The 1798 Double Extra Stout, has been released ahead of St Patrick's day.
The new release, which is sold in Australia by Lion, pays tribute to the original Old Vat house built in 1798, and is a specially packaged, corked and caged 750ml bottle, which was designed for sharing.
The 1798 Double Extra Stout was brewed with Irish stout malt, crystal malt, and the same roasted barley and yeast used in Guinness Draught.
Only 2,400 of the limited edition bottles will be available in Australia, exclusively from Dan Murphy’s stores for RRP $49.90.
In order to create the product, it was first brewed a number of times in the Pilot Brewery at St. James’s Gate and the taken to the main St. James's Gate Brewhouse No. 4 in Dublin, Ireland, according to Lion.
The beer is late hopped with Goldings hops for extra complexity and to help balance the sweetness, while a gentle wood aroma and flavour is the result of 217-year old oak wood chips coming from the historic old vat house.
“Guinness The 1798 is an intensely rich, smooth double stout with a uniquely subtle smoky character,” said Michael Donnelly, one of the brewers who created this beer’s recipe. “What makes this beer so special is that we were able to physically incorporate a piece of Guinness history into the process of the beer by using the original oak wood from storage vats in the Old Vat House.
“Past Guinness brewers in the 1800s used these vats to mature ‘Foreign Export Stout’ before shipping overseas which gives the beer a unique combination of flavours including oak, raisin, burnt caramel, and dark coffee.”
Over 13 million glasses of Guinness enjoyed on St Patrick’s Day last year, according to its maker. According to Roy Morgan Research, however, Bailey’s Irish Cream is the most popular Irish tipple in Australia.
In 2015, 527,000 Australians aged 18 and over drank Baileys Irish Cream at least once in an average four weeks, well ahead of Guinness (237,000 people) and the Irish whiskey, Jameson (186,000 people).
