Guinness Cold Brew Coffee Beer Review - Gimmick Or Greatness?

May 13, 2023 Cameron Mackenzie

Coffee-flavoured stouts are hardly a new thing. Some of the most revered and respected beers around are dark and roasted. American heavyweight Founders’ yearly release of its KBS Stout sees excited beer fans queue around the block for miles to get their hands on a six-pack. And beers like ‘Beer Geek Breakfast’ by Danish brewer Mikkeller has legendary status.

So, when yet another coffee stout hits the market, it may not raise too many eyebrows. However, when a household name like Guinness decides to throw their hat into the ring it people get curious. Guinness is no stranger to making variations of its beloved ‘black stuff’, to attract new audiences or to try and claw back sales, and has had mixed success in the past. Their ‘Guinness light’, aimed at a younger audience, bombed in the seventies and Guinness ‘mid-strength’ did not fare so well either, and soon disappeared from shelves. But recent offerings like their non-alcoholic Guinness 0.0, you can read our review here, have had good reviews and Guinness Foreign Extra is arguably Guinness’s most beloved take on the Irish standard.

Guinness Cold Brew Coffee was released in the US in 2021 and has been available on these shores since 2022. While coffee, along with chocolate, is a common flavour profile of darker styles of beer, like stout and porter, a souped-up version of Guinness Draught would always get existing fans of Guinness interested, and perhaps, make coffee aficionados, who are not necessarily Guinness drinkers, look up from their Frappuccino.

And, if you think this latest release from Guinness is just a cynical move to profit off a drink, which is now more popular than tea in the UK (sacrilege), in the short-term, then think again, as Diageo- the owners of Guinness- say Guinness Cold Brew Beer will be a ‘permanent offering’.

What’s intriguing about this caffeine-infused stout is the fact that Guinness has used cold-brew coffee, a process that sees coffee steeped in cold water for long periods of time, instead of boiling water. This is then added to Guinness Draught with additional roasted barley flavours. It’s a clever angle on a style that’s been replicated many times over and gives that novelty factor which is just too irresistible for consumers.

Speaking on the Diageo site, Grainne Wafer, Global Brand Director for Guinness, said: “The coffee notes already in Guinness make the creation of Guinness Cold Brew Coffee Beer a natural – and delicious - next step in our proud history of innovation. Coffee is not only a natural flavour companion to Guinness, but a huge part of culture around the world.”

But is it any good?

It seems the jury is still out on Guinness Cold Brew Coffee Beer. It got a scathing review in the Evening Standard, which condemned it as ‘abrasively synthetic’ and ‘metallic’ but on RateBeer it has fared better, totting up a respectable overall rating of 86, although it only scores 57 when compared to other beers of the same style.

Bearing all the hallmark features of the Guinness family the aroma is nice and smells like a latte with a shot of caramel and a dusting of chocolate.

Unsurprisingly, it tastes like a milk stout and is creamy in texture. It is sweeter than Guinness Draught and if you are a fan of the more robust and bitter Original Guinness this may not be too tame for your tastes.

Guinness may have not broken the mould with this addition to its cannon but it will appeal to fans of Guinness Draught who are looking for a sweeter and fuller coffee-forward offering. However, coffee lovers looking for their caffeine fix may be a little disappointed to find that there is only 2mg of caffeine in a can of Guinness Cold Brew Coffee Beer.

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