Guinness Chocolate Mint Stout

Review Date 12/22/2021 By John Staradumsky

  Style: Spiced Ale   Brewery: Guinness   Country: Ireland   State: N/A   $ Per OZ: $.30   ABV: 10.6%

For the past few years now, Guinness has been treating us to variations on the theme of Guinness Stout each holiday season. These beers have all been barrel-aged; the first of them, Guinness Stout Aged in Bulleit Bourbon Barrels, was actually Guinness Antwerpen Stout (aka Guinness Special Export) brewed in Ireland, sent to Baltimore and barrel-aged there at the Guinness Open gate Brewery. Last year, we got the delicious Imperial Spiced Gingerbread Stout which was hauntingly delicious (and who doesn’t love a good ghost story at Christmas?).

This year, though, my quest for a Guinness specialty stout came up dry on Black Friday, though obviously I eventually had success or you wouldn’t be reading this. A few weeks later, I walked into Target and there they were, gleaming bottles of Guinness Chocolate Mint Stout, and at a surprising price (compared to what the specialties went for the past few years): $13.29 a 4-pack. So of course, I bought one.

Guinness says on the label:

This winter treat was brewed with mint, aged in bourbon barrels and then finished with cacao. A brew of minty, malty sweetness with oak and cocoa finish.

The four pack is of 11.2 ounce bottles (330 CL) and the beer has an alcohol content of 10.6% by volume. I saw it at Sherlock’s just before Christmas for a few dollars more than I paid at Target. Guinness calls this Chocolate Mint Stout Aged in Kentucky Bourbon Barrels.

Guinness Chocolate Mint Stout pours to a jet-black color with a thick creamy tan head and a nose of booze, mint, chocolate, and raisin. Taking a sip, the beer is medium to slightly more (I won’t call it full) with fast emerging notes of peppermint, dark chocolate, wood, boozy bourbon, dark fruity raisin, and in the finish more of the boozy notes and a warming alcohol finish.

Guinness Chocolate Mint Stout reminds me of a Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark bar with a whiskey chaser. I had a few of the squares version of that candy on hand, and one of them went very well with this beer. How to style it? The spices of mint and chocolate are the star attraction here; they do not dominate, but they do get top billing, and as a result this is to me a fine spiced ale, if a spiced imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels.

Glad I tried it?  T

Would I rebuy it??