Guinness Foreign Extra Stout — BrandWiki

Guinness Foreign Extra Stout

Overview

Guinness Foreign Extra Stout

type	Stout
abv	7.5 (varies)
manufacturer	Diageo
origin	Ireland
introduced	1801
colour	Deep ruby red
flavour	Roasted malt, dark cherries, diacetyl‡R1R‡
ingredients	Grain, water, hops and yeast‡R2R‡
variants	Guinness Extra Smooth‡R3R‡
website	Foreign Extra Stout

Guinness Foreign Extra Stout (FES) is a stout produced by the Guinness Brewery, an Irish brewing company owned by Diageo, a drinks multinational. First brewed by Guinness in 1801, FES was designed for export, and is more heavily hopped than Guinness Draught and Extra Stout, which gives it a more bitter taste,[4] and typically has a higher alcohol content (at around 7.5% ABV). The extra hops were intended as a natural preservative for the long journeys the beer would take by ship.

FES is the Guinness variant that is most commonly found in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, and it accounts for almost half of Guinness sales worldwide. Over four million hectolitres of the beer were sold in Africa in 2011.[5]

Guinness Flavour Extract, a dehydrated, hopped wort extract made from barley malt and roasted barley, is used for overseas production of the stout. The syrup is shipped from Ireland, where it is added at the ratio of 1:49 to locally brewed pale beer. In most overseas markets, Guinness Flavour Extract (GFE) is blended with locally brewed beer to produce FES.

History

Guinness West India Porter, the direct predecessor of Foreign Extra Stout, was first exported from the St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin in 1801.[6] The product was formulated for Irish immigrant workers in the Caribbean.[7] The beer was brewed solely in the cooler months between October and April in order to reduce acidification, and was matured in large wooden vats for up to two years, which gave the finished product greater stability.[8] To survive the long journey overseas, which was then taken by ship, it was brewed with extra hops and a higher alcohol content, which acted as natural preservatives for the beer.[6] Exported in barrels, the product was then bottled locally, which helped to reduce costs.[9]

The 1801 recipe included 73 per cent pale malt and 27 per cent brown malt.[10]

The first recorded shipment of the beer to the United States was in 1817.[9] In 1827, the first official shipment of Guinness on the African continent arrived in Sierra Leone.[11] The beer was renamed Foreign Extra Stout from around 1849 onwards.[12] The first recorded exports to South East Asia began in the 1860s.[13]

FES accounted for around five per cent of all Guinness production at the turn of the twentieth century, with two-thirds destined for Australia and the United States, where it was largely used as a medicinal product.[6][8] Australia remained the single largest export market for the product until 1910, when it was eclipsed by the United States.[6] Due to the expense of importation, FES was a premium product, retailing for double the price of domestic stouts.[6] Total production had reached 105,000 hogsheads by 1912.[8]

The American trade was disrupted by the onset of World War I and then discontinued entirely with the introduction of Prohibition.[6] The product was not popular when it returned in the 1930s, as drinkers now preferred the lighter and cheaper Guinness Extra Stout.[9] Following discontinuation of export during World War II, FES did not return to the United States until 1956, but this was to prove unsuccessful, and the beer was withdrawn shortly afterwards.[14]

Guinness export sales were mostly to British and Irish expatriates before 1920.[9] This changed from the 1920s onwards, and among the first local people to develop a taste for the drink were the ethnic Chinese of the Malay Peninsula.[9] A global Guinness salesman was appointed by the company in 1924, and sales began to be pursued among local populations.[9]

In 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the British War Office purchased 500,000 half-pint bottles of FES for distribution to hospitals.[9]

In 1951 exports totalled 90,000 barrels, but by 1964 had grown to 300,000 barrels.[6] By 1959, sales in Ghana had grown large enough for Guinness to establish a joint venture in the country with the United Africa Company.[15] By 1962, Nigeria had become the largest export market for Guinness, with around 100,000 barrels exported to the country every year.[16] This led the company to build a brewery in Ikeja in western Nigeria to supply the demand; it was only the third brewery in the company's history.[17] The brewery cost over £2 million, had a 150,000 barrel capacity, and was 60 per cent owned by Guinness Nigeria, 25 per cent by the United Africa Company with the remaining shares held by local Nigerian interests.[16] Breweries followed in Malaysia (1965), Cameroon (1970) and Ghana (1971), whilst licences were granted to other companies to brew Guinness under contract in other African countries and the West Indies.[18]

A new bottle design was debuted in Malaysia in 2005, and later rolled out worldwide.[20] In 2013, FES received a packaging redesign in Africa and other selected markets, with a gold foil top and a new label.[21]

Markets

Foreign Extra Stout constitutes 45 per cent of total Guinness sales worldwide.[2] Originally exported to British and Irish expatriates, the beer began to be drunk by local populations from the 1920s. A 7.5% ABV version is sold throughout most of the world, although lower strength variants are found in some locations.

The beer is available in bottles and cans.[23]

Africa

In Africa, the product retails at a premium, at up to double the price of rival beers.[19][30] FES is produced at thirteen breweries in Africa.[11]

Nigeria

FES is brewed and distributed by Guinness Nigeria.[31][26] As of 2012–13, Nigeria has been the largest market for Guinness by sales.[26]

FES was initially introduced into the Nigerian market through importation in the 1940s.[32] Guinness in Nigeria is made with heavily roasted sorghum or maize that has been locally sourced.[33] Some Nigerian versions also contain wheat. The switch from malted barley was made in 1986 when the Nigerian government briefly banned imports of the grain.[32]

Nigeria

FES is brewed and distributed by Guinness Nigeria.[31][26] As of 2012–13, Nigeria has been the largest market for Guinness by sales.[26]

FES was initially introduced into the Nigerian market through importation in the 1940s.[32] Guinness in Nigeria is made with heavily roasted sorghum or maize that has been locally sourced.[33] Some Nigerian versions also contain wheat. The switch from malted barley was made in 1986 when the Nigerian government briefly banned imports of the grain.[32] The use of sorghum and maize continues as it is a cheaper alternative than barley, which has to be imported, and it is less vulnerable to local currency fluctuations.

Other markets

The brewing of FES has taken place at Sierra Leone Brewery since October 1967.[38]

In Ghana, FES is brewed in Kumasi by Guinness Ghana Breweries, which is controlled by Castel Group. GFE is mixed with a locally brewed sorghum lager, but it differs from the Nigerian version in that it contains no wheat and has a higher proportion of roast barley. In Ghana, the product is believed to have medicinal properties, strengthening the blood and improving circulation.[39]

In 2003, a 5.5% ABV, lightly-nitrogenated variant of FES was introduced in Ghana called Guinness Extra Smooth.[9] It was released in Nigeria in 2005, where it constitutes 5-10 per cent of Guinness sales in the country.[19]

Asia

Sales of Guinness in South East Asia amounted to over £100 million in 2012-13.[26] FES (6.8% ABV) is brewed and distributed in Malaysia by Heineken Malaysia Berhad.[41] The Malaysian variant is distributed throughout most of South East Asia. The brew was reduced in ABV from 8 to 6.8% in 2008, and further reduced to 5.5% ABV from 2016, in response to changes in alcohol duty.[42][43] Malaysia is the largest Asian market for Guinness, where, in 2012, the brand grew by between 10 and 15 per cent.[44][45] In Singapore, FES is brewed and distributed by Asia Pacific Breweries.[26]

Americas

FES is also brewed under license by Commonwealth Brewery (CBL) in the Bahamas, a Heineken N.V. subsidiary. It is the number 1 selling Stout in The Bahamas. The Commonwealth Brewery in Nassau began brewing the stout in 1987. [46]

Other markets

FES was sold and then withdrawn in the UK in 1976 as Guinness XXX Extra Strong Stout; it returned in 1994 when interest in craft beer increased.[9][47] The beer was again withdrawn from the UK market, returning in 2003 to cater for the increasing African diaspora.[48] The British market is supplied with both the Irish and the Nigerian brewed variants of the beer, the latter of which has annual sales of £2 million.[49] Official imports of FES into the US were resumed in 2010, following a resurgent interest in craft beer; this was after a period of grey imports, predominantly for African and Caribbean expatriates.[2][19]