Birthday Beer

Today is my Birthday. I'm a whopping 35 years old, though due to sports, stress, and 8 years in the Marine Corps, parts of my body feel older than that. All in all, I am in great health, good shape, and fine spirits.

Speaking of fine spirits, this year is also another birthday: the 250 birthday of Guinness! And in honor of their 250th year of brewing beer, they have brewed "Guinness 250," a fine stout for their anniversary. According to the Guinness web site:

This is the year to celebrate! That’s why our Master Brewer has created the limited edition Guinness® 250 Anniversary Stout. We used a proprietary brewhouse process that combines the use of stout and ale malt for a distinctive carbonated stout with a clean, smooth finish. This is the first new Guinness® stout we’ve introduced to the US since we first started importing Guinness® Draught in 1967, but it’s only available for a limited time. So starting on April 24th, get out with some friends and try a pint of our brand new brew!

There has been much hype about this beer, and a quick phone call to my local beer mecca (Oades Big 10 on Clippert for my Lansing-area readers) shows that they have 3 cases of it on-hand.
For those of you who don't know, Guinness is the beer that started it all for me. For years, I drank what was cheap and affordable. There was a time when I considered Molson Canadian one of the finest beers on earth (I do still drink it by the gallon at tailgates in the Fall), and was regarded as an "afficionado" by my friends because I preferred a "foreign beer."

Then one day, a good friend introduced me to Guinness. The taste...the smoothness...I was hooked immediately. Guinness became the gateway to all of the myriad beers I drink now, shoving me off the safe cliff of macro-brewed light lagers into the stormy and unpredictable seas of craft beers. Mrs. Smitty and I honeymooned in Ireland, knowing our final destination was St. James' Gate in Dublin.

The rest is...now!

On my way home tonight, I am purchasing a few bottles of Guinness 250. I will sample it, fittingly on my birthday, and report back. While I don't expect to be blown away, I do expect that it will be a pleasant pint.

Slainte!