Guinness 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, 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.
| Type | Stout |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Diageo |
| Country of origin | Ireland |
| Introduced | 1801 |
| Alcohol by volume | 7.5 (varies) |
| Colour | Deep ruby red |
| Flavour | Roasted malt, dark cherries, diacetyl |
| Ingredients | Grain, water, hops and yeast |
| Variants | Guinness Extra Smooth |
| Website | Foreign Extra Stout |
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, where Diageo intend to grow the product into the continent's highest selling beer.
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.
FES was marketed in Nigeria as "gives you power" in the 1960s. This was updated for 1999–2006 with the Michael Power campaign, which aired across Africa.