Guinness Bright Stout

Guinness, that most Irish of brands... but not Guinness Bright, a uniquely Malaysian beer.

There are many beers brewed in Malaysia through the numerous brands owned by the two local giants Heineken (formerly Guinness Anchor) and Carlsberg, the only two companies with brewing licences in the country. (OK, there's a third, more on that later). The thing is, the majority of these beers, though brewed here, originated overseas. Just as Heineken is Dutch, Carlsberg Danish and Guinness Irish, so is Asahi Japanese, Kronenbourg French and Tiger Singaporean etc...

I'll admit that this can be a tricky subject though. Malaysia is a relatively young country, and there was beer being brewed in the region well before it existed, so who's to say there wasn't an original beer amongst them? 

Like Tiger, Anchor Beer was brewed in both Singapore and Malaya before Malaysia was born and I was enthusiastically told that it was a Malaysian brand when I first arrived in KL. But just like its big cat brother, it seems the origins of Anchor also lie in Singapore.

So to find a truly Malaysian beer you have to come a bit closer to the present day. In 1992 Carlsberg Malaysia gave us the previously reviewed Danish Royal Stout, or Royal Stout as it is now known, having dropped its pretend Danishness because, despite the name, this beer has never been anywhere near Denmark. It is a purely Malaysian drink. Not brewed anywhere else and I imagine not drank anywhere else (though it may be possible to find it in Singapore I guess)? Finally there was a beer that locals could truly call their own. But the beer was so worried about being Malaysian it had to pretend to be from Copenhagen up until 2016.

It wasn't until 2007 that a Malaysian beer came along and shouted about being so. Jaz beer! Yeah, I know... who? Brewed by a company called Napex, who at some point in the past managed to persuade the Government to give them the gold dust of a third national brewing licence, Jaz was supposed to be the local lager. Brewed with rice instead of barley and proud of its heritage, sadly, it sucked and didn't gain any traction with the local drinkers. Napex also gave us a second truly local brand. Starker beer, brewed in Johor and sold only in OverTime pubs, was the country's first micro brewery beer. But despite being Malaysian, they sold their German heritage upfront as three different styles of weissbier. 

I'll admit, I actually quite liked the Starker beers (the great happy hour prices helped), but it was not to last. In 2012 the OverTime chain closed, the starker and jaz brands disappeared and Napex vanished with rumours following it, taking their brewing licence with them. The government has steadfastly refused to hand out a new licence since. *

So if we were to ever get another Malaysian beer, we had to hope that Heineken or Carlsberg would step up and it was the latter who did, though just as with their Royal Stout, you'd never have known. Connors stout had been around for a number of years as the Carlsberg answer to Heineken's Guinness Draught, though many people just assumed it was an Irish brand given it was draught stout with an Irish clan name (Connor being a none Gaelic form of O'Connor). But during a relaunch in 2015, Carlsberg came clean and happily started telling the world it was a truly Malaysian beer. Created and brewed here. Happy days! But something was still wrong... when you looked at the lovely glass of draught stout you see a whopping great big union flag. (there because Connors is apparently based on an ancient English porter recipe... so, not even Irish).

So where does that leave us? With two beers that can said to be fully Malaysian, but one so embarrassed about things it spent 24 years pretending to be Danish and the other peeking out from behind a British flag. OK, I'm being facetious... these are both lovely beers and Malaysian drinkers should be proud of them.

But finally there is a new player on the scene and it's waving its Malaysian attitude right in your face!

Guinness!

Wait... what? We've been through this... they're Irish. OK... OK. So, yeah, the new Malaysian beer is a foreign brand. But until Heineken or Carlsberg create a new unique brand for Malaysia, this is the closest we'll get. Guinness Bright.

The Guinness HQ in Dublin has it's own Microbrewery called Open Gate who specialise in going through the centuries of brewing notes from past head brewers and seeing if there is anything exciting to experiment with. They've produced a number of interesting beers, none of which have sadly made their way to Malaysia. However, the brewing bods at Open Gate were asked to tinker around to see if they could produce something a bit special for Malaysia, which is one of Guinness's biggest global markets. So working with Heineken Malaysia, they played around with local flavours before finally settling on a new version of Guinness Original, which is the original stout that both draught and Foreign Extra (the two brands known here) were based on back in the day. Not as strong, but just as flavoursome as FES, the team took Guinness Original and added local flavours like ginger and lemongrass and a large wallop of coffee. The results are weird at first but eventually quite impressive.

I'll admit, when I first tried it, I was underwhelmed. At a promotion event it was poured from a half frozen bottle and the aroma and flavours were muted to the point of being barely noticeable. I almost gave up there figuring it was just a marketing gimmick aimed at younger drinkers. Luckily I decided to give it a second chance in the comfort of home.

Guinness Bright is a light 4.5% Irish stout, brewed with extracts of coffee, lemongrass and ginger along with the usual hops and malted barley. It's slighter redder than the Foreign Extra Stout variant, with a small cream coloured head. As with my first taste I must admit the aroma is underwhelming despite the ingredients championed on the can which should be shouting at you before you even take a sip, however, allowing the beer to warm slightly releases the flavours and all three of the added extracts come to the fore on the palate and the finish. It really is quite surprising but nice with it. And despite these additions, it's still a relatively easy drink and amenable for a session.

So there we are. That I know of there are currently three truly Malaysian (and extremely stouty) beers, if ones that owe a debt to Denmark, Ireland and England. But all three are (now, at least) proud of where they come from.

You can read about some other stouts, including Connor's and Royal Stout, here.

2021 EDIT: Sadly Guinness Bright turned out to be a relatively short lived beer that had disappeared off the shelves by early 2019. 

*As of 2022, the range of Starker Beers are back on the market, though sold exclusively online in 5 litre mini-kegs for home use. It's still brewed by Napex, who had returned to the scene in 2018 with 2 relatively non-descript beers under the brand, Legend. A mediocre commercial style pilsner and a slightly more interesting dark lager. Their Starker range is much better, however.