A pint of Guinness and a packet of anything to get rid of this awful taste, please

Here's a new entry in the dictionary of corporate euphemisms, courtesy of Diageo subsidiary Guinness. They brew the precious nectar in Ireland and ship the kegs to bars in Europe and the US. Guinness traditionalists have always been suspicious that the stout does not hold up well in shipping, and as a result there are Irish people who when abroad do not see the need to join the mob falling over themselves to pay $7 for a suspiciously quickly pulled pint of suspicious tasting Guinness. Guinness of course denies that there's a problem and in fact relies on the cachet of having the beer brewed in Ireland to get Americans to fork over the $7. A similar ploy works to the advantage of Stella Artois, sold in the US at prices the average Belgian Stella drinker would laugh at; on the other hand, Carlsberg, which goes to the trouble of having Labatt's brew its North American version -- and therefore can't command the "It's not a beer, it's European" premium. But we digress. Guinness has now being forced to acknowledge a specific case where the shipped beer simply didn't measure up.

[from Irish Times story] Thousands of kegs of Guinness which could have left customers with a nasty taste in their mouths have been recalled en route to Europe and the US.
The spokeswoman would not reveal how many kegs had been recalled, but one source estimated it could be as many as 178,000.
"We can confirm that our quality-control assurance checks have identified a potential risk in some kegs of Guinness which might not meet our standards for flavour stability," the spokeswoman said. She said Guinness always tried to maintain high standards.

So there's the euphemism: flavour stability. American translation: nursty. They claim that the dubious kegs were caught in testing before distribution, but we recommend being wary on your next few trips to Fado. Or, God forbid, get a pint of Bare Knuckle instead.