Guinness tastes like swill: Discuss

The Scientician · 19-03-2012 5:31am #1

I think I've maybe once had a pint of Guinness that I found palatable and enjoyable. Otherwise it's acrid swill. I just don't get how it's so popular. Did people lose their tastebuds in the war?

amacachi · 19-03-2012 5:33am

I haven't tasted swill so I don't know.

Rothko · 19-03-2012 5:34am

Agreed. I think it's horrible

later12 · 19-03-2012 5:39am

It gets you drunk and it tastes like your parish jersey after a particularly vigorous training session.

Personally, I'm all for it.

Having said that, a pint is more than enough before I switch to a bottle of Coors.

/raises pinkie finger

J. Marston · 19-03-2012 5:44am

Took a drink of it once when I was 16/17 in some dodgy country pub. Gave me the gawks, never touched it again.

ardinn · 19-03-2012 5:47am

Guinness - strangely enough, Kind of needs to be forced - If you can have a few nights of it in succession, you will find the taste for it - All beer was horrible when you hadnt tried it before - then it became lovely - Guinness, Is rather more horrible than those others at first - but becomes better than those in the long run.

I believe those who dont give it at least 3 days to a week, will never truly understand its taste.

NIMAN · 19-03-2012 5:50am

Blasphemer.

Although the after effects in the toilet bowl the next day are not too pretty. Treacle always springs to mind for some reason. Definite 10-wiper.

Meirleach · 19-03-2012 6:00am

I can drink a pint of Guinness, but I'd drink a pint of Beamish before it to be honest.

Sindri · 19-03-2012 6:23am

Guinness tastes like water to me.

Maybe a slight hint of fermented barley sometimes.

Doc · 19-03-2012 6:33am

Have you actually tasted acrid swill OP? And if so why?

The Scientician · 19-03-2012 6:56am

Doc wrote: »

Have you actually tasted acrid swill OP? And if so why?

Yes. To make sure it wasn't laced with poison.

Optimalprimerib · 19-03-2012 7:09am

I loved Guinness. Unfortunately it didn't love me, it turned me into a chemical weapon for a week after a night on it, so our relationship did not last.

Ellis Dee · 19-03-2012 7:49am

Oh, so Guinness tastes like swill. That would explain why so few Irish people like the stuff. After all, swill is meant for pigs, right?:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

myflipflops · 19-03-2012 8:15am

It is delicious to me.

A decent pint is probably my favorite drink in the world.

JupiterKid · 19-03-2012 8:57am

Guinness is definitely an acquired taste. A good pint is a delight but all too often what is served up tastes bloody vile.

Lando Griffin · 19-03-2012 9:01am

With Guinness you need a collective of correct procedures before you can be sure of a proper pint, if one of these is missed then the pint is ruined. 1. Guinness does not travel so do not expect a good pint in a foreign county. 2. The bar person must be experienced, I hate it when some up start dismisses the proven procedures of the double pull and settle . 3. Must be a guinness glass, the amount of times I have refused a pint because of this is scandless. 4. The pipes must be used every night, you wont just wont get a decent pint where its not open every night or in a Nightclub.

Guill · 19-03-2012 9:20am

A nice pint of Guinness is too rare there days, I find the quality gets worse the further east you travel, with the odd exception.

Guinness done right is wonderful.

Gummy Panda · 19-03-2012 9:33am

later12 wrote: »

It gets you drunk and it tastes like your parish jersey after a particularly vigorous training session.

Personally, I'm all for it.

Having said that, a pint is more than enough before I switch to a bottle of Coors.

/raises pinkie finger

Ewww Coors!!

Apparently that is the American Dutch Gold

corktina · 19-03-2012 9:38am

Any beer stout or ale pumped by gas is foul.

jimthemental · 19-03-2012 9:43am

Guinness is my second love after Smithwick's. Two beers with an acquired taste which I will drink all day and night on a session. At the moment I'm halfway through a bottle of James Boag's Classic Blonde. Now that Sir is swill. Aussie beer is bad, Tasmanian beer is shameful.

buck65 · 19-03-2012 9:57am

Guinness was once a fantastic stout but the muppets in St James' Gate/ Diageo have felt the need to dilute it's taste in recent years making it more watered down and colder i.e you can't taste the stuff.
Murphy's is a far better stout as is Beamish. Porterhouse Wrasslers and their other Oyster stout one are the best in Ireland at the moment.

kelle · 19-03-2012 10:00am

In my drinking days, I liked Guinness with a (huge) dash of blackcurrant - without that it tasted rank!

mattjack · 19-03-2012 10:10am

The Scientician wrote: »

I think I've maybe once had a pint of Guinness that I found palatable and enjoyable. Otherwise it's acrid swill. I just don't get how it's so popular. Did people lose their tastebuds in the war?

What war ? Did I miss something ?

listermint · 19-03-2012 10:15am

JupiterKid wrote: »

Guinness is definitely an acquired taste. A good pint is a delight but all too often what is served up tastes bloody vile.

all to often?

Its been a decent while now since ive come across a really poor pint of guinness. Those quality inspector van lads really are putting the work in.

Feisar · 19-03-2012 10:16am

Lando Griffin wrote: »

With Guinness you need a collective of correct procedures before you can be sure of a proper pint, if one of these is missed then the pint is ruined. 1. Guinness does not travel so do not expect a good pint in a foreign county. 2. The bar person must be experienced, I hate it when some up start dismisses the proven procedures of the double pull and settle . 3. Must be a guinness glass, the amount of times I have refused a pint because of this is scandless. 4. The pipes must be used every night, you wont just wont get a decent pint where its not open every night or in a Nightclub.

The Guinness exported is done so in tankers, I'm sure if it was put in a keg and sent off it'd be grand.

The double pull gives the nice rounded head, I don't think it effects taste but it looks creamier.

What's a Guinness glass? It used to be a heavy straight walled glass like you'd see on the old adds. They serve Wassler's XXXX in that style in the Porterhouse.

Ugh, hotel function rooms that only get used once a week! Muck!

Ishmael · 19-03-2012 10:22am

Lando Griffin wrote: »

. 2. The bar person must be experienced, I hate it when some up start dismisses the proven procedures of the double pull and settle .

The two part pour thing is only for marketing these days i believe. Guinness used to be served from two casks, one old and one new where the most of the glass was filled with from the old cask and it was then topped up from the new one. Now that it all comes from the one keg, there is no need to be standing around waiting for it to settle before topping it off.

Guinness is fairly bland though. I'd prefer Beamish as it at least has some flavour.

Dunny · 19-03-2012 10:34am

Dont mind a pint of Guinness. Could only drink 1-2 though, too filling for me.

Sarn · 19-03-2012 10:36am

There's nothing like a good pint of Guinness when you've a thirst on you. The problem is the variable consistency between pubs. Made the mistake a couple of times in the past of ordering it in a nightclub, not something I'd recommend.

mikemac1 · 19-03-2012 10:40am

Dash of blackcurrant OP

From my barman days this was a regular request
Not just for women and their glasses, men order blackcurrant too

Teyla Emmagan · 19-03-2012 10:52am

Have never managed more than a mouthful of the stuff. Is not for me.

gbee · 19-03-2012 11:01am

Pouring the Guinness is the key, in fact, if one were to pour beer like one would pour a good pint of Guinness they'd have the best pint of any beer or lager that they ever had.

That's one thing, the actual manufacture of the stuff is another but as you reference the war? What war exactly?

Going back in time to say 1906, we had a tradition of brewing, we had Dublin with Guinness and they destroyed all competition, a young Dublin boy would have been fed Guinness from an early age so later in life as they started drinking the stuff by the pint, it'd be like home cooking.

Similarly in Cork we just loved our beers, we had several that consolidates into two massive and distinct camps, Beamish and Murphy's ~ all made to their own recipes.

If, as a child one were brought up on Murphy's then both Guinness and Beamish would taste sour and unpalatable and so on and so forth.

Jump forward to today and all brewing is done to EU regulations by machines and children are no longer brought up on porter so tasting Guinness for the first time can be frantic and there is now almost no distinction between the stouts available so all porters would taste sour [somewhat] though the recipe is much sweeter today and our 1906 Dubliner would spit the stuff out as would our 1953 grandparents.

It is arguable whether we have got more sophisticated pallets today or not, but lifestyle and regulations dictates some changes, flavour follows the alcohol content, in beers and stouts [generally] the stronger the level the better the taste whereas with wines, the weaker the level the stronger the taste, by regulation Guinness would have less alcohol content than that which Behan drank in his day.

biko · 19-03-2012 11:32am

Just stick to your shandys and Buds then.
More Guinness for me.

Dunny · 19-03-2012 11:42am

later12 wrote: »

It gets you drunk and it tastes like your parish jersey after a particularly vigorous training session.

Personally, I'm all for it.

Having said that, a pint is more than enough before I switch to a bottle of Coors.

/raises pinkie finger

GTFO

boobar · 19-03-2012 11:48am

The Scientician wrote: »

I think I've maybe once had a pint of Guinness that I found palatable and enjoyable. Otherwise it's acrid swill. I just don't get how it's so popular. Did people lose their tastebuds in the war?

I had a few pints of it a few years ago, never again, woke up the next morning and it felt like I was trying to excrete a rubix cube.

Plus, a character in the local always refers to it as a "bucket a muck" whenever he orders this tasty beverage.

mikemac1 · 19-03-2012 11:50am

I'll have a Black n'tan there OP, good man

gurramok · 19-03-2012 12:00pm

If you get a bad pint of Guinness, report it. They have a quality team who check up on these things. Never get a pint in the nightclub, expect it to taste crap.

Beamish does seem to be nicer though and cheaper. Guinness is popular through viral marketing even though its inferior to other stouts. And why do people like stout? Smooth taste!

Immaculate Pasta · 19-03-2012 12:20pm

I'm very fond of the stuff although I'm very particular where I'd get it from. It has to be a what I deem as a proper pub. Bars and Student Pubs are a big no no.

But done right it's my favourite drink. If I were to have one drink of something, I'd have a Guinness. Although I'm very partial to a good pint of Murphy's as well.

Although I enjoy it I struggle to have a proper night on it. I can only have about 4-5 pints then I have to switch to something else. It does taste better in Ireland, Guinness in the UK's not bad, but I find it goes down a lot easier in Ireland, it's like nectar. I find that the Guinness in Ireland means no hangover. I can be stumbling around and slurring my words after 12 pints of Guinness, but I can wake up the next morning feeling fine. It's odd.

The best pint of Guinness I love is when you're out in the sticks in Connemara. You're in a pub, order your pint of Guinness, relax, you probably get it at least 5 minutes after you order it, there's no rush. The Guinness then has settled and it's heaven. :cool:

Flincher · 19-03-2012 12:22pm

Definitely an acquired taste. The first time I tried it, I was barely able to finish a pint, I thought it was disgusting. It takes a good 4-5 nights work before you start to get a taste for it. But it is gradual, so might be able to finish 2 the second night, 3 or 4 the third.

I'd rarely touch it in a hotel or a nightclub though. At weddings, always wait to see if the old fellas get a second round of pints in. Then you know its safe to order one.

Seaneh · 19-03-2012 12:26pm

buck65 wrote: »

Guinness was once a fantastic stout but the muppets in St James' Gate/ Diageo have felt the need to dilute it's taste in recent years making it more watered down and colder i.e you can't taste the stuff.
Murphy's is a far better stout as is Beamish. Porterhouse Wrasslers and their other Oyster stout one are the best in Ireland at the moment.

O'Hara's Leann Follain.

Game. Set and Match to the Carlow Brewing Company boys.

It's the best stout on this island, by a country mile.

19-03-2012 12:27pm

Regardless of whether you like Guinness or not, you have to appreciate their quality service. You see those vans driving pretty much everywhere.

Seaneh · 19-03-2012 12:40pm

gbee wrote: »

Pouring the Guinness is the key, in fact, if one were to pour beer like one would pour a good pint of Guinness they'd have the best pint of any beer or lager that they ever had.
.

How guinness is poured makes no bloody difference to the taste of the beer.

You're talking through your hoop.

As stated before, the two part pour today is a marketing gimmick, not a requirement.

Another point, the guinness you get in a pub is not the same recipe your grandfather drank, the current draught "nitro" recipe was first produced in 1963 and designed to be colder, blander and more palletable to people to like lagers and other fizzy pale ****e beers.

This is the original guinness recipe, it is a far superior beer, and you can get it by the bottle in a lot of bars, usually drank, funnily enough, by older men, who remember when their pint used to taste like the bottles do.

Guinness is an average beer, it's better than fizzy yellow piss water like Heinkien, Bud, Fischers, Urquell or Grolsch (well, it's better than any Lager, Lagers are ****e) or bland ales like Bass or Smithwicks.
But when compared to proper stouts, like Guinness Extra or, even better, Guinness Foreign Extra, or even better again, O'Hara's Leann Follain, Guinness is a poor alternative.

ejmaztec · 19-03-2012 12:54pm

You've got to hand it to the ad-men, turning a mediocre glass of treacly slop into the nectar of the gods. It's foul stuff.

Casillas · 19-03-2012 1:36pm

Really cold Guinness is quite nice, warm Guinness is puke inducing.

Feisar · 19-03-2012 1:41pm

The two part pour allows for the head to sit slightly proud of the top of the glass. This can't be done with one pour.

I generally drink bottled stout when at home and draught when in a pub, you rarely see the bottles of stout in pubs anymore.

Fuller's London Porter is in my mind the finest example of a stout today.

krudler · 19-03-2012 1:45pm

only ever had a mouthful of it, thought it was foul, whiskey ftw.

mattjack · 19-03-2012 1:48pm

Casillas wrote: »

Really cold Guinness is quite nice, warm Guinness is puke inducing.

Tiredness and a hangover made me see this as puke dancing

Casillas · 19-03-2012 1:52pm

mattjack wrote: »

Tiredness and a hangover made me see this as puke dancing

It does that too

antodeco · 19-03-2012 1:56pm

I've been finding a lot of Guinness lately that's either very 'wet' or quite metallic tasting. I look around the bar first before ordering a pint. See how many are pulled, and how many are sticking to the glasses. I actually think I prefer the cans of Guinness at the moment.

I do enjoy Paulaner. Fantastic beer, but you will have the worst hangover for about a week after a night of a few.

Tuborg is an internal cleanser. Think of the after affects of Guinness and Bulmers Pear. Horrid horrid hole for days, but a cheap colonic.

Joko · 19-03-2012 2:00pm

gbee wrote: »

Pouring the Guinness is the key

The 2 part pour is marketing bull****. The next time your drinking with friends, take a blind taste test of a single pour and a 2 parter. You will notice no difference.

antodeco · 19-03-2012 2:07pm

Ever have the bright yellow label bottles? The foreign extra? THAT is perfect Guinness.
The original recipe. I've drank that for a week, then had a pint of Guinness. Zero taste off the pint. Imagine drinking espresso all the time, then have a latte. Seriously, if you've never had one of those bottles, drink one. Straight from the bottle.

Mr.Biscuits · 19-03-2012 2:13pm

Joko wrote: »

The 2 part pour is marketing bull****. The next time your drinking with friends, take a blind taste test of a single pour and a 2 parter. You will notice no difference.

There used to be a massive head on Guinness in the old days, so a single pour was impossible.

A single pour today would mean less Guinness also, just not to the same degree.

Guinness tastes like swill: Discuss

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