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.

Guinness tastes like swill: Discuss

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