Irelands Finest Pint

mike golf

I am on a mission. I am beginning a tour of Ireland this week in search of Irelands finest pint of plain. This tour will take me to every corner of the country - including offshore islands and will be conducted over a 4 week period.
Basically what I need from you is some ideas on a grading system for this project.

I need a simple yet comprehensive system that will incorporate all the aspects of a good pint.
I'd like to run by an example of what i need - its called the PATTS marking method

P - price
A - appearance
T - temperature
T - taste
S - service

Each area would be marked out of 4 ( total then of 20)

Thanks for your time - all feedback will be greatly appreciated

Mike Golf

Also if anyone has any contact in diageo could you please send it on - cheers

BeerNut

mike golf wrote: »

Also if anyone has any contact in diageo could you please send it on - cheers

The last people I'd go to for a decent pint of anything.

You've just missed two rounds of cask stout in the Bull & Castle in Dublin (it's O'Hara's Red from this evening), but it might be worth checking in later in the week to see what's on.

In the meantime, Wrasslers XXXX from the Porterhouse and Plain by Messrs Maguire are probably your best options in Ireland, stoutwise.

Though if you encounter any of Whitewater's new stout, Belfast Black, up the North, do let us know how it goes.

Spiritoftheseventies

mike golf wrote: »

I am on a mission. I am beginning a tour of Ireland this week in search of Irelands finest pint of plain. This tour will take me to every corner of the country - including offshore islands and will be conducted over a 4 week period.
Basically what I need from you is some ideas on a grading system for this project.

I need a simple yet comprehensive system that will incorporate all the aspects of a good pint.
I'd like to run by an example of what i need - its called the PATTS marking method

P - price
A - appearance
T - temperature
T - taste
S - service

Each area would be marked out of 4 ( total then of 20)

Thanks for your time - all feedback will be greatly appreciated

Mike Golf

Also if anyone has any contact in diageo could you please send it on - cheers

dude look further afield. Had the export Guinness in a pub in Agadir in Morocco. best pint i ever tasted.

cavedave

Can you get the Carlow stouts on draught anywhere? They are very nice.

Spiritoftheseventies

cavedave wrote: »

Can you get the Carlow stouts on draught anywhere? They are very nice.

O hara's stout very nice. had it awhile back. only it bottled form as far as i know

BeerNut

bayviewclose wrote: »

only it bottled form as far as i know

Several pubs have it on draught (listed among this lot), but the bottled version is better IMO.

Ponster

Does service really count when all you're looking for is the best pint as opposed to the best pub ?

Spiritoftheseventies

Ponster wrote: »

Does service really count when all you're looking for is the best pint as opposed to the best pub ?

thats tricky. A good pint takes a while to settle. do you call good service getting your pint quickly after your ordered?

Ponster

bayviewclose wrote: »

thats tricky. A good pint takes a while to settle. do you call good service getting your pint quickly after your ordered?

I see what you mean. I guess good service (related to the perfect pint) would relate to the amount of settling time allowed as most other 'service' points would be covered by "appearance".

I think that I'll need to travel with the OP on this adventure to make sure that the ranking system is finely tuned

BeerNut

Ponster wrote: »

I guess good service (related to the perfect pint) would relate to the amount of settling time allowed as most other 'service' points would be covered by "appearance".

The Diageo-sanctioned settling time is 119.5 seconds, so technically you'd need a stopwatch and to deduct points for any pints which take less or more than this.

Carawaystick

BeerNut wrote: »

The Diageo-sanctioned settling time is 119.5 seconds, so technically you'd need a stopwatch and to deduct points for any pints which take less or more than this.

Only for Guinness though, what do the Heineken stouts take....

how do you rank temperature, too cold or too warm would ruin a pint...
you'ld probably need to give more ranking points to taste, that's what really sorts the issue out for me anyway.

BeerNut

Carawaystick wrote: »

what do the Heineken stouts take....

Flavour, aroma, and usually between four and five of your euro, if you're daft enough to part with same. Just like Guinness, in fact.

Carawaystick wrote: »

how do you rank temperature, too cold or too warm would ruin a pint...

I'm fairly sure there's a Diageo-sanctioned value for that too. Stop one of the quality-control vans and ask them.

The search for the perfect pint of mass-produced stout is tantamount to the search for the perfect Big Mac. Except Big Macs are actually assembled by humans.

Carawaystick

BeerNut wrote: »

Flavour, aroma, and usually between four and five of your euro, if you're daft enough to part with same. Just like Guinness, in fact.

I'd say you'ld get Beamish for well less than 4 in many bars.

I don't care what brewers sanction as their temperature, I'm just querying how you'ld rank temperature on a 0-4 scale when it can be bad 2 different ways....

kenmc

Carawaystick wrote: »

you'ld probably need to give more ranking points to taste, that's what really sorts the issue out for me anyway.

But taste is very much determined by serving temperature, since most of the "taste" is actually detetected by the olefactory glands - try tasting something with a noseclip on and you will struggle to determine much other than sweet/salt/bitter/sour.

BeerNut

Good news, OP: Carlow's multi-award winning Druid's Brew Velvet Stout, on cask, will be on sale at the Bull & Castle from this evening and for the next couple of days. This really is Ireland's Finest Pint.

Gautama

You may have set a hard and sober task for yourself. A pint of plain is a thing of the past.

To the best of my knowledge, a "pint of plain" refers to a pint of bottled porter.

Not a pint of stout, nor a pint of Guinness, as many people think, or like to think.
It's a pint of porter from a bottle, black and no head.

As someone that normally drinks Guinness during the winter months, I don't think I've ever had a "pint of plain".

Let us know how you get on...

BeerNut

Gautama wrote: »

To the best of my knowledge, a "pint of plain" refers to a pint of bottled porter.

It does refer to Guinness Porter, which was discontinued around 1970. Not sure it was necessarily bottled though. While draught beer would have been rare in most of the country, the poem was written by a Dublin resident.

Gautama wrote: »

I don't think I've ever had a "pint of plain"

Both The Porterhouse and Messrs Maguire make a beer called Plain, so you can still get in on a technicality.

Gautama

BeerNut wrote: »

It does refer to Guinness Porter, which was discontinued around 1970.

What's the difference between Porter and Stout anyway?

BeerNut

Gautama wrote: »

What's the difference between Porter and Stout anyway?

Short answer: there isn't one.

Traditionally, stout was just a strong version of porter. The product we know today as "Guinness" is descended from "Guinness Extra Stout Porter".

When World War I ravaged the brewing industry, stouts started being brewed to the same strength as porters -- 4-5% ABV. The distinction stopped meaning anything then. Modern brewers use the terms interchangeably, though the style-fixated Americans have retro-engineered a difference because they feel one should exist.

There's a good article about it here.