What exactly causes a "bad pint"?

dylbert

What causes a bad pint? The mass produced piss that's in the glass :P

minidazzler

dylbert wrote: »

What causes a bad pint? The mass produced piss that's in the glass :P

1. Mass produced does not necessarily mean bad.

2. You know full well the question is what causes a bad pint of something when compared to the same product in a different place. Bad by it's own standard, not the subjective standard.

3. You CAN get bad pints of Craft Beers too. Even among good craft beers.

dylbert

minidazzler wrote: »

1. Mass produced does not necessarily mean bad.

2. You know full well the question is what causes a bad pint of something when compared to the same product in a different place. Bad by it's own standard, not the subjective standard.

3. You CAN get bad pints of Craft Beers too. Even among good craft beers.

I know all this, it was meant as tongue in cheek, maybe I didn't use enough of these :P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

ronoc101

I've heard it suggested that pubs which serve food rarely have good Guinness. Its to do with the transfer of grease/fat/oils from the food to the glasses over time which normal washing doesn't remove.

Detergent residue on the glass is the main culprit for me. If after handing over close to €5 I get a beer with lots of tiny bubbles stuck to the inside of the glass generally it gets returned.

If you get a bad pint, for the love of god return it !

bombidol

The myth of the bad pint is an odd one. most people blame the "bad pint" instead of the feed of gargle and kebabs they forced into their body. But in terms of quality, the length of the line and the gas. Some places have lager gas hooked up the stout line, which can effect the pint. Cold room doesnt make a huge difference as all the beer gets pushed through a "coffin" or beer cooler. Cold room is basically for keeping the beer fresh for longer, but in a busy pub it wont make a difference. Cleaning the glasses with detergent can mess with the taste also.

Seaneh

bombidol wrote: »

Some places have lager gas hooked up the stout line

No they don't.

Nonoperational

minidazzler wrote: »

There are a load of factors, but the main ones in my head would be;

Larger pubs cleaning their lines too often. Old man pubs don't have their beer lines cleaned every month, unlike larger pubs.

The length of the lines, they can go past 50 meters in some places! while technically it's not "supposed" to make a difference, the first few pints of each day has been sitting in plastic lines for who knows how long rather than in a metal keg.

The quality of the beer in the barrel. I have no basis for believing this, but I think some pubs might get "better" stout than others. Places known for their stout being good seem to always have good stout, so I think the brewery could have 2 batches, one made with a lot more care to taste better, and one to be slung out.... no basis at all for believing it, but it wouldn't surprise me :pac:


Overall though, I don't think anyone can tell you with certainty. The worst pint of Guinness I ever had was in the Storehouse, but I'm a Beamish drinker, so all Guinness is muck to me :pac:

Am, no. I can guarantee you this is not the case.

minidazzler

Seaneh wrote: »

No they don't.

I'm not sure if it's normal, but in the night club I work in, we go through the 100 bar tanks of Stout 25Mix gas at a rate of about 4 bottles to 1 bottle of the regular gas.... I've no idea what's the story with how and why, but since we sell maybe 3 (baby) kegs of stout in 4 weeks, the Stout Mix isn't being used for just stout...

I'll point out though, our pints taste pretty good.

Seaneh

minidazzler wrote: »

I'm not sure if it's normal, but in the night club I work in, we go through the 100 bar tanks of Stout 25Mix gas at a rate of about 4 bottles to 1 bottle of the regular gas.... I've no idea what's the story with how and why, but since we sell maybe 3 (baby) kegs of stout in 4 weeks, the Stout Mix isn't being used for just stout...

I'll point out though, our pints taste pretty good.

That's fine, that would be people using nitrogen in lagers, which although weird wouldn't really change the look or taste of a larger.

But if someone was using Co2 in guinness, it would be fairly obvious. The pint would take weeks to settle and would have a massive head. The kegs are compressed with nitrogen, if you added co2 to the mix, it would be massively change the way the liquid reacts on pouring.

minidazzler

Seaneh wrote: »

That's fine, that would be people using nitrogen in lagers, which although weird wouldn't really change the look or taste of a larger.

But if someone was using Co2 in guinness, it would be fairly obvious. The pint would take weeks to settle and would have a massive head. The kegs are compressed with nitrogen, if you added co2 to the mix, it would be massively change the way the liquid reacts on pouring.

Nice one Learn something new every day

ronan45

I worked in a pub and the dishwasher recirculated the water for every wash, we would clean it out at the end of the night. The thing would be ROTTEN inside water like sludge and stank. The water is quite hot so the glasses look clean but can stink a bit. Also as said before I would usually avoid guinness in a pub if you arrive for first orders as that liquid has been sitting in a few meters of line over night! Allthough most decent barmen would pour off a pint or two as slops to avoid this but some tight bar men would try to serve it:D

irish_goat

ronan45 wrote: »

I worked in a pub and the dishwasher recirculated the water for every wash, we would clean it out at the end of the night. The thing would be ROTTEN inside water like sludge and stank. The water is quite hot so the glasses look clean but can stink a bit.

This is how all modern glasswashers work. It takes about 20-30 mins to empty the glasswasher and then let it refill and heat up. You can't afford to do that on a busy night.

Aside from that the glasses all get rinsed with rinse aid after the wash cycle anyway, although the water should not be coming out "like sludge". That doesn't sound right.

minidazzler

ronan45 wrote: »

I worked in a pub and the dishwasher recirculated the water for every wash, we would clean it out at the end of the night. The thing would be ROTTEN inside water like sludge and stank. The water is quite hot so the glasses look clean but can stink a bit. Also as said before I would usually avoid guinness in a pub if you arrive for first orders as that liquid has been sitting in a few meters of line over night! Allthough most decent barmen would pour off a pint or two as slops to avoid this but some tight bar men would try to serve it:D

A pint or two from every keg every day? That could be 30 pints a day in just the bar I work in.

There's a bit of a saying in the bar trade. A bad barman gets 86 pints from a keg, a good bar man gets 88 pints and a great barman gets 90. No bartender in their right mind would pour a pint out as waste just because it's start of shift. You'll test the taps maybe 50 ml, but a pint would be taking the piss.

Big Nasty

irish_goat wrote: »

This is how all modern glasswashers work. It takes about 20-30 mins to empty the glasswasher and then let it refill and heat up. You can't afford to do that on a busy night.

Aside from that the glasses all get rinsed with rinse aid after the wash cycle anyway, although the water should not be coming out "like sludge". That doesn't sound right.

It's how most old glasswashers work. Most modern ones empty 1/3 of the tank each cycle meaning (theoretically) that the water is changed every three cycles.

wandatowell

High price point

Degag

minidazzler wrote: »

A pint or two from every keg every day? That could be 30 pints a day in just the bar I work in.

There's a bit of a saying in the bar trade. A bad barman gets 86 pints from a keg, a good bar man gets 88 pints and a great barman gets 90. No bartender in their right mind would pour a pint out as waste just because it's start of shift. You'll test the taps maybe 50 ml, but a pint would be taking the piss.

There's only 88 in a keg though;)

ronan45

minidazzler wrote: »

A pint or two from every keg every day? That could be 30 pints a day in just the bar I work in.

There's a bit of a saying in the bar trade. A bad barman gets 86 pints from a keg, a good bar man gets 88 pints and a great barman gets 90. No bartender in their right mind would pour a pint out as waste just because it's start of shift. You'll test the taps maybe 50 ml, but a pint would be taking the piss.

I was reffering to Guinness As said in my post... not every tap... And I didnt mean just pour Guinness out for the crack, normally in my experience the first at least pint would be pure cream coming from the tap. Now Point to note I was working in a "SUPERPUB" second floor so the jungle juice had a huge distance to go. I think the line held about 18 liters!

Seaneh

When I worked in a bar we'd just roll the first 50ml off the tap before we stuck the glass under for the first pint of guinness for the day, otherwise as said, the head comes really high.

That said, if I saw some eejit throwing a pint down the sink in the morning I'd kick him up the hole and tell him to pay for the pint. The stock take would be all over the place.

Seaneh

ronan45 wrote: »

I think the line held about 18 liters!

that's a long ****ing line.

I think the longest line I've ever worked with in a bar was about 4 pints, ha.

CreepingDeath

I used to work in a South Dublin pub during my college days, 20 years ago.

For Guinness we had a "slop" tap.
At the end of every night all the slop trays underneath the beer taps were emptied into a bucket, a funnel was put on a designated keg and the bucket poured into it... everything from heineken, carlsburg, bulmers, smithwicks, guinness... all into the one keg.

That keg was tapped and went to a special slop tap.
So we had 2 taps of Guinness in the lounge.
The one on the right was pure Guinness, and we done the initial 3/4 pour of the pint from that.
Then when topping up the last 1/4 after the Guinness had settled, we used the slop tap.

That's my definition of a bad pint !

Now that was 16 years ago... I'm certainly not naming pubs, couldn't tell you if the practice continues, or in other forms, but that's the dark shady side of some older pub practices.

BeerNut

CreepingDeath wrote: »

a funnel was put on a designated keg and the bucket poured into it

You'd need a bit more than a funnel to get beer back into a keg.

CreepingDeath

BeerNut wrote: »

You'd need a bit more than a funnel to get beer back into a keg.

Nope, a simple plastic funnel.
Press down on the keg mouth and it'll vent out any residual gas. ( A little messy sometimes )
After that, it's open to simply pour anything into it.

minidazzler

Degag wrote: »

There's only 88 in a keg though;)

Hence the saying :pac:

dan1895

Never mind slop taps, what's the deal with pouring a pint from two different taps? Just wrong imo

rubadub

CreepingDeath wrote: »

Nope, a simple plastic funnel.

I bet the magic funnel was kept alongside the magic watering down syringe I've also heard about.

CreepingDeath

rubadub wrote: »

I bet the magic funnel was kept alongside the magic watering down syringe I've also heard about.

By "magic" are you making some insinuation that I'm not telling the truth?

endacl

I'm not convinced there are any bad pints any more. I must say, over the last 15 years or so, quality is way up. Maybe what people taste as a 'bad pint' is just an 'average pint'?

My serious answer: Kebabs cause bad pints. I've never had a bad pint where there wasn't a kebab involved.

Losty Dublin

CreepingDeath wrote: »

I used to work in a South Dublin pub during my college days, 20 years ago.

For Guinness we had a "slop" tap.
At the end of every night all the slop trays underneath the beer taps were emptied into a bucket, a funnel was put on a designated keg and the bucket poured into it... everything from heineken, carlsburg, bulmers, smithwicks, guinness... all into the one keg.

That keg was tapped and went to a special slop tap.
So we had 2 taps of Guinness in the lounge.
The one on the right was pure Guinness, and we done the initial 3/4 pour of the pint from that.
Then when topping up the last 1/4 after the Guinness had settled, we used the slop tap.

That's my definition of a bad pint !

Now that was 16 years ago... I'm certainly not naming pubs, couldn't tell you if the practice continues, or in other forms, but that's the dark shady side of some older pub practices.

I recall hearing about this in the Star years and years ago. A barman friend explained that it was possible to do, if extremely messy. Lord knows why you'd actually want to do it given the trouble and risks involved (It would save very little money all told unless you did it to several kegs at the one time) but now't stranger than folk.

CreepingDeath

Losty Dublin wrote: »

I recall hearing about this in the Star years and years ago. A barman friend explained that it was possible to do, if extremely messy. Lord knows why you'd actually want to do it given the trouble and risks involved (It would save very little money all told unless you did it to several kegs at the one time) but now't stranger than folk.

Well you'd be minimising waste, and probably saving a couple of kegs of Guinness a month.
But that was 2 decades ago with an old manager.
I worked there for many years during college and it occurred every night.

Used to be awful when the slops built up to more than one keg and we'd be told to use it more.

Although with pubs going out of business these days, it wouldn't surprise me if similar tactics weren't used today in some struggling pubs.

Also it's easier to give a bad pint / cheaper brand to people when they're drunk.