What the hell is wrong with Guinness drinkers?

I used a bit like that myself when it came to stout.

Barely touch Guinness nowadays.

Give me Dark Arts, and if not available, O'Hara's.

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

I have a friend who is similar. Happy to try different wine varieties, but when it comes to stout, it has got to be Guinness. The main issue seems to be that it's not Guinness (Krusty_Clown in shocker revelation!). Specifically, it does not look or taste like Guinness. The product is not evaluated on its own merits, but instead evaluated on it's similarity (or difference) to the standard product. My kids are the same. I buy fruit and vegetables in LIDL. Occasionally, I'll buy cereal in LIDL, e.g. Cornflakes. The kids won't eat them. It's a perfectly good product, but doesn't taste exactly like the Kellogg's equivalent. Plus they get soggy quicker.

Pretty good analogy except that in a lot of cases (Dark Arts, O'Hara's etc) the alternatives to Guinness taste better, LIDL Cornflakes main selling point afaik is that they are cheaper not better tasting.

Howjoe1 wrote: »

never heard of dark arts:o


is it generally available on draught?

http://www.troublebrewing.ie/index.php?page=Where

Not too widely available, but worth hunting down.

the beer revolu wrote: »

Was in The Abbot's, Cork, last night.
There was a guy down from Dublin on a job in my company.
He was a "Guinness man".
When told there was no Guinness he had a reaction that surprised me.
Rather than even taste any stout/porter alternatives, he straight away went for a weissbier. Wouldn't even try another black beer!
We did make him taste Dark Arts but his mind was made up long before it passed his lips - he was never going to drink it.
The power of marketing and brand loyalty never ceases to amaze me!

I love Guinness, but I do like to frequent the Porterhouse and sample their oyster stout, a lot smoother.

I get frustrated too. I remember seeing some tourist come in to the Porterhouse looking for a pint of Guinness which they don't sell. When they explained that they do their own stouts, the man wouldn't have any of it. Apparently he wanted something Irish and only Guinness was Irish enough for him

Oyster, Plain, Wrasslers and Dark Arts are great

Reminds me of a Bierhaus Dublin story.

Fella goes to the bar and meets a bad barman(not helpful)

Pint of Guinness Please
Don't have Guinness
Pint of Heinken then
Don't have that either
Pint of Bulmers then
Don't have that either

So he left.

Now he went from Stout to Beer to Cider because he was Brand orientated not because he was sticking to the choice of beverage type. The barman to be fair should have said "We don't have Guinness but we do have XX" to be fair but then again the point is there are loads of people out there who know nothing more than just the mainstream brands so it's not their fault either. They are just poorly educated in what is out there and what is good or better quality.

I was having a guy do some tiling in my house this week and I said who I was working for and what I sold and he said "oh that muck?" which in itself was quite rude of him and my silent reaction told him all he needed to know. He said he was a Bud man true and true and would leave a bar if they didn't have it or ran out.

the beer revolu wrote: »

The power of marketing and brand loyalty never ceases to amaze me!

I can think of no other product where the same weird irrational thing goes on. Bulmers would come close, but it is very different from most other ciders (maybe not the new stella one). So if a bar had no bulmers I could see somebody not wanting strongbow, if they had tasted it before, or if they recognise it is likely to be very different.

I would wager there are a quite a few people who would call themselves guinness drinkers who have never tried any other stout, ever, or maybe just 1 or 2 others max. While I would expect a dedicated heineken or bud drinker to have tasted many other lagers and be quite open to tasting a new one.

I remember ordering a beamish in a round with mates, one a guinness drinker, and you would swear I asked the barman to piss in the glass with the look he gave me, and gave a genuinely astonished "why would you get that!?!".

I have said before I reckon if beamish was the same price it would be more popular, it has a stigma about it being "cheap", like "how is it that cheap, something must be wrong with it" -while really they should question why guinness is so relatively expensive.

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

So his preference number 1 is Guinness, no 2 weissbier.

Correct, and I think it is odd & irrational, I am not really criticizing it, just puzzled by his thought process, and wonder if people like this apply it in other foods & drinks. Like if they wanted ketchup on a burger but there was no heinz would they jump straight to mustard, rather than even sample another ketchup they have never had before. Or if he fancied a mars bar and there were none would he go for crisps rather than chance another bar he never had before.

People have done blind tastes here and there was no huge difference seen between guinness and many other stouts.

_blank_ wrote: »

I've been in The Brew Dock and watch customers walk out having come in looking for Guinness.

The only thing they have on tap in there even remotely resembling guinness is Dark Arts, I think, and it's not served nitro like on O'Neill's.

Being beside the country's biggest bus station, the IFSC, a busy train station, and the end of the Luas Line, I think they could at least consider sticking something like O'Hara's Stout on tap in there.

The first time I witnessed this, the barman simply told a customer who asked for Guinness that they had none, I was there with my wife, and there was one other person having a drink. They lost an increase of 33% Business.

Nice to be able to turn that away.

Their middle finger to the Evil Empire gets my vote. Ireland's changing, people are realizing that there are a number of home produced delicious alternatives to industrial produced blandness, why should every bar have to stock Diageo products? By that reckoning the IFI should show Battleships and the Times should have X Factor as its headline story because thats what the masses want. There is an increasing market for people sick of the same restricted choice.