Guinness is a good drop.

Ishmael · 19-03-2019 2:01pm

If the options are the standard Heineken, Carlsberg, Budweiser etc.... I'll happily drink Guinness. Guinness itself is OK for a few pints, It's fairly bland though. Will usually switch to spirits or something else after 2-3 or three though to avoid the repercussions.

Also, I really wish that bars would do away with the two part pour nonsense. Having to dawdle at the bar for no reason actually puts me off buying a pint of Guinness in the first place.

19-03-2019 2:08pm

Ishmael wrote: »

If the options are the standard Heineken, Carlsberg, Budweiser etc.... I'll happily drink Guinness. Guinness itself is OK for a few pints, It's fairly bland though. Will usually switch to spirits or something else after 2-3 or three though to avoid the repercussions.

Also, I really wish that bars would do away with the two part pour nonsense. Having to dawdle at the bar for no reason actually puts me off buying a pint of Guinness in the first place.

That’s a pretty decent effort at trolling right there.

Well done. Now off you go with your ‘glass’ and the drop of blackcurrant.

Edit: They should give a fella who wants a single pour pint of Guinness exactly what he wants. It’s just what they deserve.

Patrick2010 · 19-03-2019 2:13pm

Insect Overlord wrote: »

They had a smoked chili porter out called Heat Sink. Tesco might still have cans of it.

I quite liked that but it obviously wasn't a good seller. Started off at 2.99 a can but eventually my local Tesco sold them off at 30 cent a can.

Church on Tuesday · 19-03-2019 2:16pm

Hector Savage wrote: »

Exactly, need to get a good pint of Guinness, a lot of people are judging it in places where the pint is not great.

Last time I was home in Ireland I had a couple of lunchtime pints in Ryans on Parkgate street - with a few packet of King crisps.

Heaven.

Literal Heaven.

This.

For me, as a general rule, the best pints of Guinness are to be found in 'old man' type pubs.

Gastro pub or late bar type place, not so much.

There is nothing worse than a bad pint of Guinness, it's undrinkable if not perfect.

OldMrBrennan83 · 19-03-2019 2:19pm

Hotels are usually the worst of the lot.

Church on Tuesday · 19-03-2019 2:20pm

OldMrBrennan83 wrote: »

Hotels are usually the worst of the lot.

Forgot them too, have to agree

Mike Oxlong · 19-03-2019 2:23pm

Insect Overlord wrote: »

They had a smoked chili porter out called Heat Sink. Tesco might still have cans of it.

Had a few cans from SuperValu....it was ok... without spending too much money, I think Leann Folláin is a great stout.... but DKML from Founders is different gravy (not Irish I know) but worth spending a few quid on

inforfun · 19-03-2019 2:45pm

My very first pint of Guinness was shortly after i arrived here in Ireland.
It was in the Guinness factory. I did like that one but i never had one in a pub that came close to it till the point that i thought i was actually trying to drink brown bread.
I dont like brown bread.

Ipso · 19-03-2019 2:49pm

JayZeus wrote: »

That’s a pretty decent effort at trolling right there.

Well done. Now off you go with your ‘glass’ and the drop of blackcurrant.

Edit: They should give a fella who wants a single pour pint of Guinness exactly what he wants. It’s just what they deserve.

Would there be something wrong with single pour Guinness, does the magic not work?

EmmetSpiceland · 19-03-2019 2:54pm

Ipso wrote: »

Would there be something wrong with single pour Guinness, does the magic not work?

It’s akin to claiming to taste the difference between a shaken or stirred martini.

OldMrBrennan83 · 19-03-2019 2:56pm

Single pour leaves you with a 2 inch head or a messy glass.

Knex* · 19-03-2019 2:58pm

Ipso wrote: »

Would there be something wrong with single pour Guinness, does the magic not work?

The double pour is a marketing ploy from Guinness. Makes absolutely zero difference to the pint, regardless of what people will claim.

Church on Tuesday · 19-03-2019 3:22pm

Knex. wrote: »

The double pour is a marketing ploy from Guinness. Makes absolutely zero difference to the pint, regardless of what people will claim.

Believe me, it makes all the difference.

dan1895 · 19-03-2019 3:25pm

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

That West Indies porter was a lovely drop

As is the Dublin Porter, Guinness Foreign Extra and stuff you can get in Africa. All nice flavoursome stouts.

irish_goat · 19-03-2019 3:31pm

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

Believe me, it makes all the difference.

[citation needed]

19-03-2019 3:41pm

Knex. wrote: »

The double pour is a marketing ploy from Guinness. Makes absolutely zero difference to the pint, regardless of what people will claim.

The only people who say that are people who don't drink Guinness often enough to have encountered a muck pint. If they do, they benefit from the double pour while remaining totally ignorant of the purpose anyway.

The double pour helps with delivering a consistent pint to the person who wants their Guinness to be the same, no matter where they drink it. Same head size, same flavour/taste as regards not going stale quicker in one place than the other etc.

It's the same reason for insisting all the kit used to deliver it from the keg and ideally right down to the supply of tulip or nonic pint glasses. It's all about consistency. I've had savage pints in Skerries and Singapore and some pure crap in between when the locals think it's just 'beer'. It's not just beer. Uncivilised apes.

And if you think it doesn't matter, just try drinking guinness that's not chilled properly and then slopped into a tankard in a single pour somewhere in the south of Europe for example. If you still can't tell the difference, you might as well drink cold bovril instead of a pint of stout.

It's not some magical potion. It's a pint, but it should be a good pint, always. It matters, and if it doesn't matter to you, you're not the fella anyone's concerned about in the first place. Consistently good pints. That's the most important thing where Guinness is concerned.

Lovely, lovely Guinness.

ben.schlomo · 19-03-2019 3:52pm

Benjamin Vast Apostrophe wrote: »

dan1895 wrote: »

But Guinness is one of the worst stouts out there. Murphy's, Beamish, O'Hara's, all the Porterhouse stouts and even Super Bock Stout are all superior.

Guinesss is by far and away the nicest stout, porterhouse plain is a nice enough stout also but not as nice as Guinness. Beamish is ok, you could drink one or two but you get tired of it then and Murphys is undrinkable muck.

You keep telling yourself that.

https://www.ratebeer.com/beerstyles/stout/6/

19-03-2019 4:18pm

ben.schlomo wrote: »

You keep telling yourself that.

https://www.ratebeer.com/beerstyles/stout/6/

Yeah, well done. You find some random internet site containing a ranking for ALL stouts GLOBALLY and completely miss the point that Nox is talking (clearly, obviously, you'd want to be blind to miss it) about Irish stout. You know, the stuff most Irish people think about when someone says a 'pint of stout'.

Just looking at that list makes me think that the people who 'rate' stouts on that site are probably **** anyway. Your average pint drinker isn't going to even consider the pints of wankerish-hipster-brew that are listed.

Ipso · 19-03-2019 4:26pm

JayZeus wrote: »

The only people who say that are people who don't drink Guinness often enough to have encountered a muck pint. If they do, they benefit from the double pour while remaining totally ignorant of the purpose anyway.

The double pour helps with delivering a consistent pint to the person who wants their Guinness to be the same, no matter where they drink it. Same head size, same flavour/taste as regards not going stale quicker in one place than the other etc.

It's the same reason for insisting all the kit used to deliver it from the keg and ideally right down to the supply of tulip or nonic pint glasses. It's all about consistency. I've had savage pints in Skerries and Singapore and some pure crap in between when the locals think it's just 'beer'. It's not just beer. Uncivilised apes.

And if you think it doesn't matter, just try drinking guinness that's not chilled properly and then slopped into a tankard in a single pour somewhere in the south of Europe for example. If you still can't tell the difference, you might as well drink cold bovril instead of a pint of stout.

It's not some magical potion. It's a pint, but it should be a good pint, always. It matters, and if it doesn't matter to you, you're not the fella anyone's concerned about in the first place. Consistently good pints. That's the most important thing where Guinness is concerned.

Lovely, lovely Guinness.

What makes the two pour pintdifferent, apart from the nice notrogen effect and the expectation that you have to wait implies something superior.

19-03-2019 4:32pm

Ipso wrote: »

What makes the two pour pintdifferent, apart from the nice notrogen effect and the expectation that you have to wait implies something superior.

Superior to what? Something that's poured in a single movement?

If you honestly think that people who typically drink Guinness are affected by such notions, I don't know what anyone here could say to change your mind.

Guinness is like bread and butter. Nobody thinks it's like a Vol-au-vent or a Croissant. It's about as straightforward as it gets. 'A pint' means, for the most part, a Guinness. Or a Murphys or a Beamish or whatnot.

Traditional Irish stout has sweet **** all pretension about it. It's only when fellas who think chilli coffee stout or caramel fandango stout are comparable that any of that bolloxology comes up as regards a pint of Guinness.

As Forest's mother used to tell him, you can't fix stupid.

JohnnyFlash · 19-03-2019 6:22pm

I think it’s very easy to enjoy Guinness at times, and at times some fancy stout crafted in a former dog kennel by a heavily bearded guy called Conall using recycled rain water and 19 types of hops.

Depends on the mood. That O’Hara’s Leann Follin is perhaps the nicest stout I’ve ever tasted, but I’m not going to sink 12 of them after a day in Croke Park.

dan1895 · 19-03-2019 6:56pm

JayZeus wrote: »

Guinness is like bread and butter. Nobody thinks it's like a Vol-au-vent or a Croissant. It's about as straightforward as it gets.

So you admit it's as bland as f*ck?

Force Carrier · 19-03-2019 7:22pm

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

It’s akin to claiming to taste the difference between a shaken or stirred martini.

In either case it should taste like martini.

Franz Von Peppercorn · 19-03-2019 7:27pm

dan1895 wrote: »

So you admit it's as bland as f*ck?

Bland is grand.

Ipso · 19-03-2019 7:29pm

dan1895 wrote: »

So you admit it's as bland as f*ck?

Bit it is easy drinking and not as heavy as many think, the nitrogen dulls the flavout in the draught version but the old style bottles are nicer.

EmmetSpiceland · 19-03-2019 7:36pm

Force Carrier wrote: »

In either case it should taste like martini.

Which it does but some connoisseurs out there believe that something happens to the drink, like pounding a steak but this is of course nonsense.

Same with the two pint pour. Any skilled barman can pull a perfect pint in one go. The bad rap comes from unskilled barmen, mainly in the UK, pulling the pint like it’s some cheap cider.

rob316 · 19-03-2019 7:40pm

Heineken is absolute piss OP.

Stout is a proper drink, I'm a Beamish man but Guinness is a fine pint of plain.

You can sing to a good pint of plain, write a poem about it, stare lovingly at it.

I will agree though it can kill me when it exits. But lager makes me bloated and gassy and cider does evil things to me.

rob316 · 19-03-2019 7:42pm

The one major disadvantage to drinking stout though is the awful inconsistency from pub to pub. It could be mother's milk or dishwater.

19-03-2019 7:53pm

dan1895 wrote: »

So you admit it's as bland as f*ck?

Admit? Do you think you’re Perry Mason or something?

It’s as plain as vanilla ice cream, a home baked brown soda bread, a fresh pot of tea with an extra bag, new boiled potatoes with salt and butter or a toasted cheese sandwich.

I like it. Couldn’t give two sticky black sheites what you think of it, one way or the other.

Titzon Toast · 19-03-2019 8:12pm

I've never had a pint of Guinness if I'm honest. I'm 40 later this year, I'll try to get one in before then.

Technocentral · 19-03-2019 8:16pm

One of a dozen or so stouts available in Ireland and not the best, that would be Porterhouse Wrasslers imo.

Sam Quentin · 19-03-2019 8:17pm

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Love the stuff, and would put away 8-10 barrels of it a year. Could never understand this idea that it’s heavy and hard to drink - it’s far easier sink a dozen pints of Guinness than it is lager. The main side effect the next day are the frankly horrific farts - the type that hang around and almost burn the hair in your nostrils.

Surely that's a good enough reason to cut down on the barrells per year!?

JohnnyFlash · 19-03-2019 8:18pm

Technocentral wrote: »

One of a dozen or so stouts available in Ireland and not the best, that would be Porterhouse Wrasslers imo.

Shame about the pubs though. More atmosphere in an English funeral home. It’s a problem with a load of those craft beer pubs. A few auld board games with pieces missing doesn’t change the fact that they are shîte.

dan1895 · 19-03-2019 8:22pm

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Shame about the pubs though. More atmosphere in an English funeral home. It’s a problem with a load of those craft beer pubs. A few auld board games with pieces missing doesn’t change the fact that they are shîte.

Why do different things scare you? You sound so insecure. Poor thing.

OldMrBrennan83 · 19-03-2019 8:25pm

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Shame about the pubs though. More atmosphere in an English funeral home. It’s a problem with a load of those craft beer pubs. A few auld board games with pieces missing doesn’t change the fact that they are shîte.

As nice as a lot of the small brewery beers are, the whole "scene" and the people who are mad into it are nauseating. There's no smugger bunch out there.

19-03-2019 8:29pm

dan1895 wrote: »

Why do different things scare you? You sound so insecure. Poor thing.

We can’t all be as special as yourself now Dan. Blazing a trail to the latest micro-brewery-flogging-bile-in-a-barrel-with-a-catchy-name to fellas who are past the long oiled beard and phase, but still actively trying to fill a void in their ****ty lives with some false sense of adventure.

But go on, have at it. Nobody on the internet really cares what pish in a glass you consume, or how adventurous and modern it makes you feel.

Mine’s a pint of plain and it’s your round.

JohnnyFlash · 19-03-2019 8:30pm

dan1895 wrote: »

Why do different things scare you? You sound so insecure. Poor thing.

What are you on about, pal? I’m a big fan of trying new beers. I’d rather do that in a good pub though, than one of those craft beer wankpits like those Galway Bay Brewery lads try to festoon on people. Like a Wetherspoons with notions.

Need a pub with a good selection of macro and preferably local beers, no TV unless there’s a match on, bit of music, load of birds with big knockers hanging around looking for a chat. Proper night in the pub.

Truckermal · 19-03-2019 8:38pm

My own local has savage porter and I mean it's pure cream and drinking the lot in 3 whips is no bother plus even after a Gallon you are perfect the next morning.

I went to a different pub one night and knowing the porter was muck I had a few pints of Budweiser and was absolutely fcuked the next day.

ben.schlomo · 19-03-2019 8:38pm

JayZeus wrote: »

ben.schlomo wrote: »

You keep telling yourself that.

https://www.ratebeer.com/beerstyles/stout/6/

Yeah, well done. You find some random internet site containing a ranking for ALL stouts GLOBALLY and completely miss the point that Nox is talking (clearly, obviously, you'd want to be blind to miss it) about Irish stout. You know, the stuff most Irish people think about when someone says a 'pint of stout'.

Just looking at that list makes me think that the people who 'rate' stouts on that site are probably **** anyway. Your average pint drinker isn't going to even consider the pints of wankerish-hipster-brew that are listed.

A random site? You mean the most popular site used worldwide for rating beer. Interesting take on it. Best you to stick to listening to Nox. And yes they're all **** too, obviously.

19-03-2019 8:50pm

ben.schlomo wrote: »

A random site? You mean the most popular site used worldwide for rating beer. Interesting take on it. Best you to stick to listening to Nox. And yes they're all **** too, obviously.

I prefer to conduct statistical analysis based on how many pints of Guinness I see fellas consuming happily in their local, totally devoid of any pure bullsh** waffle about the mellow lingering aftertaste and smooth as silk texture of the head on a pint of My Stinky Middle Finger Stout from some plaid shirted, short trouser wearing dickhead who thinks their ability to rate pints with fellow internet bores lends them any special authority on the subject of what is or is not a decent pint.

Ball scratching eejits. They’re twice as bad as the muppets who go down to their local off license and pay 10-20 times the price they’d pay in Carrefour, just because they want the ‘experience’ so they can talk to their wine-o friends about it.

It’s a decent pint of stout. Don’t make out it’s trying to be anything else, or failing to be what it is. It’s a Guinness. Take it or leave it. Just don’t act like you know any more than the fellas who quietly sup on a few and know how good they have it.

davidk1394 · 19-03-2019 8:53pm

Hard to beat a good pint of Guinness. I previously drank Smithwicks but the farting was getting out of hand and the girlfriend said it was either her or the Smithwicks.

Arghus · 19-03-2019 8:59pm

Feeling a strong thirst reading this thread...

Guinness was the drink I stuck to when I first started drinking in pubs. I don't really know why; it just seemed like the thing to drink. But I eventually took up drinking bland swill like Heineken and Carlsberg instead. It was all about getting drunk as fast as possible then and those vital few minutes waiting for Guinness were time wasted, or so I thought. Plus, Guinness was heavy - all it would do was slow you down, nice and all as it was. Sure wasn't there Jagerbombs to be drinking.

Then, I started drinking pale ales and all that "crafty" stuff, because they did taste better than the other muck. But, after a few years of that I realised that a lot of those beers taste exactly the same and I was beginning to tire of the endless nonsense that goes with all that accompanying beer-wankery, "brewed with the steam off some nun's fanny for a 100% ergonomic finish". There's only so many ways you can make beer taste really.

I used to drink the odd stout here and there too. And usually I would respond to them in how they compared to Guinness. Tastier, fouler, more chocolately. I liked the Porterhouse Plain Porter for a while. It was smooth and lighter than Guinness and that's what I liked, back then.

But, eventually, like the way a lapsed Catholic finds his way back to the church, I found my way to back to the light and the truth: Guinness. I figure I did my beer appreciation apprenticeship and it turns out my first love was the truest of them all. When I tried that Plain Porter stuff there again a while back I was left partially disgusted; What is this watery shite, I thought, where's the heaviness?

So, yeah, Guinness is beautiful. Good to hear it pour, brilliant to see it settle, wonderful for you to look at and best of all to drink. For a few simple pints and a good night of talking sh!te, trust in Guinness. Without sounding like a dipsomaniac I would encourage people who hate it to just drink more of it - at some point the worm will turn for you. It's lovely stuff.

I was talking recently to some guy who was mad for craft brewing. He was almost evangelical about the processeses and the results. According to him, everything else but craft beer was practically radioactive. Brie stout and turkey and ham IPA was where it was at - Carlsberg and Heineken were for the tragic in this life and people who drank Budweiser should have been killed at birth. I asked him about Guinness. "GUINNESS!, he spat, I wouldn't let that chemical poison pass my lips." He was a guy in his fifties and in many ways seemed quite normal, but, in that moment, I felt sorry for him, because he was so clearly for the fcking birds.

ben.schlomo · 19-03-2019 9:20pm

JayZeus wrote: »

ben.schlomo wrote: »

A random site? You mean the most popular site used worldwide for rating beer. Interesting take on it. Best you to stick to listening to Nox. And yes they're all **** too, obviously.

I prefer to conduct statistical analysis based on how many pints of Guinness I see fellas consuming happily in their local, totally devoid of any pure bullsh** waffle about the mellow lingering aftertaste and smooth as silk texture of the head on a pint of My Stinky Middle Finger Stout from some plaid shirted, short trouser wearing dickhead who thinks their ability to rate pints with fellow internet bores lends them any special authority on the subject of what is or is not a decent pint.

Ball scratching eejits. They’re twice as bad as the muppets who go down to their local off license and pay 10-20 times the price they’d pay in Carrefour, just because they want the ‘experience’ so they can talk to their wine-o friends about it.

It’s a decent pint of stout. Don’t make out it’s trying to be anything else, or failing to be what it is. It’s a Guinness. Take it or leave it. Just don’t act like you know any more than the fellas who quietly sup on a few and know how good they have it.

So angry, it's worrying.

Itssoeasy · 19-03-2019 9:31pm

I wouldn't drink Guinness that often but the few times over the years I've been in Dublin it's the safest option for a stout drinker. I couldn't find a pint of beamish for love nor money in Dublin(plenty of beamish glasses though) but beamish when home and in my local. Even though Murphys is from cork I wouldn't use it to clean my toilet for fear to what it'd do to the toilet bowl.

orourkeda1977 · 19-03-2019 10:06pm

Go on the few pints

Wheeliebin30 · 19-03-2019 10:31pm

Tastes like piss when it’s half gone and warm.

Which leads to drinking it to quick and getting messy too early.

First few mouthfuls are heaven in fairness.

Arghus · 19-03-2019 10:53pm

Personally I find it hard to get real messy on Guinness - it's a kind of steady going drink. I'll get drunk for sure but other beers tend to be far worse.

Some pale ales - when I have to drink them - will leave me absolutely wankered and feeling like someone took a sh!t in my brain the next day after.

19-03-2019 11:44pm

ben.schlomo wrote: »

So angry, it's worrying.

There’s no room for anger when I’m so busy laughing at the ridiculous eejits who base their second hand (at best) opinions of obscure beer/ale/stout (which are pretty much unobtainable in Ireland without having entirely too much of an interest in hunting such thinngs down) on some entirely unqualified and wildly subjective assessment by strangers.

Everyone should have a look here and decide for themselves whether or not they’d even consider the people doing the ‘rating’ know WTF they’re drinking, because it doesn’t look like many of them have ever sat down in a pub in Ireland and drank a pint:

https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/guinness-draught/1267/

Eejits.

Noveight · 19-03-2019 11:48pm

I’d sooner take Murphy’s over Guinness, but either will do. Add in a few packets of Taytos and a small Bushmills or two towards the end and you’ve the perfect session there.

demanufactured · 20-03-2019 12:02am

Prefer other stouts but will happily drink a Guinness.

Guinness is a good drop.

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