Guinness tastes like swill: Discuss

John Doe1

It tastes like a pensioners underarm:(

KyussBishop

Ya don't like Guinness myself; need a razor blade to shave it off your palette after each mouthful.

stovelid

Seaneh wrote: »

well, it's better than any Lager, Lagers are ****e)

I'm mortified. I've been drinking lager for years and never realized it was shite.

paddyandy

O.P. Tastes like .....It was a great drink but refrigeration came along to help disguise the real taste much like sauce on tasteless food .Drinking is a social idea where getting drunk is the real reason ...to live out the advertising fantasy .It's a product now and it's trading on an old reputation it no longer deserves .Guinness do a special Brew for VIP functions and it's not the nonsense we get in pubs .It's a Game now .

Shryke

It's lovely stuff. Goes down well and never a bad hangover. The extra stout is nice too. I had 2 bottles of it yesterday.
Like any other alcoholic drink it takes a bit of getting used to. I'd take it over any other beer these days though. I'd take it over cider too. I'm going off wine a bit, it's too easy to drink too much. The same for whiskey.
I'm getting old in my thinking but Guinness is a nice steady drink that almost obliges you to take your time with it. It's relaxing, and at 3 euro a pint in Galway I really can't complain. I was in Dublin recently and paid something like 4.85. It was in a hotel but still way too expensive.

RichieC

There's worse drinks, there's no doubt it's a low grade stout, though.

44leto

Its actually quite nice, its like wine you have to acquire a taste, but when you do there isn't a beer quite like it.

I stopped drinking it because I am convinced it adds to the waste line, but I am told there are less calories in it then lager, but still the Gxxx seemed to bloat me.

If I am going for one or 2 pints i will treat myself to the black nectar.

JONJO THE MISER

Tis your only man.

Seaneh

antodeco wrote: »

Ever have the bright yellow label bottles? The foreign extra? THAT is perfect Guinness.
The original recipe. I've drank that for a week, then had a pint of Guinness. Zero taste off the pint. Imagine drinking espresso all the time, then have a latte. Seriously, if you've never had one of those bottles, drink one. Straight from the bottle.

It's not the original recipe, Guinnes Extra is, FES is just that, a beer brewed for export, it was originally shipped to the west indies, africa and asia, where it is still mostly drank.

Drinking it from the bottle means you lose a lot of flavour, pouring it into a glass oxygenates it and allows aromas to develop, a lot of taste also has to do with smell, if you cant smell it (which from a bottle, you can't) you're not getting the full taste.

44leto

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

Tis your only man.

It tis isn't it. Once you get the taste the rest of the beer world is mere second place and swill.

gbee

Seaneh wrote: »

As stated before, the two part pour today is a marketing gimmick, not a requirement.

Very sorry to hear you say this, it says a lot about you and the subject matter.

44leto

gbee wrote: »

Very sorry to hear you say this, it says a lot about you and the subject matter.

As Gxxx drinker I kind of agree, I once asked the barman for science reasons just pour a round like an ordinary beer, all agreed there was no difference.

Admittingly that particular gxxx was good, you could tell the lines were just done and there was a distinct fresh taste of the pints.

Seaneh

gbee wrote: »

Very sorry to hear you say this, it says a lot about you and the subject matter.

the reason the two part pour was invented was, as stated earlier in this thread, because when guinness was served from casks they would draw from the old cask and then top up with a new cask.

These days all it does is allows the head to round out over the glass. It does nothing for the taste, it's not ****ing magic ffs, it doesn't change anything physically of chemically in the beer, it just looks better.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Personally its always been my favourite alcoholic beverage, I never went through that period of acquiring a taste for it, I liked it from the the beginning. About once every couple of years or so my father and I make the pilgrimage to St James Gate, Mecca for disciples of the black stuff. There's nothing quite like sitting up in the gravity bar with a cold creamy pint of plain in the hand. God bless Arthur Guinness!

RichieC

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Personally its always been my favourite alcoholic beverage, I never went through that period of acquiring a taste for it, I liked it from the the beginning. About once every couple of years or so my father and I make the pilgrimage to St James Gate, Mecca for disciples of the black stuff. There's nothing quite like sitting up in the gravity bar with a cold creamy pint of plain in the hand. God bless Arthur Guinness!

You should further that pilgrimage down to the porter house for a far superior pint of Plain.

Big Nasty

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Personally its always been my favourite alcoholic beverage, I never went through that period of acquiring a taste for it, I liked it from the the beginning. About once every couple of years or so my father and I make the pilgrimage to St James Gate, Mecca for disciples of the black stuff. There's nothing quite like sitting up in the gravity bar with a cold creamy pint of plain in the hand. God bless Arthur Guinness!

The pint in the gravity bar is sh1te!

Adyx

Deleted User wrote: »

Regardless of whether you like Guinness or not, you have to appreciate their quality service. You see those vans driving pretty much everywhere.

You wouldn't say that if you saw what they're doing. They're not some sort of inspectors enforcing Diageo's high standards on pubs, all they do is maintain and clean the lines. Plus they also service the Budweiser, Carlsberg and whatever other muck Diageo supply on draught, beer lines. Given the ridiculous number of pubs in this country and that the lines have to cleaned every couple of weeks, that's why you see so many of them.

knird evol

On a bench or hedge down the park. Bottle of Spirits from the iron monger or pharmacy. Two part pour that down your neck :pac:

Hanley

I'd my first pint of Guinness ever in The Store House, on Paddy's Day, last Saturday.

I was suitably impressed.

44leto

RichieC wrote: »

You should further that pilgrimage down to the porter house for a far superior pint of Plain.

I find these days they have nailed the consistency, gxxx use to be very inconsistent and it truly did differ from place to place.

This thread is giving me a fearsome thirst,

Randy Anders

I'm a guinness man myself. Nothing better than heading down to the local for pint of the black stuff

I struggle to drink more than 4 or 5 pints of lager, too much fizz makes me bloat out

rossie1977

what i find funny about guinness is the fact that the dearest place in the world to buy it is dublin, go to prague and local beers are as cheap as 50c in bars, go to bavaria and weissbier is €2 for a bottle in some bars, go to tenerife and dorada (the local beer) is 40 cents in supermarkets

kwestfan08

Love a guinness myself but as others have said I needed four or five nights on it before I truly appreciated it.

Anyone ever drink it in Tuam? Whatever it is down there the stout lovely no matter what pub you're in.

H2UMrsRobinson

I love a pint of Guinness with a shot of Tia Maria fecked into it. Don't knock it till you've tried it.

3 of those is my limit though - weird shit happens if I drink a 4th.

Lumbo

rossie1977 wrote: »

what i find funny about guinness is the fact that the dearest place in the world to buy it is dublin, go to prague and local beers are as cheap as 50c in bars, go to bavaria and weissbier is €2 for a bottle in some bars, go to tenerife and dorada (the local beer) is 40 cents in supermarkets

Go to Sydney. Nothing is cheap there. A pint in a pub around Rocks can cost as much as $10.

Auckland and Wellington on the North Island of NZ are pretty expensive as well.

Also got a pint in Koh Phangan, Thailand. Cost me about around €8, local beer cost €1, but didn't mind paying for it. The owner of the bar was English and knew how to look after and serve his beers.

aaronjumper

I will drink anything apart from Guinness. I like cider, beer, cocktails, anything. For some reason I just cannot stand the taste of Guinness.

Also who wants to wait an extra 119 seconds for it to mature or whatever it is.
It's just wrong.

Son Of A Vidic

A great pint of Guinness just cannot be beaten. Unfortunately, it is becoming an ever increasing rarity.

Sky King

I believe Guinness is generally served too cold in most pubs - especially those catering to younger folk. When you serve a drink cold it pretty much kills the flavour. In the case of Guinness, all that's left is bitterness and the other subtle flavours are numbed out.

Old man pubs have nice guinness because old men (generally) hate freezing cold beer. Also old man pubs have old crap cooler that don;t work very well, giving a warmer pint.

Guinness should be served (in my opinion) around 10 degrees C.

Nodin

...that "super cold" idea was never a good one.

I can't drink stout any more due to diabetes....ye get the most abysmal poxy hangover after feck all drink - the kind you'd get off too much wine, rather than beer.




I miss stout......lovely, lovely stout.......

Sky King

Nodin wrote: »

...that "super cold" idea was never a good one..

It works for Budweiser though, where not being able to taste it is an advantage....

AngryBollix

Guinness is spelt remarkably like genius.


Genius juice

AngryBollix

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

A great pint of Guinness just cannot be beaten. Unfortunately, it is becoming an ever increasing rarity.

I agree. However, there are plenty of fine establishments that still know what they are doing

44leto

I was watching "Megafactories" on Nat Geog and it was an hour long advertisement for the nectar, but it was very interesting as well. It is brewed in 50 countries and one of its most important markets is believe it or not Africa mainly Nigeria.

I think it ironic that it is known as an Irish brand, it isn't its headquarters are in London since 1932 and it is quoted on the British stock exchange. It was bought by Diageo 1997.

So Obama or the Queen should really be brought to the Murphy's brewery which is still Irish.

Sky King

44leto wrote: »

So Obama or the Queen should really be brought to the Murphy's brewery which is still Irish.

Even though it's owned by Heineken?

It's all ****e anyway. Craft beer ftw!

44leto

Sky King wrote: »

Even though it's owned by Heineken?

It's all ****e anyway. Craft beer ftw!

I think they brew hino there under licence but as far as I know it an Irish company, I am not sure though.

If not Murphy's Caffrey's or Beamish, if Murphy's is Dutch is there any Irish companies left??

Sky King

It's owned by Heineken. They bought the brand and the brewery in the 80's.

There's loads of craft breweries in Ireland... Irish owned and operated. Check out beoir.org.

44leto

Sky King wrote: »

It's owned by Heineken. They bought the brand and the brewery in the 80's.

There's loads of craft breweries in Ireland... Irish owned and operated. Check out beoir.org.

That's a good site and I will check them out, compared to the continent Irish commercial beer is sh!t, which is ironic, as we drink a lot of it.

Its one of those things about the Irish, we don't really eat fish yet we are an Island, we have only a tiny craft food industry yet we are an agricultural country. The same applies to alcohol, I know there are brands of whiskey distilled in independent breweries but not as much as there should be, the same I would have said about beer till I seen that site.

Cheers.

LH Pathe

Tastes like what?! Don't be swilly. some of my favourite people have a penchant for te black stuff

Big Nasty

44leto wrote: »

That's a good site and I will check them out, compared to the continent Irish commercial beer is sh!t, which is ironic, as we drink a lot of it.

Its one of those things about the Irish, we don't really eat fish yet we are an Island, we have only a tiny craft food industry yet we are an agricultural country. The same applies to alcohol, I know there are brands of whiskey distilled in independent breweries but not as much as there should be, the same I would have said about beer till I seen that site.

Cheers.

We have, I think 21 domestic craft breweries operating now on the island.;)

deise go deo

The problem with Guiness Draught is that its quality can vary dramatically from one pub to another, thats why I drink Large Bottels.

44leto

deise go deo wrote: »

The problem with Guiness Draught is that its quality can vary dramatically from one pub to another, thats why I drink Large Bottels.

I wouldn't agree now a few years ago yes the quality did differ significantly, but not now, Diageo have invested millions in the last 10 years for consistency, I think they nailed it.

But I heard the nicest Gxxx is when the Tap the cooler and the keg are all close together. My bro got a keg for a party and all of a sudden he was my favourite brother, it nearly killed us, but it was beautiful Guinness and by the end of the week there wasn't much left for his party.

KeithAFC

Think it is over hyped. Had a sip once and didn't like it. Something very odd in the taste.

Sky King

It's kind of an aquired taste i think. I am just sipping on some homebrew stout here and it;s much nicer after about 30 minutes out of the fridge. Extreme coldness just doesn't suit stout.

44leto wrote: »

But I heard the nicest Gxxx is when the Tap the cooler and the keg are all close together.

That was true years ago in the days of crap beer dispense equipment but not so much these days, with in-line cooling etc. I did a job in a pub lately which is famous for having great stout and ale and there is a seventy metre draw from the cooler to the tap.

44leto

KeithAFC wrote: »

Think it is over hyped. Had a sip once and didn't like it. Something very odd in the taste.

Just under 2 billion pints are sold a year and growing, that is not on the crescent of a hype it has to have some quality.

But it is an individual taste.

Aidric

One of the very few things I miss about back home, a creamy Guinness.

Sky King

What really gets me (and I have said this before) is people who say they don;t like stout / ale etc on the basis of Guinness and Smithwicks.

It's like saying you don't like potatoes based on only ever trying a bag of Walkers.

Cicero

Anyone who has professed to hating Guinness in this thread.....should be taken out...and shot:)

44leto

Cicero wrote: »

Anyone who has professed to hating Guinness in this thread.....should be taken out...and shot:)

I volunteer to be a member of the firing squad as long as the detail gets free guinness.

deise go deo

KeithAFC wrote: »

Think it is over hyped. Had a sip once and didn't like it. Something very odd in the taste.

Theres your problem, its an aquired taste, it growes on you over time, I doubt anyone has ever liked their first sip.

deise go deo

44leto wrote: »

I wouldn't agree now a few years ago yes the quality did differ significantly, but not now, Diageo have invested millions in the last 10 years for consistency, I think they nailed it.

But I heard the nicest Gxxx is when the Tap the cooler and the keg are all close together. My bro got a keg for a party and all of a sudden he was my favourite brother, it nearly killed us, but it was beautiful Guinness and by the end of the week there wasn't much left for his party.

Well I only started drinking Guiness over the last ten years and have more often than not come across woefull pints (serves me right for drinking in nightclubs)
When you come across a place that does a good pint it can be a thing of beauty, but overall I just prefer the Large Bottle anyway, it has its own distinctive flavor, and is always the same no matter where you go.