ThePortForum.com

Seems appropriate!

Lets get more Emoticons going! Whats needed? I can find them, how do they get added?

Alan

This needs a new thread, so I'll start one in Site Stuff

Derek

Well, I've just got back from Belfast where the Guinness was absolutely immaculate. I was drinking it in three bars - Robinson's, The Crown and The Northern Whig. All three patently take care of their beer, both in the cellar and from the tap. I think that Robinson's just about took the title but I could drink the stuff all night from any of them. I had a last one at the airport that wasn't as good.

I spent a fair amount of time in Dublin in the nineties and nowhere did it as well as these three bars. So I now believe that the further you are away from Belfast the worse it is. Except that I have had better Guinness than in Dublin in Liverpool and Coventry so I probably just agree that the guy that looks after the cellar and teaches the bar-staff is more important than how far it's travelled.

I have come to the conclusion that the qulaity of a pint of Guinness boils down to two factors:

1. how well the pipes/taps are looked after
2. throughput

Derek

I love a good pint of Guinnes, and I always find it amazing how the stuff they sell in a can has nothing to do with the lovely stout you can get in a good pub. I do sometimes buy those cans here (if everything else is sold out) and it's just bland and boring.

RonnieRoots wrote:I love a good pint of Guinnes, and I always find it amazing how the stuff they sell in a can has nothing to do with the lovely stout you can get in a good pub. I do sometimes buy those cans here (if everything else is sold out) and it's just bland and boring.

This follows my theory that widgets kill beer.

Ah, I see I also complained about Guinness in that thread. Apparently widgets also kill brain cells.

I like the widgets in Murphy's or Boddington's better than Guinness, but they all taste watery

I just adore a nice draft stout. Lots of ex-pat Irish in my area and our local pubs are as close as one can get to Ireland on this side of the Atlantic.

Have you seen the Guinness machines that "shake" the cup of Guinness until it frothes up? Pretty cool looking, but even waterier than the widget stuff...

Cellaring seems to be important. I have a local which has a basement bar, and (confusingly) cellar which is warmer and at a slightly higher level. Not surprisingly the Guinness is only ever good within a day or two of the first pour.

I think that Guinness that appears in more distant parts of the world is shipped as a concentrate, and reconstituted at its destination, and so tastes different owing to the water, yeast, strength etc.

Worst Guinness (apart from said bar), Venice, where it was a bit watery. Venice also happens to be the home of some of the worst ever restaurant food, and service! Best Guinness- anywhere which has properly maintained equipment and decent turnover so it doesn't go off!

Being also a lover of beer, people often forget that beer is perishable just like wine. If exposed to heat, which is often is during transport or when kegs are left sitting on the loading dock or back patio of a bar, can adversely affect its taste. I find that beer often shows better in the winter months when it stays cold throughout its life and isn't subjected to lots of heat. Commercial beer is almost always pasturized and filtered, with some exceptions, so think of those as like a filtered LBV's or ruby Port. They can be good, but they will never be as good as their unfiltered VP counterpart.

Andy V wrote:Commercial beer is almost always pasturized and filtered, with some exceptions, so think of those as like a filtered LBV's or ruby Port. They can be good, but they will never be as good as their unfiltered VP counterpart.

I am brewing some Vintage Beer then. It will be unpasteurised and unfiltered. Shame it came out of a tin, really.