Guiness!!!...wtf?

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cheezydemon

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Corona tastes OK with a lime, but my guess is that some guy put a lime in it because it tasted so crappy. Ergo: IT SUCKS.

Anything that needs a ton of help to be good but sucks on it's own, sucks. Right?

Guinness out of the bottle....even with that special widget thing.......

Hmmm, light burnt taste....otherwise almost no flavor.

My buddy's answer "OH! DUH! You have to have Guinness on draft or from the can!"

At first I take that in a "some bands rock on albums but can't play live too well, or vise versa" kind of way.

But then I thought: How many other beers would taste better if they had nitrogen and widgets and chargers and god knows what other horsesh!t they will come up with?

If a beer needs so many bells and whistles(life support is more like it), how is that fair? I could play in the NBA if I had leg implants, and bionic arms, and radioactive balls......for God's sake.


Therefore GUINNESS SUCKS.

Thanks!
 
interesting point. my irish stout tastes better than guinness (w/o widget) but you have to wonder how they'd compare if both were n2/co2 draft or w/ widget. it would do wonders for a lot of english/irish/scottish ales, i think
 
yeah, guinness doesnt do much for me either. pretty much flavorless. i would rather have the DogfishHead World Wide Stout. That s*** will put some fuzz on your peaches! anybody have a clone for it?
 
The widgets in a guinness bottle aren't "life support." When you get guinness on tap it is served with beer gas, which has nitrogen, not just straight co2. The widgets are used to replicate this, therefore keeping it the way it is meant to be served. If you are getting no flavor, let the beer warm up a bit and also keep in mind that guinness is a fairly light, dry stout and isn't meant to be as flavorful as a RIS or something along those lines.
 
I don't know. Some flavors just complement each other. I hate hotdogs. Hate sauerkraut. Put them with some mustard and relish on a bun and all these nasty flavors come together to make something very tasty.

I can feel the eyes rolling, but a slice of orange in a white makes it a whole new drink, something that I really enjoy.

So there. I said it. I put fruit in my beer.

Will this get me banned from HBT?
 
I let it warm up pretty good, believe me.

To each their own, but you won't find me buying guinness, much less a "charger" anytime soon.

P.S. Actually it does make a really good beef stew, so I will buy it once in a while after all;)
 
There are five or six different (I've seen claims of 19) beers sold as Guinness Stout. It depends on where you are and what the package is:

* Draught Guinness (Ireland, NA), is smooth full-bodied and creamy. Despite its body, it is a rather mild beer (OG 1039, 3.4% abw, 4.2% abv). This beer is pasteurized. There are many local variations of this product. The canned Pub Draught Guinness using the draught-flow ™ system is a packaged version of this beer.
* Bottle Conditioned Guinness (Ireland) had similar specifications to the Draught Guinness, but the presence of the yeast provides for a "...spicier, fruitier, drier, more complex and lively, fresh character." (MJBC, 182)
* Bottled Guinness (Britain) has similar specifications to the above two beers, but it is pasteurized.
* All Malt Guinness (Continental Europe) is available both draught and bottled. It is slightly stronger and also has a little more of the characteristic stout bite.
* Guinness Extra Stout/Guinness Original (bottled, available widely) is stronger with even more stout bite. MJ reports this to be 4.8% abw, 6.0% abv, but one poster says that in advertising from Guinness Imports, the strength is listed as 5.6%. This product is licensed for production widely around the world.
* There is a strong bottled version (Belgium and others) that is somewhat sweeter and stronger (7.5% abv)
* Foreign Extra Stout (primarily tropical countries) is also about 7.5% abv. However, this is blend of Guinnesses, included one aged for three months.
* In Nigeria, which bans barley, Guinness is made from sorghum.

http://www.gigfy.com/faqs.html
 
I gotta say, I had a draft and later that night, a bottled Guinness last week. I think the flavor was comparable to steeping a quarter pound of roasted barley in 5 gallons of water. Without any other malt at all. Needless to say, I was really disappointed.

Should have gone for the SA lager; tasted a buddy's and it was pretty decent.
 
David42 - That strikes me as freakish.

It proves that they won't go out on a limb and create a new beer, and by that I mean with a different name.

They are clearly trying to capitalize as much as possible on a brand image and ride it and exploit it til the bitter(or rather bland) end.

I could not respect them less after hearing that. Thanks for the info.
 
cheezydemon said:
David42 - That strikes me as freakish.

It proves that they won't go out on a limb and create a new beer, and by that I mean with a different name.

They are clearly trying to capitalize as much as possible on a brand image and ride it and exploit it til the bitter(or rather bland) end.

I could not respect them less after hearing that. Thanks for the info.
Click to expand...

Actually, I can't remember the source, but it stated that Guinness basically sends a concentrated (like LME) wort to breweries around the world. I'm not sure if anyone can concur.
 
I think the OP hit on something "real" here... What is beer?

I personally have no objections to widgets and rockets and chargers... Unless of course it came in a beer that I wouldn't "normally" get served in that same style. Boddingtons Pub ale, for instance, comes in a "pub pour" can, but Budwesier comes in a "as long as it's not warm it won't taste like piss" can. I'd feel the same was about warm Bud as I would about non-charged Guinness - piss poor.

The beer is what the brewer intended us to drink. Guiness is intended to be infused with Nitrogen ratehr thns CO2. Putting something in the can isn't cheating to me.
 
I don't know if it was the atmosphere or the Guinness, but it tasted wonderful to me in the pubs in Ireland... much better than the exports.
 
Guinness was first brewed on or shortly after 1759. Artificial carbonation wasn't introduced to the UK until 1936. So, for at least 150 years Guinness was served without nitrogen (I couldn't find a date for the invention of beer gas, but it is safe to say it wasn't before artificial carbonation).

Was Guinness a crappy beer before nitrogen? I would think that 150 years of production says, "no". If Guinness was a crappy beer without nitrogen, then it isn't a good beer with nitrogen (kinda like adding fruit to a bad beer to make it "better").

I am not saying that Guinness is a good beer (or a bad one), I am just throwing that argument out there. Whether a beer is good or bad depends on what was produced in relation to the producers intent and how the product is perceived by the individual consumer.
 
DraconianHand said:
Guinness was first brewed on or shortly after 1759. Artificial carbonation wasn't introduced to the UK until 1936. So, for at least 150 years Guinness was served without nitrogen (I couldn't find a date for the invention of beer gas, but it is safe to say it wasn't before artificial carbonation).
Click to expand...

I get where you're going, but I just want to cite Ray Daniel's book "Designing Great Beers":

Classic of Classics

Today, more than almost any other major beer style, stout is defined by a single commercial producer. The name Guinness is synonymous with stout; its products are considered classics of the style.
One reason for this is longevity. Arthur Guinness purchase a derelict brewery at St. James Gate in Dublin in December 1759. The company he founded there still exists today - nearly 250 years later - and his descendants have run the company, or helped to do so, for much of that time.
But the simple fact that you have been around for a couple of centuries does not mean that you will survive the next decade. Changes in consumer taste have bankrupted more than one brewery, and the vicissitudes of politics, economics, and war have ravaged brewers time and again. No brewer who hopes to pass his company on to the next generation in good health can simply sit and count the money as it comes in. Evidence suggests that Guinness has not only survived but thrived as the direct result of forethought and innovation.
We get the first sign of this forethought from the original Arthur Guinness himself. In a letter written about twenty-five years after the brewery was founded, he stated the value of the brewery at £10,000 but said, "I would not take £30,000 for it." He clearly understood the potential of the business he had entered into and had big plans to achieve that potential.
Click to expand...

They have followed suit by decreasing the ABV (appealing to larger crowd of hard workers) as they could be sold for less (taxation was function of the OG of a beer). I guess somewhere along the line they thought the creamy head that nitrogen produces (with the flaked barley) was a good way to move forward with the product.
 
I can't say i seriously like guinness draught, it's better than a lot of mainstream beers but not the best.... (my brew partner would seriously contest this)

If i want a guinness, or a stout from the grocery (as i can't get good **** here), i'll drink a guinness EXTRA stout, i allow it to warm and it's got actual flavor and is very pleasing....

I think of the widget as a neat gimmick, sure the body is nice but does nothing for taste....
 
i agree

its not the best beer out there but i still enjoy it. incidentally, i went into a liquor store here when i was new to the area and asked if they had Chimay. they asked me what it was. i knew that was a no then so i asked if they had a large beer selection. they said that they sure do, that they had Guinness and Sam Adams. <sigh>
 
I am a big fan of Guinness on tap. I think all that action in the glass from a fresh pour is sexy. The younger side of me still likes a Car Bomb once in a while too. To each their own.
 
I wonder If I can buy some widgets wholesale, you know, for when I have a crappy stout to bottle.;)

I am not out to put Guiness out of business, more power to them. I just am a little upset that they are not only cheating....(why do they need beergas when Chimone, Young's, etc. don't?) but actually capitalizing on their crutches because of all the dorks who are like "Ooooooh! a charger!!"
 
Around here, Guiness, Heineken and Blue Moon (with an orange slice, of course) are the preferred beers of those who want to give the impression that they are beer snobs. Of course these people are actually idiots, but I get a kick out of seeing some ****** order a Guiness then take 30 minutes to drink it while the Bud Light that he chases it with disappears in 3 minutes flat.

I prefer Guiness in a bottle. I'll drink draught, but I'm more likely to find something else on tap before I order a Guiness.
 
Now now! I too drank guiness at one time, thinking it was something impossibly dark and exotic...I don't think I ever chased it though......;)

Those are the gateway beers to true snobbery. The true snob will quest further and relish tasting new beers. The quasi snob will stay put, only ordering guinness, blue moon, etc.
 
the guiness in the 22 oz bottles tastes much much different than the widget cans/bottles. i think the bottled sans widget is just fine. on tap in a good pub, guiness is a good enough beer, but the places that serve that usually serve mccaffreys or smithwicks, and i'll go for those before guiness.
 
Guinness Extra Stout in bottles is ok. Guinness off the tap is so-so
Guinness Draft with the widget has a nice foamy nothingness to it.
I make much better stouts than any of the above so I don't usually buy it. Guess I spoiled myself with my own beers..
AP
 
Say it like you mean it!

I guess it is not the extra stout that I was talking about. But that draws, again, attention to the fact that they are too chicken **** to name any of their 18(?) or so brews anything but guiness.

The only other breweries that do anything like that, is BUD.....Bud ice, bud light, etc.

You don't see Samuel smith's EXTRA oatmeal stout, Samuel smith's oatmeal stout frigging grand rapids michigan formula, SSOS African recipe, etc.

That more than the lack of flavor pisses me off.
 
Guinness makes Kilkenny Irish Cream ale. I had it on tap for the first time about a month ago. Fantastic!
 
menschmaschine said:
I don't know if it was the atmosphere or the Guinness, but it tasted wonderful to me in the pubs in Ireland... much better than the exports.
Click to expand...

This is why I'm afraid to drink Guinness any more. I had two pints at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin last month (visiting Ireland from the States) and it was the best damn beer (not just Guinness) that I have ever had. Period.

It tasted 3-dimensional. That's the only way I can describe it. It was so amazingly fresh and vibrant. It was so good, I'm afraid to drink another Guinness outside of Dublin because I know I will be sorely disappointed.

I guess I'll just have to keep on brewin'.
 
OH MY GOD! Guinness Kilkenny! You bastard!

I happen to actually like Guinness. It is what it is, and I make no apologies for it. Now if only I could get two cases of those bottles for cheap....
 
Another vote for the extra stout. I've heard the foreign extra stout is incredible, but you have to leave the country to find it.

Guinness on tap or in a widget can is bathwater IMO.

But then again I _hate_ nitro--it seems to suck all the flavor out of any beer.
 
I, too, prefer Guinness Extra from the bottle.

I also look for good pubs with Guinness on tap -- because they usually have Smithwick's on tap too.
 
Guinness does not travel well... Has any of the people here bad mouthing it every drank it from an Irish tap?

Not only is it on a N2/CO2 blend, it needs a good flow to be best...

And besides Guinness isn't just an alcoholic beverage it's a tradition!!!

So come on over and order a pint of plain...
 
cheezydemon said:
David42 - That strikes me as freakish.

It proves that they won't go out on a limb and create a new beer, and by that I mean with a different name.

They are clearly trying to capitalize as much as possible on a brand image and ride it and exploit it til the bitter(or rather bland) end.

I could not respect them less after hearing that. Thanks for the info.
Click to expand...
Kinda like peeling the Harley logo off and finding a Yamaha symbol there, huh???

IMO the biggest problem is American bars serving Guinness too cold.
 
Guinness is an excellent beer, tops in my book other than my own! Hundreds of years of successful production is proof of that. If you feel that it has no flavor then your probably spending to much time trying to be a beer snob than enjoying the smooth texture and robust flavor it has. The brewers of Guinness are also responsible for Harp Lager and Smithwick's. Both of which are delicious.
 
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