Why lord, why?

I'm sitting at a TGI Friday's bar right now watching some of the worst beer pours of my life. Is proper pouring technique really hard to attain? It feels like I'm watching some awful parent beat their child for no reason.

Displaced MassHole said:

I'm sitting at a TGI Friday's bar right now watching some of the worst beer pours of my life. Is proper pouring technique really hard to attain? It feels like I'm watching some awful parent beat their child for no reason.

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lmfao, srsly!!

I just sent a Stone Pale Ale back because it had 3 inches of head WTF?

Displaced MassHole said:

I'm sitting at a TGI Friday's bar right now watching some of the worst beer pours of my life. Is proper pouring technique really hard to attain? It feels like I'm watching some awful parent beat their child for no reason.

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I once had a waitress pour my Dogfish Head 90min IPA bottle almost vertically into the glass to "increase the foam for aroma". At $8 a bottle, I was not impressed with half flat beer. Luckily I was in a good mood before and chalked it up to her being new.

Displaced MassHole said:

I just sent a Stone Pale Ale back because it had 3 inches of head WTF?

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You can get Stone at TGI Fridays? We're limited to all the light and ice beers you could ever want.

I think it's up to the store manager/owner what/number of beers they can have over the usual. Most of the ones around here have at least some variety. Even had the manager come over to my table to ask how I liked the beer....since he ordered it because he likes it....

devilishprune said:

You can get Stone at TGI Fridays? We're limited to all the light and ice beers you could ever want.

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My place is worse, you can usually only get bitter at LGI Fridays or any other night.

That's what you get for going to TGIFridays instead of one of the myriad of better choices...

Gremlyn1 said:

That's what you get for going to TGIFridays instead of one of the myriad of better choices...

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The last time I was in a TGI it was actually a Buffalo Wild Wings or a Ruby Tuesdays. I can hardly tell the difference. Wifey likes Cracker Barrel, but she has now given up on my foot stamping when I complain about having no beer and ultra-bland food with a bunch of old people and tatty crap all over the walls. At least I can identify the difference in a Cracker Barrel though.

Gremlyn1 said:

That's what you get for going to TGIFridays instead of one of the myriad of better choices...

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No doubt. What were you doing there in the first place?

I could go on and on about this subject. My main pet-prevent is the iced glass....

Ideally if I buy a pint I want 16 oz. Not a pseudo pint that's 12 oz.

Next I want about 3/4" of head, not be short changed, just a little foam. To me its a sign of quality. I hate watching somebody trying to pour a whole beer without any head.

To me, the perfect pour is with a tilted glass for 2/3rds of the pour then straight up down the middle of the glass. It generally looks aesthetically perfect.

I don't want all the carbonation in the beer. Especially with session drinking you get bloated, then beltch and fart alot. The flatulence at work the next day is not usually welcome. ;D

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

The last time I was in a TGI it was actually a Buffalo Wild Wings or a Ruby Tuesdays. I can hardly tell the difference. Wifey likes Cracker Barrel, but she has now given up on my foot stamping when I complain about having no beer and ultra-bland food with a bunch of old people and tatty crap all over the walls. At least I can identify the difference in a Cracker Barrel though.

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They've got good southern ham though, a rarity up in these parts . . . .

My swmbo and I have a deep disagreement along these lines - she really likes TGIF, Ruby Tuesday, et. al. and I really like locally owned dives. In her hometown, there is a pizza place that is my favorite in the world, but it is the quintessential dive and I can't get anyone to go there with me

Pappers said:

They've got good southern ham though, a rarity up in these parts . . . .

My swmbo and I have a deep disagreement along these lines - she really likes TGIF, Ruby Tuesday, et. al. and I really like locally owned dives. In her hometown, there is a pizza place that is my favorite in the world, but it is the quintessential dive and I can't get anyone to go there with me

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Pray tell me.....The dive stuff is good quality made with care and served by a real person with an actual personality? Bastards! When will they ever learn!

There is only one chain restaurant that I actually look forward to going into. That is Lone Star steak houses. All others (Until i find another) I find myself going through the in door with a sense of impending doom.

Since I have to travel to get to anything/where, I stick to brewpubs. The only chain I go to is McMenamins. I'll probably go to them more often, as my soon-to-be wife is nuts about Ruby and a couple of their places in Porkland have OMSI Science lectures.

Pappers said:

They've got good southern ham though, a rarity up in these parts . . . .

My swmbo and I have a deep disagreement along these lines - she really likes TGIF, Ruby Tuesday, et. al. and I really like locally owned dives. In her hometown, there is a pizza place that is my favorite in the world, but it is the quintessential dive and I can't get anyone to go there with me

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+1 don't knock CB. Its a niche and they do it pretty good. Sometimes it can be a glorified KFC depending on what you order though...

Pappers...stab in the dark, but the quintesential pizza joint dive screams Damiani's in Dolton...to me at least. good pie though!

Pappers said:

They've got good southern ham though, a rarity up in these parts . . . .

My swmbo and I have a deep disagreement along these lines - she really likes TGIF, Ruby Tuesday, et. al. and I really like locally owned dives. In her hometown, there is a pizza place that is my favorite in the world, but it is the quintessential dive and I can't get anyone to go there with me

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Pappers, I know what you mean. I grew up in Brookfield. I could name five local places that blow away any chain. Thats pretty easy to do in Chicagoland. I just love the Greek and Italian places with Chicago dogs & fries, Italian beef sandwiches with guardinara, or the quintessential gyro.

gift card. only reason i go to the chains.

I try pretty hard to not eat out unless it is special occasion. I can not stomach the "chain food" anymore and would rather spend an extra 5-10 a plate for real food. If I have to "order by numbers" just forget it.
My FAVY place is "The Old Bavarian". Beer in pints, liters and 2 liter boots. They also have special house brews that are done at a larger brewery (sub contracted out) that are pretty tasty (not quite a bmc or a home brew but some place in between.) Hand made: Schnitzel, Spatzel, and the seasonal Gluehwein for dessert is the best.

Grrr...Thanks, now I want some Gluehwein...

Chain restraunts suck. Especially when you live in philadelphia where you have the best restraunts in the country.

This is also why I avoid chain restraunts because the beer they have usually sucks or is poured like crap. So I goto my local bar/restraunts for great food or sometimes even a really really nice restraunt for some amazing food.

I don't get out much but we hit up the new Texas Roadhouse chain restaurant that opened by us. The beer selection was so dismal I went with a blended margarita. Food was decent though. Although I can see why most of america is fat, it seemed like you could add bacon and cheese to everything on the menu...

We went to O'Charlies last week, for some reason.

Food was blah and overpriced, and the only thing other than BMC they had was SA Boston Lager.

Next time, it will be Boscos, or I stay home.

kcpaige89 said:

I once had a waitress pour my Dogfish Head 90min IPA bottle almost vertically into the glass to "increase the foam for aroma". At $8 a bottle, I was not impressed with half flat beer. Luckily I was in a good mood before and chalked it up to her being new.

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And (I'm guessing) hot.

Cpt_Kirks said:

We went to O'Charlies last week, for some reason.

Food was blah and overpriced, and the only thing other than BMC they had was SA Boston Lager.

Next time, it will be Boscos, or I stay home.

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Same thing with our local O'Charley's, and whoever poured my last one did everything in their power to make sure I had zero head. Thanks.

I worked for TGI Fridays for many years. They used to take pride in the fact that everything was made fresh, from scratch. Everything from soups to salad dressings to french fries...all from scratch. Sad that they're now just another Applebees/Chilis/etc. I guess in order to compete with Applebees/Chilis they had to become one.

I actually like the Applebees in our town. But we have limited options for eating out. There is a very nice cafe in town now, but they are very expensive. those are actually in the town close by. In our town for real there is one place that I think is pretty good, but I've only ever had breakfast there. And the corner deli is nice, but not open for dinner.

Got a Guinness on tap once from a bar in Chapel Hill. The bartender carefully poured the beer, so there was no foamy head. By far the worse Guinness I have ever had, just didn't taste right.

Displaced MassHole said:

It feels like I'm watching some awful parent beat their child for no reason.

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Is a good description of what I felt like when I saw what she was doing.

I understand and agree with the no head complaint, but in their defense, 90% of their customers most likely ***** when there is 3/4-1" of head on their beer. They're drinking to get drunk and they want 12oz of beer and when they buy their "pint". Not 9-10 oz of beer and 2-3 of foam.

Hahaha, half the people in this thread are complaining about too little foam and the other half about too much foam.

The moral of the story? No matter what the bartenders do someone on HBT is calling them an idiot.

remilard said:

Hahaha, half the people in this thread are complaining about too little foam and the other half about too much foam.

The moral of the story? No matter what the bartenders do someone on HBT is calling them an idiot.

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TBF, they have only pointed out the wrong head for whichever style they were talking about.

how many pieces of flair did the bartender have?

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

TBF,

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AZ_IPA said:

how many pieces of flair did the bartender have?

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I mentioned that in my previous post. TBF = Twenty Billion Flairs.

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

I mentioned that in my previous post. TBF = Twenty Billion Flairs.

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I thought your TBF was some euro-talk for "to be fair"

AZ_IPA said:

I thought your TBF was some euro-talk for "to be fair"

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WTF? (Why turtles fart)

remilard said:

Hahaha, half the people in this thread are complaining about too little foam and the other half about too much foam.

The moral of the story? No matter what the bartenders do someone on HBT is calling them an idiot.

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1/2" to 1" of foam is correct.

No foam is wrong.
3 inches of foam is wrong.

Not really that hard a concept.

Mischief_Brewing said:

I don't get out much but we hit up the new Texas Roadhouse chain restaurant that opened by us. The beer selection was so dismal I went with a blended margarita. Food was decent though. Although I can see why most of america is fat, it seemed like you could add bacon and cheese to everything on the menu...

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The Texas Roadhouse near me has Switchback.

kcpaige89 said:

I once had a waitress pour my Dogfish Head 90min IPA bottle almost vertically into the glass to "increase the foam for aroma". At $8 a bottle, I was not impressed with half flat beer. Luckily I was in a good mood before and chalked it up to her being new.

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That's actually debatable; I've heard from Cicerones that a pour directly into the bottom is good for releasing aromatics.

And while there are certainly right and wrong ways to do things, it's also a fact that there will always be people bitching here. (we can get into glassware again too, on getting 16oz vs an appropriate amount of head, but unless we require all bars have marked glasses and thus replace every piece of glassware they have, which won't happen, we're stuck with what we have)

Cpt_Kirks said:

1/2" to 1" of foam is correct.

No foam is wrong.
3 inches of foam is wrong.

Not really that hard a concept.

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Says you, maybe other people say something different?

http://www.brasserie-dupont.com/dupont/Default.aspx?Lang=en&page=saison

Plenty of people (including the BJCP though for the purpose of evaluation not enjoyment) advocate pouring straight down the center of the glass.

I don't know about Cicerones in general, but Ray Daniels advocates pouring at the center of the wall of the glass and then turning upright when half full.

A million consumer preferences, a million industry preferences, zero chance everyone is happy if everyone expects it to be done their way.

You have two choices, find a new bar or ask to pour the bottle yourself.

Okay, three choices. You could relax since it is just a freaking beer.

remilard said:

I don't know about Cicerones in general, but Ray Daniels advocates pouring at the center of the wall of the glass and then turning upright when half full.

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If I get a chance, I will quizz him on that Monday night.

Personally, I advocate adjusting method of the pour according to the characteristics and carbonation of the beer in hand. Maybe that's just me though.

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

Personally, I advocate adjusting method of the pour according to the characteristics and carbonation of the beer in hand. Maybe that's just me though.

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Pouring the IPA aggressively seems to be a pretty darn good application of this theory, and someone still complained about it.