Guinness - declining standards

[Tony Baloney]

Fibber Magees in the back off Robinsons always served a tasty pint.

Alot of other establishments in Belfast i found were hit and miss.

The Morning Star does a blinding pint but a lot of that is down to the fact they have proper old school bar men who know what a decent pint should be like and take their time pouring. If you go to the likes of The Bot etc at 9pm on a Saturday night don't expect a decent pint of plain!

[Lar Naparka]

Theres a fair load of oul shite talked about guiness, what it tastes like here, what its like there. To be honest i don't see what all the fuss is about its just a fairly mediocre dry stout pumped full of nitro to try and give it some character.

By far the biggest difference in guiness is how the guiness is served in the particular pub, how clean is the glass, how old is the keg, how competent is the bar man and most importantly whats the ratio of the pub gas (Nitro to Co2) and whats the pressure.

The idea that batches of guiness have huge variation is a nonsense, guinness were the first brewing company in the world who used statistics specifically to create conformity of batches, FFS the student T-test was created by a statitician in the employ of guinness to monitor their batches. Student wasn't his real name (it was William Sealy Gosset) but thats what he published it under so competitors wouldn't cope on to the advantages of using stats in brewing.

With respect, delboy, I said this was the case in the past when I worked in a pub beside the brewery.
As for the present, I'd be careful about putting a fiver down, if I were you, and I wanted to back up my claim with hard cash.  I doubt if I'd rely on the work of a statistician, employed by the brewery and who published his work under a bogus title- we do that here; but I'd expect a bit more form someone who wants his report taken seriously.
"William Seely Gosset" has a nice ring about it alright. Even if it was Theobald Wolfe Tone, I'd expect him to sign his name or not bother publishing his findings at all.
FFS, as you say yourself, if his work was genuine, wouldn't rival brewing companies come to hear about it and if it had any merit, wouldn't they be able to suss that out?
FFS, once again, wouldn't the others hear about this on the grapevine?
Why should anyone publish a work in order to explain the merits of his new system to the public and not expect rival concerns to hear about it?
Besides, I do talk to publicans in my line of work and so I get to hear of complaints about the uniformity of Guinness deliveries. Even if everybody else suspects that they all are into watering their Guinness or serving slop, they should realise that the stuff straight from the barrel doesn't tell lies.
The Student T-test may indeed be a work of excellence and credibility but I'd be inclined to rely on the word of people who depend on the quality of their beer to keep customers happy in order to pay their bills.

[delboy]

But of a misunderstanding on the student t-test guy, that was about 100 years ago that he published that work since then all major brewers use stats to help with conformity. I was highlighting this to show how much import guinness placed on precision.
I still take issue with your dodgy batch theory though, multinational brewing companies are brilliant at one thing they can consistently turn out batch after batch off the same beer time after time, its not nessacarily great beer but it is if nothing else consistent, thats the whole point of a brand.

Big brewers like guinness have a bunch of scientists,mathmeticans,engineers etc all working with the one aim to create the same beer time after time.
They have temperature controlled fermenting vats, they buy their grain and hops several years in advance so they know what they are getting, the constantly mix old hops and grains with new ones in case they might have some slight variation in flavour. But they do it in a slow very gradual way such that the man on the street notices no discernable difference, over the course of several years using this appoach they can actually change the formulation quite a lot but at no point could anyone point to where the change occured since they occured in such a small incremental way. 

[5 Sams]

Lads where do you reckon serves the best pint of guiness in the north?

Dont drink in Belfast as often as I used to but the Garrick on Chichester St always served a great pint as did a few of the older bars around the Docks like the Rotterdam, McHughs etc.

In Newry I wouldnt go past our own club....the Guinness is as good as you'll get anywhere.

Canal Court has improved but can still be dodgy as is the case with all the bigger places like Bellinis, Cobbles etc....McCoys, Bridge Bar and the Windmill all seem to look after their porter. As someone said earlier us Guinness drinkers are fussy hoors. If you get a bad pint in a pub it would be a while before you chance the same place again.

[gerry]

i always knew that the black stuff was mighty

Guinness good for you - official


The long-running ad campaign is well-known

The old advertising slogan "Guinness is Good for You" may be true after all, according to researchers.

A pint of the black stuff a day may work as well as a low dose aspirin to prevent heart clots that raise the risk of heart attacks.

Drinking lager does not yield the same benefits, experts from University of Wisconsin told a conference in the US.

Guinness was told to stop using the slogan decades ago - and the firm still makes no health claims for the drink.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3266819.stm

[theskull1]

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/823904/

Declining standards indeed 

[mountainboii]

i always knew that the black stuff was mighty

Guinness good for you - official


The long-running ad campaign is well-known

The old advertising slogan "Guinness is Good for You" may be true after all, according to researchers.

A pint of the black stuff a day may work as well as a low dose aspirin to prevent heart clots that raise the risk of heart attacks.

Drinking lager does not yield the same benefits, experts from University of Wisconsin told a conference in the US.

Guinness was told to stop using the slogan decades ago - and the firm still makes no health claims for the drink.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3266819.stm

Did you see this on facebook by any chance? A couple of people I know have posted it up there, so it's obviously doing the rounds. Bizarre that a seven year old story gets revived out of nowhere like this.

[tyssam5]

i always knew that the black stuff was mighty

Guinness good for you - official


The long-running ad campaign is well-known

The old advertising slogan "Guinness is Good for You" may be true after all, according to researchers.

A pint of the black stuff a day may work as well as a low dose aspirin to prevent heart clots that raise the risk of heart attacks.

Drinking lager does not yield the same benefits, experts from University of Wisconsin told a conference in the US.

Guinness was told to stop using the slogan decades ago - and the firm still makes no health claims for the drink.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3266819.stm

Did you see this on facebook by any chance? A couple of people I know have posted it up there, so it's obviously doing the rounds. Bizarre that a seven year old story gets revived out of nowhere like this.

It on BBC right now as one of the 'most read' stories. I never noticed until you pointed it out that it was an old story. I wonder do marketing companies employee 'readers' to re-popularise the story?

[Zapatista]

Would something made of entirely natural ingredients such as barley, hops and yeast not be expected to vary. It could be down to transport, storage or it could even be seasonal. It could also be down to the farmers.

[delboy]

Would something made of entirely natural ingredients such as barley, hops and yeast not be expected to vary. It could be down to transport, storage or it could even be seasonal. It could also be down to the farmers.

The yeast will be a single strain that will be looked after by a number of well educated scientists, the barley and hops will vary with each season, but the big boys such as guiness reduce this variability by constantly blending last years crop with this years, they do it in an incremental way so that is virtually impossible to detect any difference. This allows them to produce batch after batch of almost identical beer, which is a great technical acheivement even if the beer itself isn't great (IMO).

[rolloutking]

Could someone explain the difference between a good pint and a bad one in terms of taste, forgetting about presentation.

[Tony Baloney]

Could someone explain the difference between a good pint and a bad one in terms of taste, forgetting about presentation.

It's like meeting the right woman. You just know!

[illdecide]

Could someone explain the difference between a good pint and a bad one in terms of taste, forgetting about presentation.

There will be a twang or slight bitter taste of a bad pint of muck

[theskull1]

Could someone explain the difference between a good pint and a bad one in terms of taste, forgetting about presentation.

It's like meeting the right woman. You just know!

Hopefully Ronan will write a song about it someday

[Hardy]

The biggest problem is that taste is very subjective and also variable in an individual and affected by what you've eaten, etc. Use toothpaste before going for a pint and the pint will taste horrible. A lot of supposedly bad pints have been condemned in error by people who had just eaten a quarter pound of peppermints or the like.

I mentioned here before the blindfold mineral experiment. Taste cola, ginger ale, seven up, lemonade blindfolded and very few will identify everything with 100% accuracy. In fact few will do better than a random outcome. I know that's hard to believe, but try it. Especially after a few pints. It's a great bit of crack in the pub as well.

But yes - a bad pint tastes sour with a lingering aftertaste of what dirty socks smell like. Most of the Guinness you get now, even in the revered Dublin pubs of old, tastes like that.