Is there less terrible Guinness being poured these days?

Posted by Milkshake4NickDrake@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 12 comments

I've been served my fair share of shockingly poured pints of Guinness in British pubs over the years, as we all will have. I've learnt which pubs will do a good job and tended only to order Guinness in them. If I'm in a chain pub, or a random unknown train station bar or somewhere I'll give it a swerve and get a lager or Camden pale or something. I've recently risked a few pints of Guinness over the last few weeks in 'risky' pubs and.... they've not been shit? They've done the 'stormy' settle, had a decent head, and been fine. What's the story there? Have the kegs changed or something? Or have I just been lucky?

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12 Comments

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eamon360@reddit

It’s a shame the market for stouts isn’t bigger. Guinness is fine, but that’s all it is. I’ve had better stouts in pubs but after a while the taps get replaced with Guinness.

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Old-Pea-310@reddit

It’s 90% bullshit, people just take the bait. The reality is the market is more competitive, so on average people are probably taking more care of their beer.

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Next-Project-1450@reddit

I remember when Guinness began selling it in cans with a syringe on the side. What you did was pour the can into a glass (which produced very little head), then you'd pull up a small volume into the syringe, and quickly inject it back into the bulk. It caused the bubbles to form, and gave the perfect sized head. A heck of a gimmick. Incidentally, I first tried it in the bar at my first squash club. Naturally, we all wondered what would happen if you used the syringe in lager. We have the results for you, so you don't need to try it yourselves: it converted three quarters of the lager into 'head', which naturally didn't fit the pint glass. I doubt it would have fitted two pint glasses. Very messy.

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Internal-Leadership3@reddit

The marketing wizards at Guinness HQ have been pulling a blinder for years on end, getting everyone to believe their drink is wonderful stuff, when it's really just the Carling Black Label of the stout world. Some of the (older) adverts were great to watch.

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electricfeel1995@reddit

Been a big increase in younger folks drinking Guinness recently, and I think it's had an effect of the quality of the average pour, as you'll primarily have 18-25yo working in pubs. There's also the huge amount of Guinness posts on social media, as well(shitlondonguinness, Guinness guru etc), which has probably increased awareness of what a decent pint will look like

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Ok-Cauliflower-7760@reddit

It ends up tasting the same anyway so not sure what all the fuss is about

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Useless_Apparatus@reddit

There is no story - it's mostly in your head. Guinness isn't some rocket science, it's all just marketing that everyone falls for & if your palette is refined enough to be some sort of Guinness sommelier then I have no idea but I've worked at dozens of pubs in my time & seen perfect pints poured a variety of ways, including without letting it 'settle' that part can be done at any stage of pouring it & it makes next to no difference on how it feels to drink if you've not already mentally invested in the myth. A badly poured pint is a badly poured pint no matter what it is, whether that's the server, dirty lines or a bad keg.

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Milkshake4NickDrake@reddit (OP)

It's a delightful fiction that I'm happy to have fallen for.

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Useless_Apparatus@reddit

Power to you, wouldn't change it, everyone needs a bit of magic!

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moreglumthanplum@reddit

Our local did undrinkably sh\*t Guinness for many years, so nobody drank it, so the barrel was always expired, so it just got worse... then they ditched the barrel and got the Nitro system. Yes, it's from a can. No, it's nowhere near as good as a moderately well-kept pint of draught. But it's not bad, and it's consistent, and the barman can't really cock it up. Certainly does the job for the odd occasion when only a Guinness will do. But I still get excited when I hit a pub that has a really well kept pint of the black stuff.

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Bug_Parking@reddit

Seems like things have got better over time. You could say, good things come to those who wait.

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