I fucking hate "Guinness: Extra Cold. They market is as a summer drink as a lot of people say that Guinness is too “heavy” for a warm day and drink lager or cider. They also sell it as settling quicker so you get your pint quicker. Avoid it like the plague would be my recommendation. I’ve only ever seen one place(and that was a nightclub) that only had Extra Cold so you should always have a choice.
It’s everywhere coz Guinness sell it over here. It’s also got a very strong marketing campaign behind it and the US being somewhat culturally cool it gets some bonus from that as well.
Piss it is though. I’ve been drinking the black stuff all my adult life and I’ll be doing it till the day I drop. Lot’s of young people and girls don’t do the Guinness thing though.
That’s ok…more for the rest of us! 
In my fridge right now is Newcastle Brown Ale, Negra Modelo (ale) and Budweiser. And I’ll drink each and every one of them straight from the bottle, straight from the fridge. When I have Guinness in there, I drink it straight from the bottle, straight from the fridge. Sometimes I even get (GASP!!!111) canned Bud!
I’ve tried the whole warm beer deal and it just doesn’t appeal to me, so I’m sure the beer snob brigade will come along shortly and tell me that my pallet isn’t refined enough to enjoy warm beer. No matter, I’ve tried it and didn’t like it. If I hadn’t tried it, I’d concede the point.
When I was in Thailand a few years ago, I actually had to stop people from putting ice cubes into my glass of Singha.
I felt terrible opposing the hospitality of my hosts, but still…I wanted to enjoy the beer, not the water.
They were very nice about it, if puzzled at my lack of enthusiasm.
I’ve heard the (perhaps apocryphal) tale of a friend of a friend asking for Guinness: Extra cold in an authentic Irish pub, wherein the barman, without flinching, pours a pint of normal Guinness and dumps some ice cubes into it.
I assume that it must have happened to someone at some point, and it’s a hilarious image. You ever heard about this?
I didn’t hear about that - and it does seem to good to be true. I did, however, hear on Irish radio that a few years ago, regular Guinness in Ireland used to be served much warmer.
In order to promote the beer as more of a young persons’ drink, Guinness dropped the tap temperature to 4C, in conjunction with some of the most awesome commercials in the history of advertising, and sales rocketed.
This alas, upset the older Guinness drinkers of the country, so some pubs installed a microwave oven behind the bar, and, on request, would zap the pint for about 10 seconds after it was poured.
Just to be clear, no beer should be served “warm” in the conventional sense. Cellar temperature is a more accurate term. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a room temp (70-75 F) beer anywhere in Europe. MAYBE some of the Belgians, but my recollection is that the warmest I’ve been served is perhaps 55-60 F.
Living near Detroit, I drink Canadian beers. I drink while playing golf or after racketball. A warm beer will not do at those times. Cold matters.
American beer tastes like ass warm and even cool. I like Bud, Bud Light, High Life, PBR, whatever, but it needs to be hand-cramping cold; then it’s great . . . for cheap beer. I am a cheep beer guy and I make no appologies. Some men like steaks, I prefer burgers and pizza. Give me a cool easy lay over a high maintenace deb any day. Same with beer. But . . . I will say that having had Guiness served properly (in Dublin), it is a fine treat. Problem is, in the US, so many places that serve it, pour it like any other beer and don’t wait for it to settle. My experience in Ireland was that you didn’t even get th beer until the publican decided it was reaady for you to drink. Over here, I find a lot of places give you a carmel colored frothy cup of foam
I once went to an “Irish” bar in Bloomington, IN, and ordered a “pint of Guinness” as advertised. I got an effete tall, thin glass that would only have held about 2/3 of a pint when full, that was 1/3 Guinness and 2/3 head. I took it back to the bar and said, in my poshest English accent: “I say my man, I’m Irish I’ll have you know, and that’s not a pint!” The guy believed my fake nationality, and to his credit let me behind the bar to pour it properly.
One must remember that a British pint and an American pint are not the same measurement. An Imperial pint is 20 fl. oz, and an American pint is 16 oz. However, one then must remember that a Imperial fluid ounce is not the same as an American fluid ounce. 1 Imperial fluid ounce is 28.4 mL, and a US fluid ounce is 29.6 mL. So, in the end:
American pint = 473 mL
Imperial pint = 568 mL
So, an Imperial pint is 20% larger than an American pint.
But, yeah, the foam is unexcusable. Truth is, at the very many good Irish bars around Chicago, they do know how to pour a proper pint (they will take about 2 minutes or so to do it right), and they will use Imperial pint glasses.
I hope they realise that making a shamrock in the top is in fact the corniest thing a Guinness pint pourer could do. Not that I drink the stuff, it tastes like soil. Freezing cold lager, thanks.
What really annoys me is when the brainless philistine behind the bar at a decent brewpub, or a bar that actually has decent beer on tap, serves me my ale in a glass straight from the freezer! That may be good for Bud, you nimrod, but I want to be able to taste that beer I ordered. Either learn to run the glass under warm water for a few seconds, or go back to working at the Food Barn.
If soil tastes that good, I should try it. Guinness is proof that God exists and wants us to be happy.
I was about to make a snarky “you should try it in Ireland” comment, until I checked your location. If you dislike Guinness on your side of the pond be damn sure to avoid it if you ever come a-visiting the States. I’ve not been able to finish a Guinness over here since I had the best two beers of my life in Kilkenny. American Guinness tastes burnt to me.
Of course, I’m just guessing that English Guinness doesn’t suck quite as bad, guessing becuase -
- I couldn’t find anything but Bud and some French beer (that wasn’t too bad) during my short stay in London and
B) Remembering some of the history of the two countries, I suppose it’s possible they send us the stuff they won’t drink, and England gets the stuff that Ian’s sheep “spiced up”
If the sea was beer instead of salty water,
I’d live and die in Galway bay…
that is a damn shame, because the two shouldn’t be mentioned together in the same sentence. we won’t go there about american culture.
and a fine brew it is too. altho the imported has a distinctly different taste than what i drank for 750 clicks across all of southern ireland. smithwicke’s and bulgar’s as well.
sigh. 
i miss ireland…
I wonder about the beer served during the time before refridgeration or thermosts. It must have been served during room temperature. And why does brewing temperature affect the temperature beer is best served at?
It’s just the temperature the flavors are the best at. Colder fermentation means fewer esters are produced, and those are a major part of the flavor of ales. So ales are fermented and served at a warmer temperature than lagers. Remember, “room temperature” is in the 50s, not the 72 degrees Americans seem to think is the norm.
You misspelt Beamish.