I used to own a guinness t-shirt that said “Guinness: What you’ve been training for” …I still own a “Guinness:Gaelic for Genius” shirt
For those who wish to rise to the challenge, but come from a background of bud light drinking…in Chicago…my then future wife and I used to go to the Thatch pub. They would add just a bit of black currant syrup to the Guinness for the newbies…seemed to help the adjustment process.
What fricken PISSES me off though is bar tenders who don’t know how to fucking pour a pint correctly. I will rip the esophagus out of the next moron who pours a Guinness straight up.
Corrct procedure: Fill about 3/4 of pint glass and wait…then wait some more…chat with cute barmaid…THEN come back and top off the pint. Shamrock design on top is purely optional. Extra points though for using a knife to skim the excess head.
Curious, the shooting group I compete in has a different connotation - the dark side is shooting old fashioned smokey, sulphur/charcoal/saltpeter black gunpowder instead of modern smokeless. I do like a good pint of stout so I’m on the dark side in two ways.
For those of you who find Guinness a bit much try Young’s Oatmeal Stout. It’s just as …thick, but smoother.
Guiness on the old sod IS different than what you get here (I spent about 6 weeks in Ireland about 10 years ago). The reason is that in Ireland (and in the UK) the tax on a pint is based on the alcohol content, so the true Irish stuff is about 3.2%. Here in the U.S., it’s stronger. The bottled stuff is even stronger still (I don’t care for it). The nice thing about it in Ireland is you can drink alot of it without getting too ripped…
Pharmboy
Oh, yessss, what a wonderful thread for a dark, snowy night! Except…oh, damn, no Guinness in the house!
::pulls on boots, shovels out car, grumbles::
Lucie: still chuckling over your “great breakfast” comment.
Johnny LA: (asssumes “Snoopy” voice) Curses! Foiled again! I was going for that quote and you beat me to it.
Guinness is truly liquid bread–with a kick. (Russian rye?) I love the stuff. Even taken cut, as a black & tan or half & half or whatnot, it’s splendid.
Paraphrasing a (wine) t-shirt, “life is too short to drink bad beer”.
beagledave I for one always hated the pints at The Thatch. Badly poured,rude and oboxious culchies starting fights and scaring away decent customers, and just a blech atmosphere.
Gunther Murphy’s OTOH, ah what a brilliant pint!! The best I’ve had in the US, period. I am a bit biased as I’ve been going there for lo the many years, but it is with good reason.
Yeah the Thatch was not our fav place…just the first place we tripped across…it is right across the street from where my wifes brother had his wedding reception. The times we were there it seemed OK though…a bit on the small side though
Guinness kicks ass! But it’s gotta be on draught. I like it fine on its own, but it is absolutely sublime when mixed with bass ale to create the almighty black & tan.
I’ve ordered the film on DVD. Pretty wacky. My favourite bit is where Old Man Greaser keeps killing Lamey Homo, and Jesse comes by (“If you feel, you’ll heal!”) and brings him back to life. Either that, or the woman who is shot with an arrow in her thigh. She laboriously pulls it out, and is instantly hit with another arrow in exactly the same place! LMAO
Hey, you can still use Lamy Homo’s line about “swimming with unborn babies, and they’re all naked, then I turned into a perfect smile”.
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If you like Guinness, might I suggest a Black and Tan?
Which is Guinness mixed with lager, I believe the prefered choices are Harp or Bass.
If you pore the lager first, and then the Guinness slowly, over the back of a spoon, they will stay separate (well till you drink it) and look…well really cool.
There’s a really good “Hellblazer” story (it’s a comic book) about a guy who sells his soul to the devil for, amoung other things, a spell to turn water into the worlds most perfect Black and Tan. He uses it on a spring in his cellar that was blessed by St. Patrick.
The last night of his life his friend John Constantine (the main character in Hellblazer) comes to see him and they drink together. He dies right before midnight and John sees that the devil is coming for him. His friend told him the devil had to collect before midnight. So he pretends he doesn’t care about his friend (just an old sod) but he’s always wanted to be able to say he’s had a drink with the devil, and offers him a pint. Whereupon, he removes the spell, turning the black and tan back into holy water and sending the devil screaming back to hell in agony. He misses his deadline and his friend makes it into heaven.
I dunno. Just seemed like a good Guinness story to me.
Guinness is good the world over, but none have compared to the first pint I had in Dublin. Revelatory it was. Like drinking the sweet breath of a baby…
[sub]not that I’ve ever sampled baby’s breath. I just get all poetic and stuff remembering that pint…[/sub]
Ahhh cool yer jets …it was a temporary bridge for her to the promised land…when you’ve been corrupted by Clydesdale piss, sometimes you need help awakening the palate…
I prefer Guinness to Murphys…although Murphys is still better than this
