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Guinness¶

308 words

Canned guinness not nice. While probably anything canned isn't as nice as the proper stuff – when Guinness is concerned there are at least different degrees of badness.

I learned this a few years ago during a fun talk about the hydrodynamics of a pint of Guinness that explained why during the 'settling' of the white top of said drink the bubbles are going downwards where you can see them although in total they're of course moving upwards (things like bubble size, convection and, iirc, glass shape come into play here).

To understand the how the bubbles exist in the liquid at different sizes, we had to be told how they get there. That part of making a good pint of Guinness seems to involve some pressure trickery and injecting nitrogen to generate the bubbles in the first place. Without that the drink will be rather stale. That is why ordinary canned Guinness isn't nice.

There is, however, another canned variation of canned Guinness, called 'Guinness Draught' I think, that looks like standard pint sized cans but will only contain 440ml of liquid and some device that will inject nitrogen into the liquid as soon as you open the can. That way you can have a much better canned Guinness experience. Still not the same as from the tap but at least with all the hydrodynamics in place...

Yep... apparently the drink is spelled with a double 'n'. Just because drink it doesn't mean you can spell it. Another funny remark: They won't let you enter their website if you claim to be from Afghanistan or born in 2000 and so on. Allegedly due to 'the laws of your country'. I wonder whether they checked all those laws – and which laws currently hold in Iraq. They claim this is to promote 'responsible drinking' or similar rubbish.

November 29, 2003, 16:46

Comments

Comment by Richard Anderson: ¶

Without more information, I need to assume the referenced post is about the canned version of Guinness you speak of… that with the gaseous ball thingy inside. (Now available in bottle form as well.) Although it is early here; maybe I have misread something.

My understanding of a draft Guinness is that it gains that pressure trickery only at the tap itself — no added gasses. If you remove the tapered nozzle from the tap it will pour just like any other beer (albeit with a decent head like any good beer should).

Alternatively, one can take the same nozzle and put it on any beer tap and achive a similar fall-out effect. The results will be less dramatic with lagers but still works well on creamier pints like Boddingtons (an ale?; also available in the draft can).

Or so I’ve heard.

Those draft cans have saved my sanity a few times so I can’t join in a hard critique of them. I’ve never had any beer that was not better from the tap and for some folks, a good tap is not always near.

December 1, 2003, 12:36

Comment by ssp: ¶

I don’t think the referenced post is about the ‘draught’ cans. It sounds more like the ordinary ones - which are sold in the same supermarkets strangely.

I’m not too sure about the injecting nitrogen bit. There doesn’t seem to be hard information on the net. Hard as in ‘beyond rumors’, that is. I was told about the nitrogen once and it made sense to me. Still, it doesn’t need to be true.

IANAPO (I am not a pub owner)

December 2, 2003, 0:41

Comment by Richard Anderson: ¶

I heard the bit about the tap nozzle from my bartender in Cambridge, MA.

As far as the cans go, there is a gas inside th ball that is rsomehow released upon opening; I’ve not seen any Guinness cans without this — even in France where the cans are not pint’s but “thirds” (of liters) which have the same “draft action” as the pint can available in the US.

IWIWAPO (I’ll leave that for the obvious decipher :-)

December 2, 2003, 19:56

Comment by Chris Clark: ¶

In the post I was actually discussing the Draft cans. Though those particular 440ml Draft cans (with the ‘floating widget’… whose function is indecipherable) do pour a genuinely-attractive beer, the taste still isn’t up to scratch. I’m yet to try the Draft stubbies because I’m deathly afraid of them… the notion of drinking Guinness straight from a bottle confuses me greatly.

All things said and done, no beer tastes as good in a can as it does in a bottle, and no beer tastes as good in a bottle as it does on tap. “The medium affects the message” so to speak.

The 375ml cans of ‘Guinness Stout’ are actually quite tolerable though.. you just have to accept that it isn’t the same beer as ‘Guinness Draft’ and must judge it on its own merits. ‘Guinness Double Chocolate Stout’ is remarkably enjoyable, though for all intents and purposes it looks nothing like a ‘real’ Guinness when poured into a glass.

As for the tapered nozzle, it does indeed handle the creaming at the tap. It pushes the beer through a number of small holes, agitating it and somehow producing the desired final effect. Without the nozzle, the head isn’t as well-formed; in fact, it just-plain-sucks. It’s less like the uniquely creamy head you expect from Guinness and more like the weird foam you get when you put ice-cream into coca-cola.

I think I spend too much time around alcohol.

December 8, 2003, 7:20

Comment by ssp: ¶

I thought the ‘draught’ cans weren’t too bad. That said, I don’t really like beer so I’m probably not the best person to judge this. I only drink Guinness because it isn’t really beer and it helps when you skipped dinner…

I’ve never seen the ‘double chocolate’ Guinness, but I’d be curious to try it. I’ve tried another chocolaty stout which was quite nice in fact.

December 10, 2003, 18:42

Comment by Chris Clark: ¶

Isn’t really beer?! My god.

I must confess, the cans aren’t as bad as I make out; but I love to be melodramatic. So sue me. It is annoying, though, that the cans’ taste is noticeably different to the tap.

and yes.. Guinness is the meal replacement shake for the health-unconscious. I love it.

December 10, 2003, 19:40

Comment by ssp: ¶

Isn’t really beer?! My god.

Just view that as a compliment for Guinness as ‘beer’ for me is a bad term.

Or put it this way: Beer is disgusting. So if its not disgusting it can’t have been beer to begin with.

As far as I am concerned, the only types I can drink are the dark ones (stout ?) and some of the ‘real ale’ thingies. All the other ones (bitter, lager, Pils, whatever…) are not my kind of thing.

And yes this makes going to a pub a bit annoying (particularly in Germany, where there usually is no Guinness or cider) as there almost always seems to be at least one tolerable beer, while the wines or cocktails are always very bad or very expensive.

December 12, 2003, 18:36

Comment by MSP: ¶

For what it’s worth, regarding the Guinness on tap … the tip is just so you get a clean flow, but the true magic happens farther back. Guinness in a pub is properly despensed using a 75%N2/25%CO2 gas mixture. Stored at 38 degrees and by the time it’s poured 44, the tip just directs the flow so you don’t get any “extra” head. The widgets in the cans have the same gas mixture and release it when you open the can due to the difference in pressure. The bottle widget is designed so it only releases the gas at an angle (when you bring it to your mouth). Hope that helps clear things up.

January 12, 2004, 17:48