BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?

Subject: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 02:13 AM

I just bought a six-pack of "Guinness Draught", and on the front of the bottle it says, "Serve Extra Cold". Then on the side of the bottle it says, "To really enjoy Guinness Draught, chill for at least 2 hours. Drink straight from the bottle." I can just hear the folks at St. James's Gate rolling on the floor laughing at all the Americans who think the best way to serve beer is encased in dry ice. Or did somebody discover something new about Guinness while I wasn't looking?

And what's with this thing rattling around the bottom of the bottle? The little legend says: "Hear something? That's the new rocket widget delivering you the great taste of Guinness Draught." Looks like a miniature gray plastic torpedo. Is somebody over there going to let us in on the joke?

Aloha,
Mark

(And just in case somebody is going to complain that this isn't a musical thread...)

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Crazy Eddie
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 02:50 AM

The little rattley thing is a widget!
A plastic bubble filled with dry ice, (frozen Carbon Dioxide).
The pressure inside the bottle or can prevents the plastic from rupturing. When you open the bottle, the pressure is reduced. The plastic bubble bursts, releasing CO2 gas throughout the beer, thus imitating "Draught" beer.

I lke my guinness cold, but this "Extra-cold" stuff is (IMNSHO)a perversion. In Ireland, most pubs now offerer both cold & "Extra-cold" draught. I think it's an attempt to appeal to younger drinkers who are used to lager served at low temperature.
Anyway, enough of the technicalities, Enjoy your Guinness! Slainte, Eddie

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 03:04 AM

Actually, I've always been of the opinion that any beer that can't be enjoyed at room temperature isn't worth drinking. It's interesting, and sad, that the "cold beer" mentality, which I think started in America because the beer tasted so bad you had to numb your taste buds to drink it, has infected even Ireland herself.

And thanks, Eddie, I did enjoy it....unrefrigerated!

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Mike Byers
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 07:28 AM

When my friend Roger and I first tried this version of Guinness Draught, we didn't bother to read the instructions and just drank it at room temperature. We both noticed something rattling around in the bottles (we are very observant fellows, you see) when we poured the Guinness into glasses (remember, we didn't read the instructions). "Dang!", Roger said, "There's something in this bottle!" "Mine, too", I said. Fortunately, I work with glass so we went out to the shop and cut the bottles apart with a diamond-blade bandsaw and out fell these little plastic things that looked sort of like rocket ships. Being from the United States, we figured we could sue the Guinness people for selling stout with foreign objects in it and thereby obtain free Guinness for the rest of our lives, but this scheme was spoiled by the information on the label. "Oh, well," I said, "we'd better have another Guinness." And so we did, unrefrigerated and in glasses, too. We may be scofflaws and rebels from the United States, but we aren't entirely without sensitivity.

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 07:33 AM

I always thought tha draught Guiness wasn't brought up by Carbon Dioxide (like other beers) but by compressed nitrogen. Am I wrong ?

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 07:45 AM

If you don't like the taste but want the image of being a Guinness drinker I suppose it makes sense. Mind you there is other black stuff you can drink that looks much the same, so you get the same visual impact - Coca Cola for example.

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 08:07 AM

If you go into a number of UK pubs these days, you will find Guinness and Guiness Extra Cold on offer, the Extra Cold Just goes through another cooler. I like the normal stuff and fail to see why anyone should want it colder but there must be a market for the other one.

Re the widget and Guiness, Guiness use nitrogen or a nitrogen mix in thier gas for draughts as opposed to CO2. This article gives some info on the widget.

Jon

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 08:08 AM

Try this article

Jon

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: little john cameron
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 08:19 AM

Whit's this aboot a "bottle"?We hae Guinness here tae.Draught,in a bottle an in a can.The cans hae the "Widget" bit no' the bottle.The stuff in the bottle is piss.Brewed in Canada.The wife bocht me some by mistake ane time an' twa moothfaes an, doon the stank it went."It must be some bad if you cannae drink it" she said. ljc

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 08:44 AM

LJC the canned widgets have been around for ever, the bottled widgets are a relatively new innovation. The beer tastes the same in either case. (Or so I remember)

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 09:10 AM

In Ireland, the bubbles RISE in your glass of Guiness. In the US, they fall. Why? Is that CO2 v. N2?

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: annamill
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 09:18 AM

I'm sorry guys, but I love the new Guiness. You don't have to drink it from the bottle either. I like it better in a pilsner glass. It has the same slow moving effervecence(SP) as real draft(how we spell it in the US) Guiness. Who cares from what it is derived. Ahh, the vile black stuff with bubbles.

Love, Annamill

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Mark Clark
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 11:08 AM

Mark, I'm with you on the beer preference. If I ever get to Hawaii we'll have a great time drinking beer. After that we'll see if we can still play music; if we can, we'll drink more beer.

And who says this isn't a music thread? Can one make music without beer? I've heard rumors but I've never actually seen it done. <g>

I'm very fond of Guinness in all its forms but once I ran into a really bad batch. I was with several other people on a fishing trip to Lake of the Woods, Ontario. We planned to camp on an island for ten days or so and would have no way to replenish our stores so we stopped to load up on essentials (beer) before boating to the island. I bought a considerable store of Guinness but didn't try any until the next day after we had set up camp. It was then that I discovered that the “Guinness” I had purchased wasn't bottled in Dublin like the brew we get here, it was bottled locally by LeBatt's (I think) under license. Well I can tell you that LeBatt's had an entirely different impression of what Guinness should be like than I do. I can't believe that anyone from Guinness' corporate headquarters had ever tasted the product that LeBatt's was selling under their brand name.

I still don't understand why anyone would drink a major label beer product from the U.S., at any temprature.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 11:14 AM

"In Ireland, the bubbles RISE in your glass of Guiness. In the US, they fall. "

I can't believe in the existance of a version of Guinnness with bubbles that fall - you'd end up with the head at the bottom of the glass.

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 11:21 AM

What happens in Australia? We need more information.

To keep it near music I remember a song with the lovely line in it 'I'm arse over tit in love with Guinness'. Anybody got that one?

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: little john cameron
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 11:35 AM

That's the stuff ah meant Mark.That wisnae a bad batch,it is aw' like that,the Canadian stuff if TERRIBLE!!! ljc

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Kim C
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 11:38 AM

Guinness very cold has a certain bitterness to it that I just don't really like. Guinness slightly chilled has a distinctive mellowness that's very tasty. To each their own, I suppose.

A black beer I've just discovered - Young's Double Chocolate Stout. OhmaGAWD.

I like light beers cold, and dark beers not so cold. And from May until about the end of September, it's Shandy Time at the Caudell house. :-) Nothin like a lovely cold shandy on a hot day.

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 11:49 AM

In warm weather I'm happy enough with the extra cold. My partner Maggie prefers the normal one. But with the two taps together by ordering one of each we get our Guinness just that little bit faster! And as I tend to drink whiskey as well the extra cold keeps its temperature better.

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: GUEST,English Jon
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 11:50 AM

I think the biggest joke is that the strongly Loyalist Guinness familly are responsible for one of the most Iconically "Irish" of products - (which is, incidentally, a London Porter...)

Oh dear... time to duck.

EJ (who doesn't like guinness much, but will drink it in an emergency)

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: GUEST,English Jon again...
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 11:52 AM

Sorry, forgot to add: for those who like porter and stout style beers, have a go at Elgoods black dog if you get the chance. It's a mild, but it's very tasty.

Cheers, Jon

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Naemanson
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 12:02 PM

I've always enjoyed the story of the CEO's of Budwieser, Miller, and Guiness at a conference in Ireland. After the meeting they agree to go to a pub for a few beers. The Budwieser executive orders one of his firm's brews. The landlord hunts around until he finds a dusty bottle. The Miller executive orders a Miller Lite. The landlord has to send to the next pub for that one. The Guiness executive orders a Coca-Cola. Whe the other two ask about that he explains, I thought we were coming in for some beer but when you ordered soft drinks I thought I'd follow along."

I don't drink the vile black stuff either, Jon, nor do I understand the mystique. Still, it's fun to watch everyone strut around talking big about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: annamill
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 12:40 PM

After reading this yesterday, I went out and bought a case and had a few cold ones in a pilsner last night. Very refreshing, which is not really a word usually associated with Guiness. Filling and tasty maybe, but not usually refreshing. This was! Yeah. I think it's pretty good.

L.A.

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 12:41 PM

Guinness bubbles fall, only near the sides of the glass, the bigger bubbles rising in the middle create a 'current' if you will... I had an article explaining it better bookmarked once, but it seems to not have survived spring cleaning... If I find it again, I'll post it here...

The stuff in the glass bottles... fnnnneah... I had a bottle of it about a year ago or more... It wasn't as good as off the tap, but compared to the can, it'd do just as well...

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 12:56 PM

Guiness isn't the best beer in the world, but it is one of the best you can find in nearly every Irish and English pub in the U.S. I tend to drink it quite often, but unlike most of my friends, I am just as likely to choose one of a half-dozen other brews at the Bull & Bush Pub around the corner from my home.

In the U.S., the bubles do FALL - it's quite pretty, sort of a cascade from the foam on the top - they mostly disappear about 3/4 of the way down to the bottom.

The Guiness in the bottles with the rocket-shaped wocket (someone could turn this into a Danny Kaye routine) are new. We've had the cans for quite some time. It seems that the main different Guiness is pushing it that with the can you most definately have to have a 16 oz glass available one opening the can. The bottles are good to go without one. I prefer drinking my Guiness from a glass, so it doesn't matter for me.

As for drinking beer cold. There are some that are quite wonderful ice cold. The U.S. didn't come up with the idea as far as I know, it comes from the area in Central Europe that invented the pilsner beer in the first place.

There are many fine beers made in the U.S. One of the great limitation of U.S. beers is actually imposed on brewers by the government laws on alcohol content and the uniformity it forces brewers to achieve. Each state has different "alcohol levels" for beers - and it doesn't matter what kind of beer it is. ales, stouts, pilsners, bitters, etc. all have to conform to the same number (and that number is different in may states. The pilsners are successful because they tend to be low in alcohol content. Ice cold pilsners also happen to be refreshing in the hot summers most Americans live through.

One joke - Question: What's a Black and Tan? Answer: A perfectly good waste of half a pint of Guiness!

pax yall

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Willie-O
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 01:29 PM

Why the hell would anyone want to drink Guinness straight out of the bottle (or can)? And frankly I don't get it. The whole point of the stuff is that you pour it into a glass, and watch it concoct itself. Mmmm.

I recently found about the best bitter I've ever tasted, "Directors", a specialty label brand of the Courage Breweries. Marketed as being the very best malts that the company traditionally reserved for its Board of Directors personal stashes. And it is that good. Can't even get it in four or six-packs, only singles.

W-O

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Ringer
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 01:40 PM

Presumably a century or so ago, before the ubiquity (?) of refrigeration, Pilsner beers would have been drunk at cellar temperature? Freezing-cold beer must be a relatively modern "invention". And one not to my taste.

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Cobble
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 03:03 PM

I once had two bottles of guinness in Hong Kong cica 1970. It flattened in about three seconds flat. needless to say I went back on the Tiger beer.

Cobble.

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: GUEST,dave
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 03:34 PM

Hi folks; Why the hell have they started putting these blasted widget things in bottles too? I hate them. I hate decent British bitters too that use these damn things to ape bar tap draught. IMHO (based in Scotland btw) the closest that you can get to Irish Guinness is to take a can or bottle of non-widget Guinness and pour it, then take a fork and stir the excessive fizz out; this way you get the sharp, crisp pleasant bitter stout taste and NOT the mushy dishwater shittiness of beer affected by these dreadful gas inserts.

- have one on me! Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Mark Clark
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 03:51 PM

I've seen people drink Guinness right from the bottle but I never understood how they could make the little shamrock in the head without pouring it first. <g>

      - Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Desdemona
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 04:26 PM

It would appear that they're just trying to make sure they appeal to Americans, who by & large do seem to prefer beer to be served very cold. In my opinion, this just wastes good beer, but there's no accounting for taste: witness the invention of the frosted mug!

I like the "pub draught" cans well enough; while they're clearly no match for a real pour from a proper tap, it's still an improvement over the bottled version.

But anyone who drinks Guinness ice-cold straight from the bottle has already had enough & should be summarily shut off!

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: GUEST,Oulmole
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 10:02 PM

English Jon, Re the politics of stout (London porter?), i.e., the irony of the "strongly Loyalist Guinness family" marketing the iconic Irish black brew (you ducked, but no one fired! it's th' Peace Process, I'm tellin' ye): *what about Murphy's*? I prefer it annyway (now maybe *I* better duck); and I used to justify my oddball taste by associating the stuff with Rebel Cork. ("When ye go to Cork you get druisheen, and Murphy's Stout and pig's cruibheens; here's up them all, says the boys of Fair Hill", and all that sort of rot, eh wot? And indeed, on visits to Ireland I observed that the abundance of Murphy's signs seemed proportional to one's proximity to Cork City. BUT --- right here on me widgeted "Genuine Pub Draft" Murphy's can (bedamn, it's empty, how'd that happen?)it sez as bold as ye please: "Product of U.K. Brewed under supervision of Murphy Brewery Ireland Ltd. by Whitbread Beer Company, United Kingdom." Hmmph. Supervision?? Rubbish. Wot's the story, Jon? Does Mother England make *all* the Irish stout? What about Beamish? That one claims to be "Brewed Only in County Cork". Yeah but I don't like it! (Well--as you said--in an emergency...)(loosely defined...) Rule Britannia, -Joe in Connecticut

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: rangeroger
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 10:46 PM

For those of you who have problems with the idea of very cold Guiness, you should see what a Kiwi with entirely too much time on his hands does with it.

rr

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: rangeroger
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 10:50 PM

Ok, I'll try that again.

rr

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: rangeroger
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 10:54 PM

That didn't work either.last shot at blue-clicky thing.

rr

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 06 Feb 02 - 12:47 AM

Another thread of ignorance, profaning the sacred. First it was music.....

Now that we've move over to brew, they lack intelligence too

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: michaelr
Date: 06 Feb 02 - 09:15 PM

When I looked up at the Guinness ad I could never figure out
How yer man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout

--Christy Moore

BTW, Pilsner and other classic European brews WERE served at what's called "cellar temperature" - about 50 degrees F - because that was the ambient temperature of the beer cellar; in other words, unrefrigerated. It's a lot cooler in Northern Europe than in the US. On a hot California summer day I like my beer cold, but not so cold I can't taste it -- the frozen mugs must go!

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Guinness playing a joke on US?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 07 Feb 02 - 01:07 AM

Bethidths: your tongue geths thuk to the ugg...