8 Ways to Tell You’ve Been Poured a Great Guinness, According to an Expert
Tracking down a bar that serves Guinness isn’t hard, but finding where to get a truly exceptional, well-executed pint of Guinness is another story.
Nobody ever says “that bar pours the best Bud Light” or “this is the bar you go to when you want a good Coors Banquet.” For Guinness, however, storing, pouring, and serving the stout have become an art form — one that begins the moment fresh kegs arrive on the loading dock.
In tandem with the beer’s recent rise in popularity, there’s been a flurry of attention surrounding what makes or breaks a proper pint of Guinness. There are now even entire Instagram accounts dedicated to highlighting some of the best and worst pours out there.
There are many factors that affect the taste, aroma, texture, and visual appeal of a proper Guinness. To find out the standard criteria for judging a pint’s quality, we consulted with Ryan Wagner, Guinness expert and national ambassador for Guinness Open Gate Brewery.
Here are eight ways to tell you’ve been poured a great pint of Guinness.
The Bartender Executes a Proper Two- or Three-Part Pour
While some have dismissed the famous two-part pour as a marketing ploy, many swear by its magic as a crucial component of a proper pint of Guinness. To perform said pour, the bartender must hold the glass at a 45-degree angle beneath the tap and let the stout cascade down until the glass is three-quarters full. The server should then let the beer settle for about a minute and a half before topping it off with the glass positioned upright, thus yielding a picture-perfect pour with a dense-creamy head. The process allows bartenders to achieve consistency between pours and control over the beer’s texture and presentations, but there’s a historical reasoning for the ritual as well.
“Guinness beer prior to the invention of nitrogenation and the release of Guinness Draught Stout in 1959 was often served from two separate casks,” Wagner explains. “The first was a ‘high’ beer, which was bright and lively, pulled right from the brewing tanks. The second cask was filled with the ‘aged’ or ‘matured’ Guinness beer, which had spent time in our maturation vats.”
Although the Guinness of today conveniently comes in one keg, the brand — and most bartenders — still swear by the two-part pour as an integral part of the full Guinness experience. Some institutions, like NYC’s The Dead Rabbit, even claim that breaking down the pour into three steps is the best way to yield a perfect pint. In this scenario, the bartender should perform the first pour as it’s done in the standard two-part technique. However, the second pour begins at a 45-degree angle with the tap handle pulled all the way forward, and the bartender should turn the glass upright as the beer nears the top of the glass. Finally, after a second settling period, the server should top off the pint until the head rises just above the rim of the glass. The whole process takes around two minutes, but as the Guinness brand itself has famously stated, “Good things come to those who wait.”
The Pint Is Served in a 20-ounce Tulip Pub Glass
Unlike Belgian tulip glasses, which traditionally have a stem and a bulbous bottom that tapers slightly at the top, a tulip pub glass, or Guinness draft glass, is kind of the opposite. There’s never a stem and the bottom half of the glass is narrower than the top half. This unique shape helps showcase both the stout’s aromatics and its signature creamy head.
“Nitrogenation works best in a glass that allows the bubbles to cascade down the sides, gather in the middle of a flat bottom, then rise through the center of the beer to begin building that classic domed head,” Wagner says. “The closed-in sides at the top help direct aroma toward our olfactory receptors.”
Admittedly, the brand sells both tankards and stemmed glasses for Guinness through its website, but most bars serve the beer in traditional tulip glasses, likely due to price and availability. Regardless, if a Guinness arrives in a standard shaker pint, it’s time to find another bar.
No Bubbles Cling to the Inside of the Glass
Nobody likes dirty glassware, and unfortunately it’s pretty much impossible to snipe out until it’s too late. If a bartender presents a fresh pint of Guinness — or any beer for that matter — and there are pockets of tiny bubbles clinging to the sides of the glass, that’s a telltale sign of less-than-sanitary glassware.
“Sometimes, it’ll look like condensation that you can’t wipe away,” Wagner says. “Glassware that has been prepped specifically for the purpose of receiving beer and allowing you to enjoy it should be clean, dry, and free of residual soaps or sanitizers.”
Whether there’s oil, dish soap, food particles, or any combination thereof in a glass, a beer’s carbon dioxide (CO2) bubbles will stick right onto them, thus hindering the beer’s carbonation and overall flavor. On the contrary, if a glass is dry and squeaky clean, a pour of Guinness should bear a black-to-deep-ruby hue uninterrupted by pesky bubbles.
The Head Remains After the Pint Is Finished
According to Guinness, another benefit to serving the stout in clean glassware is that it helps preserve the beer’s lacing (residue from the brew’s head that sticks to the glass after each sip). As the head moves farther and farther down the glass, it should ideally leave lacy cobwebs of foam behind at every step of the way. Even after the pint is finished, there should be a substantial amount of lacing still clinging to the glass. It’s more about aesthetics — as lacing doesn’t have a huge impact on flavor or texture — but since we first drink with our eyes, proper lacing is a non-negotiable component of the full Guinness experience.
The Head Is the Right Size and Forms a Small Dome Above the Glass’s Rim
The “right size head” may be subjective, but according to Guinness’s parent company Diageo, a good pint should have a half- to three-quarter-inch head that sits slightly above the harp logo on Guinness-branded glassware. If there’s not much of a head, the pint will lose some of its velvety texture. Likewise, if there’s too much of a head, the beer beneath will likely be under-carbonated, resulting in a flat, watery mouthfeel.
“When everything is in balance — the gas, the temperature, the glassware prep, the freshness of the beer — you’ll end up with a thick head of foam that will add just a touch of bitterness to each creamy sip, while sticking around the entire pint,” Wagner says.
Additionally, when topping off a pint of Guinness, the head should rise slightly above the rim of the glass, forming a small protruding dome. Not only does this add tremendous visual appeal, it also lets drinkers know that they’re not getting shorted on their pint.
“The bit of foam that lives just above the rim of the glass is a great sign that your bar and bartender pour their pints with pride,” Wagner says. “My rule of thumb for the two-part pour is pouring the second part for half a heartbeat longer than you think you should. Then, let the magic of 300 million nitrogen bubbles go to work.”
The Guinness Is Cold, and There Are No Big Bubbles in the Head
Like any other beer, Guinness is best stored and served cold. Adequate storing temperature both keeps beer from spoiling and ensures that the gasses in beer stay properly balanced. As with sparkling wine, if a beer is too warm, the CO2 within it will break out of suspension and cause the beer to foam up wildly when it’s dispensed. Conversely, beer that’s too cold will retain more gas, preventing it from yielding a nice foamy head.
While Guinness gains its fizz from a blend of three parts nitrogen and one part CO2, temperature is still a crucial factor in how its carbonation holds up.
“Your pint should be served around 40 degrees Fahrenheit,” Wagner says. “It’s at that temperature that the little bit of CO2 in the beer is at its happiest. Any warmer, and the beer will get a bit too excited, leading to overly large heads and a few bubbles in the top of the pint.”
If a pint clocks in at the right temperature, but there are still large bubbles breaking up the uniformity of its head, there’s a good chance the bartender isn’t holding the glass close enough to the spout when pouring.
“Think about dropping a pebble in a pond. The higher you release the pebble, the more splashes, ripples, and waves it’ll make when it hits the surface,” Wagner says. “The same thing goes for a pint. Hold it close, but never let the spout touch the beer.”
It Tastes Smooth, Balanced, and Roasty
Guinness didn’t become the most beloved stout on the planet with its looks alone. It owes much of its mass appeal to being rich, roasty, and crushable all at the same time. Every pint should fit this profile and carry flavorful notes of dark fruits, chocolate, and coffee balanced with a hoppy bitterness.
If a pint of Guinness falls short on any of these fronts, the bar serving it could be sitting on stale kegs or serving its beers through dirty draft lines. On top of that, when it comes to the distance between the kegs and the draft faucets, shorter is better. Not only can long keg lines lower a draft system’s serving pressure, but beer that’s left to linger in keg lines at the end of a shift is prone to developing off flavors, due to either oxidation or unsanitary tubing.
“When everything about the draft system in the bar is in perfect working order, the pint will feature an almost magical balance of roasty malt character, light bitterness, and creamy texture,” Wagner says. “Just make sure you don’t only sip the head — that’s where all of the bitterness lives. The body of the beer is lighter and more drinkable than you might expect.”
Other People at the Bar Are Drinking Guinness, Too
While it’s not a surefire way to know you’ve been poured a great pint of Guinness, reading the room can offer a hint as to whether or not a bar has its nitro stout system firing on all cylinders. “Simply put, Guinness Draught Stout drinkers know where to find the best pints,” Wagner says.
If the bar in question is an Irish pub that’s slinging Guinness left and right, there’s a strong chance that the owners and operators take great care of their draft system and know how to execute a proper pour. On the other hand, if a bar has Guinness on tap, but it doesn’t appear to be a popular choice among the clientele, it’s probably best to just settle for a lager.
“The old adage of Guinness Draught Stout tasting somehow better in Ireland is simply not true,” Wagner says. “There are tons of bars in this country where you’ll find a pint every bit as good as those served across the way. You just have to know where to look.”
*Image retrieved from Faina Gurevich via stock.adobe.com
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