The Ultimate Creamy Head (Guinness Draught)

Member Name: Mauri

Product:	Guinness Draught
Date:	30/01/02 (564 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great taste

Disadvantages: None

Nothing is more Irish than Guinness stout but this was not always the case in fact Guinness is a copy of a traditional type of English ale!

MY OWN EXPERIENCE WITH GUINNESS

Ever since going to University in the south of England I have been a confirmed real ale drinker. The south has some great local breweries making some great beers, Gales, Fullers, Harveys, Ringwood. One drawback of drinking ale is that it can be difficult to find a good pint, which can be a health risk! And in some pubs real ale is not stocked at all. So what do you do if you don’t trust the quality of the ale the landlord keeps or if you have no choice at all? One option is to drink Guinness. This is how I started effectively as a substitute for real ale, but over the years I have come to like the taste and more often than not it is my drink of choice in pubs.

Guinness is a very complex beer known as ‘Stout’ (see below), which has a very distinctive taste. It is almost sweet with a slight bitter aftertaste. If kept and served correctly it is very creamy but not too gassy. It makes a perfect sipping drink, and since it has relatively low alcohol content it won’t get you too drunk too soon.

A word of warning though there are danger to drinking it. A few years back I was fortunate enough to go on a stag weekend to Dublin (it turned in to 5 days). As the saying goes ‘when in Rome..’ so we were all drinking Guinness for the whole of our stay. The quality of Guinness in Dublin is superb, every pint tasted fresh and sweet a pleasure to drink. The quality was not the problem however, the quantity was! After I got home I found that my digestive system had undergone some strange metamorphosis and I’m sure this was due to my selective diet of Guinness to the exclusion of everything else for the duration of my trip. It took weeks for normal bowel function to be restored and for a period of months afterwards I couldn’t taste
Guinness without getting a queasy feeling in my stomach. I am glad to report that now many years on the symptoms have gone away and I am once again drinking and enjoying Guinness.

So what is this wonderful drink all about…?


A BIT OF HISTORY

In December 1759 the 34year old Arthur Guinness leased an old brewery Mark Rainsford's Ale Brewery sited on Dublin's James's Street for £45 per year on a lease of 9000 years.
His friends thought he was mad but Arthur Guinness proved them wrong. James’s Street was an ideal location having a natural good supply of water and many other breweries had set up there. In fact Dublin itself was a popular place for brewers with more than 70 breweries existing in the city at the time.

Recent import regulations had made business bad for local brewers and favoured the larger London Porter Breweries, which dominated the market. Although the home made beer was not of a high standard it still was drunk by many people in the towns, in rural Ireland however whisky, gin and poteen were more common drinks.
Arthur knew that there was a market for a high quality home brewed beer that would appeal to the native Irish. Arthur Guinness decided to take on the London Brewers and produce an Irish version of their ‘Porter’ a beer containing roasted barley, which gave it its dark colour. It was named Porter because it had been traditionally the drink of the porters in Covent Garden and Billingsgate markets.

In addition to ales, Arthur Guinness brewed a beer relatively new to Ireland that contained roasted barley, which gave it a characteristically dark colour. This brew
became known as "porter" so named because of its popularity with the porters and stevedores of Covent Garden and Billingsgate in London.
Guinness Porter became so popular that it eventually outsold all imported beers and then became popular outside of Ireland.

Guinness was not known as ‘stout’ until the early 1820’s when the expression ‘an extra stout porter’ started being used to describe a more full-bodied variety of the traditional ‘Porter’. Eventually Guinness became known as simply ‘Stout’ and around this time exports were being sold around the world. By 1914 the St. James’s brewery had become the largest in the world.

Although today there are Guinness breweries around the world all brews must contain a flavoured extract that is made at the original Dublin Brewery thus quality is assured.

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STOUT

In general stout is a dark brewed beer made by a process of top-fermentation, using highly roasted malts.

Guinness is a type of Dry Irish Stout. The alcohol content varies depending on where in the world you buy it. In the UK and Ireland it is about 4%, in North America it is slightly stronger at about 4.2% and in some tropical countries you can get an extra strong blend of about 7.5%.

Other types of Stout exist; sweet Stout is made in England and is weaker 3.7% alcohol. A Russian version known as Imperial stout is stronger anything between 7% and 10%.

HOW IS GUINNESS STOUT MADE?

Guinness toady is made in the same way as the original brew of the 1760’s

The main ingredient is locally grown Irish barley. The alcohol is obtained from the fermentation an extract of sprouting barley, which is then seasoned with hops to create the flavour. The added yeast produces the alcohol and the carbon dioxide from the sugar present. The careful balance between alcohol content, hops and gas give the beer it distinctive qualities.

*MALTING, MILLING, MASHING, ROASTING AND GRIST*

The barley has to be germinated before it can be used to brew with. This involves soaking for two days and then laying it out on the germ
ination floor, for the process to take place. After a time rootlets and leaf shoots can be seen sprouting. Inside the barley enzymes are produced that will eventually convert the starch present in to malt.
The malt is now milled keeping the barley husk as intact as possible.

A proportion of the Barley is roasted using vast roasting drums similar to those used in the production of coffee, this gives the beer its dark colour and distinctive taste.

*BREWING*

The next stage involves adding the grist to the brewing water this is known as mashing. The resulting mixture, the mash is heated in stages to allow the enzymes to break down the starch into fermentable sugar. After a filtration in the ‘kieve’ the liquid component, the ‘wort’ is separated from the solid, and then boiled in the brew house kettles. At this stage the hops are added. Hops give bitterness and extra flavour to the beers. The hops used in the making of Guinness come form around the world mainly from the US England and Germany although some are grown locally near Kilkenny.
The sterile boiled extract is allowed to settle and then pumped, and cooled in the process, to the fermentation vessel.

Ale yeast or (Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Carlsbergensis) is needed for fermentation which takes place at a temperature of 7 to 12C over a period of 10days. The yeast sinks to the bottom hence the name top fermentation. After a period of maturation the beer is then sent to the packaging plant to be stored in Kegs.




HOW DO YOU DRINK IT?

This seem quite obvious, but as with all beer the conditions in which it is kept and how it’s served will greatly affect the quality of the drink. Draught Guinness can be served quite cold, colder than would be ideal for other ales. The ideal temperature seems to be between 5-8 C. Most Pubs will keep Guinness at cellar temperature usually not as low as this so ordering extra cold Gui
nness is they have it is better to get the optimum flavour.

A pint of Guinness can take some time to be poured and the process should not be hurried. The usual way is to pour about three quarters of a pint in a glass and then leave it for a minute to settle then carefully to pour the rest.

Guinness should be dispensed using a mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide gases rather than (as is more usual with beer) carbon dioxide alone. The nitrogen makes very fine bubbles in the beer but is not absorbed by it so the beer is not over carbonated. This process produces a creamy brown head. In many pubs the barman will manoeuvre the pint so that a shamrock is made in the top of the head. If the Guinness is of good quality this ‘drawing’ along with the head should last to the bottom of the glass.

Having told you about how you should drink Guinness I should also mention some of the more bizarre variations to these rules.

*Black and Tan- Guinness mixed one to one with another lighter coloured beer such as lager.

*Black Velvet-Guinness and Champagne in equal proportions (sometimes Cider is used instead of Champagne)

*Purple Meany- Half Guinness, half bitter and blackcurrant cordial poured through the creamy head to give it extra sweetness.

*Black Brother or Black Death or Black Monk- Guinness mixed with a variety of Trappist ales

*Black and Red or Black Cherry-Guinness and Kriek (cherry) beer

*A Drop of Diesel-. It is a pint of Smithwicks ale with a shot of Guinness dropped in.

And the most bizarre of all!

*Guinness and Vanilla Ice Cream known as ‘Golden Cream’- To a half pint of Guinness in a pint glass is added several scoops of Vanilla ice cream. After a minute serve with a long ice cream spoon.


And here’s another way to enjoy the individual taste of Guinness (as long as you’
;re not worried by BSE!)

*Beef Guinness- (6 people)

3 tablespoons oil
1kg stewing steak, sliced into smallish pieces
7 medium onions, chopped
2 tablespoons flour
1litre of beef stock
1 bottle/3/4pint Guinness Stout
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Heat oven to 250C

Place 2 tablespoons of the oil in the frying pan and brown meat. Place the browned meat in to large casserole dish. Brown the onions add to meat and season with salt and pepper.

In a pan make roux with the flour and the remaining oil. Add the stock and stir, when the mixture is smooth add to the meat in the casserole.
Mix the Guinness with the brown sugar and vinegar. Pour this over the meat.

Cover and bake 2 and half hours at 250C. Serve with new potatoes and fresh vegetables.

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ADDITIONAL FACTS AND FIGURES

Draught Guinness is only one of many different sorts of Guinness produced. Variations include;

*Canned draught Guinness using the draught-flow system. This is really a canned version of the pub drink.

*Bottled Guinness-This is similar to Draught in its make up but yeast is added to the bottle giving secondary fermentation thus producing a more bitter, fruitier flavour.

*Malt Guinness mainly sold in mainland Europe can be found in both draught and bottles. It is bitterer in taste and is slightly stronger.

*Bottled Guinness Extra Stout/Guinness Original is stronger usually 6%, and has fuller taste.

*A stronger bottled version sold in Europe has a strength of 7.9%.

* Foreign Extra Stout- a blend of Guinness including one aged for three months. This is stronger than ordinary draught (7.5%) and has a shaper drier taste.

The symbol of the harp, which is also the symbol of Ireland, on the Guinness logo, was chosen
by Arthur Guinness to foster a feeling of national pride in the drink.

Guinness was once given out in hospitals to patients after surgery and to blood donors. This was because of Guinness’s high iron content.

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So there you have, all you ever wanted to know about draught Guinness but were afraid to ask! I hope you found it of interest and if you haven’t yet go out and try some.

Thanks for reading and rating this opinion


© Mauri 2002

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