loonatic8her

Let me just say this.... Guinness suck major ass... can I get a hell yea???

Tophat665

Well, no, probably not. Overrated? Yes. Fetshized? Sure. Third best stout in Ireland? Indubitably. But sucks ass major, minor, or even negligably? No, not really.

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TonySpilotro

Tophat, don't leave us hanging on the 2 best Stouts in the homeland! I must know ASAP! Beamish? Murphy's? Or are they not easily purchased here in the States?

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Shizukana

Guinness has less carbs and calories than most light beers in America... so that has nothing to do with it.

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Tophat665

Those were the two I had in mind, actually. They're pretty easy to find, though not so ubiquitous as Guinness.

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roderickpsu

Is it possible that when you're drinking Guinness...you just naturally drink it much more slowly?

pinkie

MmmmmmmmmMmmmmmmMMMMmmmmmmMmmmmmmm.... I Guinness.

Has anyone ever tried that Double Chocolate Malt beer?

Tophat665

<B>Pinkie</b>, that double chocolate malt beer? I've tried a couple of chocolate beers and quite a few made with chocolate malt. Indeed, I just bottled a beer this weekend that I brewed with a healthy portion of chocolate malt in the grist. Chocolate and dark beer is a good fit. I have brewed a brown porter with chocolate, and Sam Adams Chocolate Bock and Brooklyn Brewing's Double Chocolate Stout are both excellent beers incorporating actual chocolate.

Some brewing info: Chocolate malt in the context of beer has little to do with chocolate flavor. It is a particular type of malted barley that is roasted to a chocolate brown. It is called Chocolate malt to distinguish it from Brown malt, which is a lighter toast, Black Patent malt, which is shiny black, and Roasted Barley, which is not malted. It does give a flavor that is not totally unlike unsweetened chocolate, but different enough that an uneducated tongue could tell in a side by side test.

For the record, stouts are generally colored and flavored with unmalted roasted barley, sometimes with a bit of black patented malt, and often with a portion of crystal malt for body and sweetness. Chocolate malt is not usually used in stouts. That said, when you see "Chocolate Stout", chances are about even that they used Chocolate Malt or Chocolate iteslf. "Double Chocolate Stout", like Brooklyn Brewing's, usually uses both Chocolate and Chocolate Malt. I believe Guinness uses a signigficant portion of Black Patent malt, since the head is lighter that one would expect if a very large portion of the grist were Roasted Barley.

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appleseed

Actually Tophat, (btw I love your avatar, one of my favorite episodes), Guinness uses roasted barley and that is why the head is so white. Black patent malt is, as the name suggests, made of malted barley and Maillard reactions that occur during malting black patent malt results in much more pronounced burnt and 'roasty' or coffee flavors and a darker head on the beer.

In the past the use of black patent or roasted barley is what differentiated a porter from a stout, but that line has been blurred over the years.

Tophat665

<b>appleseed</b>, beg to differ. While the science may say one thing or the other, it has been my experience that any significant portion of roasted barley in the mash turns the head brown, whereas the same amout of black patent malt has a much smaller effect.

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pinkie

Thank you for explaining all that.

superredhead

the thing in the bottle is called a widget, i think. anyway, i tend to agree with the concensus that guiness is truly a meal in a bottle. maybe youre just drinking the beer a bit slower than others because it is so filling?

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appleseed

That is an interesting experience <B>Tophat</B>. I have to say that I haven't noticed that effect.

Anyway, Guinness uses roasted barley (from France of all places) and no one other than you or I in this thread probably even cares. It's always good to find another brewer to trade ideas with. Been brewing long?

And <B>pinkie</B> Was it Young's Double Chocolate by any chance? It has a purple label. Even though I'm not a big chocolate fan, that is an amazing beer.

ianthegoat

Ok, lets talk about the widget:

First off, it is not present in the old bottles. In the cans, they have the round shaped widget, and in the new bottles, they use the new cylindrical "rocket widget."

Second, it does not "contain nitrogen." Nitrogen and carbon dioxide are used in the packaging, and the nitrogen is used because it provides much finer bubbles.

The way the widget works, is that it is relatively hollow, and has a couple small holes in it, with a valve type closure. During packaging, when the container becomes pressurized, a small amount of beer is pushed into the widget. Upon opening of the package and release of the pressure, the beer is forcefully purged from the widget, and this action causes the gases to come out of solution which produces a number of nucleation sights for further bubble developement.

This is fairly common in beers packaged with nitrogen, as the nitrogen is more soluble than carbon dioxide, so it needs some help to come out of solution. Hence the nucleation sites.

Lastly, Guiness ROCKS. Especially when drunk in the panoramic bar at the top of the "Guiness Experience" in Dublin. If you get the right bartender to pour your drink, they carve a shamrock in the head of the beer with the final dribblings out of the tap.

/fermentation scientist, Oregon State University. 6 months away from a Master's degree in beer.

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fatbob

guiness is really nice if served in a good pub.
here in scotland we get a beer called 80shilling and it is really good too, perhaps better than guiness...

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