Guinness

[lodekka]

Since my company are sending me to Dublin this weekend, I feel duty bound to sample a couple of pints of the black stuff while I'm there.

 

I've been asked by my boss to bring some back - sorry if this sounds odd, but is there really a significant difference in taste between the Dublin and UK versions and would this also apply to bottles and cans?

 

I know that Guinness is brewed using local water supplies, but the taste issue has often intrigued me. Slainte!

[WoWo]

Haven't been to Ireland but been to the Isle of Mann a few times and they import the Guiness from Ireland rather than the UK and yes it does taste different.

The reason it applies to cans is the same reason the pub stuff is different, the can's we have here have been brewed in this country using the UK water, the cans in Ireland have been produced in the Irish brewery.

[corganiser]

Guinness is not made from Liffey water and the company themselves state that in blind tests you can't tell the difference between products brewed in different countries.

http://www.guinness.com/guinness/en_GB/knowing/pearls/faqs/0,6415,125495_126325,00.html

My own view is that you used to be able to tell the difference but a recent visit to Ireland left me thinking that this had changed.

[tpfan]

From Ireland myself, we used to call Guinness "Liffey Water" as a joky reference to the colour/state of the river rather than implying it was made from the water.

My brother and brother in law have lived in England several years now, and whatever the Guinness website claims about there being no difference; their first stop is the local for a pint of the real mccoy.

You could try bringing the draught Guinness cans home as they are as close to an Irish pint as you're likely to get. Why not set up a blind test at your local with them.

slainte

[natalie_1982]

I have a friend who lives just outside Cork and when he comes to visit he drinks cider because he says English Guiness tastes horrible!

[Loosehead]

I go to Ireland regularly and I only drink Guiness their, in England I can't stand the stuff. I can't explain it but there is a gulf in the taste.

[Loosehead]

Another thing you'll notice in the Pubs is the clean air, Ireland went "no smoking" last year, makes the pub an altoghether more pleaseurable experience! Apologies if you are a smoker, enjoy the pavement!

[Uriah Heep]

I drink Guinness both in Scotland and Ireland.  So far I have never noticed the difference.  The best Guinness I have ever tried was in an Irish bar in or near Dunedin, Florida.  I was owned by an ex pro footballer, Alex ........, who once played for Hearts I think.  It was poured by a Belfast born barmaid.  Proving, I think, that it is all in the handling and storage.  All views welcome.

 

Slainte math

[nicola_red]

I heard once that Irish Guinness is good for your skin, but I can't for the life of me think why.

[Don Quixote]

There is a vast difference in the taste of Guinness in Ireland and elsewhere.  It's down to the water that it's made from.  Irish Guinness drinkers (the real ones) would touch the stuff in England - and a lot of other places!  Irrespective of what Guinness themselves say about 'blind tasting', the reality is quite different!!!

[Philtaz]

I have always believed that there is a difference, but it's all a matter of individual taste.

I've always found Guinness in Ireland to be nothing short of the elixir of life, but not quite up to the mark in mainland UK.

The only place I have ever consumed it where it was on a par with Ireland is in Berlin, in the Irish Bar and the Irish Harp, oddly enough!  That sort of dispels the rumour that Guiness 'does not travel well'.

Bloody hell I'm gagging for a pint from Ireland now!

[lodekka]

Thank you all.

 

I look forward to performing my own research on Sunday night. ;-)

[studio 49]

I work for a brewer and was under the impression to brew under licence and beer from elsewhere meant they had to manufature the water.  As a result the water is cleaned and then the correct chemical/mineral conent of the source water added back to ensure the taste remains the same, I know this is true of the amber nectar Fosters.  As a result, there should be no descernable taste difference.  I believe its in the mind, hotdogs taste better in new york, turkey at xmas etc