It’s that Guinness time of year

It’s St Patrick’s Day on Monday 17 March, which means you may find yourself ordering a Guinness or two. And after taking a slug of the velvety pint there is every chance that you will declare it delicious - but not quite as delicious as the pint you had in Dublin in 2006, or Cork in 1998, or Kilkenny in 1935.

That’s because it sometimes seems that anyone who has ever drunk Guinness in Ireland is contractually obliged to say that it tastes better in the Emerald Isle than anywhere else on Earth. There is a hint of subterfuge in the claim. The canny Irish save the very best stuff for themselves, and export the rest around the world.

Except it’s not true. But don’t take our word for it, take the word of Guinness’ master brewer, Fergal Murray. The job of the master brewer is pretty diverse these days, but Fergal always makes time for the tasting panel, helping to make sure every barrel of Guinness - whether it’s bound for Cork, Cleethorpes or Kansas City - is up to scratch.

“Every draft keg is exactly the same,” says Fergal. “You can have the most glorious pint of Guinness in any part of the world. But of course if we went to a chateau in France during the champagne selection season and they offered us a bottle it would probably be the best bottle of champagne we’ve ever had, even if it’s the same stuff you can buy in downtown London. It’s perception, though of course it can also be down to great bars and great bartenders.”

Bitter sweet

So what is it about Guinness? Hundreds of thousands of pints will be poured during the celebrations (which tend to precede and succeed the actual saint's day itself), from Boston to Brighouse to Buenos Aires. In terms of beer, Guinness is something of a world drink, which is pretty good going for a thick, black stout that might be described as something of an acquired taste. It can't all be down to those famous, iconic adverts.

Fergal, as you might expect, singles out the taste. Guinness, he says, is a unique combination of elements. “Our taste profile is a perfect balance between the sweetness of the malted barley, the bitter element of the hops and this roasted character coming through (from roasted barley). It’s the balance of the three that’s important. When you drink a Guinness it’s the taste of those three elements coming exactly together.”

And that balance is the same the world over, which helps to explain the drink’s almost universal popularity. But as we all know, Guinness is about far more than just the taste. It’s about history, clever advertising and perhaps above, all its association with Irishness - and all the good time, good ‘craic’ cliches that go along with it.

It’s also about the texture of Guinness. Some might find its thick velvety ‘mouth feel’ a little clawing, but to aficionados it’s a smooth drinkability that marks Guinness out from the packed beer crowd.

“With draft Guinness the standout texture is the smoothness,” says Fergal. “That comes from the nitrogenated head. The nitrogen element gives you two things - it gives you the smoothness and it also gives you this fantastic visual impact.”

Drinking in the view

Ah, the look of the pint. Even those who don’t like Guinness have to admit that a freshly poured pint, delivered by an experienced barmen (Guinness runs an accreditation scheme for bars in the UK), is a thing of beauty. The deep black beer topped with a thick white head. The company likes to talk about the theatre of a pint of Guinness, the ritual of it, and that takes in pouring, settling and visual appreciation before you even get to the drinking.

“You have to drink Guinness with your eyes first,” says Fergal. “It has to look glorious. It’s stunningly beautiful, settling and surging and cascading to give you that final finish with the perfect domed head. Every pint does have to register against these wonderful photographs and TV ads that we have.”

You can’t imagine many other beers reducing long-serving brewers to such poetic flights of fancy, but like it or loathe it Guinness does tend to inspire passion. That’s in its brewers and drinkers, and increasingly in cooks and chefs. The taste profile Fergal talked about earlier makes it an ideal recipe ingredient. You can find a menu of Guinness recipes at the bottom of the page.

“It has a very unique taste and chefs have noticed that it can be a fantastic way of improving dishes. I’ve used it in barbecue sauce, as a marinade - it helps to tenderise meat - but there are lots of other ways.”

Fergal also admits that beer in general is undergoing something of a renaissance when it comes to food matching. Thanks to craft and microbrewers, there are so many different flavours now that beer is increasingly being recommended as a food accompaniment. “It used to be just red wine or white wine,” says Fergal. “But now it’s beer too.”

“Guinness has this wonderful sweet and bitter profile so the only thing it's lacking is saltiness, so I love drinking it with fresh seafood - oysters, shrimp or lobster.  Put a couple of pints with a dozen oysters on a sunny St Patrick’s Day and that just sounds ideal.”

Not even Guinness can guarantee the sunshine this St Patrick’s Day. What it can guarantee - if it’s your thing - is a perfect and perfectly consistent pint of iconic Irish stout.

For more information about Guinness and to find a Quality Accredited pub near you visit www.guinness.com

Guinness recipes

Fresh mussels in Guinness

Serves 6

Ingredients

1kg fresh mussels in their shells
300ml cream
200ml fish stock
330ml Guinness Foreign Extra Stout
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp chopped fresh dill
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stick, diced
juice of half a lemon
knob of butter

Method

1. Place the butter, diced onion, carrot and celery into a saucepan and fry for to 2-3 minutes.
2. Then add the Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, fish stock, and bay leaf and let it simmer in the pan until the liquid has reduced by half.
3. Pour in the cream and allow the mixture to reduce by half again.
4. Add the mussels and cook for 2-3 minutes until all the shells have opened. Then add the dill and lemon juice to finish.

Beef and Guinness pie

Serves 4

Ingredients

200ml Guinness Foreign Extra Stout
400g stewing beef, diced
100g pearl onion
1 large carrot, diced
100g button mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
½ litre thick beef stock
sprigs of fresh thyme and rosemary, chopped
small sheet of puff pastry

Method

1. In a pot, seal the diced beef and brown all over. The vegetables are then added and cooked out for 4-5 minutes. Add the herbs and beef stock. Now add the Guinness Foreign Extra Stout. Slow cook the beef over a stove for 1 hour. Add a little water if needed at the end.
2. Cut the puff pastry into 8 even pieces. Egg wash each piece of pastry.
3. Using one piece of pastry place it on top of another piece of pastry to form a double case. Do this with the rest of the pastry to form four double pastry cases.
4. Using a knife score the top of the pastry to give the effect of a vol-au-vent. Now bake at 200C/400F/gas mark 6 for 14 minutes.
5. When cool cut the top off to form a lid. Core some of the pastry out for the centre of each case. Spoon the hot beef into each case and serve.

Guinness chocolate mousse

Serves 6

Ingredients

10 egg yolks
10 egg whites, whisked
350g dark chocolate
¼lb butter
100g caster sugar
100ml Guinness

Method

1. Melt the dark chocolate and butter in a bain-marie, add in the Guinness.
2. Beat the egg yolks and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Mix the melted chocolate mixture in with egg yolks and then slowly fold in the whisked egg whites until everything is smooth.
3. Transfer the mousse into serving glasses and chill.
4. Serve with fresh raspberries or other seasonal berries.

Related links

10 Irish recipes for St Patrick's Day
A bite behind bars
Veggie recipes
On Bing: beer and food matching