the Guinness exBEERiment

Thursday, March 11, along with a couple other people, I went out attempting to find what bar in downtown Champaign has the best Guinness Draught.

Before we went out, I put together a little information on Guinness (most of the information was from Wiki)

Guinness Drought is a stout, specifically a Dry Irish Stout. Originally the beer was called a porter and was brewed by Arthur Guinness at the St. James’s Gate brewery in Dublin. In 1759, Arthur signed a 9,000 year lease on the St. James’s gate brewery at 45 pounds per year. The St. James’s Gate brewery covers 64 acres and has (at times) been the largest brewery in the world; it is still the largest stout brewer.

All Guinness Draught is brewed at the St. James’s gate brewery. Other versions can be brewed elsewhere. The Guinness extra stout that you purchase in stores is brewed in Canada. There are several versions of Guinness: Guinness Draught (served in kegs, cans, and bottle); Guinness Extra Stout; and recently the Guinness 250^th anniversary.

Guinness is served on nitro (you can tell by the long black thing on the tap). Nitrogen provides the creamy head and creamy mouthfeel. Draught Guinness is served with a nitrogen/carbon dioxide mixture (normally 70/30 in USA; in Ireland 80/20) The nitrogen isn’t as soluble in the liquid as is the co2, so that the beer doesn’t have a co2 fizzyness. On tap the beer is pushed through a plate with holes to help in the formation of the “surge”.

Flavors that can normally be detected while tasting Guinness are coffee, possibly chocolate, and a "roasty toasty" flavor. Guinness has an ABV of 4.1 to 4.3%. It is made from water, barley, hops, and brewer’s yeast. Additionally, it is treated with isinglass finings that help to remove solids in the wort prior to fermentation. Isinglass finings are made from fishes’ air bladders.

The “perfect pint” (according to Guinness) should take 119.53 seconds to pour. It should also be a double pour. Draught Guinness should be served at 6 C (42.8 f)

*soft history* The double pour comes from previous traditions of serving people a mixed aged beer (three threads?) Old beer was poured into the glass until it was ¾ full, then let stand. Then newer gassier beer was added which produced the foamy head.

Guinness is owned by Diageo.

So, with a little bit of info about the beer we headed downtown to attempt to try Guinness on Draught at as many bars as we could find it on.

The group had a person who loves Guinness (Jon); a person who hates Guinness (Kristy); a person who used to like it but is now indifferent (me); and a person who doesn't really seem to have an intense like or dislike for it (Brandon). Andy, GM of Seven Saints also accompanied us to another of the bars. We took a thermometer with us and asked the bartenders as much info about their Guinness as we could.

+ We started out at Seven Saints. 7S sells Guinness in an Imperial Pint (20 oz) for $4.50. According to Andy, the keg we were drinking from had been tapped 3 days prior. He said they normally go through about a keg and a half a week. Their nitrogen to carbon dioxide mixture was 75/25, which seemed to be the norm in downtown (as opposed to the 70/30 mixture that was mentioned in the wiki article). Andy said they clean their beer lines every other week. The beer was served at 41.9 degrees.

Since this was our first stop, it served as the baseline for the evening.

Appearance:
Kristy: "looks like a milk shake"
Andy: (biased but still valid) a perfect pour, has a finger of foam
Jon: dark with foam rising to the top, about 3/16" foam above the glass

Aroma:
Jon: little coco smell, bread
Brandon: slight bread
Me: a bit chocolaty, coffee, and roasty
Andy: balanced hop, roast, acid and barley

Mouthfeel:
Andy: perfect head and body
Kristy (an imperial stout lover): thin
Me: creamy, kinda thick, drying
Brandon: smooth

Taste:
Brandon: smooth, kinda roasty
Jon: bitter, foamy
Kristy: bitter finish, slight coffee aftertaste
Me: Dark toast, bitter, subtle vanilla

Overall:
Me: Not a bad pint, gets "burneder" as it warms
Jon: an OK Guinness
Andy: "nothing wrong... we'll see if someone is more right"

+ Our next stop was next door, at Mike N' Molly's. Murph was bartending and knows his product. He was also very accommodating to our questions. He believed the keg went on Wednesday at around 9 pm. They do a 75/25 nitro/co2 mixture. They normally go through about 4 or 5 kegs of Guinness a week. The beer was $4.75 and served in an imperial pint. It registered at 41.9 on the thermometer.

Appearance:
Me: 1/4 inch of head
Jon: Foam travelled to the top fast (the surge)

Aroma:
Me: almost has a sour/tart smell
Jon: has a woody smell
Andy: less bready, more acidic

Mouthfeel:
Andy: perfect feel
Brandon: good
Jon: feels good
Me: creamy, feels colder, drying
Kristy: thin and smooth

Taste:
Kristy: not as roasty, not as strong
Me: Not as roasty, finishing bitter
Jon: little smoother with a slight dark barley aftertaste
Andy: less bready in flavor, more round, more acidic finish

Overall:
Kristy: seemed weak
Jon: tastes like Guinness
Brandon: not as enjoyable as Seven Saints
Me: not bad
Andy: weaker flavor, colder?

Noted differences:
Me: no chocolate flavor at first, warms up with a bitter chocolate flavor
Andy: weaker flavor, colder?

+ Our next stop was Jupiter's (Classic). Andy got called back to work, so he wasn't able to spend the rest of the night with us. Jupiter's also uses a 75/25 mixture (we didn't' get any other answer, so I'll be leaving out the nitro mixture from now on). The keg had been changed out on Wednesday. Jupiter's goes through about a keg and a half a week. The beer was served in a normal pint (shaker) glass, it didn't appear to be a cheater shaker glass, so it should have been around 16 ounces instead of 14. It cost $4 for the glass. Jupiter's is running a special for $5 you can get it in an imperial pint and keep the glass, and there are $4 refills; this special runs through St. Patrick's Day. Ours was presented at 45 degrees.

Appearance:
Brandon: presented with a clover, which is not as pretty
Jon: beer glass instead of a Guinness glass
Me: 1/2 inch of foam with no apparent surge
Kristy: not a good pour, settled weird

Aroma:
Kristy: smells funny
Me, Brandon, Jon: smells fishy

Mouthfeel:
Jon: normal, compared to the others
Kristy: slightly thicker
Me: thinner but still creamy... gritty

Taste:
Kristy: a little bitter
Me: astringent, not as bitter, almost grape-y
Brandon: not the funky aftertaste of Mike N' Molly's

Noted Differences:
Me: thinner, less flavor, bleachy
Brandon: weird

Jupiter's was the first place where the differences in the beer were really apparent. When we were there, the bartender didn't know any of the answers to our questions about the age of the keg, and how many they go through. Jon went back later, and asked one of the managers and got the answers. He also got an imperial pint in the keeper glass, and said that the fishy smell was gone.

+ The next stop was Guido's Bar and Grill. We talked to Foo, he said they go through about 1 or 2 kegs a week. The keg we were drinking from was probably put on, on Sunday. Based on the frothy-ness of the pour, he assumed it was near the bottom of the keg. Due to it being so foamy, the pour took significantly longer than 119.53 seconds. When we got our beer, it registered 56 degrees. It was served in a regular 16 ounce pint/shaker glass and cost $4. Did you notice I said it was 56 degrees when we first started drinking. I thought the thermometer broke, so we got a glass of icewater, and that registered 31 degrees, so 56 is probably close to correct.

Appearance:
Me: similar
Kristy: little head

Aroma:
Brandon: I could smell that one
Jon: not much smell
Kristy: no smell

Mouthfeel:
Me: thinner, less creamy
Brandon/Jon: warm
Kristy: thin, warmer than the rest

Taste:
Me: sweeter, oddly not bitter
Kristy: not a lot of bitterness
Jon: like a warm Guinness

Overall Impression:
Jon: not any kind of bitterness
Brandon: not as smooth
Me: "wow, hot!!!", almost like a Pepsi

Noted Differences:
Brandon: warm Guinness
me: way to hot

+ Our next walk was down the street to the Blind Pig Brewery (the Piglet). The bartender was busy, so we didn't get the opportunity to ask any questions. The beer cost $4.50 and is served in an imperial pint. It came to us at 41.6 degrees.

Appearance:
Kristy: good pour, nice head, really thick head
Brandon: good head
Jon: thick foam
Me: thicker head, probably a more recent keg

Aroma:
everyone: there is no smell

Mouthfeel:
Jon: little more satisfied than the last
Kristy: thicker
Me: milkshakey

Taste:
Jon, Me: bitterness is back
Brandon: not fishy
Kristy: bitter, smooth

Overall Impression:
Me: this might be the best of the night
Jon: m m m good
Brandon: I like it

Noted differences:
Me: It's a much better experience when not by the upstairs shit tube.

+ We left the Piglet and headed to the main Blind Pig, right down the alley. As we were walking down the alley, we said "candyman" three times, and of course, he appeared. Brandon talked to the bartenders, and Blind Pig goes through a keg about once every other day. It was served in an imperial pint for $4.50. Our beer was 43.4 degrees.

Appearance:
Kristy: good pour, nice thick head
Jon: looks like Guinness
Brandon (seeming to lose interest): yummy
Me: 1/3 inch head or so

Aroma:
Jon: not much
Brandon: same, not fishy

Mouthfeel:
Kristy: thin
Jon: cool and refreshing
Brandon: smooth

Taste:
Me: kinda like a cream soda
Kristy: bitter, smooth
Jon: bitter with a barley aftertaste
Brandon: (sticking with his new adjective) yummy

Overall Impression:
absolutely no comments

Noted differences:
Jon: similar to the brewery
Me: bitter chocolate, not a bad pint, some vanilla tones

+ The final bar that we managed to get a Guinness at was the Esquire Lounge. According to our bartender, Esquire goes through about 3 kegs a week, almost one every other day. It costs $4.50 for a traditional pint/shaker. It was served at 43.5 degrees.

Appearance:
Me: good dimpling, surge still present and visible (downward moving bubbles) with a shamrock
Jon: normal
Kristy: nice pour, good head, thick
Brandon: had the down buttles

Aroma:
Jon: like Guinness
Brandon: similar

Mouthfeel:
Kristy: slightly thicker
Brandon: not as smooth
Jon: normal

Taste:
Me: coffeer, more roast, more acidic
Kristy: more flavorful on the front end
Brandon: a little more coffee

Overall Impression:
Brandon: ehh... meh...

Noted differences:
Esquire has peanuts available.
Kristy: don't eat peanuts with the beer
Jon: not good with peanuts
Me: doesn't work with peanuts

+We then walked down to Bentley's pub. We walked in and the bar seemed completely full, for Karaoke. We didn't anticipate it being that full right around 10, and we had hoped to save Bentley's for last, as they probably go through as much Guinness as any other bar. However, due to their being full, and no place for us to sit and do our exBEERiment, we weren't able to finish there.

Overall, there wasn't a hugely clear cut winner. The best of the night was probably the Blind Pig Brewery. Any of the bars serving Guinness in an imperial pint were perfectly acceptable beers. I was pleased that many of the bartenders and managers knew what they were talking about with the beer. They seemed able to guess the fullness of the keg based on how it poured, which I found interesting. A foamier glass usually meant the keg was getting empty.

There definitely was a big loser on the night. Guido's definitely had the worst beer. It was warmest, by about 10 degrees, and had the most differences in feel, aroma, and taste. Based on the rate they go through kegs, I would recommend never going there on a Thursday night for Guinness. If they go through 2 kegs a week, then pretty much every Thursday will be the end of a keg. If it's changed out on Sunday morning, then the keg will routinely run out around the end of Thursday night, and then they will go through a keg on the weekend and put a new one on, on Sunday morning.

Other lessons learned are that in the case of Guinness on Draught, the newer the keg, the better it is going to be. If it's older, it just seems to be not as lively. It's had more time to interact with the nitrogen and carbon dioxide. It doesn't seems as good.

Also, don't eat peanuts while you are trying to drink a Guinness, nobody enjoyed that.

We believe the Jupiter's fishy smell was probably from a dirty glass. Kristy claims that there is a distinct onion smell in both Jupiter's downtown and at the Crossing that gets into her clothes. Even though the glass is glass and shouldn't absorb smells, it seemed to have something distinctly off. We believe this may be because any washcloths that are used to clean/dry glasses will also have absorbed the onion smell. As Jon's keeper glass was never used before, it didn't have the opportunity to get the onion smell.

The bars didn't really know that we were coming, so it was almost a surprise inspection. Murph at Mike N' Molly's was aware we were going to be doing it at some point, and Andy definitely knew we were coming, but they didn't do anything special. If an average person just walked in off the street, the beers we got were representative of what they would have gotten. This could have been their impressions.

From best to worst, the Guinness that evening would be:

1. Blind Pig Brewery
2. Blind Pig
3. Mike N' Molly's
4. Seven Saints
5. Esquire
6. Jupiter's downtown
7. Guido's

2-4 are pretty much interchangeable.

March 11, Beer Class, the Guinness ExBEERiment

Tomorrow, Thursday, March 11, the Seven Saints beer class will set out to find who has the best Guinness in downtown Champaign.

Everyone over 21 is invited. There is no cost to join, you just have to pay for your beer.

We will be meeting at Seven Saints at 7 pm. Please, don't show up on an empty stomach, there will be a lot of Guinness consumed.

The goal is to find out where in downtown is the best Guinness. The thinking behind this is that if a place does Guinness right, they will probably be able to do the rest of their beers correct too. We will be looking for any differences from one bar to the next. The object is not to get drunk, it's to find out where the best glass of Guinness is.

The bars that we will hit include (but are not limited to/ in no particular order) Seven Saints, Mike n' Molly's, Blind Pig, Blind Pig Brewery (the Piglet), Esquire (they should have Guinness, they have signs all over the place), Guidos, Jupiters, Bentley's. Any other place that has Guinness on tap will probably be added.

If you come, I recommend having a drinking buddy, someone to split the glass with, as there are 7 bars listed so far. Guinness is normally served in an imperial pint, so that's a lot of liquid in an evening.

So, show up at 7Saints around 7, and bring a buddy, there's a lot of Guinness to be drank.

Downtown Champaign 4 bar exBEERiment

If you saw the CU Beer Weekend Feb. 19, you might have noticed that the Thursday Beer Class was supposed to be a trip to the Bayern Stube in Gibson City. That plan got changed as they said they wouldn't be able to seat more than 4 people (we had at least 8 going).

So on short notice I put together a beer experiment, the exBEERiment. The goal was to find out which beer bar in downtown Champaign serves beer the best. It was a slight bar crawl, but with intent of finding who presents the beer the best. The goal wasn't inebriation, that was a byproduct. The plan was to compare the same beer at as many different bars as possible, to see which bar served the best glass of beer. Sadly, the Blind Pig didn't seem to have any beers on tap as the other bars downtown.

The first bar we went to was Seven Saints. 7s has two rotating taps. The beer we had was Dark Horse Tres Blueberry Stout. At Saints it is served in a tulip glass and costs $5. It has a huge dark brown head sitting on a opaque black beer. It smelled of coffee and a bit of blueberry. It tasted roasty, and of coffee. The blueberry flavor isn't as pronounced as in previous years. It's definitely not BooBerry cereal like it has been in the past (which wasn't a problem). It was very effervescent almost painfully tingly on the tongue. The GM of 7S got mad at me when I said that the beer might actually be too cold. None of the bars downtown have the ability to serve multiple taps at different temperatures. (Beer Advocate lists the recommended serving temperature between 45-50).

My drinking buddy John said it had the carbonation of a soda. He didn't get much of the berry, but some chocolate. As it warmed he got more bitter blueberry flavor.

Kristy initially noticed no blueberry flavor, but it seemed heavy on the coffee. She didn't like last years that was very blueberry, so she liked this more.

I thought that as it warmed it turned into a brownie flavor, almost like drinking brownie batter with a hint of blueberry.

It's definitely not the same beer as Dark Horse Tres from last year. The recipe must have changed. (I've heard that it did). Before hearing that it may have changed, Andy thought that he had a bad keg of the beer.

If you were expecting last years Tres (and liked it) you are going to be very disappointed.

We finished up at Saints and headed down the street and through the alley to the Blind Pig Brewery (Piglet). BPB also had Dark Horse Tres Blueberry Stout on tap. There it was served in an imperial pint glass (Guinness glass) for the same $5 as at 7 Saints. If the beer was the same, then the Piglet would be the better deal.

Again, it had a thick brown head on an opaque black beer. It smelled blueberry-er and didn't have as much chocolate. Andy picked up a solvent smell, like some sort of cleaning chemicals. I noticed a slight bleach flavor in the beer.

At BPB it wasn't as effervescent. The bubbles in the beer weren't as painful. At Saints it was almost pop-rock-ish, BPB didn't have that. John again noticed coffee. One of the others on the exBEERiment thought it was sort of acidic in the finish. As it warmed up, John did notice a lot more of the blueberry. Both Andy and Brandon didn't like the beer. "I don't like anything about this beer," said Andy.

There were additional factors that may have skewed the opinion. If it's just about the beer, it still wasn't as good as at 7 Saints, but another issue may have caused some of the negative feelings.

The table we sat at was next to a waste water pipe. The pipe runs down the wall, inside the bar. I'm sure it's perfectly, completely sanitary; however, every time water was ran from the apartments above, you could hear it at our table. Being waste water, we joked that the people upstairs were flushing their toilets. They must have been having a party, because that toilet got flushed continually for about 10 minutes. That really threw off the enjoyment of the beer. the Brewery needs to conceal and insulate that pipe so that people sitting at the bar don't have to listen to water running next to them.

We left BPB and down the alley to Radio Maria. Radio didn't have Dark Horse Tres on tap, so we went with Lost Abbey the Angel's Share. The Angel's Share is an American Strong Ale (a catch all group, for high ABV beers that aren't stouts or barleywines) the beer is served in a 6-8 ounce snifter for $7.

As usual, the beer was flat with no head or bubbles. It was black, not as black as Tres, but still black and opaque. It smelled of molasses. Brandon is still kind of new to describing beer, so he smelled something that he couldn't place, but he knew was familiar. I think he was thinking of dark dried fruits like raisins, prunes, and dates.

It had the same taste of syrup, molasses and sugar; along with the dark fruits.

It's a good beer and $7 for a snifter is still a great price that will wind up being cheaper than a bottle... BUT...

The last bar we went to was Mike 'N Molly's. When we got there it was around midnight, and there was a $1 cover to pay for the DJ. I dislike paying a cover. It almost upset me to the point of ending the evening before completion. Also I don't carry cash anymore. I'm not there for entertainment, I'm there for beer. If I go to a bar to see a band, I will purchase a ticket. The person who suffered because of taking my dollar at the door is the bartender. If I tip $1 a beer, and you make me pay to get in, that's money that won't be going to the bartender. Nobody likes a Mr. Pink, but you brought it on yourself when you charged me to get in the door.

The beer we had was, again, Lost Abbey the Angel's Share. The board indicated the beer was $5.75, which would be $1.25 less than just down the alley at Radio Maria. Additionally, there was 12 ounces served in a tulip. If Radio serves 6 ounces of $7, then it costs $14 for 12 ounces; meanwhile MnM is $5.75 for 12 ounces; that's a slightly better deal...If the beer is the same.

My tab was $9.50 for two of them, making it $4.25 each, which may have been an error on the server's side. I tipped $1 on the two beers. I had planned on not tipping any (my $2 was at the door), but just couldn't do it.

The beer did have a bit of head when it was poured. It quickly dissipated. It looked the same (despite being in a much larger glass). It smelled the same. It tasted the same. It did have a bit more bubble feeling, but not much. Essentially it was the same beer. There were differences in Tres between 7S and BPB, but not any noticeable difference in the Angel's share between Radio and MnM.

Based on results from the exBEERiment, the best place to have the BEST beer, is Mike N' Molly's. The worst place of the 4 was definitely Blind Pig Brewery. If the beer was the same price for the exact same product, the results may be different. Last night it came out like that.

The next exBEERiment will be a comparison of Guinness at as many downtown bars as possible. That will leave Radio Maria out of the equation, but will open up some other bars for a look at the quality of the beer they sell, how they sell it, and the atmosphere around selling it.