GUINNESS

Arthur Guinness Son & Co., founded 1756, produces a dark stout beer (a type of porter), known widely as Guinness. This beer has been brewed at St. James's Gate Brewery, Dublin, Ireland since 1759, when Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease at IR£45 per annum for the unused brewery.

Ten years later in 1769 Guinness exported their product for the first time. Six and a half barrels of Guinness Stout were shipped from Ireland to England. The word "stout" was not attached to the beer until the 1820s. It is also brewed under licence internationally; the resulting beer is, from all reports, significantly different. The Guinness brewery in Park Royal, London closed in 2005.

Guinness stout is made from four natural ingredients: water, barley, hops and yeast. The barley is roasted to give Guinness its dark colour and characteristic taste.[1] Despite the "meal in a glass" or "liquid bread" reputation the beverage has among some non-Guinness drinkers, Guinness only contains 198 calories (838 kilojoules) per imperial pint (1460 kJ/l), less than an equal-sized serving of skimmed milk or orange juice.

Draught Guinness and its canned namesake contain nitrogen (N2) as well as carbon dioxide (CO2). Unlike carbon dioxide, nitrogen does not dissolve in water, which allows the beer to be put under high pressure without making it fizzy. The high pressure is required to force the draught beer through fine holes in a plate in the tap, which causes the characteristic "surge" (the widget in cans and bottles achieves the same effect). The perceived smoothness of draught Guinness is due to the low acidity and the creaminess of the head caused by the surging. "Original Extra Stout" tastes quite different; it contains only CO2, making a more acidic taste.


POURING AND SERVING A GUINNESS

Draught Guinness is considered at its best flavour when served cool, although not necessarily cold. It should be poured slowly at a 45° angle; about three quarters is poured and left to settle before the rest is added. The tap handle should be pushed forward, rather than pulled, when the beer is topped off. This creates the characteristic creamy head that lasts until the last sip.

Recent advertising campaigns state that "it takes 119.6 seconds to pour the perfect pint" of Guinness. While this method of pouring (slow) is done in Ireland and the UK, many American bars seem to ignore the requisite 'slow pour'.

Some bar tenders also draw a simple design in the head during the slow pour. Shamrocks and harps are quite popular designs for this.

It is a common myth that Guinness is brewed using water from the River Liffey, which flows through Dublin close to St James's Gate. It actually comes from the Wicklow Mountains, specifically, Lady's Well.


SINKING BUBBLES

A long time subject of bar conversations has been the observation that gas bubbles travel downwards in a pint glass of Guinness.

The effect is attributed to drag; bubbles which touch the walls of a glass are slowed in their upwards travel. Bubbles in the centre of the glass are, however, free to rise to the surface, and form a rising column of bubbles. The rising bubbles create a current by the entrainment of the surrounding fluid. As beer rises in the center, the beer near the outside of the glass falls. This downward flow pushes the bubbles near the glass towards the bottom.

Although the effect occurs in any liquid, it is particularly noticeable in any dark nitrogen stout, as the drink combines dark-coloured liquid and light-coloured bubbles.


VARIETIES OF GUINNESS

Guinness is available in a number of variants and strengths, which include:

• Guinness draught stout, sold in kegs- 4.1 to 4.3 percent alcohol by volume (abv);
• Extra Cold draught stout, sold in kegs and put through a super cooler- 4.1 to 4.3 percent abv;
• Bottled Guinness draught, which includes a patented "rocket widget" to simulate the draught taste- 4.1 to 4.3 percent abv;
• Canned Guinness draught, which includes a similar but differently shaped widget- 4.1 to 4.3 percent abv;
• Guinness Original/Extra Stout, as near to Arthur Guinness' original porter as can be obtained today- 4.2 or 4.3 percent abv (England, Ireland), 5 percent abv (Canada, mainland Europe), and 6 percent abv (United States, Ireland, Japan);
• Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, sold in West Africa, the Caribbean and Asia- 5 percent abv (China), 6.5 percent abv (Jamaica), 7.5 percent abv (Africa) and 8 percent abv (Malaysia);
• Guinness Foreign Extra Stout Nigeria, uses sorghum in the brewing process instead of barley- sold in Nigeria and Great Britain- 7.5 percent abv;
• Guinness Special Export Stout, sold in Belgium- 8 percent abv;
• Guinness Bitter, an English-style bitter beer- 4.4 percent abv;
• Guinness Extra Smooth, a smoother stout sold in Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria- 6 percent abv;
• Malta Guinness, a non-alcoholic sweet drink, sold in Africa.

The Guinness brewery also makes other brands of alcoholic drinks, including Harp, Smithwick's and Kilkenny. The company has a regional franchise to produce Budweiser beer.

Withdrawn Guinness variants include Guinness's Brite Lager, Guinness's Brite Ale, Guinness Light, Guinness XXX Extra Strong Stout, Guinness Cream Stout, Guinness Gold, Guinness Pilsner and Guinness Special Light. Other withdrawn beers produced by Guinness include Enigma Draught Lager and Breo White Beer, as well as the St. James's Gate Beers: Pilsner Gold, Wicked Red Ale, Wildcat Wheat Beer and Dark Angel Lager.

In October 2005, Guinness introduced the Brewhouse Series - a limited-edition collection of draft stouts that will be available for six months each. The first stout in the series in Brew 39, which is being released in Dublin from October 2005 to March 2006. It has the same alcohol content (abv) as Guinness Draught, uses the same gas mix and settles in the same way, but has a slightly different taste. Other variants will be on tap across Ireland.

A brewing byproduct of Guinness, Guinness Yeast Extract (GYE), was produced until the 1950s.


GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS

The Guinness company also produced the Guinness Book of Records, which originated in 1955 when a debate in a pub after a hunt could not be settled with existing reference books.

After merger with the firms of Arthur Bell and United Distillers, the firm became Guinness PLC, and was no longer headed by a family member. It combined with Grand Metropolitan to form Diageo PLC in 1997, at which point the Book of Records was sold to Gullane Entertainment, who in turn were purchased in 2002 by the book's current publishers, HIT Entertainment.


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