The Correct Way to Serve Guinness. Trust Me, I’m Irish

Posted by barblog on Nov 11, 2009 in Bar Management, Bar Service | 6 comments

As any bartender in Ireland will tell you, there is nothing more annoying than a tourist not “getting” how the process of pouring a pint of Guinness works. Though it varies depending on the country it is served in, the correct way to serve Guinness in Ireland (and therefore the rest of the world seeing as everyone claims Irish ancestry) is the two-part pour:

• Use a clean normal size pint glass and tilt it to a 45 angle and fill to three quarters full.
• Allow the ‘surge’ to settle until there is a clear delineation between the head (which should be about inch, also known as a bishops collar due to it’s size when poured correctly and a light cream colour) at the top. A perfect pint should take 119.5 seconds to pour. Seriously. No joke.
• Now fill the glass to the top with a final quarter pint of Guinness.
• When pouring from a pump you can draw a lucky ‘shamrock’ shape in the top, although this takes practice and most Irish bartenders/purists would vomit at the thought of this..

Many is the time I had to call back the unsuspecting tourist who had taken their half poured pint so I could top it up and finish it properly. Guinness have always used the “waiting game” as a marketing tool and so their new beermat continues this tradition!