Part of the appeal of Guinness is in the presentation. Guinness recommends a multi part pour where you pour part of the beer, let it settle and then top it off. Some people – myself included – will let the beer settle again and then do a second, smaller top off. Guinness says it should take 119.5 seconds for the perfect pour.
Guinness drinkers swear by the multi stage pour. I’ve seen people claim that if their Guinness is not poured correctly it will impact the taste. A lot of non Guinness drinkers think this is marketing bullshit. But is it?
In an effort to put this to the test, I’ve given myself a triangle test. After having a proper 20 oz pint (to purge the line of any beer), I pulled three 16 ounce pours of Guinness. Two of them I poured with a three stage technique. That is, I held the glass at about 45 degrees and poured until the beer was at the top. Then I let it settle and topped it off to the top of the harp. Then I let it settle again and, pushing the tap away from me this time, I added a small top off to the rim of the glass. The third glass I poured straight down in a single go while pushing the tap away from me. I then had the glasses shuffled around and let them sit so that there would be no temperature difference. If pour technique impacts taste then I should be able to pick out the single stage pour.
The result? I couldn’t find a difference. I thought the first pour that I tried tasted a little thinner than the rest. With maybe a touch more bitterness. But that wasn’t the glass that was poured differently. I gave myself the test a few more times. Making sure that I had drank them to similar levels and then having them reshuffled. The one time I got it right I thought I perceived sharper bitterness. But when I repeated the test with an idea of what to look for I couldn’t reliably pick out the single stage pour.
What does this mean? Not a whole lot. Triangle tests are not statistically relevant with a sample size of 1. Maybe my ability to discern minor differences in Guinness needs more fine tuning. I will do my best to work on that. I will also try to give the test to others to see if anyone else can pick up differences that I don’t perceive.
Will I change anything about how I pour my Guinness at home? I don’t think so. I’ll probably continue to pour the beer and let it settle. That’s part of the charm of Guinness. Plus, that waterfall effect is always a beauty to behold. And I do think it has an impact on the thickness of the head. In other words it really is all about presentation. At least for my palate. In the future, if I get a bad pour at a bar I’ll avoid blaming it on the bartender; unless they are the ones in charge of having the lines cleaned.