Gimme That Guinness
A Beer With a Cult Following Prepares for its Day in the Spotlight
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“Guinness is not poured, it is built,” reads a poster on the wall of the famous Montreal microbrewery, Brutopia. The bar, adorned with Guinness Beer memorabilia, is gearing up for its St. Patrick’s Day crowd on March 17.
St. Patrick’s Day isn’t just about the act of drinking Guinness; it’s also about the ritual of pouring it. The process is often considered something of a science, which many are eager to try for themselves. So what is the equation for the perfect pint?
The beer is made of water, malt, hops, yeast and barley, roasted to give it its dark complexion. Its presentation, however, is just as important as its ingredients.
“The first pour goes to about here,” the manager of Brutopia, George Bajoris, explains, indicating the glass’s three-quarter mark. “You wait a minute or so ‘til it settles and then you top it up and when you finish, there should be a little dome on top of the glass.”
The dome that Bajoris is referring to is the crest on the top of the head, which should be about two centimeters. While it may seem hard to calculate for those with their beer goggles on, many Guinness fanatics have an eye for perfection.
“If you get a lot of head on your beer, they’ll send it back right away,” Bajoris says. “They’re very picky about their experience.”
Conan Wakely, an Ireland native and Guinness enthusiast, explains that the wait is part of the ritual. “Taking your time to pour also whets the appetites of those watching and waiting for their beer,” he says.
Further north on Crescent Street, bedazzled with green ornaments, sits Hurley’s Irish Pub, which is also known for providing a great Guinness experience. Hurley’s bartender Micheline Durivage says that the perfect pint starts with the glass angled at 45 degrees and ends with the beer a temperature of 45 degrees—Fahrenheit, that is.
“A lot of places don’t really master it,” she says. “A lot of places have a lot of nitrogen in their gas.” The more nitrogen there is, the more bubbles are formed at the head, a faux pas that Durivage says is commonly made in the U.S.
Steve Paul, who hails from Chicago, pipes in and says, “It’s better off to get it in cans in the U.S. If it’s on tap. It’s too cold.” As he drinks his third pint of Guinness, he reminisces about a trip he made to Hurley’s 10 years ago.
“Back in the day, the waitresses, they’d give you ‘the look,’ like ‘Are you ready?’ so they could start the next one,” he recalls.
While signaling Durivage to pour another pint, he says that it’s not about the perfect Guinness, but the normal Guinness. Pointing at Durivage, he says, “She’s the perfect one. Twenty years from now she’ll be pouring it the same way.”
At 37, Durivage says that pouring the perfect pint has become second nature to her after working at Hurley’s for 15 years. Yet she says the best one is always the one she pours for herself after work.
“I love the taste… It’s a very light beer, it’s lower in alcohol than most beers; it’s only 4.6 per cent. It doesn’t have a lot of gas so it doesn’t fill you up. It’s also very light in calories, despite what people think,” she says. Despite Guinness’ calorie count (210 per pint), customer Doug Miller, who brews his own beer at home, says he knows guys who call it their dinner.
While Guinness is probably not the best meal substitute, it is rumoured to have some health value. Ireland-born Jonathan Lynn is a strong believer in Guinness’ healing powers. “My granny was prescribed a half pint a day in her old age, and this was a common practice [for] pregnant women [as well],” he says.
He also recalls old Irish nicknames for Guinness such as “a pint of plain,” “a scoop” and, his personal favourite, “the blonde in the black dress.”
Health or otherwise, “everything in moderation” is definitely not the motto for St. Patrick’s Day. Both Crescent Street bartenders say that St. Patrick’s Day is usually bigger than the day of the parade, all the more intimidating since Bajoris says he sold five times the usual amount of Guinness during Sunday’s parade last year.
“On the parade day, everybody wants to be Irish for the day,” says Durivage. “Everybody wants green beer, everybody does the ‘Kiss me, I’m Irish’… On St. Patrick’s Day [itself], it’s more Irish people.”
Montreal Irishman Robert Mane plans to cruise Crescent Street on St. Patrick’s Day. After living in Montreal for two years, he says that Montreal has one of the best beer cultures in the world—high praise, considering he’s been working in Ireland bars since he was 15.
“A perfect Guinness is poured with love,” he says. With the loving touch of the bartenders and the luck of the Irish, the Guinness experience is sure to be a charming one this year.
