Health Benefits

Drinking Guinness can keep your heart healthy. Guinness is rich in iron that is good for the blood and Guinness has always hinted that Guinness was good for you. Researchers have stated that Guinness has the ability to reduce blood clots that in turn lower the risk of heart attacks. It is the antioxidants found in Guinness that is believed to bring these health benefits.

Some other things you may not know about Guinness

1. After finishing a pint of Guinness you can count the rings in the glass. This will tell you drink how many sips/gulps you took. An Irish person should only see between 5 and 7 rings.
2. If you want to know when a pint of Guinness has properly settled, take a coin and tap the glass gently. If the glass makes a sharp sound, then it has settled. Otherwise if it produces a bland sound then it has some more settling to do.
3. Blackcurrant juice can be added to a pint of Guinness to improve the taste if you are not a fan. This should not be tried in Ireland, as most people will frown upon it.
4. Guinness and steak pie is a common dish that uses Guinness as an ingredient. It is actually quite nice. The alcohol level becomes reduced in the Guinness when the dish has been fully prepared.
5. Putting a shamrock on the Guinness head using the tap is a very skilful task. Not many people can do it properly. You may see shamrocks on the heads but these can be added using a shamrock shaped stamp.

So go and have a Guinness and enjoy this great drink.

Did you know that it takes 5 minutes to pour a pint of Guinness? That is, it does if you’re pouring it correctly.

I have always thought this to be true with any beer. It bugs me when going to a restaurant and I get a beer with too much head so at the end I get cheated. Here is the perfect way to pour a Guinness.

1. Start with a tulip-shaped pint glass that’s clean and dry. Tilt the glass to a 45-degree angle under the tap and pour until the glass is three-quarters full.
2. Let sit for several minutes to let it settle. The beer should be black and flat.
3. After it’s settled, fill the glass the rest of the way. No need to tilt the glass anymore; you want to create the signature foamy head on top. It’s okay if some foam spills over the side — that means you’ve got it full enough!
4. Enjoy.

In case you need to see it to believe it, check out this YouTube video on:

Is the Guinness really better in Ireland? I have heard this a number of times and have always questioned if it is true or not. The biggest reason why I thought it was false was because I couldn’t understand why a brewing company would export a nasty version of their best tasting beer it made no sense.

I did a little research by asking a few people at pubs, and here’s what I came up with:

• The popularity of the drink in Ireland means that kegs aren’t sitting around long. Therefore, the Guinness is almost always fresh — and certainly more fresh than overseas since it doesn’t have to travel as far.

• The lines are cleaner — pub owners in Ireland are visited every three weeks by a Guinness representative who flushes the lines to Guinness kegs.

• Guinness should be served at room temperature — an oddity to us who associate the pleasures of beer drinking with its coolness on a hot day. I’ve noticed that most bars in the States tend to chill their Guinness along with the rest of their beers, which definitely changes the flavor of it.

A philosophy professor stood before his class with some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a “VERY LARGE” and empty mayonnaise jar. He proceeded to fill it with rocks, which were about 2 inches in diameter. He filled the jar to the top!

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They said, “Yes.”

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into thejar. They rolled into place, all around the rocks. He shook the jar lightly. This allowed him to pour more pebbles in, until they were up to the top of the jar.

He again asked the students if the jar was full. They said, “Yes.”

The professor then picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled the spaces between the pebbles.

He asked once more if the jar was full. The students wondered what the right answer was this time, wondering what else could be poured into the jar.

The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and proceeded to pour their entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty spaces in the sand. The students mumbled. Read More »

I came across these rules and some of them were funny take in the ones you like.

1. If you owe someone money, always pay them back in a bar. Preferably during Happy Hour.
2. Always toast before doing a shot.
3. Whoever buys the shot gets the first chance to offer a toast.
4. Change your toast at least once a month.
5. Buying someone a drink is five times better than a handshake.
6. Buying a strange woman a drink is still cool. Buying all her drinks is dumb.
7. Never borrow more than one cigarette from the same person in one night.
8. When the bartender is slammed, resist the powerful urge to order a slightly-dirty, very-dry, in-and-out, super-chilled half-and-half martini with a lemon twist. Limit orders to beer, straight shots and two-part cocktails.
9. Get the bartender’s attention with eye contact and a smile.
10. Do not make eye contact with the bartender if you do not want a drink.
Read More »

Do you love beer? How much do you know about beer?

It seems like there is always that guy in the bar that has a crazy story about the beer he’s drinking. The worst part, sometimes its believable, so you tell someone, then they tell someone, and thats a beer myth. Here are ten of the more outrageous myths about beer and what you need to know to set that guy in the bar straight.

Beer Myth 1: Beat the Beer Belly with Light Beer

OK, light beers have maybe 90-100 calories, regular beers generally have less than 200 calories. A beer lover would say the difference is comparable to the difference between McDonalds and a 5 star restaurant. A dietician would tell you the difference is negligible. So unless you are drinking 300 beers a week, I would drink the good stuff.

Beer Myth 2: The darker the beer, the more alcohol it contains

Not even close. Guinness is black, and has 4.2% alcohol. The color of a beer comes from the toasted malts, which has no effect on alcohol content. Ingredients like rice syrup, honey, and corn syrup add alcohol to beer, but do not influence the color.

Beer Myth 3: Beer is ruined if warmed and then refrigerated

This can be true, if you do it many, many times, and it will happen gradually. People think re-chilling beer will cause it to be “skunked”. Beer can be ruined by air, light and time. Temperature won’t ruin a beer unless it’s extreme. Get fresh beer and store it in dark place, and it will be fine.

Beer Myth 4: Imported beers have more alcohol than domestic beers

This comes from the way US beers reported their beers’ alcohol content. The rest of the world uses “Alcohol by Volume”, here is the US they used “Alcohol By Weight”. Since beer weighs less than water, US beers had smaller numbers, but not less alcohol.

Beer Myth 5: The Guinness they serve in Ireland is better

It seems widely accepted that beer in “the old country” is better than what they export to the rest of the world. The brewing process is cheap, so why would a brewery risk their reputation by brewing a different beer for export? It doesn’t make sense, and it’s not true. With few exceptions, the beer that is exported is the exact same beer that they serve in the bar across the street from the brewery. The difference is purely freshness. It takes two weeks for a keg of Guinness to get from Dublin to your favorite bar in the states. Some beers, like Fosters, is brewed in Canada under a license for sale in the US. But it is clearly stated on the bottle when this is the case.

Beer Myth 6: Beer shouldn’t be Bitter

The bitterness of a beer comes from the hops. Hops are in all beers to balance the sweet malts and to act as a preservative. Some beers have a lot of hops, like India Pale Ales (IPAs) and some beers have less hops, like Wheat Beers. Hops can give a beer complexity and add all sorts of flavors and aromas, like pine, citrus, and earthiness. Hops are why people say beer is an acquired taste, but they also make beer delicious.

Beer Myth 7: The best beers are in green bottles.

As it turns out, brown bottles protect the beer from the light much better than green bottles or clear bottles. This myth comes from when there was a shortage of brown glass in Europe after WWII. The European beers were bottled in green instead, so green bottles came to represent imports. This certainly isn’t the case anymore.

Beer Myth 8: The Thai beer Singha has formaldehyde in it

It seems widely believed that Singha is brewed with formaldehyde, as is Chang beer, San Miguel, Vietnamese 33, and Singapore’s Tiger Beer. The most believable explanation for this one is that Singha is much more bitter and contains more alcohol than most lagers. When American or British expatriots and soldiers were drinking beer in Thailand, they got drunk much more quickly then they were used to, and it was much more bitter flavor then they were used to. To explain this it was suggested that it contained formaldehyde. Crazy.

Beer Myth 9: Corona is Mexican Piss

In the 1980s there was a rumor that Mexican workers were peeing in the Corona tanks that were destined for the US. Certainly alarmingly disgusting… if true. As it turns out this myth was started as a result of Corona’s rising popularity in the US market, and who was jealous? Heineken. This was nothing more than a rumor started by a Heineken wholesaler in Reno. It all worked out, the guy from Heineken admitted his wrongdoing, and Corona continued it’s rise to popularity. But the rumor can still be heard today in bars across the country.

Beer Myth 10: Women don’t like beer

Thats crazy! My wife loves beer almost as much as I do. Women have brewed more beer than men in the history of beer. Sister Doris in Bavaria brews Mallersdorf lager. Fortunately, this myth is far from true.

So after reading the comment that Samuel Johnson left me stating that these facts were incorrect i decided to look into them further. I copied and pasted these fun beer facts so there was a big chance that they were false here is what i found on these so called facts:

About 4000 years ago, it was the accepted practice in Babylonia that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and because their calender was lunar based, this period was called the “honey month” or what we know to day as the “Honey moon”

I did not find much on the origin of “Honey Moon” but I will keep looking and will update the post.

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Before invention of the thermometer, brewers used to check the temperature by dipping their thumb, to find whether appropriate for adding Yeast. Too hot, the yeast would die. This is where we get the phrase ” The Rule of the Thumb”

The earliest citation of “The Rule of the Thumb” comes from Sir William Hope’s The Compleat Fencing-Master, second edition, 1692, page 157: “What he doth, he doth by rule of thumb, and not by art.” The term is thought to originate with wood workers who used the length of their thumbs rather than rulers for measuring things. Making this fact FALSE.

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In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender used to yell at themto mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. From where we get “mind your own P’s and Q’s”.

With this fact there was a lot of results such as: a dancing-master’s instruction to “mind your pieds et queues [i.e. feet and pigtails]” and a school-teacher’s encouragement to pupils who are learning to write. I find this fact to be FALSE

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After consuming a vibrant brew called Aul or Ale, the Vikings would go fearlessly to the battlefield, without their armour, or even their shirts. The “Berserk” means “bear shirt” in norse, and eventually to the meaning of wild battles.

I did not find anything about Vikings and Ale but I will keep looking and will update the post.

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Way down in 1740, the Admiral Vernon of the British fleet decided to water down the navy’s rum, which naturally, the sailors weren’t pleased with. They nicknamed the Admiral Old Grog, after the still stiff grogram coats he used to wear. The term grog soon began to mean the watered down drink itself. When you are drunk on this this grog, you are “groggy”, a word still in use.

This is directly out of a wikipedia search: His enduring claim to fame was his 1740 order that his sailors’ rum should be diluted with water. The rest of the Royal Navy rapidly followed his lead, supposedly calling the new drink “grog” after Vernon’s nickname “Old Grog”. This nickname has been attributed to his habitual wearing of a grogram coat. Making this fact TRUE.

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Long ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim of their beer mugs or ceremic/glass cups. The whistle was used to order services. Thus we get the phrase, “wet your whistle”.

As far as i know a cup such as this does not exist. I could not find any picture anywhere all I found was that “whistle” has been used as a slang term for the throat. So i think this fact is FALSE.

What is the difference between a Good Bartender or a Bad Bartender? We’ve all been upset at poor service but equally I know when I get good service, I remember it! So what are the things that annoy or impress us? A good Bartender:

• Always acknowledges customers at the bar.
• Can take more than one order at a time.
• Pours the pint of Guinness first when dispensing a large order.
• Puts your change in your hand and not on the bar counter.
• Offers to carry the drinks to the table for you when necessary.
• Can explain the difference between different quarter bottles of wine.
• Takes pride in their uniform.
• Prepares sufficient lemon slices in the morning.
• Does not raise their eyes to heaven when asked for an Irish Coffee.
• Knows how to change ashtrays (outside these days..) without ash flying everywhere.
• Does not put their fingers into glasses when clearing tables.
• Knows what’s going on in the area when asked by customers.
• Knows a number for local taxis.
• Takes orders from customers in rotation, without leaving anyone waiting longer than others.
• Asks if the customer would like ice in their mineral water.
• Asks if ice and/or lemon are required in vodka/gin/bacardi.
• Knows how to clean the draught lines (even though he doesn’t have to any more…).
• Understands the importance of discretion.
• Presents the pint glass with the logo facing you.
• Holds glasses a couple of inches below the rim when serving.
• Thanks customers for their business when they are leaving.
• Asks customers if they would like another drink when the glass is almost empty.

A bad Bartender

• Talks to some customers at length while others are left waiting.
• Never washes their hands despite handling glasses by the rim.
• Arrives late and leaves early.
• Is always wondering when they can get their “staff drink”.
• Doesn’t record or care about waste.
• Takes orders from the pretty girls first.
• Dispenses free drinks to the pretty girls “on the house”.
• Adds ice and lemon to drinks as standard.
• Lets the tap run for a second or two before placing the glass underneath.
• Adjusts the gas setting of each tap before pouring a pint.
• Scratches their head and their face during service.
• Doesn’t wear full uniform.
• Encourages friends to drink in the bar when (s)he is on duty.
• Leaves the Cash Drawer open in the cash register.
• Never gives a receipt.
• Hates the thought of serving food.
• Doesn’t know what cutlery/condiments are needed for each dish/drink served.

“Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.” –Dave BarryIf there’s one universal constant in human society, it has to be alcohol. Rare indeed is the culture that hasn’t worked out the tricksy process of fermenting and/or distilling some type of vegetable matter — be it malted barley, potatoes, honey or grape juice — into a brew containing a significant percentage, as the dictionary puts it, of an “organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom of an alkyl or substituted alkyl group.” In other words, booze.

Among the mildest and most variable of these alcoholic beverages is that fine elixir known as beer. A true beer connoisseur would never pass up an opportunity to try the local brew, no matter where on Earth where they found themselves, and so it behooves the serious beerologist to know how to order a beer in as many languages as possible. That’s why we’ve taken it upon ourselves to provide you with a handy guide on how to order a beer in 50 different languages. Where the pronunciation isn’t obvious, or in which the term is normally written in non-Roman characters, we’ve rendered it phonetically. Cheers!

One beer, please!

“You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.” — Frank Zappa

“Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink, I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, ‘It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver.’” — Jack Handy

“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer.” — Abraham Lincoln

“Remember: I before E, except in Budweiser.” — Anonymous

“He was a wise man who invented beer.” — Plato

“Give me a woman who loves beer, and I will conquer the world.” — Kaiser Wilhelm

“24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence?” — Stephen Wright

We old folks have to find our cushions and pillows in our tankards. Strong beer is the milk of the old. — Martin Luther

“I would give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety.” — Shakespeare, Henry V

“Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer.” — Dave Barry

0- Stone cold sober. Brain as sharp as an army bayonet.

1- Still sober. Pleasure senses activated. Feeling of well-being.

2- Beer warming up head. Crisps are ordered. Barmaid complimented on choice of blouse. Barmen complimented on nice trousers.

3- Crossword in newspaper is filled in. After a while blanks are filled with random letters and numbers.

4- Barmaid complimented on choice of bra/Barmen complimented on his boxers. Partially visible when bending to get packets of crisps. Try to instigate conversation about bras. Order half a dozen packets of crisp one by one.

5- Have brilliant discussion with a guy at bar. Devise fool-proof scheme for winning lottery, sort out cricket/tennis/football problems. Agree people are same world over except for the bloody French.

6- Feel like a Demi-God. Map out rest of life on beer mat. Realise that everybody loves you. Ring up parents and tell them you love them. Ring girlfriend/boyfriend to tell them you love them and they still have an amazing arse.

7- Send drinks over to woman/man sitting at table with boyfriend/girlfriend. No reaction. Scribble out message of love on five beer mats and frisbee them across the room. Boyfriend/girlfriend gets pissed off. You buy him a Long Island Iced Tea.

8- Some slurring. Offer to buy drinks for everyone in room. Lots of people say yes. Go round the pub hugging them one by one. Fall over. Get up.

9- Head-ache kicks in. Beer tastes off. Send it back. Beer comes back tasting same. Say “that’s much better”. Fight nausea by trying to play poker machine for ten minutes before seeing out of order sign.

10- Some doubling of vision. Stand on table shouting abuse at all four barmen. Talked down by barmen’s wives, who you offer to give a baby to. Fall over. Get up. Fall over. Impale head on corner of table. Fail to notice oozing head wound.

11- Speech no longer possible. Eventually manage to find door. Sit and take stock. Realise you are sitting in pub cellar, having taken a wrong turn. Vomit. Pass out.

12- Put in taxi by somebody. Give home address. Taken home. Can’t get key in door. Realise you’ve given address of local football club. Generally pleased at way evening has gone. Pass out again.