Guinness Poster 1973.There I am up there many years ago on a Guinness poster; it's been up there before but as this post is primarily about the black stuff I thought it fitting to use it today; that poster was in all the cities and towns of Great Britain and stood about twenty feet high. No matter where I went I couldn't miss it but I was hardly recognised from it. I remember one day standing at a bus stop in front of the poster and nobody blinked a eye lid.
I would hazard a guess and say it was around 1973; I did a Guinness commercial in 1972 – in fact it's on YouTube if you want to search for it – which was set in an antique shop. The idea was that I went into an antique shop with my pal mistaking it for a pub. I suppose it was quite funny, really, and the director asked me if I had any funny business to do whilst leaving the antique shop on the way to the pub next door; I said, “I can bang my head on the bird cage, if you like” and he said “show me” so I did.
Little did I realise that they would be shooting it from all angles and doing multiple takes so I think I must have banged my head on that bird cage about fifty or sixty times. I kind of 'headed it' like heading a football meeting it on the bit where my forehead met my hair line; so it didn't really hurt that much and in any case it was soft metal!!****!!!!
Before I get to my point here is a little excerpt from my last novel:
Dubliners have travelled to other countries and seen how they treat Guinness and sometimes have drunk something else rather than see their beloved black stuff being treated like any other beer. An Irishman walked into a pub in Birmingham, England, and asked for a pint of Guinness, one day, only to see the excuse for a barman put a pint glass under the Guinness tap and press a button; this opened the pipe that dropped a pint of Guinness into a glass; dropped being the operative word as this had as much to do with pouring and caring for a pint of Guinness as throwing a pint of paint at a canvas and calling it art; people have called this art, of course, just as the people from Birmingham used to call that drink a pint of Guinness; they were both wrong.
And here is a lovely looking pint of Guinness:
Guinness: the perfect pint.I was in Herefordshire over the weekend and when I went to the bar I was delighted to see that they had a Guinness pump so I asked for a pint of Guinness; the barmaid reached into the cupboard behind her and brought out a can of Guinness. It was a strange looking can and seemed to have a silver bottom unlike the regular Guinness can – the one with the widget – which is black at the bottom and signed Arthur Guinness.
She opened the can and started to pour the Guinness in to a pint glass and it looked flat and rather like black treacle. I was stumped for words as I watched this demonstration. I eventually said “What are you doing?”
The barmade just smiled and said “Now I have to put it on here” and she took that flat pint of Guinness and placed it on a small metal plate, under the Guinness tap, and pressed a button.
“This is the surge” she said.
Something was happening to the pint; it was being 'surged' from underneath, somehow, and gas was being put into it and eventually the head formed and a lot of the Guinness went over the side of the glass and all over the floor.
“This is the way we do the Guinness here” she said.
I eventually gave her £3 for the Guinness and took it to my seat; it looked like a Guinness, it felt like and Guinness and you know what? When I took a swig of it it nearly tasted like one – nearly!!
It was explained to me that they didn't sell much Guinness and I told them I wasn't surprised if it was only nearly a pint of Guinness.
I have to say one thing for Los Angeles, if it didn't have a Guinness tap to sell proper draught Guinness pubs and bars would sell the can with the widget. In case you don't know Guinness, in 1991, invented the widget and I believe they won the Queen's Award to Industry because of it. The 'widget' is actually a plastic moulded device that sits at the bottom of a can until it's opened and then releases a little beer and nitrogen, forcing a surge of bubbles that settle to form the tight white head - in short, the perfect pint at home. (source TheDrinkShop.com).
So I wondered why they just didn't have the draught Guinness at the pub and it was explained to me that unless they could sell a barrel of Guinness every 48 hours it wasn't feasible to sell it at all as it goes off.
But as to the surger here is what I found on the Internet:
Always complaining that your pint of the black stuff is never as good as that black nectar you supped in Ireland? Well, celebrate this St. Patrick's Day in true Irish tradition with the Guinness Surger Starterkit.
The Surger Kit is a revolutionary system that uses ultrasonic waves to stimulate the molecules in your pint of stout so your sad can of Guinness is transformed into a cream-brimmed glass of velvet. So, how does it work? Well, refrigerate a can of Guinness for at least three hours. Pour a little water onto the tray at the top of the Surger unit. Next, pour your can of Guinness into a glass at a 45 degree angle. Now, place you glass of freshly-poured Guinness onto the tray of water on the Surger unit. All that̢۪s left is to hit the button on Surger unit. Sit back and witness the miracle of ultrasonic waves. In a matter of minutes, you can enjoy a Guinness just as good as the fresh draught served at The Storehouse in James's Gate.
First my coffee now my Guinness – this is going to get serious!!
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