My First Guinness

The building styles in Temple Bar

On Friday night, I had my first Guinness! 

Betta and I went out to a pub after work (in Dublin, if it's 5 o'clock, then it must be time to drink).  We met up with an Italian friend of Betta's.  G. has been living here for almost a year, so she already knew about some of the nicer pubs.  The good spots in Dublin are all in the Temple Bar area.

First, we tried The Long Hall first which is located on St. George's Street.  The place was packed - standing room only.  I loved the atmosphere though.  It still had original furniture from the early 19th century so it was preserved as a traditional pub and it had a sort of speakeasy feel to it.  The wooden bar was beautifully carved and the wall behind it was filled with shelves of every bottle of alcohol you can imagine.  However, since we couldn't snag a place to sit, we moved on to G's other favorite hotspot, The Stag's Head.

The Stag's Head was just as grand as the Long Hall.  A wall of kegs were stacked outside the door, some empty and some waiting to be brought in.  Vomit already stained a sidewalk.  A bartender who was clearing a table carried 30 empty cups at once - this is no exaggeration!  She had three columns of pints, each 10 cups high, and they swayed to and fro as she walked, but nothing ever fell.  I was definitely impressed. 

The Stag's Head had an upstairs and two rooms downstairs, and of course, the long bar area.  The building's architecture and furniture maintained its original Giorgian syle.  You order your drinks at the bar and then take them back to wherever you find a chair.  The tables are all almost on top of one another, so that it makes the place loud and cozy - a perfect pub. 

G was nice enough to buy the first round of drinks.  Usually, instead of buying your own, each person takes a turn buying for the table.  (However, because we hadn't eaten dinner yet, we only got one round so I will have to repay the favor to G at another date.)  Also, when you order your beer, you must specify that you want a glass....if you just ask for a normal size, then you get a gigantic pint!

Now that I knew what size to order, I was faced with a new dilemma - what kind of beer should I get?  This may seem like a no brainer, but there is a back story.  I have only had a Guinness once before in my life....and I hated it.  The drink is so thick, you need a knife and a fork to eat it.  To me, it has the consistency of thick molasses, and tastes like bad cough medicine.  I wasn't going to order one at the pub, but Betta talked me into it.  "Your first drink in Dublin must be a Guinness!" she exclaimed. 

There is a science to Guinness here.  It took the bartender a good five minutes to get my beer out of the tap.  The slower the tap, the better the Guinness.  I was also warned not to drink it right away.  Taking a sip as soon as you sit down is bad form because the Guinness hasn't had time to settle yet.  You can actually see the beer change color and get darker.  I didn't realize that it would be so involved! 

I took a tentative taste.....and it actually wasn't that bad.  I still wouldn't order it on a regular basis, but the Guinness here was much, much better than what I tried at home. 

I read somewhere that Dublin's water is what makes the beer taste so good.  I don't know if that is the true secret ingredient, but I agree that they know how to make it right.