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A Beginner’s Guide to Drinking Guinness

This tourist displays a proper Guinnes 'sup'.

So you’ve booked your first trip to Ireland or are heading to Ireland to study abroad soon and nothing excites you more than the prospect of gulping down a nice, refreshing Guinness in the very place that it is made. That’s wonderful! I applaud you for being a Guinness drinker, or if you’re not, making the decision to venture out and try a pint while you’re in Ireland. You may have heard rumor that the Guinness tastes better in Ireland, and I am here to tell you that everything you’ve heard is true. But there are a few groundrules you should know about before you just march into the first pub you see and knock one back.

Guinness is a complex beer. Perhaps one of the most complex that you will ever have in your life, and there are a few bits of Guinness and Irish pub etiquette that I have gleaned over the years that will help you not make, well, an arse of yourself within the first five minutes.

1) Let the Guinness settle. This is the single most important aspect of drinking Guinness and the one that I see tourists most flagrantly ignoring around Dublin. The foamy white head that characterizes a pint of Guinness is actually thousands of tiny bubbles produced when nitrogen is highly pressurized and forced through very small holes in the tap lines. A recently poured pint of Guinness will look a murky brown color as the bubbles slide down the sides of the glass and eventually float back up to the top, creating that head. The number one rule of drinking Guinness is to wait until the stout is an extremely dark black color before you start drinking. I repeat, do not drink the Guinness while it is still settling. If you do, you are disturbing the head-forming process and messing with the taste entirely!

2) Guinness must be “topped-up”. I made this mistake the first time I ordered a Guinness. The barman had idly set our two pints along the bar and there they were, looking (what I thought to be) pretty. I grabbed for them and was quickly shooed away by the barman, who told me “those pints aren’t ready.” The pouring process of Guinness is intricate and includes a method of filling the glass 2/3 full, letting the Guinness settle (see No. 1 above), then topping it up by pushing the tap in, which releases pure Guinness with no bubbles. So, when ordering a pint, wait until you’ve seen the barman top the Guinness up (this usually takes 3-4 minutes total) before you grab for your pints!

3) Take a good sup. ‘Sup’ is an Irishism for a big gulp. There is a protocol for how to gulp a Guinness, which lets the head remain intact and gets you straight to the good stuff. You have to stick your upper lip out and push the foam away, allowing the Black Stuff straight into your mouth. This will inevitably leave the “Guinness mustache” on your upper lip – a visible sign that you’ve taken a good sup.

4) Drink up, and drink fast. Guinness goes flat, and once it does, YUCK. So, you’ve got to drink faster than a snail’s pace to finish a Guinness before it goes off. If you use the above drinking method, you will notice layered lines of foam staggered down your glass as you go. This is a sign that you’re drinking correctly.

5) Never, I repeat, NEVER mix anything with Guinness. Guinness is not a cocktail, and while you may have a penchant for the occasional Black and Tan or (god forbid) Irish Car Bomb at home, you must never ask for these in a proper Irish pub. If you are a lady, it is fine to ask for a bit of blackcurrant syrup in your Guinness, which for some, makes it a little easier to drink. If you are a guy, you’d better just man up and drink a pint. Otherwise, order a Heineken.