Guinness is particular about pours of its stout. Any time of year, but particularly around St. Patrick’s Day, the brewery’s six-step approach ensures a creamy head, perfect mouthfeel and lovely liquid aesthetics.
Jamie O’Donoghue, owner of O’Donoghue’s Irish Pub in Elm Grove, walked us through the perfect pour.
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“Start with a cool, clean Guinness glass at a 45-degree angle,” O’Donoghue says. “Pour up to the harp logo and let it sit for 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Then hold the glass straight up and push the tap handle forward to top it off. Serve with the logo facing the customer.”
No one tracks this crucial stat, but it’s likely that O’Donoghue has poured more Guinness than anyone in the Milwaukee area. He’s owned his current tavern for 24 years and he manned the bar at local Irish pubs like O’Donoghue’s on Bluemound and County Clare for more than two decades before that. It’s safe to say that he knows his pours.
“You can’t have any overfill,” adds O’Donoghue. “If you have too big of a head, in Ireland that’s called the bishop’s collar. That means it’s too big. It’s about as thick as a bishop’s collar, which is like an inch and a half or 2 inches. You don’t want it to be that big, and you don’t want any frog eyes [bubbles in the creamy foam]. I was at Guinness last September. We did a VIP tour, and it was like going with Willy Wonka. We all got to pour the perfect pints. I mean, they wouldn’t pour anything but a perfect pint at the brewery. It’s beautiful.”
