Murphy's

[brenmurph]

this thread makes me feel very privaleged to be part of the current Craft revolution. Great thanks has to go to all the beer gurus that formed CAMRA some decades back, the brave craft brewers who remorgaged their houses to setup a small brewery and to all the enthusiasts that brew and drink it.
Isnt it great to now have such a great selection thanks to the campaigners that went before us especially CAMRA.
Every time I go to UK I am in awe at the range and quality of the real ales in every pub and in Ireland we have no shortage of real beer a stones-throw away.
Im a huge fan of the Cork Stouts and always have. My first drink in a pub was a Smithwicks, my second was a Beamish, my Da said Ill never like the Beamish.....I dont think I ever had a Smithwicks since...that was nearly 40 years ago. My third beer was a Swiss lager on draft in the Lough & Quay in Clondalkin (Hofenperle)and maybe that was a great intro to beer for me. I have been a craft beer nut since the very start. My regular trips to the north or holyhead for shopping trips saw me hunting down real ales when I was old enough to drive.
I remember Ireland and UK when there was real beer ( inc beamish which was far more robust than it is now) beamish was very close to the Porterhouse Wrasslers level of flavour and thats why Ive been drinking it since I was a child . Today beamish is still a nice beer and Murphys is a stout version of Budweiser. Murphy was always described as 'Sweet' and light which is OK. We dont all want belgian triples and double IPA's.
Raise a glass to all the people who are responsible for our current healthy beer world and be very glad we have the choices and opportunities we have and remember all the fellas who would love to be sitting at a bar ( drinking any beer Budweiser Murphys, Wrasslers or Beamish) but cant coz there not here anymore

[delzep]

Mr Happy is right, the book "For the Love of Hops" explains how the head of Anheuser Busch decided they should cryogenically freeze cans of Budweiser every year and then compare it year in and year out. They found that the difference between 5 years was indistinguishable but after 20+ years it was very noticeably less bitter. They attribute it to market research and tasting groups who determine how the recipe of the beer is altered. AB claimed that the American public(or their accountants?) wanted fewer IBU's so they gradually dropped the hop additions.

Without a doubt, the same process goes on at Diageo and Heineken and it's an inevitable race to the bottom flavourwise.

NB: Draught Guinness and bottles of Guinness are different beers. I don't think the bottles have changed much.

I thought draught and bottled Guinness were the same beer, just one was carbonated and the other nitro?

[irish_goat]

I thought draught and bottled Guinness were the same beer, just one was carbonated and the other nitro?

Nah, best way to notice it is to compare the difference between a bottle and pint of O'Hara's stout and then a bottle and pint of Guinness. Nitrogen should not have that much effect on what is otherwise a decent beer.

Diageo themselves say,

Does GUINNESS® Draught use the same brewing recipe as Extra Stout?
The recipes for GUINNESS® Draught and GUINNESS® Extra Stout are very similar in all aspects.

That needs to be taken with a pinch of salt however given that they also say,

Are we drinking the same GUINNESS® today, as in Arthur's day?
Basically yes. Arthur's legacy and his brewing process are still continued by GUINNESS® brewers today. Modern brewing methods enable GUINNESS® to deliver the highest quality products that we are proud to put Arthur's name to today.

Nitrogen wasn't even discovered when Arthur started brewing. :

[brenmurph]

did ye see Johnrm's post?  The story of beamish...wonderful documentary on tg4 player
http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/forum/index.php/topic,4549.0.html

[Bzfeale80]

As far as i know it wasn't until the late 60's or so that nitrogen was used with stout in pubs. Might even be more recent? Think I read that or saw it on some documentary a while ago.

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[Cathal O D]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3jJzLaIgPM

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[Will_D]

In 1973 Guiness in our unon bar had a little bottle of gas built into the keg.

Not sure when they first appeared as I was only allowed behind the bar after a 3 year apprenticeship on the other side.

[UpsidedownA (Andrew)]

As far as i know it wasn't until the late 60's or so that nitrogen was used with stout in pubs. Might even be more recent? Think I read that or saw it on some documentary a while ago.

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I think nitrogen dispense actually goes back to 1959! 200 year anniversary of Guinness.

[HomeBrewWest]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3jJzLaIgPM

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Excellent. Long time ago?

[CeardLeann]

I would say it was around 95/96. I was obsessed with the ad as a child. actually shot right next to TG4 i mBaile na hAbhann. Anyway, a relative got a hold of the bottle so I could imitate the samurai. I remember the widget in the bottle

[Garry]

I remember that samurai ad too. I've got one of those bottles still. It's best before April 99

[delzep]

You ever gonna drink it?

I had a Guinness Special Export from 1983 a couple of years ago....was delicious. But thats 8% or so. Dunno about Murphy's lasting too well 

[brenmurph]

feckin hell.... dont open it...its worth more... maybe a good pub would like it on display for the next few decades...
My father worked in a bank and he was cleanin out the oul cellars / vaults and came across a load of stuff from  a hundred years ago, he acquired a fer oul dormant deeds and stuff from old business accounts ( all invalid I may say) a pub up in sandyford paid him a more than the price of a pint for the original deeds to the pub when it first acquired its  beer licence...it sits proudly in the bar in a glass frame...

its a lovely bottle too good to open... thats my opinion anyway

[Garry]

I've no intention of drinking it. I've got a bottle of Murphy's Red too, never even tasted the stuff.

[brenmurph]

tell us how the feck did a bottle of fairly decent beer end up not consumed for 15 years?

just as an add on, me and a mate Jippo, worked in the original Tesco ( 1978- 19850 on the greenhills road. we were given a bit of saturday overtime do do a cleanup on an oul storeroom that they were goin to convert to an extra office. We had all sorts of junk to dump but we found a few crates ( I mean crates with 12 large bottles) whic didnt even have BB dates on them.. but we found ut they wre from a party from when tesco had their official opening some years previous. We sed to the boss can we dump them crates in our boot in the car...he obliged............ they were feckin lovely as we remember.......... had a very good weekend in them days wen we could rarely afford to go out to the pub ( 16 pound a week and VAT was like 35% as was income tax) .. thats about when homebrewin took off.thank god...