Guinness Brew 39

In Fact, Ah mentioned the limited edition Brew 39 from Guinness a couple of weeks back. I’m not a Guinness drinker myself, not much of a drinker full stop if truth be told, but my Dad, my brother and, through their influence, my husband all consider themselves connoisseurs of the black stuff. They are very fussy about where they drink their pints and will walk out of any bar that only sells the extra cold trendy version. They prefer to drink in slightly quieter pubs since the barman is less likely to be rushed, they know which barmen in which pubs pull the best pints (controversially they avoid barmaids since they maintain women don’t know how to pull a good pint). They claim to know what times of the evening the pints are the best depending on how full or empty the barrel is and they won’t take the first pint after the barrel has been changed. One favourite watering hole was the Queens in Dalkey but this has changed because the head barman left and now the pint just isn’t as good. Finnegans has become the new local although if a better pint is found they are sure to follow it.

My husband was out with my brother not long ago enjoying their usual pint and were just about to order the last one of the evening when they spotted one of the Brew 39 beer mats. Being dedicated Guinness guardians they decided to give it a go purely in the interests of research. To cut a long story short, they got home so late I didn’t see either of them that evening, but I am told that somewhere in Dublin a poor unfortunate taxidermist was phoned at 2 in the morning and asked if he could take a fare from Dalkey.