A pint of Guinness is poured in two parts. That’s the brewery’s own method, set out step by step on the Guinness Storehouse’s site.
The two-part pour, step by step
- Start with a clean, dry, cool glass. The Storehouse calls for a Guinness tulip glass, with the keg preferably at 5 to 7°C.
- Tilt it to 45 degrees. Aim the tap at the gold harp on the glass and pour until the stout reaches the top of the harp. Then stop.
- Let it settle. Put it down and watch the surge, the dark stout sinking under the cream. The Storehouse says this takes about 60 to 80 seconds, “not that we’re counting”.
- Top it up straight. Hold the glass upright and fill until the head forms a slight dome over the rim.
The common mistakes, according to the Storehouse, are pouring too fast, not waiting for the settle, under or overfilling the glass, and the wrong temperature.
Why it’s done in two parts
The ritual is older than the nitrogen. VinePair says that until the 1950s, draught Guinness was stored in two wooden casks, one under high pressure and one under low, so it had to be poured carefully. A Guinness brewer, Michael Ash, then developed a nitrogen dispense system, and single metal kegs took over by 1959. Nitrogen bubbles stay suspended, VinePair explains, “replicating the high-pressure ‘surge’ that needed time to settle.” It says Guinness was the first beer served on nitrogen, and is kept in kegs at 75% nitrogen and 25% carbon dioxide.
So Guinness had a choice. “Do you tell generations of bartenders there’s a new way to pour our beer?” Ryan Wagner, a long-time Guinness ambassador, told VinePair. “Or do you continue to have them do what made us unique?” It kept the two parts.
VinePair also reports growing “chatter disparaging Guinness’s two-part pour as nothing more than a clever marketing ploy”, and calls the settling claim “on shaky ground at best”. Even Wagner told VinePair a one-part pour needn’t change how it tastes, smells or looks. “Not if I know what I’m doing.” He still backs the two-part pour for “the connection we have to our brand, history, and heritage”.
You’ll see 119.5 seconds quoted for the whole pour. VinePair calls it “the 119.5-second lore”, and the Storehouse doesn’t give a total at all.
Pouring a can at home
Guinness’s own line on cans is “Your Guinness, Your Way”, and its GB site doesn’t pick a side. It says the widget in the can arrived in 1988, and that drinkers argue over two methods. Either pour at 45 degrees in one go and let it settle, or do the hard pour, known as the flip, turning the can upside down into the glass and lifting it out slowly as the stout rises to meet it. Its site says Guinness launched Nitrosurge in 2021, a device that uses ultrasound on a special can and, in Guinness’s words, “puts the craft of the famed two-part pour in your hand”.
Splitting the G
To split the G, you drink enough on your first go that the line between stout and foam lands halfway through the G of the Guinness logo on the glass. A bartender might pay for the pint if you manage it first time, VinePair says, and Food Republic reports a Galway pub owner offering a second pint free to anyone who does.
Where it came from is a mystery. VinePair found no clear origin, and Ali Dunworth, author of a book on Irish pub culture, told it, “It’s not an Irish tradition.” VinePair says the brewery seems to keep the trend at arm’s length.
An r/Belfast thread on the question turned up a few stories. One commenter, who says he works in beer marketing, says it isn’t a Diageo marketing invention, and that he and his mates in Dublin have played a similar game, “Between the lines”, for decades. He believes that’s where splitting the G came from. The original poster remembers a colleague doing it after his shifts in 1999, and says the Guinness Guru was doing it on his channel by 2019. Most replies were less sure. One called it “purely a marketing thing for tourists”, and another said it “only started being googled in 2020”.
The 60/40
The 60/40 is a pint of Guinness 0.0 topped up with the full-strength stout, still with the two-stage pour and with the 0.0 in first. VinePair traced the viral version to the Palmerstown House pub outside Dublin, whose video passed 500,000 views. The Drinks Business says it’s been claimed the blend takes a pint from 4.2% to 1.7%.
The sources disagree on which way round it goes. Love Beer says it’s 60% original and 40% 0.0, but that mix would come out at about 2.5%, not the 1.7% it quotes. VinePair has it the other way, 60% 0.0 and 40% Guinness, which comes to 1.68%. That’s the version that adds up.
Reaction was split. One commenter on the original video said it “should be illegal”. The Guinness Guru told his followers, “If you want to go out and have 10 pints and only feel like you’ve had four, fair play.”
What makes a bad pint
Ian Ryan, who runs the @shitlondonguinness account, told VinePair that “the pour is one of the least important elements of a good pint of Guinness Draught Stout”. VinePair also quotes Wagner’s line that “a 5,000-mile journey can be ruined in the last inch and a half.” Its checklist is about what happens before the tap. Is the beer stored at the right temperature, are the lines clean, is the glass washed and dried, and are the kegs fresh?
On r/AskIreland, one commenter listed the usual culprits. “Poor cleaning of pipes etc. Tap not being used in long time and not drained properly. Glassware not clean. Not enough gas. Cellar too warm.” Another put it more bluntly. “Drink the first Guinness from a tap on any given day and tell me Bad Pints don’t exist.”
On r/beer, one drinker said the best Guinness “is usually at a place where people drink it constantly”. Another said that if it isn’t in a Guinness tulip glass, avoid it. The most upvoted reply was simpler. “Order one and drink it.”
We rank London’s Guinness pubs on Google reviews, guides, Reddit and Guinness’s own Harp Guide in the best Guinness in London. The rest of the city’s pubs are on the best pubs in London.