by Chamberlain Zulauf
If you’re a typical college student there’s a good chance you had a drink last night in celebration of whoever Saint Patrick was. Twisted Tea and the variety of seltzers out nowadays are cornerstones for today’s student party culture, but I’d say the more timeless and universal party drink is good ol’ fashioned beer. (At least on March 17th I’d hope it is.) I know beer isn’t as popular as it used to be with so many new alternatives available, but trying Guinness is an essential experience for anyone who drinks.
Not to sound like an alcoholic, but at the beginning of each week there’s always one question I ask myself: what case of beer will it be this time?
In this third week of March though, the choice is obvious. In the spirit of St. Patty’s, I picked up a case of Guinness from Walmart. It’s on the expensive side of big brand beer but the taste is well worth it. The easiest way to explain Guinness is that it tastes like coffee and chocolate and that it feels like drinking bread. If you’re a snob you could use words like creamy, biscuity, or full bodied to describe Guinness, but most importantly: it’s a balanced beer.
Every beer’s flavor comes from different proportions of hops, malted barley, and then additional flavoring; when a beer is balanced it means that none of those three takes over the flavor of the drink. The genius of Guinness is how it perfectly balances malty sweetness and hoppy bitterness, which pairs nicely with its roasted undertones.
The best way to get it is off tap at a bar since it’s the nitrogen used in that dispensing process which gives the defining velvety mouthfeel. I sincerely recommend not waiting till next St. Patty’s Day to try Guinness if you haven’t already!
