There are few drinks as good a conversation starter as Guinness - something I found out first hand when I went along to try my first ever pint this weekend. Having never been much of a beer drinker, at the ripe old age of 29 I have never sipped a spot of the black stuff, and with St Patrick's Day looming, I thought there was no better time than the present. So, off I popped to Auld Shillelagh in Stoke Newington: a pub which is as close to authentic Irish as you can get in London.
On the Saturday afternoon I popped in, the pub was absolutely rammed to the rafters and fighting my way to the bar was my first challenge. Once I finally reached it, I knew I had come to the right place, as the bar was six deep with pints of Guinness being poured for thirsty patrons. I secured mine, and fought my way back outside to taste it in (relative) peace.
Standing in the alley, with the shouts of people watching the rugby and the dulcet tones of Irish folk music drifting out to me, it felt strangely momentous. To my dismay, my Guinness was not poured in a glass with a logo so I couldn’t attempt to "split to the G" on my first try. Splitting the G is a trend that some credit Guinness's momentous rise in popularity in recent years.
It involves drinking a large gulp of your pint, so that when it settles, the line of the foamy head intersects the G on the logo. Despite my disappointment, I took a large gulp of my pint anyway and was immediately pleasantly surprised. I had been expecting powerful.