As I teased yesterday I had the honor of getting about 10 minutes to talk to Fergal Murray. The man, the myth, the legendary head brewmaster at Guinness. Got to speak with him before the Guinness Perfect Pour contest held at Taco Mac here in Atlanta. The field started with 40+ bartenders and slowly whittled its way down to one.
I guess I can start with a little background for Fergal. He got his first job at Guinness in the early '80s working as a research chemist. He decided he wanted to be a bit more involved in the brewing process so he enrolled at the Institute of Brewing in London and received his Master Brewing degree. Since 1995 he has been the head brewmaster for Guinness.
On to the interview.....
First thing I asked Fergal was "Why Guinness?" He summed it up pretty well in one word, "Passion". He talked of the passion for the "nectar" as he kept calling it. He made a great point that is there another beer in the world where you would have a pouring contest for? He was very passionate for Guinness the brand and Guinness the Beer.
We then went on to talk about "What is the perfect pint?". Apparently there are a few tricks to pouring a good pint. Fergal made sure to point out that not just anyone can pour a good pint. A few rules and pointers: the spout never touches the glass or beer, glass in left hand while working the tap with the right, glass should start at 45 degrees to the tap, pull tap towards you on first fill, first fill should be 3/4 to 4/5 full, let it settle a bit but you really don't have to let it settle all the way out (you get a better head if you don't let it settle all the way), place glass directly under tap for second pour, push tap forward for second pour, fill just over rim leaving a nice "dome" on top. Sounds easy right? Well any spillage your out, place the logo facing the wrong way and your get points off, have bad luck with a few big bubbles in the head and you out.... Anyway you get the point, it is a little tricky to truly pour a perfect pint. That is until you watch Fergal pour perfect pint after perfect pint. Heck you think this was part of his job or something.....
I asked if he had any words of advice for someone who wanted to get started in brewing. Fergal had some great points on this. He said it was great to see new takes on beer and that it is nice that someone can go from homebrewing into brewing for a brewpub pretty easily but he noted that small scale brewers can learn a lot from large breweries. There is something to the consistency that large scale brewers (Guinness, Bud, Amstel ect.). The fact that you can go all over the world, order a Guinness draft and you know what to expect. He mentioned that the processes that they use are the same since Guinness was first brewed. His advice was if you really want to get into brewing to try starting in a large commercial brewery for a bit. Pick up how things are done on the large scale and use that to really learn how to make a truly consistent product, something that can be extremely difficult for a brewpub or homebrewer. That and attending a brewing school can't hurt.
I asked what other beers he likes besides Guinness. He likes Smithwicks but usually tries to have something different. He likes to try the local beers and see what new types of things are going on. He said good things about Sweetwater here in Atlanta. He liked that the craft brew scene pushes the limits of what beer can do and invents new beer and comes up with new takes on old styles. I think Fergal is a beer lover who happens to have the perfect job. He did mention that Guinness is coming out with an exclusive beer for the American market. It is being brewed to celebrate their 250th anniversary. He said it should start showing up here in the states in April!
We talked a bit about how he got interested in Guinness. Again it went back to the passion people have towards the beer. When he was working as a chemist for Guinness he saw just how much people loved the beer and how much he had grown to love and decided he wanted to get involved in brewing it. From there things lead to him getting the most envious job in the world.
Fergal and I talked about a few other things but I think I hit the high notes. He is an amazing guy that just flat out loves Guinness. What an amazing job he has, you would think it is all fun and games (judging pouring contests, showing up at St. Pats day parades, just getting to work at St. James Gate and in the Gravity Bar in Dublin) but there has to be a lot of stress that comes with being responsible for making sure that Guinness stays great. Hey, that is stress I think I could deal with, maybe over a pint or three Guinness....
A last shout out to the winner of the Pour-off. Karen from Meehans Public House won. She had been to the finals the last three years but come up just short each time. She finally broke through with a great pout on the second pour in the finals (first pour was a tie thus a pour-off ensued) and with a little help from her competitor who just overfilled his glass and had some spillage.
Anyway it was an amazing night, I plan on going again next year. Trying to come up with someway that I can sneak into the competition. You think they would let a little know blogger compete? Who knows, if I get it maybe I can win, after all I did learn how to pour from Fergal!
Happy Drinking!!
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