dark beer, the country’s black gold

In Dublin (Ireland), Guinness flows around every corner. To find it, just push the door of one of the 750 pubs. All serve the national drink, black beer. “It’s the only beer in the world that you have to pour twice, to give it time to rest. They say you have to wait 119 seconds, not two minutes”, says Patrick Garrett, of Toner’s Pub in Dublin. His pub sells 70 kegs of black beer a week, or more than 6,000 pints. According to some customers, it would be better there than in the rest of the city, “served at the perfect temperature”.

A scientific production

The world’s largest dark ale brewery has been in central Dublin for over 260 years. It all starts in vats. Ground barley and sprouted barley are mixed with water. The essence of roasted barley is extracted by a well-kept secret process. The recipe is monitored from a control station, from temperature to color. If you have to serve Guinness twice, it’s because it’s “of a nitrogen beer”, explains Colm O’Connor, beer specialist at Guinness. At the head of Brazen Head, the oldest pub in Dublin, Steven Wilson has made it his signature dish: an Irish beef stew with carrots, celery and mushrooms, accompanied by a few pints of black beer.