When I was nosing around the website of Dirk van den Broek* for my recent trendy post, I noticed something rather odd about Guinness.
And it wasn't just annoyance at seeing Guinness Special Export on their website, when my local one doesn't stock it. Which is really irritating when they do sell the stupid "draught" version. Which is sort of what I'm coming around to.
This is how canned "Draught" Guinness is listed at Dirk's. See if you can spot anything odd:
You probably couldn't spot it. I know I didn't the first few times I looked at it. "Guinness Pilsener stout draught". What? Guinness is a Pilsener?
When I stopped laughing, I started to wonder: how could this have happened? What was the person thinking who wrote this?
All I can come up with is: they think Pilsener is synonymous with beer; or that all draught beer is Pilsener.
Do you have a better theory? Let me know.
* A Dutch supermarket chain. Most similar UK equivalent is Morrisons.
Someone copied and pasted a beer name when they were tired, and forgot to remove the word Pilsener from the previous version.
ReplyDeleteYou've probably figured it out by now? But here's a colourful character explaining it (hide him from kids, but probably okay for Grannies if you are feeling malicious).
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JqFm93p4FE
PeeBee,
ReplyDeleteit isn't Open Gate Pilsener. It's just the standard Draught Guinness Stout can.
Draught cans are scaldy Beamish is better in the cans or better buy Porterhouse XXXX stout, Sullivan’s black marble stout, O’ Hara’s Irish stout depending on what supermarket you are in.
DeleteIf you were blindfolded and couldn't see it was black, you might think it was a light mildly hoppy beer on no particular character. Not so different to many soi disant Pilseners in fact.
ReplyDeleteAI is writing beer ads now?
ReplyDeleteIt's probably supposed to be Urquell Guinness.
ReplyDeleteBrewers, and beer writers, believe the general public understands a lot more about beer than it actually does.
ReplyDeleteI keep having to tell brewers not to put Kölsch or Gose on their labels, because punters have no idea what those terms mean. The average person doesn’t even know what Pilsener or Stout mean.
It’s quite plausible that the person putting Guinness in the stock database did not understand that Pilsener and stout are contradictory. Although I think my initial guess of a simple copying and pasting mistake is still more likely.
Here in Ireland stout is a strong flavoured dark beer, lager a yellow to golden cold little flavour beer and ale is anything not that those are I.E Smithwick's a mild.
Delete