Guinness Surger review

The Guinness Surger allows drinkers of the black stuff to create the magic of Guinness Draught at home, but does it work?

11 March 2006 2:24 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Guinness has launched a new device that allows drinkers of the black stuff to supposedly create the magic of Guinness Draught at home. Pocket-lint takes on for the team and gets drinking on your behalf.

With St Patricks day just around the corner the idea of having a pint of perfect Guinness at home was certainly appealing.

The promise from the drinks company is that the device, called the Guinness Surger, will allow you to create it at home. The catch however is that there are so many elements you have to get right that the experience takes more care and time that it does in the pub.

The device itself is a super sized beer mat that plugs into a power socket and includes a button that when pressed sends a burst of ultrasound waves through the pint glass activating that instant rush of “Guinness Magic”.

But to get there, you have to jump through a number of hoops:

The first is that you can only use the Surger labelled cans, failure to do so means the liquid goes everywhere.

The second is that you must insure the device has at least 1-2 teaspoons of water on it.

The third is that the beer must be cold - i.e. stored in the fridge for more than 24 hours.

The fourth is that the glass must be clean.

The fifth is that the correct size glass be used.

The sixth that you haven’t poured the Guinness in too quickly.

Oh and finally that once you’ve abided by all these requirements that you wait for a further 119.2 seconds just like you must in the pub.

If you manage to do all these things right then the end results are very much like what you will get in the pub, but you have to ask yourself whether you are a dedicated enough Guinness follower to want to go through all this just to get a pint of the black stuff.

Verdict

For us, while the results were as promised, the time to get to them was far too long. When we decide to have a beer at home or even a cheeky one on a Friday night at the office we don't want to have to go through a 5 minute process every time.

At £16.99 for two cans, a glass and the Surger device this is expensive too, and unless the special Guinness cans are available in your local off licence, we've tried three shops so far with no luck, come St Patrick's day you'll be thirsty to boot.

Score

Review Recap

Made by: Guinness
Price as reviewed: £16.99
The good: Makes pub Guinness in your home
The bad: Lots of steps to complete the task, expensive, special cans have limited availability
Quick verdict: Good, but only for those with plenty of time and patience
Score