Should You Pour Your Canned Guinness Into A Glass?

Grabbing a beer can from the cooler, cracking it open, and taking a sip go together like bread and butter. But if you're about to enjoy a can of Guinness Draught Stout, you should probably pour it into a glass. Irish-born brew's brand adviser Zack Berger enlightened us as to why pouring canned Guinness into a pint glass is the best way to achieve "a near pub-level pouring experience," allowing drinkers to fully enjoy all of the aroma and malted, chocolaty flavor the signature stout brew has to offer.

"Cans have our innovative widget, which agitates the Guinness," explains Zack. "For Guinness extra (and foreign extra) stout, I enjoy pouring into a glass to allow for nosing the beautiful roasted aromas." In 1759, when Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease on a brewery in Dublin, Ireland, he had a vision for a long-lasting stout brewed for generations to come, but one wonders what he would think about his creation being served in a can.

If you're trying to recreate a pub-like experience at home, you want to start by selecting your favorite chilled glass, whether it's a classic tulip glass or a honeycomb stein. Zack Berger says to hold your glass at a 45-degree angle, slowly pour until it's about three-quarters of the way full, and then stop to allow the nitrogen to "surge and settle." He explains how the "nitrogen cascading down the side of the glass and funneling up through the middle of the pint [will] build a tall, creamy head." After the head forms, just top it off with the remaining stout.

While effective, Berger's preferred strategy isn't the only way to pour. Another popular method is the hard pour, which involves opening the can and flipping it upside down into the glass. Then, you slowly lift the can out of the glass as the brew rises to meet it. Though there seems to be a lot of back-and-forth about which pour is most effective, we encourage Guinness Draught Stout fans to try both and discover which works best for them.