Admittedly, the local pizza joints probably have no clue who I am, so the likelihood of any of them giving me a free pizza is pretty slim. Luckily pizza does not really fit into the grand scheme of things as far as I am concerned; beer however is another thing.
I got invited by Guinness to attend an advanced tasting of their brand new Nitro IPA, which was held tonight in Hollywood. To be honest, I get invited to things like this all the time and if they are in LA I turn down the offer 9/10 times because I hate driving to LA, because it requires me drive there during rush hour. Since Guinness is my deserted island/can only have one beer choice I accepted the invite which was held at The Larchmont. If you are in the area, they have very good food.
I was doing some research on this new release and most of the reviews were pretty negative. Of course, these negative reviews came from people on the east side of the country so I did not pay much attention because I have no idea if a guy from Philly has a clue what an IPA should taste like. One thing I noticed was that everyone was reviewing a can of Guinness Nitro IPA, so naturally, I expected we would be drinking cans of beer at this dinner.
Was I ever surprised when I saw that they actually had a keg of the golden brew. It is the first keg to come to the US and I was among the first three or four people in the US to try this brew.
It is not a "west coast" IPA by any stretch, but it is heavily hopped and the nitro just smooths out any bitterness so it turns it into a smooth, easy drinking IPA that went really well with out meal.
They brought out cans so we could compare the two and I definitely enjoyed the draught version more, but the can got better as it lost it chill.
It should start hitting major markets in a week or two, it is worth checking out if you enjoy trying different beers.
