I never did an “I got a Job” pour, to go with the pink slip pour. This kind of counts as that. At my new job they gave me a Mac Book Pro to use while employed. I was never a Mac person, really more of a Linux guy. I do have to say Apple makes some really nice hardware. My other computers feel like toys compared to the Mac Book. As you know, the Mrs. and I recently got iPhones. We have definitely jumped full on into the world of Mac. I edited and uploaded this video to YouTube using iMovie. The quality when using the built in uploader and settings seems to be a bit lacking, I don’t think I’ll do it that way again. I am not a full convert yet, but I do think Apple puts out some good products. I know I am not on board with some of their business practices. Hey look Guinness.

We are sort of continuing Black & Tan week. It’s kind of fun, mixing things up a little. This will be our last Black & Tan style pour for a while. This one is the Black & Blue, Blue Moon and Guinness. It has fruity overtones and is often served with an slice of orange. It’s pretty good, a lot different than the others we’ve done.

It is Guinness 250 Week! Are you excited? We definitely are. How are you going to celebrate? Last week we did a bunch of black & tans. It got us thinking of different combinations. The black & black came to us. Guinness 250 Anniversary Stout and Guinness Draught. What could go better with a Guinness than another Guinness? The 250 on the bottom really brings our the settling of the Draught on the top. To Arthur!

Guinness is pulling out all the stops for their 250 Anniversary next week. Here is what I expect to be the last update on this from them. I don’t usually post the whole thing, but someone asked for info on where an artist is preforming, so I will post everything so the information is out there. Don’t forget if you can’t make it to Dublin you should still celebrate, and raise a pint to Arthur, at your “local”.

ARTHUR’S DAY GLOBAL CELEBRATIONS HEADLINED BY THE BLACK EYED PEAS, SEAN PAUL AND SIR TOM JONES

R&B star Kelly Rowland and Australian chart-topper Natalie Imbruglia added to the Dublin Arthur’s Day lineup

Dublin, Ireland – As the world prepares to begin the global Arthur’s Day celebrations on 24 September, Guinness & Co. has announced more incredible international talent joining the line-up of artists taking part.  R&B star Kelly Rowland and Australian chart-topper Natalie Imbruglia will be performing at studio venues in Dublin, joining a star-studded list of more than 60 acts already confirmed to take part, including Sir Tom Jones, Razorlight, Paolo Nutini, Estelle, Sugababes and Kasabian.

The Arthur’s Day celebrations mark 250 years since Arthur Guinness signed the 9,000 year lease on the St James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin festivities and will begin in the Irish capital at 17:59 local time with a toast to Arthur and carry on around the world in Lagos, Kuala Lumpur and New York.

Around the world amazing talent will perform at Arthur’s Day events including Sean Paul headlining the live show in Lagos, Nigeria and The Black Eyed Peas leading the celebrations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Arthur’s Day celebrations will be beamed across the globe from Ireland, UK, US and Africa via broadcast partners SKY, ITV2, and DirecTV.

As part of the Arthur’s Day celebrations Guinness & Co. has established the €6 million Arthur Guinness Fund which will be active from September 2009.  Arthur Guinness and his family were responsible for some of the most well known acts of philanthropy in Ireland and to honour and continue this legacy we are establishing this fund with the goal of enabling and empowering individuals with skills and opportunities to deliver a measured benefit to their communities.

Talent Announced (to date)

Venues hosting live music events in Dublin on Arthur’s Day (24^th September)

ST JAMES’S GATE BREWERY – ARTIST LINE-UP

STUDIOS – ARTIST LINE-UPS

28 PUBS – ARTIST LINE-UPS

Note that each Pub venue will also feature 1 or 2 surprise special guests. This will not be announced in advance of each performance.

Here is our third Black & Tan, or Half n Half as they’re known in some circles. We went with another traditional one. Guinness and Harp. Harp is in the Guinness family of beers. I loved how the pour on the glass to the right came out. For those you follow us on twitter that’s the one I posted right after the pour. I’ll repost here after the video. We have a few more of these planned so it looks like Black & Tan week may spill over into next week. Today is also half way to St. Patrick’s Day. We will be heading out to our local pub to celebrate tomorrow night.

before

after

Earlier this week Guinness released a Pub Finder app for the iPhone. The app was created by KICK Design. First the details and screen shots, then my thoughts on the app will follow.

To assist you and consumers of legal drinking age across the US to join the Arthur’s Day celebration and more easily raise a toast with friends in the future, GUINNESS yesterday released the new iPhone App: GUINNESS® Pub Finder – U.S.

The GUINNESS PUB FINDER App is divided into a few user-friendly sections:

• “Locate a Pint” – uses GPS to locate the consumer and the pubs serving Guinness nearest to their current location. It then provides name, address and telephone number of the pub chosen, access to directions, and an email setup to invite friends to join! ***

• “Know Your Pint” – provides a tutorial on the 6 Steps to Creating the Perfect Pint, and also includes a ruler that can be used to ensure that the head of the pint is up to GUINNESS quality standards.

• Fun Extras – includes animated screensavers, a countdown clock to the “Arthur’s Day” celebrations and a live feed of the latest news regarding the GUINNESS 250th Anniversary celebration

• Responsible Drinking – Provides consumers with the DRINKiQ resource which shares important facts about alcohol to aid responsible choices.

You can expect periodic updates to the iPhone App that will share the latest from GUINNESS…everything from the newest promotions to value-adds like mini-games or quiz questions for continued enjoyment on-the-go with the iPhone.

The App costs $1.99

App Store Link

My Review:

Having just gotten an iPhone a couple weeks ago I was super excited to see that Guinness had made an iPhone app. It was one of the first things I checked for when I got my phone. When we got this email I got the app right away.

The pub finder on the app is great. It shows you all establishments in the area that have Guinness on tap. As you zoom the map out it shows more. I found two problems with this feature. There is no info other than contact information for the pubs/bars. I know one local place serves Guinness in plastic cups, but there’s no way for a person using the app to know that. I would say just stick with the places that have Irish names, it’s not full proof but your chances of getting a good pint are better there. My second issue with this is that it doesn’t handle showing lots of pubs well. As you know we are in NJ, I just zoom out a little and NYC is on the map. When that happens I get an error that there are too many pubs for the app to display properly. Then the app crashes. It’s obvious they know about this problem, hopefully they can fix it soon.

The other options are fun, the How to Pour a Perfect Pint section will let you make sure the bar keep is pouring a proper pint and the ruler will let you check it when you get it.

The countdown clock and news are cool. They are what you’d expect. A countdown to the 24th and a feed of Guinness related news. You get those by clicking the 250 Remarkable Years logo. I thought it was just a header at first.

My biggest complaint about the app is that you have to enter your birthdate every time you run it. It’s on my phone, this data should be stored. Maybe it can ask if I am me or something, but having to enter that every time is annoying, and user unfriendly.

So is the app worth $1.99? If you travel a lot, yes. If not, I don’t think it is quite on par with other $1.99 apps yet. If they come through with the additions spoken of above than it definitely will be.

Guinness is doing their best to prepare us for the 24th. Today we got this spiffy bar towel and a nice 250 Pokies pint glass. And don’t forget to visit your favorite Irish pub this week for the halfway to St. Patrick’s Day celebration!

Here is our second black & tan pour. I’ve seen it called the Blacksmith or the Irish Black & Tan. It is Smithwick’s and of course Guinness. I personally liked the taste of this one over the more traditional Bass kristen stewart pokies & Guinness. For the die hard fans this combination is also keeping with the Guinness brewery. We have two more black & tans planned that also stick to the Guinness family.

So we told you we got those black & tan spoons over the weekend. We have been meaning to do some black & tan pours, so this week will be black & tan week here. Our first black & tan video is the madonna pokies classic black & tan, Guinness and Bass. We have some ideas for others. What is your favorite black & tan variation? Let us know in the comments and maybe we’ll do it.

We received some Fed Ex packages today. We got the cool 250 Remarkable Years hats you Pokies can see MJ modeling below. We also got a letter and signed picture of Fergal Murray.