Lucas emailed us recently to say he was very disappointed. He had just purchased “the perfect black and tan tool” and told us that it didn’t work at all. His family was a big fan of Black Velvets (Guinness over cider) and the Guinness was immediately floating to the bottom. He further said that any advice would be greatly appreciated. I emailed Lucas back straight away as this was a beer layering emergency! I told him that two things might be happening. One was that he may be using Guinness bottles. Guinness in bottles layer well as a top layer but not as good as the Guinness cans. Two, if the Guinness is dropping straight down into the cider, it probably meant that the cider is less dense than the Guinness. If he tried pouring the cider on top of the Guinness with the tool, it may layer in top. (This would be unusual as all the snake bites we've tried had the cider on the bottom.) His reply confirmed that he was using bottled Guinness and that he would try the cans. For the cider he was using Magners Irish Cider. I had never tried Magners before so I bought some 'research samples' at a local beer & wine store. To the side is a picture of the resulting black velvet layered beer drink. It layered well. Above are come other layered cider & beer combinations we had tried before.
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My wife surprised me by picking up some new Accumulation White IPA from New Belguim Brewing Co. I thought it had potential as a good middle layer beer. First, I tried it over some Rahr & Sons Ugly Pug black lager. This worked out well. About a week later it tried it under good ol' Guinness. This work our very well too! After some consideration I decided to name them both a "Black Snow". I see a possible triple layered beer combination here but I've ran out of the beer to try it with.
One of the regular quality control tasks at The Perfect Black And Tan is ensuring our beer layering tool continues to work properly for our customers. Thus, about once a year, we take some Bass Ale and Guinness Draught and test the tool to ensure it still does pour a "Perfect Black and Tan". We are happy to report that the tool passed our testing again in 2014. With this you can rest assured that the tool really will pour the perfect black and tan layered beer.
- QC Dept I received an email from a customer in Singapore wanting to know if the layering tool worked with Guinness Extra Stout. I told her that I didn't know but that it probably did. I hadn't tried Extra Stout in the past because I hadn't liked its stronger taste. Anyway, the next chance I got, I bought some Extra Stout to try and found that it worked well. See my three experiments below. I'm also now starting to like the Extra Stout flavor... ;)
Michael from Portland, Oregon sent in a great example of a Black Rogue layered beer. A nice thing about layered beers is that it's easy to make two glasses for sharing. TOP: Guinness Draught can BOTTOM: Rogue Irish Style Lager from Rogue Ales Thanks for the great picture Michael! I found two Guinness Draught combinations with outstanding black and tan layer definition.
Someone had mentioned to me that they couldn't get Budweiser to layer with anything. I hadn't tried Bud before though I had found that Miller Lite worked well as a top layer. Bud = Miller Lite right?? so off I went to find some Bud and help my customer out. Anyway, I couldn't find any straight Bud in my local grocery store so I picked up some Bud Ice. As seen in the pictures below, the Bud Ice layered well on top of canned Guinness and Real Ale Brewhouse Brown Ale. I'm sure the problem my customer had was that they tried to use Bud as a bottom layer under Guinness instead of over. Problem solved.
Kevin, from St. Thomas, Ontario, had bought a 3-pack of the beer layering tool back in May and another 3-pack in July. Recently he was kind enough to send in some pictures of his successful beer layering experiments. All these pictures show really great layering of Guinness over various other beers. These are excellent pictures Kevin. Thanks for the nice product placement too ;)
The various bottom layer beers are:
Gerry from Kearny AZ had emailed me with some great feedback about the tool that he had received as a gift from a friend. His input led to putting up the Instructions webpage mentioned a little while ago in the blog. Gerry was using Guinness bottles, which is not as easy to layer as the Guinness cans. After some experimentation he came up with an interesting technique. Here is Gerry's description:
"I’ve attached some photos from this weekend when we used your special tool and it worked GREAT! I even have a “close up” of the device causing the top layer to foam, so it floats in the foam on top of the lower layer. AND we have developed a “trick” to improve the foaming action of the bottled Guinness Stout. When I put the Guinness bottle on the counter, I do it with a bit of “authority” as Cartman might say on “South Park”. While I’m pouring the Bass into the fluted frozen glasses, the Guinness sits and absorbs the light shock I’ve given it. Then, when I OPEN the bottled Guinness with a standard “church key” aluminum opener, I just barely rock the top to break the seal. There is a tiny “pssst” and then I stop and push the top back DOWN. After about 10 seconds, I begin pouring the Guinness into the Perfect Black and Tan device, and from the photos you can clearly see the foaming action that takes place thanks to your innovative design. It works GREAT!" Thanks for the feedback Gerry! |
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We would love to post your pictures in this blog. Send them to support@theperfectblackandtan.com Click here to request a PDF copy of our instructions booklet.
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