The social drinker

Guinness is the iPhone of stouts. It’s an excellent product combined with clever advertising that it is not quite as brilliant as it likes to think, but still better than the opposition. For doubters, there are plenty of good alternatives, if they want to try something new this St Patrick’s Day.

The Samsung of the porter world is probably Cork-based Murphy’s; a porter that is both lighter and sweeter than Guinness. Some claim to detect chocolate, coffee and caramel tastes — which seems to me to be stretching things, but the flavour is definitely less bitter than Guinness. Beamish — which, like Murphy’s, is brewed by Heineken in Cork — is another credible rival to Guinness that is slightly lighter, and has a bittersweet flavour that lies somewhere between Guinness and Murphy’s.

A creature of habit when it comes to porter, I must admit that I rarely drink either Murphy’s or Beamish, but I do try to make a point of ordering O’Hara’s if it is available. This has probably less to do with the roasty, hop taste than a long-standing affection for the Carlow Brewing Company, which has done so much to break the stranglehold on the market that was once enjoyed by this country’s big brewers.

Having said all that, one of the best challenges to Guinness these days comes the Guinness brewery itself: West Indies Porter. Brewed with more hops than ordinary Guinness, it’s based on an 18th-Century recipe intended to create a porter that would survive long sea journeys and retain its flavour in warm climates.

A glass or two of any stout that is not your usual will probably do little to persuade you to change, but it should at least remind you why you have a favourite porter in the first place. A bit like using somebody else’s smartphone. An interesting experiment for an hour or two, but rarely satisfactory over the long term.