This is where you come in …

The whole idea behind Perfect Pints is the site is in your hands. We’re relying on local knowledge to keep the pub data current, and more importantly, identify the best spots. It’s easy to do, but perhaps we need to be more explicit.

ANYONE can edit pub information

1) On every pub page in the sidebar on the right, there are links allowing you to edit information about a pub. Has the name changed? Change it. Are you the owner of the pub, or just their number one fan? Add a website, Twitter handle, of Facebook page through the same link.

2) Has the pub closed? Only we can delete a listing, but on the map pop-ups, as well as the link in the sidebar of the pub page, you can let us know the pub has closed. Just click the link, and the email will be created automagically for you.

3) Is the pub pin in the wrong place? Go ahead and change it by selecting the “edit this map point” link, or in map view “Edit location”.

It’s just as easy to update pub information on the iPhone app.

If you’re a budding local perfectionist

We’d like to hear from you. If you know your local scene inside and out, drop us a line. If you’re willing to (1) add the best spots in an area (2) identify spots that have closed (3) make adjustments to pin placements, we’ll agree on the area and send along a t-shirt with our thanks. We’re working on long-term benefits for local keeper’s of knowledge. Being a “mayor” of an area should mean more than just checking in a couple of times, shouldn’t it?

The Blue Devon Pub, Dromahair, Co. Leitrim

We were determined to find a brewpub in Florence and luckily our travels led us to Mostodolce. With a young couple ahead of us filling up the Italian version of a beer growler, we knew we were in the right place. The beer, like the spot itself, was full of personality with placemat drawings lining the walls of past patrons’ odes to water, malt and hops in a land dominated by wine. Their logo (above) is the rear-end of an elephant, trunk triumphantly in the air.

All the beer is seasonal and fresh, which meant we couldn’t try their Black Doll Stout, so we settled on their multi-award winning Volpe, made from “five different kinds of malt and a lot of hop.” Potentially a little sour to some it is a beer that grows on you as you drink it. Or, is that just the affect of the beer?

We asked if there were other brewpubs in Florence, and the simple answer was we were sitting in one of two. The reason, as we suspected, this is the land of wine, not beer. I proclaimed beer WAS the next wine and instantly we had a series of glasses on the table to taste. The Saison dell’Arco had a distinct taste of pink pepper, as advertised.

We agreed our favourite was the Martellina (which means ‘hammer’ at 7.3%). I’m not really a fan of sweet beers, but the honey chestnut flavours in this amber ale were lovely.

Too excited by our find we failed to take snapshots, but I suppose that warrants a second visit. And, if you’re ever in Florence and tiring of fine wine and bottled beer, Mostedolce is the elephant in the room.

The perfect pint of Guinness is an alchemy of many elements. Following my initial 30 day, 30 pint, 30 pub tour that started the whole idea for Perfectpints.com, these were the components most discussed in each of the pubs …

Temperature: To me, this has the greatest effect on the overall taste of the pint, and I like my pints as close to room temperature as I can get. The overall perfect pint was the only pint I found served at room temperature. Guinness Extra Cold failed for a reason.

Flow: Simply put, the more Guinness that is flowing, the better. It’s better to grab a pint in a busy pub later in the night. You really don’t want to have the first pint of the evening, and this is probably the reason why pints at restaurants and hotels generally didn’t fare as well. I could discuss “freshness” separately, but the better the flow, the fresher the Guinness is. This might not stop someone from selling Guinness that is out of date and I had one pint that I can say bordered on “spoiled.”

Clean lines: It would make sense that the lines leading to the tap should be cleaned often. You may have heard of the Guinness Quality Team that travels to all the pubs in Ireland and perform checks and routine maintenance. Some claim the length of the lines to the tap is also a consideration, the shorter being better.

Clean glasses: Many swear that a good pint leaves a nice film the whole way down the glass. This may have more to do with whether the glass is clean and what it has been cleaned with. I will say the better pints of Guinness left rings down the glass. Also, serve Guinness in a real pint glass.

The pour: Guinness mentions a six-part pouring process taking 119.5 seconds. We already talked about the right, clean glass. Next you keep the glass on an angle and when making the first pour. You’re not supposed to let the tap touch the beer at any time. Then the glass is set to settle. Once settled, you top up the pint and present it. Guinness has in its guidelines a two-pour process, but I love the old-style, three pours and the head cut off with a bread knife.

The magic: A great pint of Guinness is a state of mind and not just an engineering exercise. A great looking pub, in a fantastic locale can’t make up for a lousy pint, but I do believe it can tip the scales between good and great, or great and perfect. However, I’ve had some excellent pints in what would be considered pretty lousy pub settings. (Morgan recently suggested that the quality of the pint is inversely proportional to cleanliness of the bathrooms. For me at least, that has been the case more times than not.) The publican, the people you’re with, the craic … these are the things that cannot be codified through a quality management process.

What’s most important to you in nominating a perfect pint?

I’m proud to say that Perfectpints.com was brewed right here in the Northwest of Ireland, drawing on the creative talent in Co. Sligo and Donegal. The brand development, t-shirt designs and heavenly pints were done by Carton LeVert from Rathmullan, Co. Donegal. I playfully refer to the rest of the gang as the ‘Strandhill Mafia’ as they are all based close to the fine Sligo surfing. Eddie Johnston of Beanstalk Web Design took my detailed wireframes along with the brand assets and turned them into the frontend you’re all browsing. Aidan Finn handled all the programming and introduced us all to GitHub so we weren’t trampling on each other’s toes. Dan Leydon illustrated the site icons and created the ‘Twoucan’. Brilliant.

(Though she probably won’t thank me for mentioning it, Linh Ta, from, uh … Co. Philadelphia, coded my designs for the initial holding site, with the controversial horizontal scroll. You can blame me.)

The site is settling after the first pour, and we hope to start on some new site enhancements next week.

Yesterday I was in Dublin and had the notion of turning the site on standing outside St. James’s Gate. It didn’t quite work out so you’ll have to be satisfied with the following pic. I am assured he is a Guinness fan as well.

You’re all very welcome. Sláinte!