[inline:guinness] Last week at the Guinness 250th Anniversary celebrations in Dublin, Guinness master brewer Fergal Murray showed us how to pour the perfect pint and how to drink a Guinness properly. In between the pouring and drinking, Murray spoke with BroBible to discuss his career, why the brewery is a custodian to the Guinness recipe, and 119.5 seconds is the ideal "surge time" for any great pour. BroBible: I think a lot of our readers would say you probably have the coolest job in the world. How did you get here? Fergal Murray: To become a master brewer, you have to immerse yourself in the world of brewing here at St. James Gate -- you can only become a Guinness master brewer by becoming apart of the Guinness team. You can't be a master brewer somewhere else and then come here and all of the sudden fit in -- you have to earn your stripes here. So you spend a lot of time learning the process. I started here in 1983, so 26 years ago. You fall into an apprenticeship pattern; you observe, watch and learn your trade. Along with that, you do a set of exams that come as part of an institution that keeps a global standard. Then you need the qualifications of a brewer, so you do a brewer's exam after three or four years into the program, which gets you on track. After about 10 years into the program, I did my master brewer's track after I spent some time in the States and Nigeria, helping them develop their Guinness draught products. So it's about learning the trade from a scientific point of view, but what really makes a master brewer is the craft, the art, and the passion. Because it is a craft and you have to be a craftsman. The problem, well not problem at all, we have is that we're not allowed to dabble. As a Guinness Master Brewer, I am here to fulfill the destiny of the brand, which is great and very challenging, but I can't manage to develop new creative products, which I'd love to do. BB: And why Guinness?

FM: Ah well, it's in Dublin and I'm Irish, and I mean this is the best brewing company in the world. Guinness involves so much passion about it as well. I mean people just love it and I think what sells you is when you walk into a pub and you see guys and girls enjoying a glorious pint of Guinness. I mean, it's hard to not be proud of what I've just done over the previous couple of days. And I do have the best job in the world in that I get to travel around and talk about it. It's hard work, but it's a very idyllic type of roll and wonderfully enjoyable. BB: Most people in America take coffee breaks at work. As an employee of Guinness, do they encourage you to drink Guinness (responsibly, of course), while at work? FM: No, we do taste samples each day, which is only for quality assurance, but it wouldn't be professional or responsible to drink pints while at work. We leave that for after work when we go out and enjoy it. BB: 250 years is obviously a monumental time for Guinness, what does it mean for you, personally, to be here? FM: It's a very proud to be here. To be apart of Guinness on the 250th anniversary is a pinnacle in my career. This week alone, you just have to be so proud and passionate to be apart of the whole operation and it's just going to be a great week and the brand is going to grow out of it. It's just going to be amazing -- and it's not going to just be here. I'd love to be in some of the pubs around Ireland and the world -- there are going to be so many amazing local, emotional activities around Guinness and we're probably the only brand in the world that can do that. We do have that emotional element and some of our big countries are going to have an extraordinary opportunity to share that this week. BB: Is the recipe and brew method the same as it was 250 years ago? FM: Yep, same fundamental steps along the way. I mean, you can imagine that we've improved the technology along the way; like moving from wood to stainless steel vats and computer automation. We've moved from cooking with rope and fires to cooking with very efficient heating and cooling systems. It's a modern, very well run, efficient, optimized plan in a very competitive world. The fundamental is that we can't change the product recipe because we only borrow it -- we're a custodian to it. The consumers own the recipe so we can't change the brand or recipe of Guinness. We can create innovative ideas, but we really have to ask the consumers' permission. BB: How would you, as the crafter, describe the experience, flavors, and texture of taking that first sip of a freshly poured Guinness? FM: Well as I said, you have to get in underneath the heads, pull the liquid through and you need enough liquid in your mouth to energize the three different sections of your mouth, where your sensory receptors are. The sweetness tends to happen in the front, the bitterness in the back along with salty and sour. What Guinness doesn't have is salty and sour; we have the "roastiness." So what we have is a complex balance of sweetness, roast, and bitterness all in the one go. If you only get it activated in the one area, you won't get a great Guinness experience -- not a huge gulp, just enough liquid to activate all areas. Guinness also has a smooth mouth feeling -- you know, there's not a carbonated tickle, it's a smooth lingering -- so it's smooth, sweet, roasty, bitter, you know, velvety type texture that's just wonderful. BB: According to Guinness, the perfect serve time is 119.5 seconds from the start of the pour, why is that? FM: Well that's the surge time that we require to give you that 22mm head. So we pour it under the right conditions, the right criteria behind the bar, through the right beer lines, through the right restrictor plane, to settle one pint of Guinness to settle at that 22mm head. So if you aim for 119.5, you'll always get a glorious, good-looking pint of Guinness.