By Raye Ebensteiner
“Don’t slurp the beer.”
One lesson learned at this year’s Savannah’s Irish Festival. Like a pint of the nation’s favorite stout, this weekend hundreds of Colleens, Eians, Siannens and Dannys poured into Savannah’s Civic Center to celebrate the city’s Irish heritage.
So, what is the proper way to drink Guinness? Embrace the foam mustache. Guinness’ foam is a nitrogen cap. Nitrogen bubbles are lighter and smaller than CO2 carbonation, so they float up and bond to one another. The foam cap acts as a guard protecting natural flavors underneath from being oxidized and preventing oxygen in the air from getting down into the beer, gobbling up what little carbonation there is.
Dancers, music groups and folksingers filled four stages playing the bodhran (Irish drum), fiddle, flute, guitar and Uilleann pipes while fest goers indulged in Irish food, Guinness, Irish products, arts, crafts and monitored wee ones wielding wooden swords.
