Guinness has always made sure to differentiate its draught stout in the marketplace. It begins with the myth they’ve built up around the beer itself: the special three-minute pour, the nitrogen carbonation, the notion that it somehow tastes better in Ireland. The Dublin-based brewer also always invested heavily in advertising, many of its mid-twentieth century print ads becoming iconic reprinted collectors’ items.Nowadays, it must becoming harder to ride that cutting edge.

I don’t know if the company’s marketing moves in recent years come from Guinness itself or from its parent company, Diageo, but the brewery has spent the early years of the new millennium dismantling the traditionalist image it used to work so hard to maintain.It all started with the nitro cans. These tall cans contained a “widget” which would agitate the beer upon a yank of the pull tab, creating a reasonable facsimile of a pub-poured pint of Guinness. Next came the draught bottle, which did a similar widget thing but allowed people to drink the beer straight from the bottle, thus eliminating all the visual pleasure from this most beautiful of beers.Still, Diageo wasn’t quite hitting the young, stupid, overly brand-conscious nightclubber market.

Enter Guinness Extra Cold. Remember all that stuff you heard about proper Guinness being served cool, but not overchilled? Well screw that.Guiness Extra Cold is draught Guinness pumped through a special underbar superchiller, instantly cooling the beer to a temperature 3 degrees Celsius colder than normal Guinness. For that cool, refreshing, quenching pint of inky black heavily roasted malt-based nitrogen-carbonated beer.

Next target for the Diageo Marketing Machine: bars without draft lines and people who shop at The Sharper Image. Ladies and Gentlemen, Guinness introduces: “The Surger.”I know, it sounds like something you’d do to a rugby opponent when the referee isn’t looking. “The Surger,” however, is a sleek, sculpted piece of bartop technology designed to “create the magic of Guinness Draught at the touch of a button.” It’s basically a metal plate upon which is placed a glass of special “Surger” Guiness. Upon activation, ultrasonic rays or lasers or something shoot into the glass, activating the beer’s carbonation.

It looks cool, and it really does work. The bar was out of the special “surger” Guinness upon our visit, but we forced the bartender to try it with a pint of Bass and the beer instantly foamed out and spilled all over the place.Perhaps this is the perfect home bar accessory for the uber-rich tech junkie who has everything and needs to find a new way to impress company. But since it does exactly what the pub cans and draught bottles do, it’s hard to really see the point, other than being a shiny little toy.

At least it doesn’t make your beer super cold.-Mark