When you order a pint of the black stuff at your corner pub, what do you want in your glass?
Me, I keep hoping that, some day, I’ll find a bar that has Old Rasputin on tap.
(Or even better, once my homebrew project has gone commercial, Scáthach… but that’s a few years down the pipe.)
So… Guinness? Murphy’s? Or maybe one I’ve never heard of, but simply must try someday?
Back in the day… Beamish, or I’d settle for Guinness if had to. Missing the Beamer. 
If I’m in Dublin, it has to be a pint of plain from The Porterhouse. A pint of plain’s y’re only man! 
We have lots of excellent brewers in my area. There are almost too many good options. However, if I’m just looking for a regular old pint its going to be Guinness. Everyone tries to get too fancy and can’t make a decent regular old pint of stout.
Guinness is my go-to.
Call me pedestrian, but hey - it wouldn’t be everywhere if it weren’t a good product.
Or … just a suppose … it’s managed to make itself bland enough to appeal … just about … to the widest number of people possible. Lowest common denominator kind of stuff …
I mean, that’s harsh, but there is some truth in it. Used to be that Guinness genuinely was different in Ireland - some of it was live for a start whereas, if I’ve understood correctly, it’s the same now the world over - pasteurised and bland-ified.
I too don’t see the need for all the fancy, clever stuff when there’s good, simple stuff out there. But, here in the UK and in Ireland, for now at least, there is good, simple stuff that’s not bland, is not pasteurised and still has the character of good, old-fashioned porter.
Whoa, Guinness is most definitely not the same the world over. I can get three different kinds in the store 'round the corner, five in bigger stores, and that’s just in bottles and cans, some made in Ireland, some in Canada. In barrels they tweak the recipe for where it’s being consumed. In Belgium I got a pint of Guinness just as a goof, and wound up drinking a couple more it was so good (to my taste). What you get in New York and most of the East Coast in the US is very close or possibly identical to what’s in Dublin (modulo the trip across the pond). Some other parts of the US, it does have much less character.
That said, if I had to pick a favorite black beer, it would be Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter.
[Edited so that the first sentence doesn’t mean the opposite of what I’d intended. Thanks, Ben.]
Can I suggest a helpful edit to your post chas? I’ll leave you re-read your first sentence. 
Doh! 
Thanks, mon.
You’re welcome!