The Guinness Surger at Bobby G’s Pizzeria in Berkeley. A customer, John Jaros, of Berkeley, watches the device in action. A special can of Guinness with nitrogen in the beer is poured into a glass, the glass is set on the Surger and ultrasound waves agitate the nitrogen mollecules and create a creamy head. Read more about the Surger inmy column today.

Photo below: Guinness Brewmaster Fergal Murry, with a pint of Guinness, naturally.

A few facts about Guinness…

Ownership: Guinness, the beer company, is owned by Diageo, which was created by the merger in 1997 of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan, an English company. The merged company is the world’s largest producer of alchoholic drinks. Brands, besides Guinness include Harp Lager, Johnnie Walker Scotch, Jose Cuervo tequila. Tanguera gin, Smirnoff vodka and Captain Morgan Rum. More info here.

Guinness Breweries. Guinness brewmaster Fergal Murray says Guinness is brewed at St. James Gate, Dublin, Ireland and 49 other facilities around the world.

Markets. Nigeria is the biggest Guinness market in the world. Number 2 is Great Britain. Number 3 is Ireland, No. 4 is the United States. Number 5 is either – depending on how you count – Ghana or the European Community.

Where Guinness is brewed. The Guinness Pub Draught (the tall can with the nitrogen widget inside), the draught Guinness (served on tap in pubs) and the new draught Guinness used in The Surger (See my column for more info) for the U.S. market are all brewed at St. James Gate. However, Guinness Foreign Stout, which you can find in bottles around the U.S. is brewed at a facility Canada.

How Guinness is brewed. At St. James Gate and a nearby Dublin brewery, it’s brewed on site. That faint sour or lactic edge at the end of the follow is what Fergal Murray calls “a separate brew stream, kept specially to develop and enhance the flavor.” Most of us think that “stream” is either aged or sour beer, but Murray would only describe it as a separate stream. “It seasons the flavor of the beer, it’s what Arthur Guinness did in the 18th century to enhance the beer and make it more robust.

He said it’s blended into the finished beer after fermentation. The beer is produced in eight days. It’s a warm, 60-hour fermentation. The ale yeast used is a descendant of the yeast used by founder Arthur Guinness, he said. The beer’s aged for 20-30 days.

It’s just 4.2 percent alcohol, 121 calories, for 12 oz., about 200 for 20 oz. about the same as a robust light beer like Sam Adams Light.

Guinness “Beer Essence.” I was on a tasting panel in Boston last week with the Alstrom brothers, founders of Beeradvocate.com. They asked me to ask Murray about concentrated Guinness. So I asked him and got a straight answer, I think:

“We brew the essence liquid exactly the same way you brew other beers. At the end of the process we ‘de-alcoholize,’ concentrate it. We do that because we need our beer to stay robust and very sterile. In different markets around the world, the challenging markets with difficult climates, we can guarantee that even with local brewing materials you can always get great tasting Guinness.

“It’s better for us to brew our beer locally and using the essence guarantees the quality. Guinness Extra Stout sold in the U.S. is 5 percent ABV and brewing in Canada using the essence.”

About Foreign Extra Stout. This extremely dry, tasty, (Murrray said 6.5 percent, I thought it was 7.5 percent) bottled beer is an entirely different product than Draft Guinness. Murray said Foreign Extra Stout is the fastest growing Guinness brand. It’s sold in all of Africa, the West Indies, the Caribbean and Asia. He said he has no idea why it’s not sold in the U.S. “It;s very big in Africa and as a global brand.”

What Guinness demands of pubs: 1. Clean glasses. 2. 20 oz. pints. 3. Clean beer lines. 4. Correct gas mixture, 75 percent nitrogen, 25 percent CO2. 5. Correct serving temperature: 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

A couple of more factoids: Murray says the rumor that St. James Brewery will be closed and sold is false. The brewry produces about 4 million pints daily.

Got your iBeer? OK, this one’s outrageously funny and stupid. If you have an iPhone, you can download it from www.hotrix.com for $2.99 It’s a video, but it looks like your iPhone is filling up with beer. The trick is to time it so when you tip the phone up to your lips, you’re drinking it. Check out this video:

There are many others including iBlood for Haloween or goths; ipopcorn, which looks like you’re popping popcorn on your iPhone; igoldfish, which looks like a real goldfish swimming around; igefeltifish for the kosher around us.