March 15, 2024 – Guinness

It’s Saint Patrick’s Day weekend, and chances are if you’re celebrating, you’ll be drinking a Guinness! It’s estimated that 13 million pints of Guinness are consumed on St. Patrick’s Day worldwide.
Arthur Guinness started brewing ales in 1759 at the St. James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin. He originally brewed two beers, a porter and an ale. The ale was discontinued in 1799 so brewers could focus on the increasingly popular stout. Today, Guinness is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide. It’s brewed in almost 50 countries and available in more than 120. The Guinness Storehouse at St. James’s Gate Brewery is now Ireland’s most popular tourist attraction, with more than 20 million visitors since opening in 2000.
The Guinness Harp was one of the first trademarks in the U.K. It was adopted in 1862 and based on the Trinity College harp. Harps have long been a symbol of Ireland, since at least the reign of Henry VIII. The Guinness harp faces right instead of left to differentiate itself from the Irish coat of arms.
In the 1920s, Guinness ran an ad campaign with the slogan, “Guinness is Good for You”. Apparently, they did some market research and people told the company they felt good after drinking a pint. They might not be wrong – a 2003 study found that stouts like Guinness could reduce the deposit of harmful cholesterol on artery walls. This was attributed to the higher levels of antioxidants in stouts, though the health benefits of antioxidants have been called into question.
Have you ever wondered if Guinness World Records has anything to do with the beer? The answer is yes! In 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of Guinness Breweries, got into a pub argument with his friends about the fastest gamebird in the U.K. He knew that there must have been lots of other questions debated nightly at the pubs, but there was no book that existed to settle arguments about records. So he decided to create one, stamping the Guinness name on the cover and giving them away for free to pubs.
The United Kingdon is the only country that drinks more Guinness than Ireland. It’s said that one in every 10 pints sold in London is Guinness. The 3rd-largest Guinness drinking country is Nigeria, followed by the U.S. Learn more here.