Guinness

Of all the brands that you can think of when thinking of beer you must have this in the top ten if not the top five. It must be known at least in every country of the world , and if not a lover of the beer you must have sat and wounded at the adverts thinking what is this all about.

Now for normal young men of my generation you went from cider to larger then bitter, I went cider Guinness bitter. In its straight sided glass with a black beer and white cream head, and gold lettering it just looked so good. And so it should it was one hell of a product. 

Arthur Guinness started brewing ales from 1759 at the St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, Ireland. On 31 December he signed a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum for the unused brewery. After there was no looking back, Ten years later he exported his first six and a half barrels to England and it expanded exporting more and more  to England.In 1868 the business was worth over £1m., and the brewery site had grown from about 1 acre to over 64 acres. In 1886 it sold 65% of the business by a public offering on the London Stock Exchange for £6m.

Of course it is worth a lot more now, has been owned by a number of companies, and even had its own famous Guinness share-trading fraud. The Guinness family have been involved in scandals and tragedies as well , in fact the history of the product could fuel a number of web sites , conspiracy theories and blogs .

The thing to me when I think of a Guinness I think of a small county pub in the green of Ireland and the sound of music being played as every one has a good time. It is the romance of the product that holds it so deep in your hart. It is that, that makes you think of it in the way I do and hold it there in my mind.

Now people say that Guinness in not the same over here as it is over in Ireland, having drank it over here I would not know but , but I know there is more than one Guiness.

You have Guinness Draught, the main product but also have Guinness Original, Guinness Bitter Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, Guinness Original/Extra Stout and many other varieties that are sold in many different countries.

But the thing that always a good pint of Guinness has to have is that head. The thick creamy head that you get from a draft pint is the result of nitrogen being mixed when it is proud. That is why you have to wait, pore three quarters of a pint then wait let it settle and then finish of, if you are lucky with a shamrock pattern on the head.

Guinness is more than a beer it is a supper brand that means some thing to you, like a coke being Coca-cola, or a burger MacDonald’s. However, unlike the super American brands, it still seems to have its charm, and that must be the Irish in it.