Guinness Turns 250 Years Old

Arthur Guiness would be 284 years old if still alive
Guinness Stout is 250 years old, and Guinness is celebrating in four different cities worldwide tonight. If your lucky enough to live in New York City, Dublin (of course), Kuala Lumpur, or Lagos, you may be able to party the night away to celebrate this event. Don’t eat too much before hand though, you’ll have to leave plenty of room for this rich, heavy porter.
Guinness has quite an interesting history. Here are some interesting facts:
- Guinness is brewed in 40 countries.
- Guinness is sold in over 150 countries.
- More Guinness is consumed in Nigeria than Ireland.
- Arthur Guinness signed a 9000 year lease on the original St. James’ Gate Brewery.
- Annual rent on the St. James’ Gate Brewery from the original lease is about $120 USD – annually.
- Guinness was originally an ale. Porter was added later, and ale was dropped altogether by 1799.
- Arthur Guinness had 21 children (only 10 made it to adulthood).

Guinness 250 Anniversary Stout
Unfortunately, it’s probably too late to get your hands on some Guinness 250 Anniversary Draught. It was released in April 2009, and the supply was expected to last about six months. If you come across some, hang on to a can. It could be a collector’s item.
Although I missed this release myself, I’m not too sure I would have liked it. The appealing thing about Guinness is how smoothly it goes down. The nitrogen in the carbonation diffused it a bit, eliminated some of the bite, and provided the world famous creamy head. The 250 Anniversary Guinness is carbonated with pure CO2.
Cheers and Happy Birthday, Guinness!
Guinness has videos of last night’s party posted on their web site:
http://www2.guinness.com/en-ie/250-arthurs_day.html
Some are pretty cool!
Cheers!
RickMo