Why guinness is black

Africa now rivals the UK in their stout consumption. In , Africa surpassed Ireland as the second largest market for Guinness worldwide, behind the United Kingdom, and sales have only climbed since then by about 13 percent each year. The story of Guinness in Africa begins in Dublin. Where the British Empire established colonies or stationed soldiers, Guinness shipped their beer. By the s, distribution reached South Africa as well.

Like Coke in its globalization of soda , Guinness developed partnerships with local breweries, who bottled the beer. As many indigenous populations began to overthrow their colonial rulers and the British Empire began to crumble, Guinness remained. In , Nigeria gained its independence from the UK, and two years later, the Nigerian capital of Lagos became home to the first Guinness brewery outside of the United Kingdom.

The other stouts can't compete with a low 4. Why else would more than 10 million glasses of "the dark stuff" be consumed every day in more than countries around the globe?

That many people can't be wrong! But how many of them know the secret to the beer's pitch-black color? Care to find out yourself? Read on. In a classic chicken-and-egg conundrum, it can be difficult to unravel whether porters or stouts came first. Beer historians and experts point out that in the s and s, porters were the "fathers" of stout, but over time, the two names have become almost interchangeable. Distinctions between the two are now blurred, and telling one from the other is difficult.

Historically, British and Irish stouts came in a range of sub-styles that followed conventional brewing practices and included American stouts, Imperial stouts, sweet stouts, English stouts, and Irish dry stouts like Guinness. Nowadays, though, you need a dance card to understand the style and ingredient variations by brand.

According to Guinness' owners Diageo, the perfect pint of Draught Guinness takes exactly How sad. Britain is first fair play lads , Ireland comes a disappointing third, and Cameroon comes in fourth ahead of the US in measly fifth place. Guinness' founder Arthur Guinness, born to a family of brewers in , started off his career aged 35 brewing ale - not stout. But by chance, a dark beer from London — called Porter — was becoming increasingly popular in Dublin at that time.

Arthur refused to miss out on the growing craze and decided to focus all his efforts on perfecting his dark beer. Arthur signed the lease for the Guinness brewery at St James' Gate, Dublin on December 31, - and it's fair to say he was confident in the brand. The lease runs for 9, years — so Ireland's national drink will be around for 8, more years yet! The stout's chemical formula is unusually low in carbon dioxide - with nitrogen much more prevelant.

Nitrogen bubbles rise to the top of the drink during the pause and come together to form that creamy layer of white. The symbol was modeled after the Trinity College harp - Guinness just flipped the instrument horizontally and called it their own. Guinness' harp - which has evolved six times since its introduction - wasn't actually introduced until and was trademarked 14 years later.

In the s, Guinness employees were guaranteed access to medical and dental care, education scholarships and a pension. While the Guinness popular in Africa is a different mix, that consumed in the UK and US is exactly the same as that in Ireland - it is even made in Dublin at the historic St.

James's Gate Brewery. Neither is it that good a source of iron - three pints contains the same amount as a single egg yolk. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies.

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