On Beer

[thanmuwa]

Also heard a story that Guinness has a lower alcohol content in Ireland so you can drink more of it (before you fall over I assume)

That's funny, we always heard the same story about the UK :-) You certainly see plenty of British people falling over after only a few Guinnesses . The only place where I have seen it myself though is Northern Ireland (the first place I saw beer with an ABV of 3.8% - I didn't think they went that low ) A lot of lager that is 4.5/5% ABV elsewhere (eg south of the border or in England) was pegged at 4% there, at least when I lived in Belfast between 94 and 98. Maybe things have changed now....

[thanmuwa]

Spoken like a true west coaster

Which bit, the bit about the beards or the bit about the popularity of real ale ?

Seriously, I agree with you, which was kind of my point. Real ale is an England-wide phenomenon, quite popular in Wales, popular in Belfast (the major population centre in NI) but has only really taken off on the east of Scotland, not really on the west, which is why I tentatively put Scotland last on my imaginary Real-Ale popularity list.

[bowser]

"Dublin makes five or six principal versions of Guinness, in a total of 19 variations, and exports around 40 percent of its output." (Michael Jackson's Beer Companion (1993), p 181)

60% of Guinness output therefore went to the domestic market (and that book was written in 93, the brewery in London didn't close until 2005). I very very much doubt that ANY Guinness from London has EVER been sold in Dublin, although if you have a source for that, I would be happy to stand corrected.

Well the park royal brewery was in the area I worked, several trips round, and conversations with the staff, "do you know how much of this we send to dublin" etc etc etc. Cant confirm it now of course as its gone to the great brewery graveyard in the sky.