Para El Sobrino (and anyone else who likes Cerveza)

Some more info from The Week, this time quoting a story by Greg Kitsock in The Washington Post (if you are willing to pay attention to that liberal rag).

It seems that the invention of Guinness Stout (which outranks sliced bread and peanut butter) was the result of high taxes! In the 19th century Arthur Guinness Jr, disgusted with the high taxes on barley malt, tried to get around it by substituting 10% of the barley malt with untaxed, roasted, unmalted barley. The bit of roasted barley "gives Guinness its color and its burnt, coffee-like flavor with an acidic note in the finish."

Thus, high taxes are a GOOD THING because they led to the invention of Guinness Stout (god, I love history - you can prove anything).

But, otherwise, there is a disturbing trend among the Irish - some are turning down Guinness for an American beer like Budweiser - "using the alibi that they have to drive or that they are on a diet." Wimps. We're Americans, we don't know any better. There's no excuse for you doing this. (Anyway, in Ireland at least Budweiser is brewed by - Guinness, in exactly the same brewery the good stuff comes from).

Now for some facts:
Guinness measure 4.2% alcohol by volume, and has 125 calories per 12 oz serving (assuming you are dumb enough to drink it in 12 oz servings instead of a pint). Budwieser is about 5% alcohol and has 147 calories (assuming you can get a whole 12 oz serving down).

A pint of Guinness in the US is identical to a pint in Ireland. "It all comes from the same source" - the St James Gate Brewery in Dublin. Technically true, but if you ever go there, enjoy the amazing museum, go to the pub on top of the building, and while enjoying Dublin's fair city down your free pint of Guinness and tell me it is the same as anywhere else (Maire - can we get the infamous picture of Medievalists doing field work at St James Gate mounted here?)

Pub Draught Guinness in cans is brewed from the same recipe as tap Guinness.

Whatever you may have heard from some 'purists' into conspiracy theories, the recipe "has remained unchanged since 1959." Guinness recommends, however, that their Stout be served between 37 and 42 degrees, which is colder that a generation ago.

My only question: why did they change it in 1959?