March 17, 2021 • 51 mins
This brewing company, famous for its Irish stouts, is one of the most recognizable beer brands in the world. Anney and Lauren tap into the history and science of Guinness.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to Sabor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Any and I'm Lauren Voke obam and today we're
talking about Guinness. Yes, because if you're listening to this
as it comes out and potentially in other years depending
on how the timing place, it is St Patrick's Day
it is, and Guinness is an Irish brand, So we thought, Hey,
(00:30):
we've danced around the topic of this brand for a while,
why not why not do an episode? Why not do
an episode? And there is a lot going on with Guinness. Yeah, yeah,
as it turns out, Um, I'm just thinking of all
of the times that we have such difficulty finding especially
historical material on any given topic. And as it turns out,
(00:51):
it really only requires like a brand that is really
invested in telling people all about itself. It's part of
its market day to just have a treasure trove of information,
an absolute treasure trove. Oh man, like too much almost,
But okay, drink responsibly as always with these episodes, And
(01:14):
I did want to I know I've shared it before,
but I had, in my mind was a very disastrous
pouring experience. But it was fine. Um, okay, why did
you think it was? Does that Okay, go go ahead
and tell the story. Okay. So I know I've talked
about it before, but I did visit the Guinness Brewery
slash museum, I think, and I was actually looking at
(01:37):
pictures before this, and they filled me with such nostalgia
and desire to travel. But I mean, it was truly amazing.
It was an amazing experience. My mind was absolutely blown.
I think the show it might have been. I think
we were fairly new ish, so I wasn't really comfortable
with reaching out to brands like parents like that. But
(01:59):
I remember being there and think, king, oh, I want
to talk to somebody about um. But there there was
just a lot there. I think it's six floors, it's
five or six floors. UM. At one point you enter
this this solid white room that feels like you've entered
a sci fi movie, and this impeccably dressed dude appeared,
(02:20):
at least in my case, it was a dude peered
out of a door in the wall that you couldn't
even see and there was fog in this room and
offered you beer on this silver tray and you're just
you take it, and they're like sure, um, but yes
they they teach you, and I know we're going to
go into this in detail. They teach you how to
(02:42):
do the proper poor the perfect core of a Guinness,
which is a sixth step pour that, when successfully done,
takes nineteen point five seconds, which makes me laugh it. Um,
and if you well, I assume they'd give you the
certificate no matter what. But um, I was so nervous.
(03:02):
I'm taking notes, like of all those steps that I'm watching,
like peviously everyone and they were like, who wants to
go first? And I took a step back. It was fine,
it worked out fine, but I was shaking. You get
to drink the beer. I still have the certificate. It's
all okay. I I understand it was a high pressure situation,
(03:23):
but that wasn't even intended to be a pun. But
but you pulled through, which also wasn't intended to be
a pun. Oh gosh, I'm sorry. This is so good. Well,
pluns are plenty, uh. And the marketing floor was amazing.
They really went over the top on that floor and
their ads, in large part, have been very successful. We're
(03:44):
gonna talk about some of them. Um. I bought the
shirt that says a woman needs a man like a
fish needs a bike because I just thought it was
strange and I wanted and that is a past ad campaign.
I also want to put in here because I had
never heard this, but I told my co host over
and stuff on or told you that we were doing
this episode, and the first thing she told me was
rhets find out if the rhet story is true. It's
(04:05):
not true. I didn't look into it too and depth.
But it's a myth that there were rats in the
beer at one time. Oh oh no, Well, I'm glad
that that was a myth. Yeah, yeah, that's all I'll
say about that. Um, we have done past episodes on beer.
We've done staffs and porters, We've done I p as,
we've done sour beers, we've done marts, and I think
(04:28):
that's it. That maybe sounds like it. We've done a
lot of episodes, as we've discussed. Yes, so those exist, um,
if you would like to listen to them. But in
the meantime, I guess we should get to our questions.
So Guinness, what is it? Well, Guinness is a brand
(04:53):
of beer that makes a number of brews, but it
is perhaps most famous for their stouts, which are a
category of beers known for their dark coloration and roasty,
toasty flavors thanks to the heavily roasted grains used in
making them. UM. In this case, the grain UH in
question is is malted barley. And Guinness's current lineup available
in the United States includes a Draft Stout, which is
(05:16):
poured yes from a specialized tap that incorporates both carbon
dioxide and nitrogen bubbles into the beer for a creamy
mouth feel. An Extra Stout which is a higher A
b V higher alcohol BI volume UM a little bit
drier on the palette, a Foreign Extra Stout which is
an even higher A b V and a little bit
(05:36):
more bitter UM. And a blonde Logger which is a lighter,
a little hoppier. There's also a smooth which is bottled
with nitrogen for that for that creamy mouth feel, a
nitro i p A, which is what it says on
the box, Yes I p A with nitrogen involved for
a creamy I p A experience. UM, a Special Export
(05:58):
which is sweeter and the strongest alcohol bi volume. And
a black Logger which is crisper and a little bit lighter.
So yeah, let's talk about this perfect pore, Okay, and
that whole nitrogen thing, because most beers contain carbon dioxide
to give them fizz a plus. You know, it's a
it's a natural result of fermentation. But you can also
(06:20):
add nitrogen, which creates tiny bubbles like one tenth of
the size of carbon dioxides, like like big snappy bubbles.
Nitrogen is also less soluble than carbon dioxide, so instead
of like a continuing fizz, you get a rush of
escape and then a relatively flat beer. So when you
(06:41):
pour this into a traditional pint glass, which is wider
on the top than it is on the bottom, some
complex fluid dynamics occur, forcing the bubbles in the glass
to travel down the sides of the glass and then
rise up from the center to form that foamy head.
Umi explains why it looks like they're they're they're sinking,
(07:03):
although bubbles don't sink, they float. It's just fluid dynamics.
They're just circuling him. It's just fluid um and uh yes, yes,
since the since the gas and the beer is that
blend of C O two and nitrogen. Heavy on the nitrogen,
you wind up with a relatively still glass of beer.
(07:25):
Once the bubbles have settled into that foam on top.
To maximize the effect here, you do need to help
the nitrogen nucleate, which is why nitro beers are poured
from this special type of tap faucet that will slow
and agitate the poor. The Guinness tap contains eleven different
(07:46):
nozzles to accomplish this. I have a novel, I know
all on the inside. I don't know. I don't know either.
I'm getting retroactively nervous. Again, keep up fine, um And
according to Imbibe magazine, this is a fact that you
(08:10):
pulled Annie for our Stout Slash Porter episode. Every second
of every day, somewhere around the world, a bartender pors
a Guinness using this method. Wow. One researcher who has
looked deeply into how the bubble fluid dynamic thing works.
(08:31):
This researcher, William Lee, He insists that this poor and
that a hundred and nineteen point five seconds is really
more showmanship than like beverage necessary. And he says that
you could cut down that time, you know, He's like,
if you're waiting this long to get your beer, you
don't need to. You could cut down that time with
(08:53):
a differently shaped glass without sacrificing like bubble and foam quality.
And he says that and I quote, unfortunately, the best
shaped glass for encouraging fast bubble flow would be a
giant Martini glass. Oh my gosh, that would be hilarious,
(09:14):
so glorious myself, that's what I envisioned. Oh yeah, I
mean regular size Martini glasses are supercarious already. I don't
know why anyone would ever hand me one, but right,
but in an even larger one like that is unwieldy. Yes,
(09:35):
he does say that there has to be some kind
of happy medium for um, something that isn't completely ludicrous
that people would actually use, and like a quick settling
Guinness glass. Yeah, I can't believe he would argue that
a poor that takes nine point five seconds is showmanship
(09:58):
in any way, but doesn't seem right. I you know,
I we we should check, we should check his references,
um or we need to see your data. So so yes,
(10:18):
I'm gonnas Um partially through marketing, Yes, became famous for
this perfect pore. But what if you want to enjoy
a similarly silky pint of guinness from a can or
a bottle? What do you put a widget in it? What? Oh?
You you don't put a widget in it, like the
makers of Guinness put a widget in it. Okay, so
(10:40):
um uh Guinness draft Um and Gonna Smooth cans and
bottles contain um both a pressurized carbon dioxide and nitrogen
and also a little plastic widget which is which is
a device where I couldn't quite suss out if it
contains more extra pressure as nitrogen or if that's just
(11:01):
where the nitrogen collects when you put it into the
into the can or bottle. Either way, Um, when you
open your receptacle, it also cracks open or like activates
the widget, which then releases that nitrogen in these fine
bubbles that that essentially whip some of the beer into
(11:23):
a foam um And it's a slow release kind of thing,
so so the can or the bottle will maintain a
foamy head for the entire time that you're drinking it.
These bruis may also contains extra foaming agents to like
help out a little bit. But yeah, yeah, mostly the widget,
the widget. Have faith in the widget. I I a
(11:43):
couple of years ago, I had one of these and
I didn't realize I had a widget in it, and
I didn't like read you know, the there, but I
was like, what the hell is it? Can rattling? Yeah, yeah,
well what about the nutrition? Oh drink responsibly. Um. Beyond that,
(12:06):
Guinness Draft, despite being dark in the glass and having
this you know, full creamy mouth feel, is lower in
alcohol content and in calories than a lot of other beers. Um,
it's it's more like a light beer. It's somewhere in
between like a light beer and a standard beer. It
also contains a more complex carbohydrates and soluble fiber than
(12:28):
many other beers, plus a lot of be vitamins like folate.
And despite the fact that that one of Guinness's like
marketing slogans in the past has been like it's good
for you, it's it's alcohol. It's not great for you.
I mean like like, in some cases, like one unit
of alcohol per day can help decrease like stress levels
(12:52):
and some cardiovascular kind of complications, um, in the long run,
but it's not a health food. And one thing that
would certainly want you to know is that beer is
overall not good for lactation or for a baby during breastfeeding.
That is like a long running myth that anytime I've
read a whole bunch of interviews with Guinness representatives and
(13:15):
anytime anyone brings that up there like, no, don't do that,
those wacky mats, that's no. Like IM trying to be
nice about it, but clearly very nervous. And I'm like, oh, buddies,
(13:35):
yeah that makes sense. Yep, yeah, not good. WHOA. There
are a lot of Guinness numbers, there are, Yes, Guinness
passed from father to son for five generations in a row.
And as you said, Lauren, they have kept pretty good
records as a company. So we will be going through
(13:58):
through those I've men I think and some of the
things they did. And Guinness is one of the world's
most recognizable beer brands and it is very closely associated
with Ireland, though more people drink it in Nigeria, where
some believe it is the national beer. And we're gonna
have more on that throughout. Why that is um It's
(14:19):
sold in one and twenty countries and brewed in fifty countries.
According to the Guinness website, ten million glasses are enjoyed
a day uh and the brewery goes through one hundred
thousand tons of barley a year. The brewery itself, yes,
is one of Ireland's largest tourist attractions. According to a thrialist,
thirteen million pints are consumed on St Patrick's Day alone. Indeed, yes, well,
(14:49):
Guinness is really popular in Africa. UM, the company that
owns Guinness owns it everywhere. UM d g O accounts
for about of the beer market there, along with three
other companies. D g o's African beer sales are Guinness.
Most of these sales are of foreign extra stout and yes,
more on that later. Africa made up thirty of global
(15:12):
Guinness sales in two thousand four, more than the UK
and Ireland. UM Africa took Ireland's place of as the
second largest market in two thousands seven, behind only the UK.
Sales continue to grow at an annual rate of around
thirteen percent, and thirteen breweries produced Guinness on that continent. Yes,
(15:33):
this I had no idea about. I find it so interesting. Yeah,
I think I talked about this in the Stouts are
are Porter Stouts or reporters in the South and Porters
episode where I always had this association with Guinness as
being this really heavy like filling and I thought I
add a lot more alcohol in it, which probably says
a lot about some stereotypes I've absorbed over the years,
(15:56):
but like like a much heavier beer than it actually is.
Every time I joy one, I'm almost pleasantly surprised by
how smooth it is. Yeah. Absolutely, yeah. Because of that,
I don't think of it as a beer you would
drink in like traditionally hot places like Africa, or at
least in some of these countries. Yeah, yeah, yeah, certainly
Africa is not a climatic monolith r exactly, Yes, but yeah,
(16:22):
it's it's not what I would go to first for
a for a warm weather beer, I agree with, Yes, absolutely,
and okay. The Guinness Book of World Records is sold
in one hundred countries, available in twenty three languages, with
one hundred thirty million copies sold. And my my little
brother used to be really big into these, and he
would get these Oh yeah, it's wonderful. Yeah, and he
(16:44):
would like rattle off these records in the middle of
conversations like how did you know this? Why do you notice?
And just to no here, we've discussed it before. But Guinness,
it does consistently They do consistently knocking out of the
park with marketing campaigns, which is what this book art
it out as yeah, yeah, and we're also going to
talk about that more in the history section, which we
(17:06):
should get into. We should, but first we should get
into a quick break for a word from our sponsor,
and we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you. So,
as we said at the top, you can go see
our beer episodes for more in depth history on specific
(17:29):
types of beers. Yes, yes, but today we're focusing on Guinness,
particularly in that that's plenty. Oh goodness, it's certainly more
more than plenty. Check out Sour Beers for Um for
a kind of large scale overview of the history of beer.
And then yeah, the Stouts Importers episode for kind of
(17:50):
like how this style of beer came to be. Yes,
but but all right, and yes disclaimer, a lot of
this information does come from the Guinness website. It seems
that they have kept really good records over the years.
But yes, that's just the caveatic. Companies are interested in
presenting themselves in the best light. Yes, so yes. Grains
(18:13):
of Grains of Salt. Grains of Guinness Brewery was founded
in Dublin, Ireland in seventeen fifty nine by Arthur Guinness.
So Guinness was born in and Sellbridge, Ireland. He most
likely learned how to brew from his father, who was
the land steward to an archbishop, and it was a
part of the land stewarge job to provide beer yes
(18:37):
to the people on the property. Arthur's father left him
one hundred pounds after his death, which allowed Arthur to
run a small brewery. He moved to Dublin at the
age of thirty four, leaving the brewery to his younger brother.
And it was a tough time for Irish brewers uh
there their beer was taxed more highly than English beer,
but Arthur wanted in. He signed a nine thousand year
(19:01):
lease for four acres at an old falling of Barbury
at St James's Gate, where it is still brewed to
this day. I feel like that's the biggest piece of guinness,
like legend. I mean, it's true, but this is like
the thing. Yeah, well it's just such a show stopping number,
like like a nine thousand year lace, like, yeah, that's adorable.
(19:24):
And the rate he secured for this lease was forty
five pounds a year after an initial payment of one
hundred pounds, and the property game with its own water supply,
which is so critical for brewing. Yes yes, um. Within
a decade he was exporting his beer to England. Guinness
(19:45):
entered his name in as a new brewer of the
Dublin Brewers and Monsters Corporation, which I love monsters is
not a word I knew. He rose to master of
the corporation in eight years. According to more Guinness lore,
in seventeen seventy five, the local authorities in Dublin sent
(20:07):
a group of men led by the sheriff to turn
off Guinness's free water supply in order to force him
to pay for water. Guinness wielded a pickaxe at them,
quote with very much improper language, that they should not proceed,
and they didn't and he kept this free water supply.
(20:29):
Pretty much improper language. Okay, okay, we old a pickaxe. Um.
Arthur married and Heiress Olivia Whitmore, and they had twin
Do you want children? Ten of them made it to adulthood. Um. Yeah.
He was involved in the community and he was the
(20:50):
brewer for Ireland's seat of government, Dublin Castle. At first,
he brewed primarily ale, but in the seventeen seventies he
started brewing porters, which had recently ain't been invented. Um.
The porter he ended up with was a hit, so
much so that he stopped making loggers altogether to focus
entirely on the porter. In sevent and he brewed a
(21:11):
few different types of porters for various taste. One of
these that Guinness developed was specifically designed for export. In
eighteen oh three, Arthur Guinness the Second to control of
the brewery after his father died that same year. By
the eighteen thirties, Guinness was the largest brewery in Ireland,
and Guinness the Second had gradually been increasing export markets.
(21:34):
As a part of this um starting with the UK,
then to parts of the British Empire, including the British
colony of Sierra Leone. The beer they exported to this
colony arrived in West Africa in eighteen seven, after being
brewed in Dublin in eight No. One which blows on
mind blows my mind. At the time, it was called
(21:56):
the West Indies Porter. Guinness expanded to South Africa in
the eighteen sixties, often forming relationships with the local breweries
that bottled the beer in these places. UM Many of
these relationships remained even after the British Empire crumbled. The
first shipment of Guinness arrived in the US in eighteen seventeen,
eight barrels worth to a man in South Carolina named Mr. Heavy,
(22:20):
who might have owned a pub, or maybe rebottled and
solved them, or maybe just wanted them. It's unclear. It's unclear.
At this time it was also being shipped to places
like Portugal and Barbados. Arthur also oversaw the development of
a new recipe for a stronger reporter for the British
market called Extra Superior Stout, nowadays known as Guinness Extra
(22:43):
Stout Our Guinness original Benjamin Lee Guinness took over the
brewery for his father in the eighteen fifties. He was
also Lord Mayor of Dublin in eight In eighteen sixty two,
the first trademarked logo for the Guinness Stout debut, and
many of the elements introduced in this trademark to the
exists in logo today, like the harp device and Arthur
Guinness's signature. When Benjamin died in the business passed to
(23:09):
his son, Edward Cecil or cecil A Guinness. It was
during this his time that the brewery became the world's
largest and first major brewery to be incorporated, and it
had grown since inception, like from four acres to sixty acres,
complete with a railway and dedicated fire brigade. It's often
(23:30):
described as its own town. Yeah. As the nineteenth century
came to an end, one point two million at barrels
of Guinness Stout were being sold a year. And of
note that original least was avoided when the company purchased
the property and expanded their operations onto more Land. Okay,
(23:51):
which makes sense, but I only really found it in
one source, so I mean to me, yeah, they would
have had it. Seems like that would follow logically. Yeah,
but yeah, with that nine thousand numbers, as you said,
so show stuffing. It's it's such a good marketing. I know,
(24:12):
I know, um, and I love this. In the eighteen nineties,
Guinness hired these these men to travel around the world
and investigate markets for Guinness was being sold, take notes
about it, and report back so they could monitor how
things are going Guinness wide and other countries. I love that. Wow. Uh.
(24:33):
In eighteen three, Guinness hired their first trained scientist, brewer
one Thomas Bennett Case, and Case started investigating qualities of
the beer's ingredients to attempt to optimize the brewing process
and the product In one Guinness created a laboratory in
order to use science to improve their products. Science and math. Yes, um.
(24:58):
It was with help from statistician William Seeley Gossip that
researchers like Case were able to um apply some like
large sample methods to these small sample sizes that they
were working with at the brewery and fun aside here,
Guinness didn't want rival brewers to know about their scientific breakthroughs,
(25:20):
so they didn't let their researchers publish any findings under
their real names until the late nineteen thirties. Uh Like
the statistical model that Gossip designed for all of this,
The T test, which essentially allows you to define and
factor in your your uncertainty in your experiment, would go
on to be used in all kinds of fields all
(25:42):
over the world up through this day. Though the pseudonym
that it was first published under stuck students T test
any any fellow humans who have read a lot of
Matthew papers? Yep, it's you can thank Guinness for that one.
You could think, Guinness, I love that. When Edward died,
(26:05):
his son Rupert took over the first advertising campaign launched
in nine after the company tapped the S. H. Benson
Limited Company, which was a relationship that lasted for four decades.
John Gilroy was the artist from this agency behind early
successful campaigns like Guinness Full Strength and My Goodness, My Guinness.
(26:26):
Yeah yeah, like the two can all those kind of
iconic Guinness images. Um. And supposedly all the ads about
how good Guinness is for you came from market research
kind of along the lines of what you were talking about,
where they would just send people out all over the
world to like see what Guinness drinkers were up to. Um.
Yeah that the admin sent reps out to bars to
(26:47):
ask people why they were drinking Guinness and apparently some
nine out of ten said it's because they thought it
was healthy. So, like the campaign basically wrote itself, Okay,
why yeah uh And I couldn't. I couldn't. We could
do an entire episode just like reporting gleefully on Guinness
(27:10):
advertising and marketing, but I couldn't resist putting in one
ad from that has a lobster poem. Oh yes, so
so the illustration in this ad is a is a
lobster wearing a white bow tie and carrying white gloves
that are five finger gloves, which I'm very confused about.
(27:30):
May murdered someone. Wow, you went you went dark to murder,
straight to murder. Gosh. Um, So he's carrying possibly his
murder victims, white five finger gloves and and and the
lobster in his other claw is holding a hand mirror
(27:53):
in which he is gazing at himself. And I'm gendering
the lobster. I don't know this lobster's gender. I don't
know that about about it. Um anyway, um, the poem
reads tis the voice of the lobster. I heard him declare,
I am ready for dinner if guinness is there, as
a duck demands peace. So a lobster appeals for guinness
at dinner and other such meals. It brings out the flavor,
(28:15):
the epicures say, And who should know more about flavor
than they? A lobster is a good thing, but do
not forget A lobster with guinness is twenty times better.
That was good, Lauren, you nailed it. Thank you. I
(28:36):
think I think what made me need to include this
one was when I realized that they rhymed forget, uh,
what's better? And I was like, well, that's it. That's
on the show. And I would assume you know memories
of your time when you dressed up as a lobster,
which I will bring up at any opportunity. You're not wrong,
(28:59):
You're not wrong. Had had something to do with it,
for sure. Um. I posted that one on Facebook and
maybe Twitter. I think, I don't think i've posted on
Instagram yet. I'll get around to that. It's all happening.
Yes you should. Um. And then after I saw you
put this in the outline, I went back to my
my pictures from my tour of the brewery and I
(29:21):
found on the marketing floor there's a picture of a
lobster precariously againness. It's a point of Guinness with his
like and today I wrapped around it lovingly and it
says pure shellfishness and quite a delightful a tal sized
fot yeah um. And then it says there's nothing like
(29:42):
a Guinness with lobster. Yeah yeah. A lot of ads
from around the thirties to the fifties, I guess, um,
really we're all in on on Guinness with seafood, like
like shellfish in particular, um oyster, yeah yeah, right, which
(30:03):
I've never had I know now I feel like I
need that, Okay. According to mental flaws, Guinness offered their
employees on site medical and dental care and two free
points per shifts in nineteen Yeah. The company opened a
brewery in London in nineteen thirty six, and during World
(30:24):
War One and World War Two, many Guinness employees went
to war. This is kind of a complict. I was
reading it more into this earlier. It's kind of complicated,
but for a food show, we're going to simplify it
a bit. Um. While beer was discouraged for soldiers during
World War One, it was encouraged during World War Two
as a morale booster. Um. Aguinness promised to get every
(30:46):
British soldier in the British Expeditionary Force in France a
beer for Christmas Day at nineteen nine during World War Two,
but realized they didn't have enough employees to fulfill this
promise because again, they had gone to war. Yeah yeah,
retired employees came back into work to help make it happen.
Um and keeping soldiers supplied with Guinness also involved the
(31:06):
British exchanging things like wheat and coal for Guinness. Again,
it was kind of a complex like in Ireland because
England was mad that Ireland was neutral. They cut off
a bunch of that stuff. But then Ireland was like,
but you want the Guinness though, right, and they're like
damn it again. Very much simplifying things for Fusio. But
(31:29):
that was kind of what was going on there. Oh wow,
now I want to do let's let's go on ridiculous history.
There's there's like Churchill quotes about like getting Guinness and
having to make these compromises. Yeah, okay, yes, later day,
different podcast from four. Guinness was brewed in New York City,
(31:54):
and this brewery was constructed to bottle and distribute their
best selling beer in the U S, which was the
Guinness Extra Stout, which was also the best owned Ireland UM,
and it had been since the mid eighteen hundreds. That
changed with the introduction of the Guinness Draft, in which
we'll talk about more in a moment. However, this brewery
closed not too long after opening for a variety of reasons. UM.
(32:16):
The taste of the American consumer had changed in favor
of loggers. Breweries were consolidating, like we talked about that
one of our past brewery episodes too. Because of Prohibition,
a lot of things, a lot of breweries had to
come together here in the evening yeah, I think, oh gosh, um,
probably in the Martson episode. Um yeah, yeah, I'm still
(32:38):
saying it wrong. I'm sorry, y'all, and a little bit
in the sour Beer episode, because right, um, during Prohibition
a lot of brewery shuttered, um, and different beer styles
that they were making never came back. And also there
had been a large influx of German immigrants into the
United States in a few decades prior, and they had
been bringing all of these glorious logger styles. Um, the
(33:00):
people were pretty into so yes, yes, um. Meanwhile, Guinness
formed a new company to distribute bottle and market Guinness
for overseas markets in eighteen fifty one. I believe they
were also involved in marketing and research stuff like that.
And then the first edition of the Guinness Book of
Records was published in the UK. And of course nowadays
(33:22):
the annual publication is known as the Guinness or as
Guinness World Records. And yes, you've probably heard these records
have been the source of some controversy. Again, different show,
but the story goes. The idea for this came after
a hunting trip in Ninette and the then managing director
of the Guinness Brewery, Sir Hugh Beaver, after he missed
(33:45):
a shot at a golden plover. This birred all these
questions amongst the hunting party around whether it was the
fastest game bird, which to me sounds like he was
just trying to cover up that he missed a shot.
But I agree, I don't know enough about the pover.
Of course I missed the shot. It's the fastest bird.
It's clearly not the fastest bird. You just missed the
(34:06):
it's the fastest bird. Yeah, no, I'm totally yes. Yes, Well,
they did try to. They tried to look up the
answer to settle this beef, but they couldn't find it.
So Beever got the idea of producing a records book
to settle friendly disputes like this. To do this, he
hired the founders of this agency out of London that
(34:26):
provided statistics and facts newspapers owned by brothers Norris and
Ross mcwherder. At first, um the book was handed out
for free at pubs, but the popularity was such that
the company started selling these books and they became best sellers.
An American version came out in nineteen fifty six, and
versions in other countries published in the following years. The
(34:47):
mc whorterers went record hunting. They traveled the world to
research and verify records. Um Ross worked on the book
until his untimely death in nine and his brother kept
at it until nine teen eighties six. That also sounds
like a fun job traffling looking around for records. Then,
(35:07):
in nineteen fifty nine, Guinness introduced Guinness Draft, which involved
using a mixed gas dispensing system to dispense liquid under pressure,
giving it that creamy head. The brewery updated their equipment
around this time to replacing wood and iron with aluminum
and stainless steel for easier quality control, was easier to
(35:29):
produce a consistent product. Two years after the people of
Lagos over through British colonial rule in nineteen sixty, a
Guinness brewery opened in that country, which was the first
outside the British aisles minus the US one that closed
in nineteen fifty four that I mentioned earlier, since a
lot of people like leave that one out of this
whole thing. But Cameroon followed suit in nineteen seventy, opening
(35:54):
their own a Guinness brewery brewers in Africa typically used
sorghum are maze instead of barley because that's what was available,
resulting in a beer that is, yes, a bit more bitter,
and the alcohol content was higher than that of Guinness
Extra Stout at seven point five percent, left over from
the days it had to make that long overseas journey.
(36:15):
A night. West African advertisement claimed Guinness is good for you.
You can feel your glass of Guinness doing you good.
Guinness Stout is a really fine drink. Guinness gives you power.
It's an exclamation point I tried to capture and yeah,
this act campaign painted Guinness is this manly man's drink
(36:36):
for men to drink at the end of the day
after a tough manual labor. You can still see around.
You can still see elements of that around in their ads.
Beginning in the nineteen sixties, at Guinness began offering concentrated
Essence or Guinness Extract. I heard it described as a
two breweries overseas to help mimic the flavor of Guinness.
(36:57):
In nineteen sixties six Bert Guinness opened UH the Brewery
Museum at St. James Gate Um. It's still operating today
as Yes the Guinness storehouse and is in fact the
museum that you would have visited on your travels there. Yes. Um.
Benjamin Guinness took over for his grandfather in nineteen sixty two,
which is a position he held until night six. He
(37:21):
was the last Gin his family member to hold it.
And in nineteen four the brewery launched a new R
and D facility. This helped them launch Guinness Draft in
a can in thanks to those widgets. Hm also in
the company, hired a professional archivist and created the Guinness
Archive to collect and preserve and share all things historically
(37:46):
Guinness related. Um. Under normal circumstances, I think the center
might be closed right now, but but you can. You
can book appointments to explore the archives. And it includes,
just for one example, such things as the personnel files
from a twenty thousand employees who have worked for the
company from the eighties on. Wow. See this is what
(38:08):
we're talking about. It's wild. It's like a huge breadth
and depth of information. Yeah, like that the South Carolina
first shipment of Guinness to the US. Like there was
a picture of the signature from Mr Tavy with this.
It is amazing. Um oh, I also love this too.
(38:31):
In the nine died eighties, the Irish government attempted to
register a harp facing in either direction as a state symbol,
but they were concerned that Guinness would challenge them over this,
so they decided they consulted like lawyers and decided to
only register the left facing harp, the one in the
(38:52):
Guinness logo faces right. They sort of conceded, you you
get that one, Okay, okay, we get the other side.
Oh wow. Guinness became i s O fourteen year zero one,
accredited the International Environmental Management Standard in UM. They were
(39:14):
the first brewery to achieve this. The next year, the
company merged with Grand Metropolitan, a merger valued at twenty
four million pounds, and they named it the resulting company Diageo,
from the Latin word for day dia and the Greek
word for world geo, to acknowledge that all over the world,
every day people enjoy their products. Yeah, this was news
(39:37):
to me. In two thousand three, Guinness revived that Guinness
Gives You Power campaign in Africa, even releasing a film
called Critical Assessment in Africa and the UK featuring a
character they created for the campaign, Michael Power. Before this,
he had been featured in numerous television radio shows, and
at the end of these episodes, after he triumphed over
(39:58):
whatever evil, he'd always say, Guinness brings out the power,
and you Michael Power. The character was retired in two
thousand and six, but Guinness still uses yeah these similar
themes in their ads today. Huh. To celebrate the two
d and fiftie anniversary of Arthur Guinness signing the Lease,
Guinness promised that people could enjoy Guinness as never before underwater. Yep,
(40:29):
they commissioned a submarine bar so people could drink in
his while submerged. Okay, of course. Brews four opened in
Dublin in it's the largest stout brewery in the world.
In that two thousand seventeen, Guinness opened a brewery in Baltimore, Maryland,
(40:49):
Open Gate Brewery and Barrel House. However, they announced they
would not be brewing their famous out there. Yeah. Yeah,
we finally get a Guinness brewery in the States, and
they're like, not the stout, though at the time they
were focusing on the brand's blonde logger. I think that
they had been burned a little bit too hard by
the unsuccess of their stout. The first time through um
(41:14):
was the two anniversary of Guinness Stout being first shipped
to the United States. That's right, yeah, um, And apparently
again under normal circumstances, there's room for some like four
thousand people to hang out and party there. Whoa, yeah,
they've got a whole like like like music, lawn and stuff.
Oh yeah, isn't it shaped like this? It's shaped like
(41:35):
a Guinness glass? Yeah, of course obviously why have I
been ask? Um that same here Ginnis switched filtration systems
to no longer use fish bladders in this process so
that vegetarians and vegans could enjoy their beers should they
so choose. Okay, I really had to look into this
so science aside about why someone would use fish black
(42:00):
beer in the making of beer. So, a lot of
the beers that we drink these days are filtered, um,
And you might have had an unfiltered beer. It'll look
cloudy and like semi opaque in the glass. Um, And
that comes from yeast remnants and grain proteins in the beer.
So so when you make beer, you're you're convincing yeast
(42:22):
to eat the sugars in grains and poop alcohol and flavor. Right,
um and proteins are also released in this process from
those grains, and there are a number of methods for
getting the proteins and the remnants of those yeasts out
during the production process, and one of them is is
physically filtering the beer in some way, and one of
the traditional filtration substances, of filtration substances being known in
(42:43):
the industry as findings, one of those is called eisinglass,
and eisinglass is basically just collagen that's been derived from
the swim bladders of certain species of fish. So it's
not like their urinary bladder to the organ that helps
them control their depth in the water, you know. So
(43:04):
basically you take a fish, take a take out the
swim bladder, clean it and dry it, and then um
break it down using mild acids to release the collagen
that it contains. And this is effective as a filtration
agent because those those haze causing molecules in beer are
negatively charged, and so like to negatively charged magnet ends,
(43:28):
they'll push away from each other and suspend themselves thus
evenly throughout the beer. Eyes and glass molecules carry a
positive charge, so they neutralize those hazy molecules and and
the yeasts and proteins will then clump up and sink,
making them easy to remove. UM. If you've ever used
gelatine to clarify a broth into a consummate, same principle.
(43:50):
These days, most breweries do not use eyes and glass. Um.
You know, stuff like centrifuges, UM and filtration devices that
are you know, like not made from the swim bladders
of fish are preferred. Um. Though, if all of this
is news to you, UM, and you happen to keep
a diet that precludes fish elements, do check online for
for beers that are made without it. It was news
(44:11):
to me. I read that, and I think I did
a double take. Yeah, yeah, I ran across this one
really great headline. I think I was in USA today.
That was like, that was like there's been fish bladder
in your beer all along? And I got the Acatha
all Along song stuck in my head and like it
was a really fun, really fun trip. So eyes and
(44:33):
glass sounds like Lord of the Rings. It definitely does,
But no fish bladder, fish bladder, very fancy name for
fish platter. Like, well, it's been quite a journey. A
lot has happened in this episode. Yeah, we covered we
(44:56):
covered a lot of ground, asked us this it does. Yes,
it made me really craving Guinness. I don't It's not
a beer that I particularly crave that often because it's
sort of mild tasting and I like kind of punch
you in the face beers. But but yeah, yeah, just
(45:16):
reading about it, I'm just like, I really want to uller,
want to go get some Guinness. I'm gonna try to
make it happen. I have faith in you. I think
I can do it. Thank you. All right, Well, we'll
report back on that one. Um. But in the meantime,
that's what we have to say about Guinness for now.
(45:37):
It is. We do have some listener mail for you,
but first we've got one more quick break for a
word from our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you, spon, Yes,
thank you, And we're back with low celebratory. Yeah. Uh,
(46:08):
we have two emails about Moral mushrooms a day. Yes, yes,
so we actually got a lot and I'm looking forward
to going over them in the next couple of episodes.
Oh this is great, Yeah, Jacob wrote, I just want
to write in about them. Sick Moral Festival. It's pronounced
me sick like Mr me Sick who I don't know,
(46:30):
but I'm assuming because you told me how to pronounce
it that that's act you pronounced his name. It's not
the obvious pronunciation, so even people here in Michigan get
it wrong. The Blessing of the Jeeps is a big
annual little bit for Michigan jeep owners of all stripes.
Think of a car show where owners are encouraged to
(46:50):
not just show up their cars but all put them
through their paces on obstacle courses and mud pits, and
the key point of the meet up is the local
priests offering a blessing over all the jeeps for safety
and fun adventures. Baldain, Michigan also hosts an annual Blessing
of the Bikes for bikers, although I don't know if
(47:11):
they're connected at all. Morals are a very popular mushroom
and often guarded secret. A lot of forgers are very
hesitant to share the best foraging spots. Following syrup season,
moral season is one of the great food seasons of
the spring. Yes, there actually was a priest involved in
the blessing of the jeeps. I'm so happy, Oh yes,
(47:36):
thank you, Oh heck I Uh that's so good. Yes, yes, uh.
We we sent out the safer call. We put up
the bat signal, the moral mushroom signal, and we have gotten.
We've gotten all the answers we knew we desired. Y'all
have come through. Oh goodness. Yeah. Speaking of Paul wrote, Hi,
(48:00):
Annie and Lauren just heard the moral episode and I
lived just north of Music, Michigan um pronounced music or Music.
It's a small town and the Mushroom Festival is the
biggest thing going each year. One of the many events
is a mudding competition kicked off by the blessing of
the jeeps that kicks off the off road season up here,
although in reality people off road all year round. Although
(48:21):
the Mushroom Fest brings in much needed annual revenue each year,
it does come with a couple of issues. First is
price gouging when selling to tourists. While caveat emptors should
always hold true, they're sold by the pound, and you'll
see vendors soaking them in water and meeting as much
dirt on them as possible while charging up to sixty
dollars a pound or more. Second is the large number
(48:43):
of down staters coming up only to pick morals and
then either selling them while they're up here using the
aforementioned shady techniques, or taking them back down state to
sell them down there. This is viewed by locals as
basically natural resource robbery in an area that already deals
with high numbers of residents living below the poverty line.
There have been a few attempts at imposing legislation to
(49:03):
restrict this activity, but a high percentage of the population
is politically biased against regulation and it would be extremely
difficult to enforce due to the vast amounts of land
and lack of enforcement resources. On a more positive note,
it's a big deal up here every year and people
love to get out in the woods. Personally, I am
horrible at it and have only found a few ever
(49:23):
in the backyard and one in our front flower bed
that I happened to spot while sitting on the front porch.
One word of advice, never ever ask someone where their
spot is. It's more taboo than asking where someone's favorite
fishing spot is and may result in an argument or
even a lost relationship. Wow, you don't want to lose
(49:45):
your relationship because of moral taboo. No, sorry, no, this
is very concerning it is. Thank you. We don't want
to make that mistake. Yeah, you've saved us from him,
possibly very major faux pa. Yes, no way, do us
(50:08):
professional food podcasters want to make a mushroom fau pa. No.
I've loved hearing from listeners about how bad they are
finding morell mushrooms too. That's because I'm pretty sure I
wouldn't be very good either, but I would be enthusiastic.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I when we went on that
lovely mushroom tour outside of Asheville, um and like I
(50:32):
couldn't locate mushrooms that our tour guide had planted for
us to be obvious. Yes, so yeah, well that's why
we got to get the professionals to come with us.
We clearly clearly you can like blindfold us on the
(50:56):
way and it'll be okay. Yeah, but I have I
remember towards the end, I'd be like is that one,
And our our professional forger friend would give me like
the kindest file and be like, yes, yes, I've done it.
(51:17):
Thanks to both of those listeners for writing in. If
you would like to try to as you can our emails.
Hello at savor pod dot com. We're also on social media.
You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at
saver pod and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
my heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
(51:38):
Thanks it's always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Sabor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Any and I'm Lauren Voke obam and today we're
talking about Guinness. Yes, because if you're listening to this
as it comes out and potentially in other years depending
on how the timing place, it is St Patrick's Day
it is, and Guinness is an Irish brand, So we thought, Hey,
(00:30):
we've danced around the topic of this brand for a while,
why not why not do an episode? Why not do
an episode? And there is a lot going on with Guinness. Yeah, yeah,
as it turns out, Um, I'm just thinking of all
of the times that we have such difficulty finding especially
historical material on any given topic. And as it turns out,
(00:51):
it really only requires like a brand that is really
invested in telling people all about itself. It's part of
its market day to just have a treasure trove of information,
an absolute treasure trove. Oh man, like too much almost,
But okay, drink responsibly as always with these episodes, And
(01:14):
I did want to I know I've shared it before,
but I had, in my mind was a very disastrous
pouring experience. But it was fine. Um, okay, why did
you think it was? Does that Okay, go go ahead
and tell the story. Okay. So I know I've talked
about it before, but I did visit the Guinness Brewery
slash museum, I think, and I was actually looking at
(01:37):
pictures before this, and they filled me with such nostalgia
and desire to travel. But I mean, it was truly amazing.
It was an amazing experience. My mind was absolutely blown.
I think the show it might have been. I think
we were fairly new ish, so I wasn't really comfortable
with reaching out to brands like parents like that. But
(01:59):
I remember being there and think, king, oh, I want
to talk to somebody about um. But there there was
just a lot there. I think it's six floors, it's
five or six floors. UM. At one point you enter
this this solid white room that feels like you've entered
a sci fi movie, and this impeccably dressed dude appeared,
(02:20):
at least in my case, it was a dude peered
out of a door in the wall that you couldn't
even see and there was fog in this room and
offered you beer on this silver tray and you're just
you take it, and they're like sure, um, but yes
they they teach you, and I know we're going to
go into this in detail. They teach you how to
(02:42):
do the proper poor the perfect core of a Guinness,
which is a sixth step pour that, when successfully done,
takes nineteen point five seconds, which makes me laugh it. Um,
and if you well, I assume they'd give you the
certificate no matter what. But um, I was so nervous.
(03:02):
I'm taking notes, like of all those steps that I'm watching,
like peviously everyone and they were like, who wants to
go first? And I took a step back. It was fine,
it worked out fine, but I was shaking. You get
to drink the beer. I still have the certificate. It's
all okay. I I understand it was a high pressure situation,
(03:23):
but that wasn't even intended to be a pun. But
but you pulled through, which also wasn't intended to be
a pun. Oh gosh, I'm sorry. This is so good. Well,
pluns are plenty, uh. And the marketing floor was amazing.
They really went over the top on that floor and
their ads, in large part, have been very successful. We're
(03:44):
gonna talk about some of them. Um. I bought the
shirt that says a woman needs a man like a
fish needs a bike because I just thought it was
strange and I wanted and that is a past ad campaign.
I also want to put in here because I had
never heard this, but I told my co host over
and stuff on or told you that we were doing
this episode, and the first thing she told me was
rhets find out if the rhet story is true. It's
(04:05):
not true. I didn't look into it too and depth.
But it's a myth that there were rats in the
beer at one time. Oh oh no, Well, I'm glad
that that was a myth. Yeah, yeah, that's all I'll
say about that. Um, we have done past episodes on beer.
We've done staffs and porters, We've done I p as,
we've done sour beers, we've done marts, and I think
(04:28):
that's it. That maybe sounds like it. We've done a
lot of episodes, as we've discussed. Yes, so those exist, um,
if you would like to listen to them. But in
the meantime, I guess we should get to our questions.
So Guinness, what is it? Well, Guinness is a brand
(04:53):
of beer that makes a number of brews, but it
is perhaps most famous for their stouts, which are a
category of beers known for their dark coloration and roasty,
toasty flavors thanks to the heavily roasted grains used in
making them. UM. In this case, the grain UH in
question is is malted barley. And Guinness's current lineup available
in the United States includes a Draft Stout, which is
(05:16):
poured yes from a specialized tap that incorporates both carbon
dioxide and nitrogen bubbles into the beer for a creamy
mouth feel. An Extra Stout which is a higher A
b V higher alcohol BI volume UM a little bit
drier on the palette, a Foreign Extra Stout which is
an even higher A b V and a little bit
(05:36):
more bitter UM. And a blonde Logger which is a lighter,
a little hoppier. There's also a smooth which is bottled
with nitrogen for that for that creamy mouth feel, a
nitro i p A, which is what it says on
the box, Yes I p A with nitrogen involved for
a creamy I p A experience. UM, a Special Export
(05:58):
which is sweeter and the strongest alcohol bi volume. And
a black Logger which is crisper and a little bit lighter.
So yeah, let's talk about this perfect pore, Okay, and
that whole nitrogen thing, because most beers contain carbon dioxide
to give them fizz a plus. You know, it's a
it's a natural result of fermentation. But you can also
(06:20):
add nitrogen, which creates tiny bubbles like one tenth of
the size of carbon dioxides, like like big snappy bubbles.
Nitrogen is also less soluble than carbon dioxide, so instead
of like a continuing fizz, you get a rush of
escape and then a relatively flat beer. So when you
(06:41):
pour this into a traditional pint glass, which is wider
on the top than it is on the bottom, some
complex fluid dynamics occur, forcing the bubbles in the glass
to travel down the sides of the glass and then
rise up from the center to form that foamy head.
Umi explains why it looks like they're they're they're sinking,
(07:03):
although bubbles don't sink, they float. It's just fluid dynamics.
They're just circuling him. It's just fluid um and uh yes, yes,
since the since the gas and the beer is that
blend of C O two and nitrogen. Heavy on the nitrogen,
you wind up with a relatively still glass of beer.
(07:25):
Once the bubbles have settled into that foam on top.
To maximize the effect here, you do need to help
the nitrogen nucleate, which is why nitro beers are poured
from this special type of tap faucet that will slow
and agitate the poor. The Guinness tap contains eleven different
(07:46):
nozzles to accomplish this. I have a novel, I know
all on the inside. I don't know. I don't know either.
I'm getting retroactively nervous. Again, keep up fine, um And
according to Imbibe magazine, this is a fact that you
(08:10):
pulled Annie for our Stout Slash Porter episode. Every second
of every day, somewhere around the world, a bartender pors
a Guinness using this method. Wow. One researcher who has
looked deeply into how the bubble fluid dynamic thing works.
(08:31):
This researcher, William Lee, He insists that this poor and
that a hundred and nineteen point five seconds is really
more showmanship than like beverage necessary. And he says that
you could cut down that time, you know, He's like,
if you're waiting this long to get your beer, you
don't need to. You could cut down that time with
(08:53):
a differently shaped glass without sacrificing like bubble and foam quality.
And he says that and I quote, unfortunately, the best
shaped glass for encouraging fast bubble flow would be a
giant Martini glass. Oh my gosh, that would be hilarious,
(09:14):
so glorious myself, that's what I envisioned. Oh yeah, I
mean regular size Martini glasses are supercarious already. I don't
know why anyone would ever hand me one, but right,
but in an even larger one like that is unwieldy. Yes,
(09:35):
he does say that there has to be some kind
of happy medium for um, something that isn't completely ludicrous
that people would actually use, and like a quick settling
Guinness glass. Yeah, I can't believe he would argue that
a poor that takes nine point five seconds is showmanship
(09:58):
in any way, but doesn't seem right. I you know,
I we we should check, we should check his references,
um or we need to see your data. So so yes,
(10:18):
I'm gonnas Um partially through marketing, Yes, became famous for
this perfect pore. But what if you want to enjoy
a similarly silky pint of guinness from a can or
a bottle? What do you put a widget in it? What? Oh?
You you don't put a widget in it, like the
makers of Guinness put a widget in it. Okay, so
(10:40):
um uh Guinness draft Um and Gonna Smooth cans and
bottles contain um both a pressurized carbon dioxide and nitrogen
and also a little plastic widget which is which is
a device where I couldn't quite suss out if it
contains more extra pressure as nitrogen or if that's just
(11:01):
where the nitrogen collects when you put it into the
into the can or bottle. Either way, Um, when you
open your receptacle, it also cracks open or like activates
the widget, which then releases that nitrogen in these fine
bubbles that that essentially whip some of the beer into
(11:23):
a foam um And it's a slow release kind of thing,
so so the can or the bottle will maintain a
foamy head for the entire time that you're drinking it.
These bruis may also contains extra foaming agents to like
help out a little bit. But yeah, yeah, mostly the widget,
the widget. Have faith in the widget. I I a
(11:43):
couple of years ago, I had one of these and
I didn't realize I had a widget in it, and
I didn't like read you know, the there, but I
was like, what the hell is it? Can rattling? Yeah, yeah,
well what about the nutrition? Oh drink responsibly. Um. Beyond that,
(12:06):
Guinness Draft, despite being dark in the glass and having
this you know, full creamy mouth feel, is lower in
alcohol content and in calories than a lot of other beers. Um,
it's it's more like a light beer. It's somewhere in
between like a light beer and a standard beer. It
also contains a more complex carbohydrates and soluble fiber than
(12:28):
many other beers, plus a lot of be vitamins like folate.
And despite the fact that that one of Guinness's like
marketing slogans in the past has been like it's good
for you, it's it's alcohol. It's not great for you.
I mean like like, in some cases, like one unit
of alcohol per day can help decrease like stress levels
(12:52):
and some cardiovascular kind of complications, um, in the long run,
but it's not a health food. And one thing that
would certainly want you to know is that beer is
overall not good for lactation or for a baby during breastfeeding.
That is like a long running myth that anytime I've
read a whole bunch of interviews with Guinness representatives and
(13:15):
anytime anyone brings that up there like, no, don't do that,
those wacky mats, that's no. Like IM trying to be
nice about it, but clearly very nervous. And I'm like, oh, buddies,
(13:35):
yeah that makes sense. Yep, yeah, not good. WHOA. There
are a lot of Guinness numbers, there are, Yes, Guinness
passed from father to son for five generations in a row.
And as you said, Lauren, they have kept pretty good
records as a company. So we will be going through
(13:58):
through those I've men I think and some of the
things they did. And Guinness is one of the world's
most recognizable beer brands and it is very closely associated
with Ireland, though more people drink it in Nigeria, where
some believe it is the national beer. And we're gonna
have more on that throughout. Why that is um It's
(14:19):
sold in one and twenty countries and brewed in fifty countries.
According to the Guinness website, ten million glasses are enjoyed
a day uh and the brewery goes through one hundred
thousand tons of barley a year. The brewery itself, yes,
is one of Ireland's largest tourist attractions. According to a thrialist,
thirteen million pints are consumed on St Patrick's Day alone. Indeed, yes, well,
(14:49):
Guinness is really popular in Africa. UM, the company that
owns Guinness owns it everywhere. UM d g O accounts
for about of the beer market there, along with three
other companies. D g o's African beer sales are Guinness.
Most of these sales are of foreign extra stout and yes,
more on that later. Africa made up thirty of global
(15:12):
Guinness sales in two thousand four, more than the UK
and Ireland. UM Africa took Ireland's place of as the
second largest market in two thousands seven, behind only the UK.
Sales continue to grow at an annual rate of around
thirteen percent, and thirteen breweries produced Guinness on that continent. Yes,
(15:33):
this I had no idea about. I find it so interesting. Yeah,
I think I talked about this in the Stouts are
are Porter Stouts or reporters in the South and Porters
episode where I always had this association with Guinness as
being this really heavy like filling and I thought I
add a lot more alcohol in it, which probably says
a lot about some stereotypes I've absorbed over the years,
(15:56):
but like like a much heavier beer than it actually is.
Every time I joy one, I'm almost pleasantly surprised by
how smooth it is. Yeah. Absolutely, yeah. Because of that,
I don't think of it as a beer you would
drink in like traditionally hot places like Africa, or at
least in some of these countries. Yeah, yeah, yeah, certainly
Africa is not a climatic monolith r exactly, Yes, but yeah,
(16:22):
it's it's not what I would go to first for
a for a warm weather beer, I agree with, Yes, absolutely,
and okay. The Guinness Book of World Records is sold
in one hundred countries, available in twenty three languages, with
one hundred thirty million copies sold. And my my little
brother used to be really big into these, and he
would get these Oh yeah, it's wonderful. Yeah, and he
(16:44):
would like rattle off these records in the middle of
conversations like how did you know this? Why do you notice?
And just to no here, we've discussed it before. But Guinness,
it does consistently They do consistently knocking out of the
park with marketing campaigns, which is what this book art
it out as yeah, yeah, and we're also going to
talk about that more in the history section, which we
(17:06):
should get into. We should, but first we should get
into a quick break for a word from our sponsor,
and we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you. So,
as we said at the top, you can go see
our beer episodes for more in depth history on specific
(17:29):
types of beers. Yes, yes, but today we're focusing on Guinness,
particularly in that that's plenty. Oh goodness, it's certainly more
more than plenty. Check out Sour Beers for Um for
a kind of large scale overview of the history of beer.
And then yeah, the Stouts Importers episode for kind of
(17:50):
like how this style of beer came to be. Yes,
but but all right, and yes disclaimer, a lot of
this information does come from the Guinness website. It seems
that they have kept really good records over the years.
But yes, that's just the caveatic. Companies are interested in
presenting themselves in the best light. Yes, so yes. Grains
(18:13):
of Grains of Salt. Grains of Guinness Brewery was founded
in Dublin, Ireland in seventeen fifty nine by Arthur Guinness.
So Guinness was born in and Sellbridge, Ireland. He most
likely learned how to brew from his father, who was
the land steward to an archbishop, and it was a
part of the land stewarge job to provide beer yes
(18:37):
to the people on the property. Arthur's father left him
one hundred pounds after his death, which allowed Arthur to
run a small brewery. He moved to Dublin at the
age of thirty four, leaving the brewery to his younger brother.
And it was a tough time for Irish brewers uh
there their beer was taxed more highly than English beer,
but Arthur wanted in. He signed a nine thousand year
(19:01):
lease for four acres at an old falling of Barbury
at St James's Gate, where it is still brewed to
this day. I feel like that's the biggest piece of guinness,
like legend. I mean, it's true, but this is like
the thing. Yeah, well it's just such a show stopping number,
like like a nine thousand year lace, like, yeah, that's adorable.
(19:24):
And the rate he secured for this lease was forty
five pounds a year after an initial payment of one
hundred pounds, and the property game with its own water supply,
which is so critical for brewing. Yes yes, um. Within
a decade he was exporting his beer to England. Guinness
(19:45):
entered his name in as a new brewer of the
Dublin Brewers and Monsters Corporation, which I love monsters is
not a word I knew. He rose to master of
the corporation in eight years. According to more Guinness lore,
in seventeen seventy five, the local authorities in Dublin sent
(20:07):
a group of men led by the sheriff to turn
off Guinness's free water supply in order to force him
to pay for water. Guinness wielded a pickaxe at them,
quote with very much improper language, that they should not proceed,
and they didn't and he kept this free water supply.
(20:29):
Pretty much improper language. Okay, okay, we old a pickaxe. Um.
Arthur married and Heiress Olivia Whitmore, and they had twin
Do you want children? Ten of them made it to adulthood. Um. Yeah.
He was involved in the community and he was the
(20:50):
brewer for Ireland's seat of government, Dublin Castle. At first,
he brewed primarily ale, but in the seventeen seventies he
started brewing porters, which had recently ain't been invented. Um.
The porter he ended up with was a hit, so
much so that he stopped making loggers altogether to focus
entirely on the porter. In sevent and he brewed a
(21:11):
few different types of porters for various taste. One of
these that Guinness developed was specifically designed for export. In
eighteen oh three, Arthur Guinness the Second to control of
the brewery after his father died that same year. By
the eighteen thirties, Guinness was the largest brewery in Ireland,
and Guinness the Second had gradually been increasing export markets.
(21:34):
As a part of this um starting with the UK,
then to parts of the British Empire, including the British
colony of Sierra Leone. The beer they exported to this
colony arrived in West Africa in eighteen seven, after being
brewed in Dublin in eight No. One which blows on
mind blows my mind. At the time, it was called
(21:56):
the West Indies Porter. Guinness expanded to South Africa in
the eighteen sixties, often forming relationships with the local breweries
that bottled the beer in these places. UM Many of
these relationships remained even after the British Empire crumbled. The
first shipment of Guinness arrived in the US in eighteen seventeen,
eight barrels worth to a man in South Carolina named Mr. Heavy,
(22:20):
who might have owned a pub, or maybe rebottled and
solved them, or maybe just wanted them. It's unclear. It's unclear.
At this time it was also being shipped to places
like Portugal and Barbados. Arthur also oversaw the development of
a new recipe for a stronger reporter for the British
market called Extra Superior Stout, nowadays known as Guinness Extra
(22:43):
Stout Our Guinness original Benjamin Lee Guinness took over the
brewery for his father in the eighteen fifties. He was
also Lord Mayor of Dublin in eight In eighteen sixty two,
the first trademarked logo for the Guinness Stout debut, and
many of the elements introduced in this trademark to the
exists in logo today, like the harp device and Arthur
Guinness's signature. When Benjamin died in the business passed to
(23:09):
his son, Edward Cecil or cecil A Guinness. It was
during this his time that the brewery became the world's
largest and first major brewery to be incorporated, and it
had grown since inception, like from four acres to sixty acres,
complete with a railway and dedicated fire brigade. It's often
(23:30):
described as its own town. Yeah. As the nineteenth century
came to an end, one point two million at barrels
of Guinness Stout were being sold a year. And of
note that original least was avoided when the company purchased
the property and expanded their operations onto more Land. Okay,
(23:51):
which makes sense, but I only really found it in
one source, so I mean to me, yeah, they would
have had it. Seems like that would follow logically. Yeah,
but yeah, with that nine thousand numbers, as you said,
so show stuffing. It's it's such a good marketing. I know,
(24:12):
I know, um, and I love this. In the eighteen nineties,
Guinness hired these these men to travel around the world
and investigate markets for Guinness was being sold, take notes
about it, and report back so they could monitor how
things are going Guinness wide and other countries. I love that. Wow. Uh.
(24:33):
In eighteen three, Guinness hired their first trained scientist, brewer
one Thomas Bennett Case, and Case started investigating qualities of
the beer's ingredients to attempt to optimize the brewing process
and the product In one Guinness created a laboratory in
order to use science to improve their products. Science and math. Yes, um.
(24:58):
It was with help from statistician William Seeley Gossip that
researchers like Case were able to um apply some like
large sample methods to these small sample sizes that they
were working with at the brewery and fun aside here,
Guinness didn't want rival brewers to know about their scientific breakthroughs,
(25:20):
so they didn't let their researchers publish any findings under
their real names until the late nineteen thirties. Uh Like
the statistical model that Gossip designed for all of this,
The T test, which essentially allows you to define and
factor in your your uncertainty in your experiment, would go
on to be used in all kinds of fields all
(25:42):
over the world up through this day. Though the pseudonym
that it was first published under stuck students T test
any any fellow humans who have read a lot of
Matthew papers? Yep, it's you can thank Guinness for that one.
You could think, Guinness, I love that. When Edward died,
(26:05):
his son Rupert took over the first advertising campaign launched
in nine after the company tapped the S. H. Benson
Limited Company, which was a relationship that lasted for four decades.
John Gilroy was the artist from this agency behind early
successful campaigns like Guinness Full Strength and My Goodness, My Guinness.
(26:26):
Yeah yeah, like the two can all those kind of
iconic Guinness images. Um. And supposedly all the ads about
how good Guinness is for you came from market research
kind of along the lines of what you were talking about,
where they would just send people out all over the
world to like see what Guinness drinkers were up to. Um.
Yeah that the admin sent reps out to bars to
(26:47):
ask people why they were drinking Guinness and apparently some
nine out of ten said it's because they thought it
was healthy. So, like the campaign basically wrote itself, Okay,
why yeah uh And I couldn't. I couldn't. We could
do an entire episode just like reporting gleefully on Guinness
(27:10):
advertising and marketing, but I couldn't resist putting in one
ad from that has a lobster poem. Oh yes, so
so the illustration in this ad is a is a
lobster wearing a white bow tie and carrying white gloves
that are five finger gloves, which I'm very confused about.
(27:30):
May murdered someone. Wow, you went you went dark to murder,
straight to murder. Gosh. Um, So he's carrying possibly his
murder victims, white five finger gloves and and and the
lobster in his other claw is holding a hand mirror
(27:53):
in which he is gazing at himself. And I'm gendering
the lobster. I don't know this lobster's gender. I don't
know that about about it. Um anyway, um, the poem
reads tis the voice of the lobster. I heard him declare,
I am ready for dinner if guinness is there, as
a duck demands peace. So a lobster appeals for guinness
at dinner and other such meals. It brings out the flavor,
(28:15):
the epicures say, And who should know more about flavor
than they? A lobster is a good thing, but do
not forget A lobster with guinness is twenty times better.
That was good, Lauren, you nailed it. Thank you. I
(28:36):
think I think what made me need to include this
one was when I realized that they rhymed forget, uh,
what's better? And I was like, well, that's it. That's
on the show. And I would assume you know memories
of your time when you dressed up as a lobster,
which I will bring up at any opportunity. You're not wrong,
(28:59):
You're not wrong. Had had something to do with it,
for sure. Um. I posted that one on Facebook and
maybe Twitter. I think, I don't think i've posted on
Instagram yet. I'll get around to that. It's all happening.
Yes you should. Um. And then after I saw you
put this in the outline, I went back to my
my pictures from my tour of the brewery and I
(29:21):
found on the marketing floor there's a picture of a
lobster precariously againness. It's a point of Guinness with his
like and today I wrapped around it lovingly and it
says pure shellfishness and quite a delightful a tal sized
fot yeah um. And then it says there's nothing like
(29:42):
a Guinness with lobster. Yeah yeah. A lot of ads
from around the thirties to the fifties, I guess, um,
really we're all in on on Guinness with seafood, like
like shellfish in particular, um oyster, yeah yeah, right, which
(30:03):
I've never had I know now I feel like I
need that, Okay. According to mental flaws, Guinness offered their
employees on site medical and dental care and two free
points per shifts in nineteen Yeah. The company opened a
brewery in London in nineteen thirty six, and during World
(30:24):
War One and World War Two, many Guinness employees went
to war. This is kind of a complict. I was
reading it more into this earlier. It's kind of complicated,
but for a food show, we're going to simplify it
a bit. Um. While beer was discouraged for soldiers during
World War One, it was encouraged during World War Two
as a morale booster. Um. Aguinness promised to get every
(30:46):
British soldier in the British Expeditionary Force in France a
beer for Christmas Day at nineteen nine during World War Two,
but realized they didn't have enough employees to fulfill this
promise because again, they had gone to war. Yeah yeah,
retired employees came back into work to help make it happen.
Um and keeping soldiers supplied with Guinness also involved the
(31:06):
British exchanging things like wheat and coal for Guinness. Again,
it was kind of a complex like in Ireland because
England was mad that Ireland was neutral. They cut off
a bunch of that stuff. But then Ireland was like,
but you want the Guinness though, right, and they're like
damn it again. Very much simplifying things for Fusio. But
(31:29):
that was kind of what was going on there. Oh wow,
now I want to do let's let's go on ridiculous history.
There's there's like Churchill quotes about like getting Guinness and
having to make these compromises. Yeah, okay, yes, later day,
different podcast from four. Guinness was brewed in New York City,
(31:54):
and this brewery was constructed to bottle and distribute their
best selling beer in the U S, which was the
Guinness Extra Stout, which was also the best owned Ireland UM,
and it had been since the mid eighteen hundreds. That
changed with the introduction of the Guinness Draft, in which
we'll talk about more in a moment. However, this brewery
closed not too long after opening for a variety of reasons. UM.
(32:16):
The taste of the American consumer had changed in favor
of loggers. Breweries were consolidating, like we talked about that
one of our past brewery episodes too. Because of Prohibition,
a lot of things, a lot of breweries had to
come together here in the evening yeah, I think, oh gosh, um,
probably in the Martson episode. Um yeah, yeah, I'm still
(32:38):
saying it wrong. I'm sorry, y'all, and a little bit
in the sour Beer episode, because right, um, during Prohibition
a lot of brewery shuttered, um, and different beer styles
that they were making never came back. And also there
had been a large influx of German immigrants into the
United States in a few decades prior, and they had
been bringing all of these glorious logger styles. Um, the
(33:00):
people were pretty into so yes, yes, um. Meanwhile, Guinness
formed a new company to distribute bottle and market Guinness
for overseas markets in eighteen fifty one. I believe they
were also involved in marketing and research stuff like that.
And then the first edition of the Guinness Book of
Records was published in the UK. And of course nowadays
(33:22):
the annual publication is known as the Guinness or as
Guinness World Records. And yes, you've probably heard these records
have been the source of some controversy. Again, different show,
but the story goes. The idea for this came after
a hunting trip in Ninette and the then managing director
of the Guinness Brewery, Sir Hugh Beaver, after he missed
(33:45):
a shot at a golden plover. This birred all these
questions amongst the hunting party around whether it was the
fastest game bird, which to me sounds like he was
just trying to cover up that he missed a shot.
But I agree, I don't know enough about the pover.
Of course I missed the shot. It's the fastest bird.
It's clearly not the fastest bird. You just missed the
(34:06):
it's the fastest bird. Yeah, no, I'm totally yes. Yes, Well,
they did try to. They tried to look up the
answer to settle this beef, but they couldn't find it.
So Beever got the idea of producing a records book
to settle friendly disputes like this. To do this, he
hired the founders of this agency out of London that
(34:26):
provided statistics and facts newspapers owned by brothers Norris and
Ross mcwherder. At first, um the book was handed out
for free at pubs, but the popularity was such that
the company started selling these books and they became best sellers.
An American version came out in nineteen fifty six, and
versions in other countries published in the following years. The
(34:47):
mc whorterers went record hunting. They traveled the world to
research and verify records. Um Ross worked on the book
until his untimely death in nine and his brother kept
at it until nine teen eighties six. That also sounds
like a fun job traffling looking around for records. Then,
(35:07):
in nineteen fifty nine, Guinness introduced Guinness Draft, which involved
using a mixed gas dispensing system to dispense liquid under pressure,
giving it that creamy head. The brewery updated their equipment
around this time to replacing wood and iron with aluminum
and stainless steel for easier quality control, was easier to
(35:29):
produce a consistent product. Two years after the people of
Lagos over through British colonial rule in nineteen sixty, a
Guinness brewery opened in that country, which was the first
outside the British aisles minus the US one that closed
in nineteen fifty four that I mentioned earlier, since a
lot of people like leave that one out of this
whole thing. But Cameroon followed suit in nineteen seventy, opening
(35:54):
their own a Guinness brewery brewers in Africa typically used
sorghum are maze instead of barley because that's what was available,
resulting in a beer that is, yes, a bit more bitter,
and the alcohol content was higher than that of Guinness
Extra Stout at seven point five percent, left over from
the days it had to make that long overseas journey.
(36:15):
A night. West African advertisement claimed Guinness is good for you.
You can feel your glass of Guinness doing you good.
Guinness Stout is a really fine drink. Guinness gives you power.
It's an exclamation point I tried to capture and yeah,
this act campaign painted Guinness is this manly man's drink
(36:36):
for men to drink at the end of the day
after a tough manual labor. You can still see around.
You can still see elements of that around in their ads.
Beginning in the nineteen sixties, at Guinness began offering concentrated
Essence or Guinness Extract. I heard it described as a
two breweries overseas to help mimic the flavor of Guinness.
(36:57):
In nineteen sixties six Bert Guinness opened UH the Brewery
Museum at St. James Gate Um. It's still operating today
as Yes the Guinness storehouse and is in fact the
museum that you would have visited on your travels there. Yes. Um.
Benjamin Guinness took over for his grandfather in nineteen sixty two,
which is a position he held until night six. He
(37:21):
was the last Gin his family member to hold it.
And in nineteen four the brewery launched a new R
and D facility. This helped them launch Guinness Draft in
a can in thanks to those widgets. Hm also in
the company, hired a professional archivist and created the Guinness
Archive to collect and preserve and share all things historically
(37:46):
Guinness related. Um. Under normal circumstances, I think the center
might be closed right now, but but you can. You
can book appointments to explore the archives. And it includes,
just for one example, such things as the personnel files
from a twenty thousand employees who have worked for the
company from the eighties on. Wow. See this is what
(38:08):
we're talking about. It's wild. It's like a huge breadth
and depth of information. Yeah, like that the South Carolina
first shipment of Guinness to the US. Like there was
a picture of the signature from Mr Tavy with this.
It is amazing. Um oh, I also love this too.
(38:31):
In the nine died eighties, the Irish government attempted to
register a harp facing in either direction as a state symbol,
but they were concerned that Guinness would challenge them over this,
so they decided they consulted like lawyers and decided to
only register the left facing harp, the one in the
(38:52):
Guinness logo faces right. They sort of conceded, you you
get that one, Okay, okay, we get the other side.
Oh wow. Guinness became i s O fourteen year zero one,
accredited the International Environmental Management Standard in UM. They were
(39:14):
the first brewery to achieve this. The next year, the
company merged with Grand Metropolitan, a merger valued at twenty
four million pounds, and they named it the resulting company Diageo,
from the Latin word for day dia and the Greek
word for world geo, to acknowledge that all over the world,
every day people enjoy their products. Yeah, this was news
(39:37):
to me. In two thousand three, Guinness revived that Guinness
Gives You Power campaign in Africa, even releasing a film
called Critical Assessment in Africa and the UK featuring a
character they created for the campaign, Michael Power. Before this,
he had been featured in numerous television radio shows, and
at the end of these episodes, after he triumphed over
(39:58):
whatever evil, he'd always say, Guinness brings out the power,
and you Michael Power. The character was retired in two
thousand and six, but Guinness still uses yeah these similar
themes in their ads today. Huh. To celebrate the two
d and fiftie anniversary of Arthur Guinness signing the Lease,
Guinness promised that people could enjoy Guinness as never before underwater. Yep,
(40:29):
they commissioned a submarine bar so people could drink in
his while submerged. Okay, of course. Brews four opened in
Dublin in it's the largest stout brewery in the world.
In that two thousand seventeen, Guinness opened a brewery in Baltimore, Maryland,
(40:49):
Open Gate Brewery and Barrel House. However, they announced they
would not be brewing their famous out there. Yeah. Yeah,
we finally get a Guinness brewery in the States, and
they're like, not the stout, though at the time they
were focusing on the brand's blonde logger. I think that
they had been burned a little bit too hard by
the unsuccess of their stout. The first time through um
(41:14):
was the two anniversary of Guinness Stout being first shipped
to the United States. That's right, yeah, um, And apparently
again under normal circumstances, there's room for some like four
thousand people to hang out and party there. Whoa, yeah,
they've got a whole like like like music, lawn and stuff.
Oh yeah, isn't it shaped like this? It's shaped like
(41:35):
a Guinness glass? Yeah, of course obviously why have I
been ask? Um that same here Ginnis switched filtration systems
to no longer use fish bladders in this process so
that vegetarians and vegans could enjoy their beers should they
so choose. Okay, I really had to look into this
so science aside about why someone would use fish black
(42:00):
beer in the making of beer. So, a lot of
the beers that we drink these days are filtered, um,
And you might have had an unfiltered beer. It'll look
cloudy and like semi opaque in the glass. Um, And
that comes from yeast remnants and grain proteins in the beer.
So so when you make beer, you're you're convincing yeast
(42:22):
to eat the sugars in grains and poop alcohol and flavor. Right,
um and proteins are also released in this process from
those grains, and there are a number of methods for
getting the proteins and the remnants of those yeasts out
during the production process, and one of them is is
physically filtering the beer in some way, and one of
the traditional filtration substances, of filtration substances being known in
(42:43):
the industry as findings, one of those is called eisinglass,
and eisinglass is basically just collagen that's been derived from
the swim bladders of certain species of fish. So it's
not like their urinary bladder to the organ that helps
them control their depth in the water, you know. So
(43:04):
basically you take a fish, take a take out the
swim bladder, clean it and dry it, and then um
break it down using mild acids to release the collagen
that it contains. And this is effective as a filtration
agent because those those haze causing molecules in beer are
negatively charged, and so like to negatively charged magnet ends,
(43:28):
they'll push away from each other and suspend themselves thus
evenly throughout the beer. Eyes and glass molecules carry a
positive charge, so they neutralize those hazy molecules and and
the yeasts and proteins will then clump up and sink,
making them easy to remove. UM. If you've ever used
gelatine to clarify a broth into a consummate, same principle.
(43:50):
These days, most breweries do not use eyes and glass. Um.
You know, stuff like centrifuges, UM and filtration devices that
are you know, like not made from the swim bladders
of fish are preferred. Um. Though, if all of this
is news to you, UM, and you happen to keep
a diet that precludes fish elements, do check online for
for beers that are made without it. It was news
(44:11):
to me. I read that, and I think I did
a double take. Yeah, yeah, I ran across this one
really great headline. I think I was in USA today.
That was like, that was like there's been fish bladder
in your beer all along? And I got the Acatha
all Along song stuck in my head and like it
was a really fun, really fun trip. So eyes and
(44:33):
glass sounds like Lord of the Rings. It definitely does,
But no fish bladder, fish bladder, very fancy name for
fish platter. Like, well, it's been quite a journey. A
lot has happened in this episode. Yeah, we covered we
(44:56):
covered a lot of ground, asked us this it does. Yes,
it made me really craving Guinness. I don't It's not
a beer that I particularly crave that often because it's
sort of mild tasting and I like kind of punch
you in the face beers. But but yeah, yeah, just
(45:16):
reading about it, I'm just like, I really want to uller,
want to go get some Guinness. I'm gonna try to
make it happen. I have faith in you. I think
I can do it. Thank you. All right, Well, we'll
report back on that one. Um. But in the meantime,
that's what we have to say about Guinness for now.
(45:37):
It is. We do have some listener mail for you,
but first we've got one more quick break for a
word from our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you, spon, Yes,
thank you, And we're back with low celebratory. Yeah. Uh,
(46:08):
we have two emails about Moral mushrooms a day. Yes, yes,
so we actually got a lot and I'm looking forward
to going over them in the next couple of episodes.
Oh this is great, Yeah, Jacob wrote, I just want
to write in about them. Sick Moral Festival. It's pronounced
me sick like Mr me Sick who I don't know,
(46:30):
but I'm assuming because you told me how to pronounce
it that that's act you pronounced his name. It's not
the obvious pronunciation, so even people here in Michigan get
it wrong. The Blessing of the Jeeps is a big
annual little bit for Michigan jeep owners of all stripes.
Think of a car show where owners are encouraged to
(46:50):
not just show up their cars but all put them
through their paces on obstacle courses and mud pits, and
the key point of the meet up is the local
priests offering a blessing over all the jeeps for safety
and fun adventures. Baldain, Michigan also hosts an annual Blessing
of the Bikes for bikers, although I don't know if
(47:11):
they're connected at all. Morals are a very popular mushroom
and often guarded secret. A lot of forgers are very
hesitant to share the best foraging spots. Following syrup season,
moral season is one of the great food seasons of
the spring. Yes, there actually was a priest involved in
the blessing of the jeeps. I'm so happy, Oh yes,
(47:36):
thank you, Oh heck I Uh that's so good. Yes, yes, uh.
We we sent out the safer call. We put up
the bat signal, the moral mushroom signal, and we have gotten.
We've gotten all the answers we knew we desired. Y'all
have come through. Oh goodness. Yeah. Speaking of Paul wrote, Hi,
(48:00):
Annie and Lauren just heard the moral episode and I
lived just north of Music, Michigan um pronounced music or Music.
It's a small town and the Mushroom Festival is the
biggest thing going each year. One of the many events
is a mudding competition kicked off by the blessing of
the jeeps that kicks off the off road season up here,
although in reality people off road all year round. Although
(48:21):
the Mushroom Fest brings in much needed annual revenue each year,
it does come with a couple of issues. First is
price gouging when selling to tourists. While caveat emptors should
always hold true, they're sold by the pound, and you'll
see vendors soaking them in water and meeting as much
dirt on them as possible while charging up to sixty
dollars a pound or more. Second is the large number
(48:43):
of down staters coming up only to pick morals and
then either selling them while they're up here using the
aforementioned shady techniques, or taking them back down state to
sell them down there. This is viewed by locals as
basically natural resource robbery in an area that already deals
with high numbers of residents living below the poverty line.
There have been a few attempts at imposing legislation to
(49:03):
restrict this activity, but a high percentage of the population
is politically biased against regulation and it would be extremely
difficult to enforce due to the vast amounts of land
and lack of enforcement resources. On a more positive note,
it's a big deal up here every year and people
love to get out in the woods. Personally, I am
horrible at it and have only found a few ever
(49:23):
in the backyard and one in our front flower bed
that I happened to spot while sitting on the front porch.
One word of advice, never ever ask someone where their
spot is. It's more taboo than asking where someone's favorite
fishing spot is and may result in an argument or
even a lost relationship. Wow, you don't want to lose
(49:45):
your relationship because of moral taboo. No, sorry, no, this
is very concerning it is. Thank you. We don't want
to make that mistake. Yeah, you've saved us from him,
possibly very major faux pa. Yes, no way, do us
(50:08):
professional food podcasters want to make a mushroom fau pa. No.
I've loved hearing from listeners about how bad they are
finding morell mushrooms too. That's because I'm pretty sure I
wouldn't be very good either, but I would be enthusiastic.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I when we went on that
lovely mushroom tour outside of Asheville, um and like I
(50:32):
couldn't locate mushrooms that our tour guide had planted for
us to be obvious. Yes, so yeah, well that's why
we got to get the professionals to come with us.
We clearly clearly you can like blindfold us on the
(50:56):
way and it'll be okay. Yeah, but I have I
remember towards the end, I'd be like is that one,
And our our professional forger friend would give me like
the kindest file and be like, yes, yes, I've done it.
(51:17):
Thanks to both of those listeners for writing in. If
you would like to try to as you can our emails.
Hello at savor pod dot com. We're also on social media.
You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at
saver pod and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
my heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
(51:38):
Thanks it's always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.