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Up until a few years ago, Guinness was seen as a run-of-the-mill old man drink, mainly enjoyed by your uncle, Dad and maybe a few Irish mates.
But then sometime in 2023, something changed. Suddenly, hipsters didn’t want to sip on a hoppy craft beer, they wanted to find the best Guinness in London, and spend Saturday afternoons ‘splitting the G’ down the Auld Shillelagh. Then, after the hipsters caught on it inevitably trickled down to the normies. People started writing enthusiastically about liking Guinness on their Hinge profiles, as if the stout was a signifier that you were cool, and you drank at trendy London pubs.
Now, London is facing a Guinness shortage, with one pub even handing out Guinness ‘ration cards’. But why is it so popular?
Bosses at Diageo, which distils Guinness, partly blame the viral ‘split the G’ game for its booming popularity. There are also influencers who are obsessed with the drink, like ShitLondonGuinness, which has contributed to its allure. The TopJaw guys were single handedly responsible for creating the hypey, viral sensation that is The Devonshire, after they claimed it had the ‘best Guinness in London’. Now, there’s fat chance of even getting near the pub on Denman Street, as Carhartt-clad Guinness bros stand five-abreast on the street outside just to get a taste of the black stuff – on any given day it feels like the whole city has gone there to get a drink.
If you want the full, long story, you can read our feature on the rise of Guinness, where we speak to beer experts and pub owners from London, here.
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