“GUINNESS® beer is available in well over 100 countries worldwide and is brewed in almost 50. As of June 30, 2004, the biggest-selling markets for GUINNESS® stout were (in order): Great Britain, Ireland, Nigeria, US and Cameroon.”
Cecil throws off the following parenthetical in reference to receiving an imperial pint glass from an English acquaintance:
You’re right, Guinness is international. I think Cecil was merely noting that it is nonetheless a distinctively Irish brand.
That said, I had a truly awesome Guinness FES on St. Kitts. Apparently the local breweries under contract with Guinness add a hopped wort shipped from Ireland to a locally-brewed pale ale base. So naturally, it varies a bit from location to location (and has varying ABV, depending on the market). And the one brewed in St. Kitts is a stellar beach quaff.
If I may:
The international brewer’s convention was over for the day, the seminars on Alcohol taxation and the lectures on the marketing to a changing demographic were done, so the brewers went to the bar for refreshments.
The Anheuser-Busch man ordered a Bud “The King of Beers”
The Miller guy had a Miller Lite, so as to leave room for dinner.
The man from Detriot ordered a “fire brewed” Stroh’s.
The man from Guiness ordered a Ginger Ale. The others right away asked him why.
His reply?
Well, you guys weren’t having beer, so I thought I would do the same.
Also, some breweries choose to pasturise their brews. Dunno now, but it used be the case that Guiness on tap (draught) in Ireland was unpasturised, the way all beer used to be.
Canned/bottled bear was pasturised in many places long before the move to pasturised draught beer. In Melbourne, draught beer came with a brewery guarantee: they replaced kegs that were sour. They didn’t want to have to do that with bottled or canned beer, and in the end they didn’t want to have to do that with draught beer either.
And yes, if pay attention, you can tell the difference between pasturised and unpasturised beer, but the process has gotten better over the years.
When I was at the Guinness brewery in Dublin in 2005, they said that Canadian-brewed Guinness was no longer sold in the US. All Guinness for U.S. consumption was brewed in Ireland (and, IIRC, that was only true for Ireland and the US).
No idea if that’s still the case or even genuinely was then.