Guinness: 5 Things You Didn't Know

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3- Guinness saved St. Patrick's Cathedral

Another thing you didn't know about Guinness is that the cathedral in Dublin dedicated to the patron saint of Ireland is the beautiful cathedral it is today due in large part to the beer most closely associated with the country itself.

The relationship between Guinness and St. Patrick's Cathedral dates back to Arthur Guinness, who donated 250 guineas to the Chapel Schools of St. Patrick's. However, most of the credit goes to Arthur's grandson Benjamin Lee Guinness, who between 1860 and 1865 donated a whopping £150,000 toward the restoration of the crumbling cathedral. Little surprise, then, that a statue of Benjamin sits prominently on church grounds today.

4- Guinness draft has fewer calories than orange juice

Two common misconceptions surround the physical makeup of "the black stuff.” The first is that it's black (officially it has a ruby red color), and the second is that it's a heavy-handed beer, calorie-wise.

The reality is that 12 ounces of the full-bodied, ruby red stuff has just 125 calories, which is less than the same amount of the orange stuff (OJ: 183 calories) and the white stuff (skim milk: 135 calories). It's also less than many popular beers, including regular Budweiser (143), Coors Original (148), Dos Equis (145), Miller Genuine (143), Sam Adams Boston Lager (160), Sierra Nevada Stout (225) and Anchor Porter (205). Even Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, with 176 calories per 12 ounces, is comparatively low in calories.

5- Dead rats have nothing to do with the flavor of Guinness

The legend that dead rats provide Guinness its flavor is pure myth, although songs like the Dropkick Murphys' "Good Rats" do little to dispel it. The story goes something like this: Early Guinness brews didn't taste good until some dead rats were found in a barrel that, apparently, contained better-tasting Guinness. The subsequent success led Guinness to fortify the beer with rat bones. This ludicrous story is predicated on a fallacy (early brews were extremely successful), a fact that, by itself, invalidates the tale.

In truth, the unique flavor comes from the perfect recipe of roasted & malted barley, hops, yeast and water — water from the Wicklow Mountains and not, according to another myth, from the River Liffey.

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