Guinness is Good for You
Os Guinness on the Gin Craze and the Unexpected Health Perks of Guinness
Welcome back, Salt and Light readers! We’re excited to kick off another Friday in our essay series, and this week, we’ve got something special. We've just released the first page of our newest mini-comic, "Guinness: Brewing Good," telling the story of Arthur Guinness and the founding of the Guinness Brewery. In this week’s page, we watch as Arthur purchases land to start brewing beer—providing a safer alternative to the dangerous gin craze sweeping through Ireland at the time.
Over the next four weeks, as we explore what it means to be Salt and Light through the lens of Arthur Guinness’s life, we’re thrilled to share excerpts from a conversation between one of our writers, Mark Rodgers, and Arthur Guinness’s great-grandson, Os Guinness. Each week, we’ll reveal a new segment of this conversation, and we’ve included QR codes so you can watch or listen in. This week, Os and Mark discuss the creation of the Guinness Brewery during the Gin Craze, its societal benefits, and how it became the global success it is today.
Mark Rodgers
Now, prior to the founding of the brewery, what was life like? What were Arthur Guinness's business practices, what led him to eventually starting the brewery itself?
Os Guinness
Well, he started out actually as a kind of Secretary, and writing in those days was relatively rare, and family thought he might continue that. But he had a knack for making beer, and he took over a brewery in a little town, a little village outside of Dublin called Celbridge, and that's where the first brewery was. So he flourished there, okay, and then went to Dublin.
Mark Rodgers
This is a brewery that already existed, and he acquired that brewery?
Os Guinness
It was a pub. People made beer in their homes, and you're in a day where there was no hygienic plumbing, so water from a well was pretty unhealthy, and then you had the gin craze, so Christians drank beer. Many people in the south are surprised by how many breweries in Europe were founded by evangelicals. It was a statement of moderation. And if you say you love cartoons, well, in London, the most famous cartoons were by William Hogarth. And if you look at them now, Gin Alley is full of corruption and violence and decrepitude. There's only one house that looks respectable and flourishing, and that's the pawnbrokers house. But then you move to beer lane, and all houses look respectable and flourishing, and there's only one decrepit and broken down, and that's the pawnbrokers house. That's a good statement, but beer was a sign of moderation, over against the perils of the extremes of the gin craze.
Mark Rodgers
Okay, and that's worth unpacking. So gin alley, which we hear that term even today. Why was gin a particular challenge or problem at the time?
Os Guinness
Well, it's so much stronger, you know, rather like vodka for the Russians or whiskey for the Scots. It’s the water of life, you know. and people who are down in their luck and so on found their solace in gin or vodka or whiskey or whatever. But Christians drank beer. You know, St Patrick, the greatest of all the Irish Christian heroes, had his own brewer, who he took round with him when he visited chieftains and so on.
Mark Rodgers
Oh, interesting, I did not know that. So the beer then served two purposes. It was an alternative to gin, therefore a moderating beverage, as water itself was not guaranteed to be without some contamination. So it was both a health issue, in that sense.
I also find that I'm a Guinness beer drinker. My preference is porters, dark beers. So if I drink a beer, it's going to be a heavier stout of some sort of beer. I find that I can't drink more than a glass because it fills me up so much. So, is it true that one other benefit of Guinness is that you can't drink more than one?
Os Guinness
Some people can drink eight or nine pikes. It does have iron in it, so pregnant women after nursing, when they're giving birth, are given Guinnesses in the hospital.
Mark Rodgers
Oh, fascinating.
Os Guinness
A famous Irish racehorse has won all its races and had Guinness with its oats every day. Okay, but it's actually lighter on calories than most beers.
Mark Rodgers
I didn't know that. So we've talked about the historic context of where beer would have fit, in terms of social permissions. Was there a prohibition movement, though, at the same time?
Os Guinness
No, the brewery was founded in 1759. The temperance movement, which was not abolition, started under a priest in about the 1830s. The temperance movement was directed against spirits, not against beer. And so the abolition came along later. I always make a distinction between the abolition of slavery, which is a terrible evil. And Wilberforce took 50 years of a persuasion campaign to win hearts and minds before he was able to pass the law. The trouble with the temperance movement here in the United States, they had the power, they didn't try to persuade why it was wrong. It was not a biblical absolute, our Lord clearly drank wine. So they passed something which then blew up in the face of the Christians who pressed it.
Mark Rodgers
So the Guinness brewery starts in a small pub, and as most, you said, beers might have been produced locally. How did it grow to become, in those early years, what it is now?
Os Guinness
Well, first he produced Ale, and then Porter, or stout, as it was later called. It came from England, and it was named after the London porters, who were literally, kind of the taxis of the day. You know jumping around all things, and they needed something strong. And so they gave them a stronger beer than usual, which was a porter. That came across to Ireland, and Arthur Guinness brewed that too, and soon became better than the English at it, and then the best in Ireland. And then, at one stage, the Guinness brewery was the biggest brewery in the world.
Thanks so much for joining us this week. As we reflect on what it means to live as Salt and Light in the world, we hope it’s been an encouraging reminder of the impact we can have. Be sure to come back next week for a new comic page on Wednesday and more insights from Os Guinness on Friday. We’re really excited for you to follow along with this series—and we can’t wait to share what’s next!
To watch a 5 minute clip of the interview, scan this QR code!
