Zuckerberg has responded to the online commentary by saying \u201cThat\u2019s just my face\u201d, but after that clip a few years ago where he tried to talk to Theo Von about coffee (\u201cSometimes on vacation I\u2019ll drink it recreationally\u201d, you know like the way normal people talk about coffee), it seems hard to imagine that this is a man who could stomach a pint of plain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Obviously, Collison\u2019s decision to predicate his podcast on the popularity of pints is a deliberate choice, and one that speaks to Guinness\u2019 current cachet within the zeitgeist (loanword-city over here today, baby!). However, his decision to give a pint to Mark Zuckerberg, one of the world\u2019s least relatable human beings, may be a sign that Guinness is beginning to jump the shark. There\u2019s only so mainstream something can become before it crashes back down to earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In this week\u2019s edition of Hear Me Out, The Journal staff give their take on the modern Guinness phenomenon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Conor:<\/p>\n
The continued popularity of Guinness baffles me. It is unquestionably the worst stout I\u2019ve ever had. There is a void in the flavour that is uncomfortable to perceive. Each sip tastes like leaving the house and realising you\u2019re now at the bus stop with no recollection of the walk there.
Carl:\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m intervening here to point out that Conor\u2019s comment won him no fewer than 10 crying laughing emoji reactions in our work Slack.
Laura:<\/p>\n
\u2018Splitting the G\u2019? Never heard of it! Where did it come from? Was it cooked up in a Diageo lab, and if so, please tell me some Diageo marketing\/social media intern came up with it, and at least tell me they got a big bonus. It\u2019s getting to annoying levels now with this artist, that celeb trying to \u2018Split the G\u2019. It just doesn\u2019t feel authentic. Overall though, Guinness is a nice Irish brand, of course it is, but it\u2019s also a global behemoth and I feel as a brand, it gets an inordinate amount of attention\u2026. And our tourism boards are only too happy\/lazy to lean into it. <\/p>\n
I think they could also be in danger of overcooking the brand a bit. But then again, when you have the Diageo budgets, you just keep pushing for more. So a \u2018down with this sort of thing\u2019 from me. But also, a good pint of Guinness by a fire in a little pub is hard to beat. Just the one, mind.<\/p>\n
Sin\u00e9ad:<\/p>\n
I am split (heh!) on this one. In a lot of ways, it\u2019s nice to see something so quintessentially Irish be this popular. I also think a lot of the merch is really nice. However, what I\u2019d describe as the \u2018London Guinness\u00a0scene\u2019 feels alien to me \u2013 maybe that\u2019s the point. It\u2019s for the diaspora.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I got married in the Guinness Storehouse almost seven years ago and all my photos look very of the moment now so maybe I should be happy I\u2019m ahead of a trend for once.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Christine:<\/p>\n
I particularly hate how we make famous people drink Guinness when they visit (Barack Obama sipping tentatively is seared in my memory). It is an acquired taste and we not to stop pretending that it isn\u2019t! It is not for everyone!<\/p>\n
![\"file-in-this-may-23-2011-file-photo-u-s-president-barack-obama-and-first-lady-michelle-obama-drink-guinness-beer-as-they-meet-with-local-residents-at-ollie-hayes-pub-in-moneygall-ireland-the-anc\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792464130_312_.jpeg\")
\n Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n
Nicky:<\/p>\n
I have a lot of thoughts on this but am reluctant to invest too much emotional energy in discussing Guinness. We, collectively, as a nation, already spend too much time doing this.<\/p>\n
All I will say is that getting a good Guinness is an eternally frustrating lottery, presumably because more and more places are failing to store it and maintain pipes correctly.<\/p>\n
And listen, I\u2019m not after the perfect pint. I\u2019d just like it to be, at least, reliably fine. When I\u2019m spending more than \u20ac7, and now not infrequently approaching \u20ac8, I shouldn\u2019t have to think twice about how it tastes. It should simply be as expected.<\/p>\n
Beamish is, in my experience, far more reliable and cheaper. It doesn\u2019t take much to figure out why it\u2019s experiencing such a surge in popularity.<\/p>\n
Full disclosure: inside me are two wolves: my grandfather worked on the Guinness boats between Ireland and Britain, so I do feel a certain loyalty to the brand. But I\u2019m also co-admin of a WhatsApp group called Cr\u00e8me de la B\u00e8m, which was mostly born out of that frustration with Guinness but is more concerned with mapping locations where Beamish is sold than with any pointed critical analysis of \u201cdomeage\u201d and all that crap.<\/p>\n
Another wolf might be my frustration with our obsession with alcohol brands and the control and influence they have on Irish society, but we\u2019ll save that for another day, shall we?<\/p>\n
Andrew Walsh<\/p>\n
Prefacing this by saying I love Guinness and hate olives, but it\u2019s the olives of drinks: some people love it, some think it tastes dreadful, and there\u2019s very little room in the middle for nuance. Unlike olive eaters though, Guinness drinkers seem to think the haters need to be taken on a tour of six pubs until they give the correct answer. \u201cYou just haven\u2019t had a good one.\u201d Maybe they have! Maybe they\u2019d like another beer instead! It\u2019s a lovely pint, but we\u2019ve got to calm down a bit.<\/p>\n
Also, to follow on from Christine, I\u2019m not sure why we\u2019re all supposed to be delighted at the sight of a famous person or world leader drinking Guinness. We don\u2019t seem to need the same approval when they\u2019re knocking back Jameson or Baileys.<\/p>\n
As someone from Leixlip, I\u2019m probably contractually obliged to defend Guinness though. They did put us on the map.<\/p>\n
R\u00f3n\u00e1n:<\/p>\n
First U2 and now Guinness on these pages, no coincidence given the Irish desire to distance ourselves from some of our most successful exports. The Guinness trend has surely peaked now and there\u2019s perhaps a creamy irony in the tech bros whose algorithms powered it delivering the death knell with their own quaffing. <\/p>\n
I must admit I hated the idea in years gone by that young people always wanted an ice-cold lager, as ice-cold lagers simply can\u2019t be consumed quickly enough. So I did feel vindicated in my own tastes by the Guinness train of recent times. But as it now comes to a crashing halt, I think we can just retreat to it being largely our own multinational conglomerate-laced favourite. Oh, and while we\u2019re at it, Arthur\u2019s Day was a bit cringey but was also a boon for the night-time scene that pubs would cry out for now.<\/p>\n
Nicky:<\/p>\n
Yes! Bring back Arthur\u2019s Day. A strange day, a cringey day, one that you don\u2019t really miss, but let\u2019s give it another go.<\/p>\n
What do you think? Where do you land on the popularity of Guinness in the modern age? And crucially, do you think we should bring back Arthur\u2019s Day?<\/p>\n
Should we bring back Arthur\u2019s Day?<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve been debating a topic with your friends, family and coworkers and you want the matter settled by the Journal Media Galaxy Brain Trust Council of Wisdom\u2122, then email tips@thejournal.ie with the subject line Hear Me Out.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hear Me Out is a new weekly series where Journal Media staffers give their hottest, coldest and, where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,604,268150,61,60,2597],"class_list":["post-659922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-guinness","tag-hear-me-out","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mark-zuckerberg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}