h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If people ask me for a Foster's I usually say, "So, just got in then? Nobody in the country drinks it chief"
"Why's that"
"Because it's s**t"

I,m a native of oz and nobody drinks fosters willingly. I can not ever remember drinking it but have a recollection that it tastes like piss. I must say to my amasement when I was in Wales in a pub I asked for a beer and to my horror I was given a pint of it.

Wellll, that are the combined powers of export and international advertsing for you.

I spent 6 months in Sydney and don't think I even SAW a can of Fosters. I must admit I became a big fan of Hahn Ice.

I did have one embarrassing moment near the beginning of my time there. I went into the bottle shop and couldn't find non-alcoholic beer. I went to the counter and said I wanted non-alcoholic beer and he looked at me like I was from Mars and said "Why? What's the point of beer with no alcohol?"

I explained I was Canadian, bought a box of real beer and slunk away. I didn't make THAT mistake again!

I have never seen an ad when overseas so i don't know, but is Guinness marketed as a traditional Irish drink? There are certainly a lot of people over here who drink it(myself included). What about elsewhere in the world?

I'd say that it's not heavily advertised in Germany, but you can get it in every Irish Pub and a number of German ones as well. It is certainly seen as an (the) traditional Irish drink, no doubt about that.
Cheers!

I can't speak for the rest of Canada but I live in Vancouver and I've never seen it advertised on TV - or in print come to think of it. It is possible to get it here but I don't know anyone who would drink it. I had it a few times (OK, more than a few times) in England and it was great there.

The only reason anyone in Vancouver might know about Guinness is that the Guinness family built the first bridge across our harbour about 60 years ago because they owned property on the other side which was only accessible by boat. This bit of trivia only emerged a few years back when we spent a zillion dollars having the bridge refurbished for its 50th anniversary.

AND NOW - THE GREAT GUINNESS MYTH!

I can remember my Mum telling me that Guinness was given to women in maternity hospitals in England in the old days (when I was born) because it was high in iron (???) Anyone else heard this one?

It's true.

Doctors recommend it here for that reason and expectant mums DO drink it. Probably because they miss alcohol. I would.

They've just changed the recipe that they use to brew it here (Australia) to make it taste as close to the trad irish recipe as possible. Before then the two brews were about as similar as fosters and anything drinkable.

It certainly does have a high iorn content. In fact, it used to be given to people who donated blood here in Ireland. This is why there was never a blood shortage - plenty of healthy, young college students to volunteer....

That's EXACTLY what the Guinness rep said last night.

AND she gave us foam pints to beat each other up with.

WooHoo!

I thought that was just another one of Mum's stories! (there are so many.) This is great news. The doc tells me I'm anaemic so maybe I can scrap the iron pills he prescribed and drink Guinness instead! Gotta have something to wash down that fictitious liver () I told him I'm eating!

How do you spot a tourist in an Australian pub?
They're the ones drinking Fosters

Does that mean that you actually and knowingly go to pubs where they serve Fosters?!

I tried the New Xealand beer in the UK. Disgusting stuff.