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During Thursday’s annual Friends of Ireland luncheon at the U.S. Capitol, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan toasted the Irish people, who were represented by Prime Minister Enda Kenny. He quoted George Washington before sipping on the classic Irish beer: Guinness.
But all Irish observers on Twitter could say in response was: Who poured that beer?
For the non-Irish curious as to what was so offensive about a pint of beer, Guinness is not just Ireland’s most beloved beer, it also has to be poured in a very specific way, as detailed by Kegerator and an official video from Guinness itself.
The beer Ryan had was not topped off and lacked the creamy head that Guinness should have.
To make matters even worse for Ryan, his willingness to sip a subpar pour stands in sharp contrast to one of his former rivals, Barack Obama. In 2011, Obama visited Ireland and was about to sample a pint of his own when he noted that “people are very particular about who is pouring your Guinness ... the perfect pint.” He didn’t pour his own, but the pint he ended up sipping looked far more Guinness-approved, according to The Telegraph.
But Ryan was not the only person who found out this week how the Irish, normally regarded as some of the friendliest people in the world, are not messing around when it comes to their Guinness. A bar and restaurant in Vancouver, Canada, posted an image of a Guinness to Facebook promoting its St. Patrick’s Day festivities last week, only to receive a wave of backlash against the pictured pour.
The image even made headlines in Ireland, according to CBC, leading the bar to take down the image and apologize.
“The picture was not representative of us,” the bar’s owner, Dan Olson, said. “We actually do know how to pour a Guinness. It was a mistake and we take full responsibility for it.”
“One comment actually said that Jesus wept when he saw our pint of Guinness.”