Q 01/05

Guinness pours black, yet the brewer officially describes its colour as a very dark shade of what?

A) Chocolate brown

B) Ruby red

C) Midnight blue

D) Plum purple

Answer · why

B) Ruby red

Guinness is officially a very dark ruby red, a colour that comes from roasting a portion of the barley before brewing.

Q 02/05

In Guinness's 1999 ad 'Surfer', voted the best commercial of all time in a 2000 UK poll, waves turn into which animals?

A) Polar bears

B) Grey wolves

C) White horses

D) Black bulls

Answer · why

C) White horses

White horses is an old name for foam-topped waves, and the ad makes the phrase literal: its breakers turn into stallions, an image borrowed from Walte...

Q 03/05

Guinness plc merged with Grand Metropolitan in 1997 to create which London-based drinks giant?

A) Pernod Ricard

B) Carlsberg Group

C) Constellation Brands

D) Diageo

Answer · why

D) Diageo

Diageo's name, coined by the branding agency Wolff Olins, joins the Latin dies (day) to the Greek root geo (world): it was meant to say pleasure every...

Q 04/05

Whose death in 1861 is said to have moved a London club barman to mix stout with champagne as the Black Velvet?

A) Prince Albert

B) King William IV

C) The Duke of Wellington

D) Princess Charlotte

Answer · why

A) Prince Albert

Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort, is the man the Black Velvet is said to mourn: the story goes that even the champagne was to be put into black...

Q 05/05

Which slogan launched Guinness's first official advertising campaign in 1929?

A) My Goodness, My Guinness

B) Guinness is Good for You

C) Guinness for Strength

D) Lovely Day for a Guinness

Answer · why

B) Guinness is Good for You

Guinness is Good for You came out of market research: when the brewery asked drinkers about its stout, they said they felt good after a pint.