What I'm Working on Now

Now that the First Pour Edition has been released and is generally available at Amazon, While I'm actively promoting the book's sales, I'm also actively working on revising the Pints and Power manuscript itself and creating new content in our online community. The new Guinness Glossary is a web resource that is also getting social treatment with regular posts on Facebook and Instagram.

Revisions in the First Pour Edition

When I first privately released the Early Release to friends and family and at signings, I found things that needed fixing – yes the occasional typo snuck through here and there. Most of those were found and fixed before the official general release.

The results were released on 8 November, 2024 as the current published edition weighs in at 168 printed pages (hardcover and paperback) or at a leaner 155 page e-book (Kindle) version.

The e-book's content is exactly the same. It is shorter only because of removing forced empty pages here and there at key spots ideal for print, but irrelevant in electronic version.

Drafting New Additional Book Content

The interest and support about the book's release has been amazing. I still can't quite get used to being stopped by friends and strangers acknowledging the book. It's humbling but also sometimes embarrassing. The embarrassment comes from realizing during some of these moments that a topic of interest to the person hasn't yet made it into the book.

A lot of these fall into the category of the Guinness history or pub culture, so I've added a number of sections to include these.

Highlights include:

• Arthur's story before 1759 including the founding of the brewery at Leixlip in Chapter 2.
• Visiting Guinness Lake in Co. Wicklow and its natural (and unnatural) beauty and connection to the Guinness family can be found in Chapter 10.
• Chapter 3 is expanding on events within and around Guinness during the 1916 Rising based on discovering first hand accounts when visiting the Guinness Archives in Dublin.
• In Chapter 11, there is a discussion on the proper way to drink a pint and its results including the appearance of the Guinness mustache.
• Pub phrases like "Going for one" or "One for the ditch" are used almost every night in pubs everywhere, a reflection on the meaning and impact of these phrases is part of Chapter 8.
• Mixed pints (half-and-halfs) have been part of the menu at pubs and have been included in Chapter 11.
• Investigations into employee activity during the Rising, how they were conducted and what was found including revealing details in hand-written primary sources come to life in Chapter 3.

These updates will all make the First Pour Edition (Revised) version. There is as of now no exact date, but many of the topics are piloted in posts here on the blog. All of this has added an additional 12 pages of new content, bringing the page total of the current draft to 180.

– Mike