The incredible new bombshell research that suggests Guinness might actually be English

It is famed as Ireland's national drink, as Irish as shamrocks and leprechauns! But it is possibly even more popular here in the UK where about 2.2 million pints of Guinness are drunk in the UK every day, making it one of the most popular beers.

On peak occasions like St. Patrick's weekend, consumption can spike significantly, with over 12 million pints consumed in a single weekend. The UK drinks the most Guinness by volume making it the largest market while Nigeria is the second-largest consumer, not Ireland!

But according to a new report, this particular style of dark beer may not have actually originated on the Emerald Isle itself anyway. It seems head brewer and founder Arthur Guinness may have created his famous black stuff off the back of a previous tipple.

He created his famous dark beer in the 1770s, but before then, having signed a 9000-year lease on December 31, 1759, on an abandoned brewery at St. James's Gate, Dublin, he originally crafted lighter-coloured beers.

Dr Malcolm Purinton, a beer historian at Northeastern University claims the darker Guinness beer style was actually invented in London in the 18th century.

"Historically, the development of porter and stronger stouts originated with the English brewers,' Dr Purinton told the Daily Mail.

"The name porter comes from the popularity of the strong-flavoured dark beer with London porters who carried goods around London.

"Arthur Guinness started brewing porter in 1778 in competition with London porter imports to gain more market share in the Dublin market. Before the production of the stouts and London porters, Guinness beers would have been brown ales and brown beers."

Then London-brewed porters were imported across the Irish Sea and began flooding the Dublin market, proving hugely popular.

By 1799, production of lighter Guinness ales had stopped at St. James's Gate following the popularity of the much darker beer and a new drink, based on an old drink, was born.

Then in 1796 the first known export of Guinness left Dublin port on a ship bound for England, bringing the original Porter beer right back to its origins although it would be another half a century before Guinness started referring to its dark beer as "stout" as we would today.

Now Guinness has opened a £73 million venue in Covent Garden, home to the original porter, and is to attract at least 500,000 visitors a year to the attraction, the first of its kind in London.

Dr Purinton believes the pint of Guinness available to fans in Covent Garden today is probably much nicer than the original too!

He said: "Today's Guinness is a draught stout style, a very different kind of beer from the original London porters brewed at St. James's Gate.

"Mid-18th century brewing lacked a lot of important knowledge and instruments like knowledge of yeast, thermometers, and hydrometers.

"The beer would have been a similar colour but it would have been more bitter, likely slightly sour or funky from yeasts like Brettanomyces and have a heavier roasted quality to it, possibly be even littler smoky."

And the new home of Guinness back in London has opened to rave reviews with the London Evening Standard commenting: "There is no doubt that Guinness's owners, drinks giant Diageo have done an impressive job in creating the 54,000 sq ft venue in a complex of buildings north of Longacre."

The site at Old Brewer's Yard off Langley Street was long occupied by Covent Garden's historic beer making buildings, the Woodyard Brewery, and later the Coombe Brewery - owned by Watney-Coombe & Reid - which at their peak produced around 500,000 barrel a year but disappeared around 1905.

The company hopes to attract at least 500,000 visitors a year to the new Guinness Open Gate brewery, less than half the number who come to the much bigger original in Dublin but still putting it on a par with the Houses of Parliament and the Cabinet War Rooms. Cheers!