This London Pub Reportedly Sells the Most Guinness in the World
Guinness is unlike any other beer. The Irish stout was first brewed over 250 years ago, yet it remains one of the most popular beers on the planet, poured in bars, pubs, and restaurants the world over. But as any Guinness lover knows, the quality of the beer itself is entirely dependent on who is pouring it — and not all pours are created equal.
While it’s fairly easy to track down a pint of the stout, scoring one that’s truly worth your while can take a bit more effort. One pub in London pours Guinness so well that it has become the world’s largest supplier of the draught.
The Devonshire, which opened in its current iteration in November 2023, is located just steps from Piccadilly Circus in London’s Soho neighborhood, and quickly became a go-to destination for Guinness. Tucked on the corner of Denman Street, the bar was originally founded in 1793 as the Devonshire Arms and operated as a pub for over 200 years before it was converted to a restaurant space in 2012. But when fourth-generation pub owner and partner Charlie Carroll learned that the building’s landlord was looking for a new tenant, he knew there was an opportunity to bring Devonshire back to Central London.
So he coordinated with famed Irish publican Oisín Rogers and chef Ashley Palmer-Watts to do exactly that. At the time, a new pub hadn’t opened up in Soho in over 50 years, immediately upping the stakes for the operators. Rogers also had a few requests that made their task even more daunting. He wanted the space to be large, within walking distance of The Coach & Horses (another beloved Soho pub), and be run by just the three of them — no groups.
The Denman Street location proved to be the perfect chance to pull it all off, but the trio knew they would need big draws to attract drinkers’ and diners’ attention. Making their own bacon was one, securing the best wine glasses was another, but nothing was as important as ensuring The Devonshire poured the best pint of Guinness in town.
Credit: Ashley Palmer-Watts via Instagram
As Rogers tells GQ, the pub itself was literally built around the idea of selling a pint of Guinness at a quality level that has only ever been associated with those served in Ireland. See, where most Guinness in the U.K. is served with a 30 to 70 percent ratio of carbon dioxide to nitrogen, Irish Guinness tends to be poured with a 20 to 80 percent ratio. The discrepancy is often due to how the beer is cared for — in the U.K., Guinness is often hooked up to the same taps as other beers rather than running on its own. Not only does this impact the gas ratio, but it also affects temperature, with Guinness pouring the same temp as lagers, not a few degrees warmer, as is standard.
The team at The Devonshire did more than just mimic the serves famous in Ireland — they tweaked their gas proportions to 18 percent carbon dioxide to 82 percent nitrogen. Moreover, the keg room at the pub is under constant supervision, ensuring that Guinness is always served at the proper temperature from squeaky-clean draft lines. The end result is a thicker, creamier beer with a more luscious head, and drinkers just can’t get enough of it.
The pub — and its upstairs restaurant — is constantly jam-packed with drinkers, the likes of which have included musicians like Jon Bon Jovi, Ed Sheeran, Joe Jonas, and Lewis Capaldi. In everyone’s hand? A pint of Guinness.
The Devonshire reportedly sells more Guinness pints than any other pub, bar, or restaurant, pouring an average of 20,000 every single week. On a random Thursday shortly after opening, the pub sold a whopping 3,870 pints of the Irish stout. Its sales of the beer are so high that Guinness accounts for roughly 70 percent of all alcohol sold in the pub. As Rogers told VinePair in January 2024, The Devonshire’s beer suppliers “reckon there’s nobody close” to selling as much Guinness as the buzzy pub.
The success of The Devonshire — and the popularity of its Guinness pour — is a glimmering bright spot in a city that has lost almost 1,000 pubs since 2004. And it all goes to show that when Guinness is done right, drinkers won’t hesitate to show up.
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