(Credits: Netflix)

When you hear the name Guinness, you probably think of a dark stout, creamy foam, the glass sliding across a bar, possibly after a half-day of four-leaf clover foraging. But behind the drink is a family story that is bigger, messier, and way more dramatic than the ease of a drink with Netflix is bringing you the whole lore in the form of its brand new show: House of Guinness.

For years, we might have heard stories about the brand here and there. But this time, Netflix is clutching to chronologically tell the entire story. The streamer launched the trailer of the show yesterday and is already full of explosions and siblings who can’t stand the sight of each other. But the real Guinness family did not need a TV script to make their lives dramatic. The history already had all the ingredients.

Guinness is not just a beer; it is a family name that shaped Ireland, built fortunes, and stirred up scandals along its merry, sometimes destructive way. The stout put Dublin on the map, but the dynasty behind it left its mark far beyond the brewery gates.

So before you dive into the Netflix drama, let’s rewind. Here is the story of the real Guinness family that inspired the series.

The dynasty that brewed more than beer

It all started in 1759, when Arthur Guinness signed an eye-watering 9000-year lease for a brewery in Dublin. That bold move turned into a global empire. His stout did not just sell in pubs; it travelled the world.

With all that success came power. By the 19th century, the Guinness heirs weren’t only brewers. They were politicians, landowners, philanthropists, you name it. Sir Benjamin Guinness, who shows up in Netflix’s version, restored St Patrick’s Cathedral and used his money to shape Dublin. The family name carried weight far outside of taverns.

The trailer opens on a sombre note with the mourning ceremony of Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, and the tone is candlelit. From the start, tension is rife in the air, and it is pretty clear that someone quite authoritative and important has passed away. And while you can feel the weight of loss, there is also the will.

Sir Benjamin left the brewery to his two eldest sons, Edward and Arthur, equally and jointly. That word “jointly” hangs like a sour smell because the trailer makes it pretty clear that these two are cut from very different cloths. All of a sudden, it feels like we are watching not a gift blossom but a bomb ripen.

For the younger children, Benjamin and Anne, their father spares them the burden of what he calls the “temptations of fortune”. Instead of relief, you see devastation on Benjamin’s face, as if he has just been pushed to the edges of his own family legacy.

What strikes is how quickly the personal grief morphs into public speculation. The trailer trails the whispers in society alongside public rebellion with the second half focusing on the rivals, who were vulture circling to exploit the cracks in the family. You hear it in the voices, and you see it on their faces. All these elements are enough for you to understand that this is not just a family’s story within the walls, it’s also about the snakes in the nest.

The best part about the trailer is that it does its job of never giving away too much; it teases with enough drama to have you inquisitive but also keeps the cards close to chest. All you are left with are glimpses of candlelit halls, fraught faces, and the sense that every sibling is about to become a player in a much larger and uglier game.