Beer is the world’s favourite alcoholic drink, a lingua franca that connects people across the globe who may have nothing else in common but their love of the fermented cereal gift from nature called beer. [...] Successive British Prime Ministers have taken visiting Presidents to their local boozer for the all-important photo op of them both at the bar holding a pint. President Obama and David Cameron swapped bottles of beer from their constituencies. Bill Clinton knew the power of the pint when he visited Ireland during the peace process and drank the obligatory glass of Guinness.