Beer fans tackle new Birra Moretti pint trend
After last year’s ‘splitting the G’ drinking trend went viral comes a new pub skill linked to Birra Moretti. What does ‘setting the table’ mean in the context of drinking a pint, and who is doing it? db reports.
Last year pub-goers became ensnared in a game called ‘splitting the G’, which saw drinkers try to line up their first uninterrupted sip of Guinness with both the middle of the G and the middle of the E in the Irish stout’s logo.
The trend exploded on social media with celebrities like John Cena and the Jonas brothers getting involved, though Guinness brewery ambassador Colm O’Connor noted that the challenge was “not a Guinness initiative” and appeared to have been “dreamt up by somebody on TikTok”.
As the drinks business reported, the best way to ‘split the G’ is to “start with a properly chilled pint in a clean, tilted glass, then take a deliberate, uninterrupted gulp, aiming to precisely align the foam’s edge with the horizontal line of the G and the E.”
The trick is to “maintain a steady pace to achieve a clean and even split”, one expert told db.
However, the gimmick amounted to sacrilege for some Guinness fans.
“No. It has to stop. I’m sick of it. Everyone stop doing it,” said Irish One Direction star Niall Horan. Calling a pint of Guinness “a beautiful work of art”, he added: “You don’t listen to a song and go straight to the chorus. You have to hear the verse first.”
Moretti trick
Now it seems that Horan may have his wish granted as the zeitgeist has moved onto ‘setting the table’ for summer 2026. The aim is to drink just enough of Italian lager Birra Miretti so that the liquid level lines up with the Moretti man on the glass, making it look like he is resting his arm on a table.
After a carousel of video clips showing drinkers attempting to ‘set the table’ racked up more than 53,000 likes on Ladbible’s Instagram page, the trend has spread like wildfire with UK pubs including the White Horse in Southill, Bedfordshire, encouraging their punters to have a go.
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Beer drinkers have had a mixed response to the ‘setting the table’ trend.
“Why can’t you just drink your beer like a normal person?” queried one commentator on Instagram, while another said simply: “Can we all just grow up and drink pints?”.
A further critic added: “Not when it’s £7.40 for a pint!”
However, thousands more have embraced the challenge in full spirit, egging on friends and family to have a go and film their attempts.
Best-selling lager
In February 2024, Heineken-owned Birra Moretti launched a new product with “a hint of sea salt” called Birra Moretti Sale di Mare, which raised the profile of the lager brand and helped catapult it to the top of the sales charts in August that year when it overtook Carling as the best-selling draught lager in Britain.
Speaking to db, Heineken on-trade director Will Rice revealed that Birra Moretti had “surpassed over £1bn of retail sales in the last year in the on-trade”. He partly attributed the brand’s success to the fact that lager had become “the second most traded up category with one fifth of consumers likely to trade up, and over half of consumers willing to pay more for better quality”.
The ‘setting the table’ pub skill is not the first time that Birra Moretti has made headlines for its social media-friendly antics. In 2019 Birra Moretti offered free six-course meals in return for diners bringing their own tables to eat from. Organised by Cow PR, the pop-up restaurant in London’s Covent Garden said that “all types of tables” were welcome.
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