Originally leased in 1759 to Arthur Guinness at £45 per year for 9,000 years, the St. James's Gate area has been the home of Guinness ever since. It became the largest brewery in Ireland in 1838, and the largest in the world by 1886, with an annual output of 1.2million barrels.[1] Although no longer the largest brewery in the world, it remains as the largest brewer of stout. The company has since bought out the originally leased property,[2] and during the 19th and early 20th centuries, the brewery owned most of the buildings in the surrounding area, including many streets of housing for brewery employees, and offices associated with the brewery. The brewery had its own power plant.[3][4]
There is an attached exhibition on the 250-year-old history of Guinness, called the Guinness Storehouse.
History
Gate at Guinness BreweryGuinness Brewery in DublinArthur Guinness Son & Co. Limited, 6% Preference Stock, issued 5. November 1889
Arthur Guinness started brewing ales in Leixlip, County Kildare, and then from 1759 at the St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin. On 31 December he signed a 9,000-year lease at £45 per annum for the unused brewery.[6][7] However, the lease is no longer in effect because the brewery property has been bought out when it expanded beyond the original 4-acre site.[2]
Ten years after establishment, on 19 May 1769 Guinness exported his beer (he had ceased ale brewing by then) for the first time, when six and a half barrels were shipped to England. The business expanded by adopting steam power and further exporting to the English market. On the death of Benjamin Guinness in 1868 the business was worth over £1 million, and the brewery site had grown from about 1 acre to over 64 acres. In 1886 his son Edward sold 65 per cent of the business by a public offering on the London Stock Exchange for £6 million.
The company pioneered several quality control efforts. The brewery hired the statistician William Sealy Gosset in 1899, who achieved lasting fame under the pseudonym "Student" for techniques developed for Guinness, particularly Student's t-distribution and the even more commonly known Student's t-test.[8]
Because of the Irish Free State's "Control of Manufactures Act" in 1932, the company moved its headquarters to London later that year.[9] Guinness brewed its last porter in 1974.
In 1986, Guinness PLC was in the midst of a bidding war for the much larger Distillers Company. In the closing stages, Guinness' stock rose 25 per cent — which was unusual, since the stock of the acquiring company usually falls in a takeover situation. Guinness paid several people and institutions, most notably American arbitrageurIvan Boesky, about US$38million to buy US$300 million worth of Guinness stock. The effect was to increase the value of its offer for Distillers, whose management favoured merging with Guinness.
In the course of the investigation, it emerged that Bank Leu was involved in half of the purchases. Two of Guinness' directors signed under-the-table agreements in which Bank Leu subsidiaries in Zug and Lucerne bought 41million Guinness shares. Guinness secretly promised to redeem the shares at cost, including commissions. To fulfil its end of the bargain, Guinness deposited $76million with Bank Leu's Luxembourg subsidiary.
As Distillers was worth more than Guinness plc, the Guinness family shareholding in the merged company went below 10 per cent, and today no member of the family sits on the board. Guinness acquired the Distillers Company in 1986.[10]
The company merged with Grand Metropolitan in 1997, to form Diageo plc, capitalised in 2006 at about 40billion euros.[11] Although not officially fully taken over, the Guinness family still owns 51 per cent of the brewery. The Guinness brewery in Park Royal, London closed in 2005. The production of all Guinness sold in the UK and Ireland was switched to St. James's Gate Brewery Dublin.[12]
In 2018, Guinness opened its first brewery in 64 years in the United States, in Baltimore, Maryland.[13] The last Guinness brewery in the US closed in 1954.[14] This US location will focus on "special news" and Guinness Blonde American Lager, but not the classic stout, which will still only be brewed in Dublin.[15][16]
According to a Diageo publication in 2019, the St James' Gate brewery was then operating at over 90 percent capacity and one of the "most profitable breweries in the world".[17]
Products
The main product is Guinness Draught, a 4.2% ABVdry stout that is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide. For many years a portion of the drink was aged to give a sharp lactic flavour, although Guinness has refused to confirm whether this still occurs. The thick creamy head is the result of the beer being mixed with nitrogen when being poured. It is popular with Irish people both in Ireland and abroad and is the best-selling alcoholic drink in Ireland[18][19] where Guinness & Co. makes almost €2billion annually. The brewery also produces Guinness Original, a 4.3% ABV version of the Draught, without the nitrogen;[20] Kaliber, a low alcohol pale lager; Guinness Bitter, a 4.4% bitter sold in a can with a widget; and the 7.5% Guinness Foreign Extra Stout.
Varieties
Guinness Original/Extra Stout
Guinness stout is available in a number of variants and strengths, which include:
Guinness Draught, sold in kegs, widget cans, and bottles: 4.1 to 4.3% alcohol by volume (abv); the Extra Cold is served through a super cooler at 3.5°C (38.3°F).[21]
Guinness Original/Extra Stout: 4.2 or 4.3% ABV in Ireland and the rest of Europe, 4.1% in Germany, 4.8% in Namibia and South Africa, 5.6% in the United States and Canada, and 6% in Australia and Japan.
Guinness Foreign Extra Stout: 7.5% abv version sold in Europe, America, Africa, the Caribbean and Asia. The basis is unfermented but hopped Guinness wort extract shipped from Dublin, which is added to local ingredients and brewed locally. The strength can vary, for example, it is sold at 5% ABV in China, 6.5% ABV in Jamaica and East Africa, and 8% ABV in Singapore.[22] In Nigeria a proportion of sorghum is used. Foreign Extra Stout is blended with a small amount of intentionally soured beer.[23]
Guinness Special Export Stout, sold in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, originally brewed in 1945 for the NAAFI to be sent to British troops stationed in Europe.[24]
Guinness Bitter, an English-style bitter beer: 4.4% ABV.
Guinness Extra Smooth, a smoother stout sold in Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria: 5.5% ABV.
Malta Guinness, a non-alcoholic sweet drink, produced in Nigeria and exported to the UK and Malaysia.
Guinness Mid-Strength, a low-alcohol stout test-marketed in Limerick, Ireland in March 2006[25] and Dublin from May 2007:[26] 2.8% ABV.
Kaliber, a premium alcohol-free lager. It is brewed as a full-strength lager; then at the end of the brewing process, the alcohol is removed: 0.05% ABV.
Guinness Red, brewed in exactly the same way as Guinness except that the barley is only lightly roasted so that it produces a lighter, slightly fruitier red ale; test-marketed in Britain in February 2007: 4.1% ABV.[27]
250 Anniversary Stout, released in the US, Australia and Singapore on 24 April 2009:[28] 5% ABV.
Guinness Nitro IPA, introduced in September 2015. An ale made with 5 varieties of hops (admiral, celeia, topaz, challenger, and cascade). It is packaged in cans with a nitrogen widget at 5.8% ABV.
In 2005, Guinness announced the Brewhouse Series, a limited-edition collection of draught stouts available for roughly six months each. There were three beers in the series:
Brew 39 was launched in October 2005. It used the late addition of hops to "give it a smooth and distinctive finish".[29]
Toucan Brew was introduced in May 2006. It was named after the cartoon toucan used in many Guinness advertisements. This beer had a crisper taste with a slightly sweet aftertaste due to its triple-hopped brewing process.
North Star was introduced in October 2006 and sold until late 2007. Three million pints of North Star were sold in the latter half of 2007.[30]
Despite an announcement in June 2007 that the fourth Brewhouse stout would be launched in October that year,[31] no new beer appeared and, at the end of 2007, the Brewhouse series appeared to have been quietly cancelled.
Withdrawn Guinness variants include Guinness's Brite Lager, Guinness's Brite Ale, Guinness Light, Guinness XXX Extra Strong Stout, Guinness Cream Stout, Guinness Gold, Guinness Pilsner, Guinness Breó (a slightly citrusy wheat beer), Guinness Shandy, and Guinness Special Light. Breó (meaning 'glow' in ancient Irish) was a wheat beer; it cost around 5million Irish pounds to develop.
For a short time in the late 1990s, Guinness produced the "St James's Gate" range of craft-style beers, available in a small number of Dublin pubs. The beers were: Pilsner Gold, Wicked Red Ale, Wildcat Wheat Beer and Dark Angel Lager.
A brewing byproduct of Guinness, Guinness Yeast Extract (GYE), was produced until the 1950s.
Guinness family
A grandson of the original Arthur Guinness, Sir Benjamin Guinness, was a Lord Mayor of Dublin and was created a baronet in 1867, only to die the next year. His eldest son Arthur, Baron Ardilaun (1840–1915), sold control of the brewery to Sir Benjamin's third son Edward (1847–1927), who was created Lord Iveagh in 1891 and Earl of Iveagh in 1919. Edward Guinness launched the company on the London Stock Exchange in 1886. Up until then, the only other partners outside of the Guinness family were members of the Purser family, who shared control of the brewery throughout most of the nineteenth century. He, his son Rupert and great-grandson Benjamin, the second and third Earls, chaired the Guinness company until the third earl's death in 1992. There are no longer any members of the Guinness family on the board.
Plans
On 17 June 2007, The Sunday Independent first reported that Diageo was considering selling most of the St. James's Gate Brewery to take advantage of high property prices in Ireland.[32] The story was widely picked up by both national and international media organisations, but the proposal to build a new Dublin brewery at Leixlip on land belonging to Desmond Guinness was cancelled by the end of 2008. By then Irish property prices had dropped, and so the possibility of selling much of the current brewery to meet the lower cost of building a new one had passed.[33]
The following day, the Irish Daily Mail ran a follow-up story with a double-page spread complete with images and a history of the plant since 1759. Initially, Diageo said that talk of a move was pure speculation but in the face of mounting speculation in the wake of the Sunday Independent article, the company confirmed that it is undertaking a "significant review of its operations". This review is largely due to the efforts of the company's ongoing drive to reduce the environmental impact of brewing at the St James's Gate plant.[34]
On 23 November 2007, an article appeared in the Evening Herald, a Dublin newspaper, stating that Dublin City Council, in the best interests of the city of Dublin, had put forward a motion to prevent planning permission ever being granted for the development of the site thus making it very difficult for Diageo to sell off the site for residential development.
On 9 May 2008, Diageo announced that the St James's Gate brewery will remain open and undergo renovations, but that breweries in Kilkenny and Dundalk will be closed by 2013 when a new larger brewery is opened near Dublin. The result will be a loss of roughly 250 jobs across the entire Diageo/Guinness workforce in Ireland.[35] Two days later, the Sunday Independent again reported that Diageo chiefs had met with TánaisteMary Coughlan, the deputy leader of the Government of Ireland, about moving operations to Ireland from the UK to benefit from its lower corporation tax rates. Several UK firms have made the move to pay Ireland's 12.5 per cent rate rather than the UK's 28 per cent rate.[36] Diageo released a statement to the London Stock Exchange denying the report.[37]
In 2015, Diageo launched the Brewers Project, in an attempt to diversify the company's product range and expand into the craft beer industry which had become popular. Hop House 13, a lager named after a store at the St James's Gate brewery extant in the early 20th century, was heavily promoted on YouTube and social media.[38]
Camino de Santiago
St. James's Gate in Dublin was traditionally the main starting point for Irish pilgrims to begin their journey on the Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James). The pilgrims' passports were stamped here before setting sail, usually for A Coruña, north of Santiago. It is still possible for Irish pilgrims to get these traditional documents stamped both at Guinness Storehouse and St James' Church, and many do, while on their way to Santiago de Compostela.[39]
Guinness Storehouse
Smoke from a 2009 fire at the brewery in which two firefighters were injured.
Guinness Storehouse, the "Home of Guinness", is Dublin's most popular tourist attraction. A converted brewing factory, it is now a Guinness museum, incorporating elements from the old brewing factory to explain the history of its production. Some of the old brewing equipment is on show, as well as stout ingredients, brewing techniques, advertising methods and storage devices.
The exhibition takes place over seven floors, in the shape of a 14million-pint glass of Guinness. The final floor is the Gravity Bar, which has an almost 360° panorama over the city, where visitors can claim a pint of "the black stuff".
The storehouse is where they used to add the yeast to the beer for fermentation.
Guinness Storehouse visitors do not get to see the beer being brewed in front of them, but from various vantage points in the building, you may see parts of the brewhouse, vats, grain silos and the keg yard.
Stout is a type of dark beer, that is generally warm fermented, such as dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout and imperial stout.
Smithwick's is an Irish red ale-style beer. Smithwick's brewery was founded in Kilkenny in 1710 by John Smithwick and run by the Smithwick family of Kilkenny until 1965, when it was acquired by Guinness, now part of Diageo. The Kilkenny brewery was shut down in 2013 and production of all Smithwick's and Kilkenny branded beers moved to Dublin; parts of the old brewery were later converted into a "visitor experience".
Irish red ale, also known as red ale or Irish ale, is a style of pale ale that is brewed using a moderate amount of kilned malts and roasted barley, giving the beer its red colour. Its strength typically ranges from 3.8% to 4.8% alcohol by volume, although some craft varieties can be as high as 6%.
Arthur Guinness was an Irish brewer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. The inventor of Guinness beer, he founded the Guinness Brewery at St. James's Gate in 1759.
Guinness Nigeria is a set of breweries in Nigeria, distributing under the Guinness label and owned by Tolaram.
Harp Lager is an Irish lager created in 1960. It is produced by the Guinness Brewery, an Irish brewing company owned by Diageo, Formerly produced at the Great Northern Brewery in Dundalk, it is now brewed at the Guinness Brewery in Dublin. It is a major lager brand throughout most of Northern Ireland, but is now rarely available in the Republic of Ireland outside Dundalk, where most bars offer it on tap.
The Carib Brewery Limited is headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago. It produces Carib and Stag beers and a range of shandy products. The main brewery is located in Champs Fleurs, Trinidad, while Carib also has breweries in Saint Kitts and Nevis and Grenada, as well as a United States affiliate brewery in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Brewing in Ireland has a long history. Production currently stands at over 8 million hectolitres, and approximately half the alcohol consumed is beer.
St. James's Gate, located off the south quays of Dublin, on James's Street, was the western entrance to the city during the Middle Ages. During this time the gate was the traditional starting point for the Camino pilgrimage from Dublin to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia (Spain). Though the original medieval gate was demolished in 1734, the gate gave its name to the area in which it was located, and in particular to the St. James's Gate Brewery.
East African Breweries Limited, commonly referred to as EABL, is a Kenyan-based holding company that manufactures branded beer, spirits, and non-alcoholic beverages.
Guinness Foreign Extra Stout (FES) is a stout produced by the Guinness Brewery, an Irish brewing company owned by Diageo, a drinks multinational. First brewed by Guinness in 1801, FES was designed for export, and is more heavily hopped than Guinness Draught and Extra Stout, which gives it a more bitter taste, and typically has a higher alcohol content. The extra hops were intended as a natural preservative for the long journeys the beer would take by ship.
The Great Northern Brewery, on the Carrick Road, Dundalk, County Louth, was an Irish brewery. It was home to Harp Lager, and was formerly owned by Diageo. In 2015 the brewery closed, and production of Harp Lager and other products was moved to St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin. The site has since been bought by John Teeling, and converted for operation as a distillery, the Great Northern Distillery.
Heineken N.V. is a Dutch brewer which owns a worldwide portfolio of over 170 beer brands, mainly pale lager, though some other beer styles are produced. The two largest brands are Heineken and Tecate; though the portfolio includes Amstel, Fosters, Sagres, Cruzcampo, Skopsko, Affligem, Żywiec, Starobrno, Zagorka, Zlatý Bažant, Laško and Birra Moretti.
The beers of the Caribbean are unique to each island in the region, although many are variants of the same style. Each island generally brews its own unique pale lager, the occasional stout, and often a non-alcoholic malta beverage. Contract-brewing of international beers is also common, with Heineken Pilsener and Guinness Foreign Extra Stout being the most popular. The beers vary between the islands to suit the taste and the brewing method used.
Caffrey's Irish Ale is an ale launched in 1994 by Bass Brewery and currently owned by Molson Coors.
Guinness is a stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in the 18th century. It is now owned by the British-based multinational alcoholic beverage maker Diageo. It is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in over 120. Sales in 2011 amounted to 850,000,000 litres. In spite of declining consumption since 2001, it is the best-selling alcoholic drink in Ireland where Guinness & Co. Brewery makes almost €2 billion worth of beer annually.
Guinness Black Lager is a black lager beer produced by Guinness, an Irish brewing company owned by Diageo.
Porter is a style of beer first brewed in London, England, in the early 18th century. The name is believed to have originated from its popularity with porters.
Beer in Northern Ireland has been influenced by immigration into Ulster, especially from Scotland, and the drinking habits in Ireland until the partition of Ireland. Whiskey drinking was always a tradition with Guinness from Dublin being a strong influence in the style of beer drunk in the 19th and 20th centuries. Brewing traditions almost ceased to exist as smaller breweries closed, or were taken over, and then the large breweries in turn closed down their facilities. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) was founded in 1971; however, it was 10 years before the first new brewery, Hilden Brewing, opened its doors.
Hop House 13 is an Irish lager produced by the Guinness Brewery, an Irish brewing company owned by Diageo.
1 2 "Guinness Storehouse FAQ". Guinness-Storehouse.com. Retrieved 18 March 2012. Q:I s the 9,000-year lease still valid? A: The 9,000-year lease signed in 1759 was for a 4 acre brewery site. Today, the brewery covers over 50 acres, which grew up over the past 200 years around the original 4 acre site. The 1759 lease is no longer valid as the Company purchased the lands outright many years ago.
↑ Barry, Dan (28 August 2000). "In Ireland's Pubs, a Startling Trend". Lisdoonvarna Journal. The New York Times. Retrieved 10 April 2008. ... Guinness stout remains the best-selling alcoholic beverage in Ireland, over the last year its consumption here has declined by nearly 4 per cent.
↑ "Diageo Beer sales continue decline". Drinks Industry Ireland. Barkeeper. 26 February 2007. Archived from the original on 19 November 2007. Retrieved 10 April 2008. Nevertheless, Guinness continues to be Ireland's number one beer 'by a wide margin' according to Michael Patten, Group Corporate Relations Director at Diageo Ireland, 'More than 40 per cent of all draught beer sold in Ireland is a Guinness'.
↑ Formerly it was blended with beer that soured naturally as a result of fermenting in ancient oak tuns with a Brettanomyces population. It is now made with pasteurized beer that has been soured bacterially. Protz, R. (1996). The Ale Trail. Kent: Eric Dobby Publishing. pp.174–176.
↑ Guinness Dublin Guinness, 1952. Printed by Hely's Ltd, East Wall, Dublin.
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