St. James's Gate Brewery
Encyclopedia
St. James's Gate Brewery is a brewery
founded in 1759 in Dublin, Ireland
by Arthur Guinness
. The company is now a part of Diageo
, a company formed via the merger of Guinness
and Grand Metropolitan
in 1997. The main product produced at the brewery is Guinness Draft
.
Leased for 9,000 years in 1759 by Arthur Guinness
at £45 per year, St. James's Gate
has been the home of Guinness
ever since. The brewery will come up for lease again in AD 10,759. It became the largest brewery in Ireland in 1838, and was the largest in the world in 1914, covering 64 acre
s. Although no longer the largest brewery in the world, it is still the largest brewer of stout
in the world. 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 also made all of its own power using its own power plant.
There is an attached exhibition
on the 250-year-old history of Guinness
, called the Guinness Storehouse
.
Arthur Guinness
started brewing ales in Leixlip
Co. Kildare and then from 1759 at the St. James's Gate Brewery, Dublin, Ireland. On 31 December he signed a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum for the unused brewery. Ten years later on 19 May 1769 Guinness exported his ale for the first time, when six and a half barrels were shipped to England.
The business expanded by export
ing to the English market, and adopting steam power. On the death of Benjamin Guinness
in 1868 the business was worth over £1m., and the brewery site had grown from about 1 acre
to over 64 acres. In 1886 his son Edward
sold 65% of the business by a public offering on the London Stock Exchange
for £6m.
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
.
Because of the Irish Free State
's "Control of Manufactures Act" in 1932, the company moved its headquarters to London later that year. Guinness brewed their last porter in 1974.
In 1983 a non-family chief executive Ernest Saunders
was appointed and arranged the reverse takeover
of the leading Scotch whisky
producer Distillers in 1986. Saunders was then asked to resign following revelations that the Guinness stock price had probably been illegally manipulated (see Guinness share-trading fraud
). As Distillers was worth more than Guinness plc, the Guinness family
shareholding in the merged company went below 10%, and today no member of the family sits on the board. Guinness acquired the Distillers Company in 1986.
The company merged with Grand Metropolitan
in 1997 to form Diageo
plc, capitalised in 2006 at about 40 billion euro.
Although not officially fully taking over, the Guinness family still owns 51% 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.
dry 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, in spite of a decline in consumption over recent years, is the best-selling alcoholic drink of all time in Ireland where Guinness & Co. makes almost €2 billion annually. The brewery also produces Guinness Original, a 4.3% abv version of the Draught, without the nitrogen; 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.
Guinness stout is available in a number of variants and strengths, which include:
In October 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.
Despite an announcement in June 2007 that the fourth Brewhouse stout would be launched in October that year, 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 5 million Irish punts 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.
, was 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 became 1st Earl of Iveagh
. Iveagh 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 helped run the brewery throughout most of the nineteenth century. He, his son & great-grandson, the 2nd and 3rd Earls, chaired the Guinness company until the 3rd earl's death in 1992. There are no longer any members of the Guinness family on the board.
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.
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.
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 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. Two days later, the Sunday Independent again reported that Diageo chiefs had met with Tánaiste
Mary 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.
Diageo released a statement to the London Stock Exchange
denying the report.
(Way of St. James). Their pilgrims’ passport were stamped here before setting sail, usually for La Coruña, north of Santiago. It is still possible for Irish pilgrims to get their passports stamped here, and many do, while on their way to Santiago de Compostella.
. 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 7 floors, in the shape of a 14 million 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 free pint of "the black stuff".
The storehouse is where they used to add the yeast to the beer for fermentation.
Unlike the Anheuser-Busch
Brewery tour, 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.
Brewery
A brewery is a dedicated building for the making of beer, though beer can be made at home, and has been for much of beer's history. A company which makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company....
founded in 1759 in Dublin, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
by Arthur Guinness
Arthur Guinness
Arthur Guinness was an Irish brewer and the founder of the Guinness brewery business and family.He was also an entrepreneur, visionary and philanthropist....
. The company is now a part of Diageo
Diageo
Diageo plc is a global alcoholic beverages company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest producer of spirits and a major producer of beer and wine....
, a company formed via the merger of Guinness
Guinness
Guinness is a popular Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin. Guinness is directly descended from the porter style that originated in London in the early 18th century and is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost...
and Grand Metropolitan
Grand Metropolitan
Grand Metropolitan plc is a former United Kingdom-based company operating hotels, holiday centres, entertainment centres, public houses and casinos...
in 1997. The main product produced at the brewery is Guinness Draft
Guinness
Guinness is a popular Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin. Guinness is directly descended from the porter style that originated in London in the early 18th century and is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost...
.
Leased for 9,000 years in 1759 by Arthur Guinness
Arthur Guinness
Arthur Guinness was an Irish brewer and the founder of the Guinness brewery business and family.He was also an entrepreneur, visionary and philanthropist....
at £45 per year, St. James's Gate
St. James's Gate
St. James's Gate, located off the south quays of Dublin, on James Street, was the western entrance to the city during the Middle Ages. During this time it was the traditional starting point for the Dublin pilgrimage Camino to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Now central to a industrial area, St...
has been the home of Guinness
Guinness
Guinness is a popular Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin. Guinness is directly descended from the porter style that originated in London in the early 18th century and is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost...
ever since. The brewery will come up for lease again in AD 10,759. It became the largest brewery in Ireland in 1838, and was the largest in the world in 1914, covering 64 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s. Although no longer the largest brewery in the world, it is still the largest brewer of stout
Stout
Stout is a dark beer made using roasted malt or barley, hops, water and yeast. Stouts were traditionally the generic term for the strongest or stoutest porters, typically 7% or 8%, produced by a brewery....
in the world. 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 also made all of its own power using its own power plant.
There is an attached exhibition
Exhibition
An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within museums, galleries and exhibition halls, and World's Fairs...
on the 250-year-old history of Guinness
Guinness
Guinness is a popular Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin. Guinness is directly descended from the porter style that originated in London in the early 18th century and is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost...
, called the Guinness Storehouse
Guinness Storehouse
The Guinness Storehouse is a Guinness-themed tourist attraction located at St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, Republic of Ireland...
.
History
Arthur Guinness
Arthur Guinness was an Irish brewer and the founder of the Guinness brewery business and family.He was also an entrepreneur, visionary and philanthropist....
started brewing ales in Leixlip
Leixlip
-Politics:Since 1988 Leixlip has had a nine member Town Council , headed by a Cathaoirleach , which has control over many local matters, although it is limited in that it is not also a planning authority...
Co. Kildare and then from 1759 at the St. James's Gate Brewery, Dublin, Ireland. On 31 December he signed a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum for the unused brewery. Ten years later on 19 May 1769 Guinness exported his ale for the first time, when six and a half barrels were shipped to England.
The business expanded by export
Export
The term export is derived from the conceptual meaning as to ship the goods and services out of the port of a country. The seller of such goods and services is referred to as an "exporter" who is based in the country of export whereas the overseas based buyer is referred to as an "importer"...
ing to the English market, and adopting steam power. On the death of Benjamin Guinness
Benjamin Guinness
Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, 1st Baronet was an Irish brewer and philanthropist.-Brewer:Born in Dublin, he was the third son of the second Arthur Guinness , and his wife Anne Lee, and a grandson of the latter's namesake who founded the Guinness brewery in 1759...
in 1868 the business was worth over £1m., and the brewery site had grown from about 1 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
to over 64 acres. In 1886 his son Edward
Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh
Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, KP, GCVO, FRS was an Irish philanthropist and businessman.-Public life:...
sold 65% of the business by a public offering on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
for £6m.
The company pioneered several quality control efforts. The brewery hired the statistician William Sealy Gosset
William Sealy Gosset
William Sealy Gosset is famous as a statistician, best known by his pen name Student and for his work on Student's t-distribution....
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
Student's t-test
A t-test is any statistical hypothesis test in which the test statistic follows a Student's t distribution if the null hypothesis is supported. It is most commonly applied when the test statistic would follow a normal distribution if the value of a scaling term in the test statistic were known...
.
Because of the Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
's "Control of Manufactures Act" in 1932, the company moved its headquarters to London later that year. Guinness brewed their last porter in 1974.
In 1983 a non-family chief executive Ernest Saunders
Ernest Saunders
Ernest Walter Saunders is a former British business manager, best known as one of the "Guinness Four", a group of businessmen who attempted to fraudulently manipulate the share price of the Guinness company. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, but released after 10 months as he was...
was appointed and arranged the reverse takeover
Reverse takeover
A reverse takeover or reverse merger is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public...
of the leading Scotch whisky
Scotch whisky
Scotch whisky is whisky made in Scotland.Scotch whisky is divided into five distinct categories: Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Single Grain Scotch Whisky, Blended Malt Scotch Whisky , Blended Grain Scotch Whisky, and Blended Scotch Whisky.All Scotch whisky must be aged in oak barrels for at least three...
producer Distillers in 1986. Saunders was then asked to resign following revelations that the Guinness stock price had probably been illegally manipulated (see Guinness share-trading fraud
Guinness share-trading fraud
The Guinness share-trading fraud was a famous British business scandal of the 1980s. It involved an attempt to manipulate the stock market on a massive scale to inflate the price of Guinness shares and thereby assist a £2.7 billion take-over bid for the Scottish drinks company Distillers...
). As Distillers was worth more than Guinness plc, the Guinness family
Guinness family
The Guinness family is an extensive aristocratic Irish Protestant family noted for their accomplishments in brewing, banking, politics and religious ministry...
shareholding in the merged company went below 10%, and today no member of the family sits on the board. Guinness acquired the Distillers Company in 1986.
The company merged with Grand Metropolitan
Grand Metropolitan
Grand Metropolitan plc is a former United Kingdom-based company operating hotels, holiday centres, entertainment centres, public houses and casinos...
in 1997 to form Diageo
Diageo
Diageo plc is a global alcoholic beverages company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest producer of spirits and a major producer of beer and wine....
plc, capitalised in 2006 at about 40 billion euro.
Although not officially fully taking over, the Guinness family still owns 51% of the brewery.
The Guinness brewery in Park Royal
Park Royal
Park Royal is an area in northwest London, UK. It is the largest industrial and business park in London, occupying about , and is promoted commercially by the Park Royal Partnership...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
closed in 2005. The production of all Guinness sold in the UK and Ireland was switched to St. James's Gate Brewery Dublin.
Products
The main product is Guinness Draught, a 4.2% abvABV
ABV is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* Alcohol by volume, a measure of the alcohol content of alcoholic drinks* Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, Nigeria, from its IATA airport code...
dry 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, in spite of a decline in consumption over recent years, is the best-selling alcoholic drink of all time in Ireland where Guinness & Co. makes almost €2 billion annually. The brewery also produces Guinness Original, a 4.3% abv version of the Draught, without the nitrogen; Kaliber, a low alcohol pale lager
Pale lager
Pale lager is a very pale to golden-coloured beer with a well attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid 19th century when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brewing techniques back to the Spaten Brewery in Germany and applied it...
; Guinness Bitter, a 4.4% bitter
Bitter (beer)
Bitter is an English term for pale ale. Bitters vary in colour from gold to dark amber and in strength from 3% to 7% alcohol by volume.-Brief history:...
sold in a can with a widget
Widget (beer)
A widget is a device placed in a container of beer to manage the characteristics of the beer's head. The original widget was patented in Ireland by Guinness. The "floating widget" is found in cans of beer as a hollow plastic sphere, 3 cm in diameter with a small hole in one side...
; and the 7.5% Guinness Foreign Extra Stout.
Varieties
- Guinness DraughtDraught beerDraught beer is beer served from a cask or a pressurised keg.-History of draught:Until Joseph Bramah patented the beer engine in 1785, beer was served directly from the barrel and carried to the customer. The Old English word for carry was dragen which developed into a series of related words,...
, sold in kegs, widgetWidget (beer)A widget is a device placed in a container of beer to manage the characteristics of the beer's head. The original widget was patented in Ireland by Guinness. The "floating widget" is found in cans of beer as a hollow plastic sphere, 3 cm in diameter with a small hole in one side...
cans, and bottles: 4.1 to 4.3% alcohol by volumeAlcohol by volumeAlcohol by volume is a standard measure of how much alcohol is contained in an alcoholic beverage .The ABV standard is used worldwide....
(abv); the Extra Cold is served through a super cooler at 3.5°C (38.3°F). - 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% 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 an 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. In NigeriaGuinness NigeriaGuinness Nigeria, a subsidiary of the prestigious Diageo Plc of the United Kingdom, was incorporated in 1962 with the building of a brewery in Ikeja, the heart of Lagos. The brewery was the first outside of Ireland and Great Britain...
a proportion of sorghumSorghumSorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...
is used. Foreign Extra Stout is blended with a small amount of intentionally soured beer. - Guinness Special Export Stout, sold in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, originally brewed in 1945 for the NAAFINavy, Army and Air Force InstitutesThe Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes is an organisation created by the British government in 1921 to run recreational establishments needed by the British Armed Forces, and to sell goods to servicemen and their families...
to be sent to British troops stationed in Europe. - 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 LimerickLimerickLimerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
, Ireland in March 2006 and Dublin from May 2007: 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.
- 250 Anniversary Stout, released in the U.S., Australia and Singapore on 24 April 2009: 5% abv.
In October 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.
- Toucan Brew was introduced in May 2006. It was named after the cartoon toucanToucanToucans are members of the family Ramphastidae of near passerine birds from the Neotropics. The family is most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five genera and about forty different species...
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 into late 2007. Three million pints of North Star were sold in the latter half of 2007.
Despite an announcement in June 2007 that the fourth Brewhouse stout would be launched in October that year, 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 5 million Irish punts 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
Guinness Yeast Extract
Guinness Yeast Extract, commonly known by its initials GYE, was an Irish savoury spread, made from yeast extract. It was a by-product of the Guinness beer brewing process and produced by Arthur Guinness Son & Co., Dublin...
(GYE), was produced until the 1950s.
Guinness family
The grandson of the original Arthur Guinness, Sir Benjamin GuinnessBenjamin Guinness
Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, 1st Baronet was an Irish brewer and philanthropist.-Brewer:Born in Dublin, he was the third son of the second Arthur Guinness , and his wife Anne Lee, and a grandson of the latter's namesake who founded the Guinness brewery in 1759...
, was Lord Mayor of Dublin
Lord Mayor of Dublin
The Lord Mayor of Dublin is the honorific title of the Chairman of Dublin City Council which is the local government body for the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The incumbent is Labour Party Councillor Andrew Montague. The office holder is elected annually by the members of the...
and was created a baronet in 1867, only to die the next year. His eldest son Arthur, Baron Ardilaun
Baron Ardilaun
There have been two Baronetcies created for members of the Guinness brewing family, both in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. Both titles are still extant....
(1840–1915), sold control of the brewery to Sir Benjamin's third son Edward (1847–1927), who became 1st Earl of Iveagh
Earl of Iveagh
Earl of Iveagh is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1919 for the businessman and philanthropist Edward Guinness, 1st Viscount Iveagh. He was the third son of Sir Benjamin Guinness, 1st Baronet, of Ashford, and the great-grandson of Arthur Guinness, the founder of the...
. Iveagh launched the company on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
in 1886. Up until then the only other partners outside of the Guinness family were members of the Purser family who helped run the brewery throughout most of the nineteenth century. He, his son & great-grandson, the 2nd and 3rd Earls, chaired the Guinness company until the 3rd earl's death in 1992. There are no longer any members of the Guinness family on the board.
Future plans
On 17 June 2007, The Sunday Independent first reported that Diageo was considering selling most of the St. James's Gate Brewery in order to take advantage of high property prices in Ireland. The story was widely picked up by both national and international media organisations, but the proposal to build a new Dublin brewery at LeixlipLeixlip
-Politics:Since 1988 Leixlip has had a nine member Town Council , headed by a Cathaoirleach , which has control over many local matters, although it is limited in that it is not also a planning authority...
on land belonging to Desmond Guinness
Desmond Guinness
Hon. Desmond Guinness is an Irish author on Georgian art and architecture and a conservationist.He was the second son of the author and brewer Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne and Diana Mitford...
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.
The following day, the Irish Daily Mail
Irish Daily Mail
The Irish Daily Mail is a newspaper published in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland by Associated Newspapers. The paper was launched in February 2006 with a launch strategy that included giving away free copies on the first day of circulation and low pricing subsequently....
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.
On 23 November 2007, an article appeared in the Evening Herald
Evening Herald
The Evening Herald is a mid-market tabloid evening newspaper published in Dublin, Ireland by Independent News & Media. It is published Monday-Saturday, and has three editions — City Edition, City Final Edition and National Edition...
, a Dublin newspaper, stating that Dublin City Council
Dublin City Council
Dublin City Council is the local authority for the city of Dublin in Ireland. It has 52 members and is the largest local authority in Ireland. Until 2001, it was known as Dublin Corporation.-Legal status:...
, in the best interests of the city of Dublin, had put forward a motion to prevent planning permission ever being granted for 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
Kilkenny
Kilkenny is a city and is the county town of the eponymous County Kilkenny in Ireland. It is situated on both banks of the River Nore in the province of Leinster, in the south-east of Ireland...
and Dundalk
Dundalk
Dundalk is the county town of County Louth in Ireland. It is situated where the Castletown River flows into Dundalk Bay. The town is close to the border with Northern Ireland and equi-distant from Dublin and Belfast. The town's name, which was historically written as Dundalgan, has associations...
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. Two days later, the Sunday Independent again reported that Diageo chiefs had met with Tánaiste
Tánaiste
The Tánaiste is the deputy prime minister of Ireland. The current Tánaiste is Eamon Gilmore, TD who was appointed on 9 March 2011.- Origins and etymology :...
Mary 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.
Diageo released a statement to the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
denying the report.
Camino de Santiago
St. James’ Gate in Dublin was traditionally a main starting point for Irish pilgrims to begin their journey on the Camino de SantiagoWay of St. James
The Way of St. James or St. James' Way is the pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried....
(Way of St. James). Their pilgrims’ passport were stamped here before setting sail, usually for La Coruña, north of Santiago. It is still possible for Irish pilgrims to get their passports stamped here, and many do, while on their way to Santiago de Compostella.
Guinness Storehouse
Guinness Storehouse, the "Home of Guinness", is Dublin's most popular tourist attractionTourist attraction
A tourist attraction is a place of interest where tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, or amusement opportunities....
. 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 7 floors, in the shape of a 14 million pint glass of Guinness. The final floor is the Gravity Bar, which has an almost 360° panorama
Panorama
A panorama is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film/video, or a three-dimensional model....
over the city, where visitors can claim a free pint of "the black stuff".
The storehouse is where they used to add the yeast to the beer for fermentation.
Unlike the Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. , is an American brewing company. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and 18 in other countries. It was, until December 2009, also one of America's largest theme park operators; operating ten theme parks across the United States through the...
Brewery tour, 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.
December 2009 fire
On December 21, 2009, two firefighters were injured during a large fire which broke out in a rarely used building within St James Gate.See also
- Arthur GuinnessArthur GuinnessArthur Guinness was an Irish brewer and the founder of the Guinness brewery business and family.He was also an entrepreneur, visionary and philanthropist....
- GuinnessGuinnessGuinness is a popular Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin. Guinness is directly descended from the porter style that originated in London in the early 18th century and is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost...
- Guinness World RecordsGuinness World RecordsGuinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
- St James's Gate F.C.St James's Gate F.C.St James's Gate F.C. is an Irish football club that currently plays in the Leinster Senior League. St James Gate was founded as the footballing part of the Guinness Sports and Social club and was named after St. James's Gate Brewery....
- William Sealey Gosset (Guinness employee-turned-statistician, who wrote under the pseudonym "Student")
External links
- Guinness Storehouse - Official Website
- Diageo - Official Website