The history of Guinness

In 1759, Arthur Guinness, a young man of 34 with high hopes,, some savings set aside and a certain experience as to beer (having learned from his father, Richard, who was at the service of the Archbishop of Cashel, and whose task was to take care of the production of that drink) rented the small customs house of St. James' Gate, one of the old city gates not too far from the river Liffey.

The contract provided for a 45 pound annual rent and a clause which guaranteed young Arthur and his heirs to be allowed to benefit of the premises for 8975 years.
At that time, local beerhouses did not do too much business as the people were very fond of Entire, a very popular beer imported from England and also known as Porter. Young Arthur declared war on Entire by trying to beat it on its own ground. In fact, Entire was a very robust and nutritious beer, but it left an unpleasantly sweet aftertaste. Therefore, with a few tricks, such as accenting the bitterness of the hops, re-dosing the yeast and toasting the barley malt he was able to create a dark beer with a very thick and dense froth, stout. This is how Guinness came to be, a legend with the Celtic harp symbol featured on bottles and glasses.

Today, the Guinness Brewery gives work to over 3,000 people and manufactures more than 3 and half million pints of beer a day, bearing in mind that in the world 8 million pints are consumed daily.

The old brewery with its original main door still stand in St. James' Street, but is not open to the public, contrary to the Guinness Hope Store on Crane Street.