Guinness turns to history for inspiration

The drink evolved over the centuries from very small beginnings indeed to become the world’s best-known and loved porter and the first global brand to come out of Ireland. And every time you taste it you are experiencing the collective wisdom built up over more than two centuries.

The skill of the brewers who are responsible for producing Guinness is not something they have just learned in a college or from a text book; it is something that has been handed down through generations and is a key factor in the enduring popularity of this most iconic of drinks.

In fact, everything that happens in the brewery today is firmly rooted in that heritage which goes all the way back to 1759 – and that includes the signature which appears on every Guinness bottle, can and tap everywhere in the world.

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The first and only original example of Arthur Guinness’s now very familiar signature can be found on the lease which forms the centrepiece of the Guinness Archive. While the 9,000-year lease for the four-acre site at St James’s Gate is the legal foundation of the business, it also represents much more, including a spirit of entrepreneurship, innovation and foresight which set the company apart from the very beginning.

Nowhere is this more in evidence than the amazingly early awareness of the value of branding shown by the company. Back in the 19th century brewers did not bottle their own product – it was sent out in barrels and publicans bottled it themselves. This led to difficulties with some unscrupulous individuals using an inferior or adulterated product and passing it off as Guinness.

"Guinness had first trademarked its label back in the 1860s as a means of protecting the brand, and the harp has been on the label ever since," explains Guinness archivist Deirdre McParland. "However, like many brewers, we traditionally didn't bottle our own product. The company wanted to make sure that only genuine Guinness was sold as Guinness so every publican who wanted to bottle it had to apply to do so and they got their own label. Each one had their individual label and they would lose it if they were found to have done anything wrong. The company had its own printing department producing these labels."

Label books
Examples of these labels are contained in four separate label books in the archive. "The label books are still used to this day to help inspire the design of new labels for different Guinness variants," McParland adds.

The tradition of product and business innovation goes back to the earliest days as well and continues to reach down to the present generation of brewers. Ale was actually the dominant beer at the time in these islands and was the first beer to be brewed at St James’s Gate. However, within a few years Arthur Guinness had started to brew a new beer which had drawn its name from its popularity among the porters in Billingsgate Market in London.

The decline and eventual ending of ale brewing and its replacement by porter at the brewery is recorded in a brewing book – a production log – which spans the period from 1796 to 1815. This extraordinary piece of history spans the entire Napoleonic Wars, two uprisings in Ireland, the Act of Union, and much else besides, and still influences the development of new Guinness products.

The book reveals that ale was brewed for the last time on April 22nd, 1799. It also shows the different recipes for every batch of porter made every day during those years. These recipes are still used by brewers when looking to develop new products and one of them formed the basis for the creation of the recently launched Guinness Dublin Porter.
The inspiration for a second new product, Guinness West Indies Porter, came from another book, the West India Porter Brewing Book 1801-1803.

“The recipe on which the West Indies Porter is based was recorded on December 14th, 1801,” McParland points out. “It was called Brew No 25 and was destined for the British colonies. Guinness had already been exporting porter since the 1880s and the key to the export success was the quality of the beer and its ability to travel long distances. Brew No 25 had double the amount of hops to preserve it and that gave it a very distinctive flavour. This is the origin of the Guinness Foreign Extra Stout which is still on the market today. By 1815 Guinness was already well known outside of Ireland and we have evidence of it being present at the Battle of Waterloo.”

The product innovation and expansion into export markets which characterised the early years of the brewery at St James’s Gate laid the foundations for future growth and success.

It’s not only the products themselves that draw inspiration from history – marketing and advertising are also deeply in its debt. At the last count the archives contained seven kilometres of paper and hundreds of terabytes of data which include some of the earliest Guinness promotional items and advertisements as well as all of the TV ads which have become such firm favourites with the viewing public over the past half-century.

"We get lots of requests from members of the public who want to see these ads and other pieces from the archive," McParland adds. "They are also used extensively internally when we are launching new products or designing new campaigns. Being able to look back at some of the wonderful ads and artefacts we have here is very useful in remaining true to the heritage."

Sense of heritage
And that sense of heritage and history is almost palpable as you walk around the St James's Gate Brewery. But it doesn't just come from the historic buildings – it is most evident in a pervasive sense of community which McParland believes traces its roots back to the company's enlightened approach to employee welfare.

Guinness broke new ground in this area in 1870 when it established a medical centre for staff and their families. “The company always had a strong belief in looking after its workers,” says McParland. “The medical centre employed doctors, nurses, dentists and midwives and still cares for workers and their families. A pension for workers was introduced in the 1880s and there are stories that young women in the Liberties and other nearby areas would be advised to get themselves a ‘Guinness man’ as he would be worth money alive or dead.

Housing was also provided for staff and at one point so many Guinness workers lived in the area there was actually a ‘Rialto Bell’ to help them get up in time for work.

“We have records of dates of birth and death, spouses, children, and a lot more besides. We facilitate thousands of requests every year from people doing genealogical research but we have to be very careful to ensure that we are not divulging any information which might be sensitive to relatives still living. One of the great things about the records is how you can see successive generations of the same family working for Guinness.”

The Guinness you drink today may not be precisely the same as Extra Stout in 1821 but they share the same DNA and the same dedication to quality and excellence which has characterised the brewery and its employees for the past 255 years.