brewing

brewing. Dublin emerged as the main centre of the industry in the 18th century; the city provided the largest market for beer, which was costly to transport. Guinness (established in 1759) at this point competed with 60 other commercial brewers in the greater Dublin area. The competitiveness and quality of beer produced in Dublin and Cork began to improve dramatically towards the end of the 18th century. The excise duty on beer had been abolished in 1795, reducing costs. The quality of Irish barley, malting techniques, and brewing methods were all improving, enabling Dublin and Cork brewers to eliminate British imports; they also began to extend their markets into rural areas. Beamish Crawford of Cork was the largest brewer in the country, producing 100,000 barrels in 1810; they were followed by Guinness in Dublin who produced 70,000. The output of most breweries outside the major cities was quite small; many of them were located in the major barley‐growing counties of Cork, Offaly, Laois, Tipperary, Louth, and Kildare. Following the rapid expansion of the industry during the Napoleonic War output stabilized, but production became more concentrated in larger concerns, the number of licensed brewers falling from 319 in 1791 to 118 by 1846. Shortly after the turn of the century Ireland became a net exporter of beer, and a number of the Dublin breweries by the 1830s were building up an extensive trade with Britain, notably to Lancashire. Guinness exported half of its output of 80,000 barrels by 1840, a trade which expanded dramatically with the growth of the British railway network. The railways also opened up the rural Irish market in the post‐Famine era, enabling the larger urban breweries to displace their smaller rural rivals. The temperance movement in the 1840s, and higher duties on spirits in the 1850s, gave beer a more widespread appeal. Output grew in the second half of the 19th century and the industry became further centralized in the larger urban breweries. The number of breweries in Ireland fell from 118 in 1846 to 39 at the turn of the century, when Dublin produced about three‐quarters of total output and 96 per cent of exports. Guinness was by this time one of the seven largest companies in the world, and its huge turnover made brewing by far the most important industry in the Irish Free State.

Bibliography

Bielenberg, A. , ‘The Irish brewing industry and the rise of Guinness 1790–1914’, in R. G. Wilson and T. R. Gourvish , The Dynamics of the International Brewing Industry since 1800 (1998)
Dennison, S. R. , and MacDonagh, O. , Guinness 1886–1939 (1998)

Andrew Bielenberg