Bottled Irish Beer History: Farewell my Handsome Friend

I am sure that most pubgoers in Ireland are familiar with The Large Bottle of Guinness - or Smithwicks, Macardles, Harp and even Bulmers - and many might think that this bottle is around for ages, and indeed it has been - but perhaps not for as long as you think.

I found and advertisement from January 1976 (which I need to remind myself is a long time ago to many) that pinpoints the change to these 'new' style of bottles from the chunky, squatter earlier version.

The advertisement is quite nice to see as it shows the old pint bottle and the new one side-by-side, illustrating the shape and size comparison:

The wording reads:

Everything changes, even the Guinness bottle.

Everything changes.

Except Guinness,

And so we say farewell, sadly, to yet another old friend.

The Guinness bottle with the handsome shoulders. We loved it for the Guinness inside. And that remains unchanged.

So, let's toast farewell to an old friend, with an old friend. Guinness.

It was probably phased in over a few months, so possibly from late 1975 to early 1976 but at least we now know when those 'handsome' shouldered pint bottles sadly disappeared.

(Incidentally, The Small Bottle, the half pint version, disappeared here in 1995, according to an article in The Enniscorthy Guardian of that year.)

Liam K.

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