tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62914991371274135082024-03-22T08:06:42.344+00:00IrishBeerHistoryWhere's the Food and Travel Gone...?Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.comBlogger324125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-45041446697006364062024-03-22T08:06:00.000+00:002024-03-22T08:06:09.962+00:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #19 - Arnott’s Prize Medal Porter Ghost Sign c.1890<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiChJ5QvQGom96-BraOog3hXc1pZxZu0K51h4VSgDszTiSK80m_5NkL-QiA9neQKIMaBbZbkgSXnz0r_v2M8UTX52qQDR_IkeKPmEbdtLgHGKmYCr4fCVZOoyN9HQe4RLRp5AdfcYSpnXBONFXy0osLH-Q_G47lfmxeuGFGIX0q4n1gChHZb_PPohPbkKzy/s731/20240319_224251.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="548" data-original-width="731" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiChJ5QvQGom96-BraOog3hXc1pZxZu0K51h4VSgDszTiSK80m_5NkL-QiA9neQKIMaBbZbkgSXnz0r_v2M8UTX52qQDR_IkeKPmEbdtLgHGKmYCr4fCVZOoyN9HQe4RLRp5AdfcYSpnXBONFXy0osLH-Q_G47lfmxeuGFGIX0q4n1gChHZb_PPohPbkKzy/w400-h300/20240319_224251.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">“T</span>his stout is of full Alcoholic Strength, and possesses great body, as shown by the proportions of Malt Extract present. It is quite free from any impurities, such as Foreign Bitters, and is in very good condition. I am of opinion that it is of excellent Quality and highly Nutritive, and one of the best Stouts on the Market.”</i><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mr B A Burrell, F.I.C., F.C.S., late Public Analyst for Cork – Cork Daily Herald, May 1893</span></div></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span>s you walk along Farren’s Quay in Cork, heading west towards North Mall it is usually necessary to stop at the busy junction where Shandon Street flows on to North Gate Bridge as it crosses the river Lee. While you wait patiently at the crossing for that little green person to appear, it’s difficult to miss the ghost of a sign - or in fact a ghost-upon-a-ghost of a sign - on a handsome brick building across the road. The words ‘Arnott’s Prize Medal Porter’ are still clearly legible in faded white paint on the first floor of number 64, framed in a plain cartouche and sitting nicely between two windows. This large object – and it can still be called an object, regardless of its size, make up and position – is the wraith like remains of an advertisement for a long-gone Irish beer and a pointer to what once was a brewery-tied public house, something that Cork – unique for Ireland – was famous for. Breweries and pubs in other cities did have similar arrangements, both official and unofficial, but not quite so many or with so obvious a tie. Being a tied-house meant that the public house was obliged to purchase beer from their tied-to breweries due to various factors such as the brewery owning the property, the license, or for services rendered or payments made, and it was of course a much more common practice in England.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">S</span>ir John Arnott, an M.P. and then Mayor of Cork purchased an old, existing brewery near St Fin Barre’s cathedral in Cork at the end of 1861 and by the following year was brewing both porters and ales. Arnott’s – or St. Fin Barre’s – brewery was in direct competition for the porter, and to some extent the ale, trade with Beamish & Crawford, Murphy’s and Lanes brewery who were all based in the city. As well as supplying their beer locally they were exporting to England, Scotland and Wales plus more exotic climes such as the Mediterranean and Barbados.. By the early 1880s Arnott’s were also operating a separate ale brewery in Riverstown just outside Cork city, and in 1882 at the Exhibition of Irish Arts and Manufactures held in Dublin the company was awarded medals for both its Porter and its ales. They entered their beers in The Cork Exhibition the following year and won medals for its pale ale but seemingly not for their mild ale, nor its porter - so it is probable that the prize that they were advertising in this painted sign was the one awarded in 1882 although it could relate to an even later award. (Incidentally, one judge criticised their pale ale at the Cork exhibition for being made with water that was over ‘Burtonised’ with mineral additions!) The company was wound up in 1901, just a few years after its founder died, and was purchased by one of its two main rivals, Murphy’s brewery, who bought both the porter and the ale brewery as well as the tied-houses. Murphy's promptly closed down the brewing side of the enterprise, and presumably started selling their own beers in the numerous Arnott tied houses that dotted the city. Curiously and perhaps sadly, when most people hear of Arnotts these days they would think of the department stores bearing that name, which were also part of sir John’s business empire, but for a not too short period at the end of the 19th century it was a relatively large concern, it was even visited and written about briefly by Alfred Barnard, who included and described it in one of his volumes on The Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, although not in the most exciting terms.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Below we can see a plan of the brewery as it was in 1897, roughly around the same time that the sign was painted on the wall of the public house and when Barnard visited. It shows its three porter stores and the general layout of the brewery in good detail, including a sugar tank which probably shows that they were using some sugar at least - which many Irish breweries did apart from some very notable exceptions - at this time in their brewing.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg3bEK45f6dIpbG9qKhb-Es1Mw6fzvA6Y9SJVkLD5V-OWPGId4NDSyiPVXOl85eKlrYXT9OLkqjpsuZyaGLiFHmebD5YJ-JWJWUH5fIo0yLdWqBiv0zIJtxESyc0bGNAFBcV0MeVzHL1WGDs7dtoxrdhSM104Xmw8GbhmdgTNBsp8ZFd-lpGMgoYUR4VoX/s1145/Arnotts%20Goad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1145" data-original-width="1010" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg3bEK45f6dIpbG9qKhb-Es1Mw6fzvA6Y9SJVkLD5V-OWPGId4NDSyiPVXOl85eKlrYXT9OLkqjpsuZyaGLiFHmebD5YJ-JWJWUH5fIo0yLdWqBiv0zIJtxESyc0bGNAFBcV0MeVzHL1WGDs7dtoxrdhSM104Xmw8GbhmdgTNBsp8ZFd-lpGMgoYUR4VoX/w353-h400/Arnotts%20Goad.jpg" width="353" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he sign on the then public house appears to have been painted sometime between 1882 and 1901, given the award date and the closing of the brewery, with the original fainter wording underneath possibly dating from closer to the earlier year and second closer to the latter date. During much of this period the public house at 64 Shandon Street was being licenced by a succession of women. Catherine Healy appears to have taken it over, possibly from a Thomas Healy, in 1889. A Norah O’Connell was running the business in 1896 when she changed the licence into her married name – Buckley. Julia O’Connell was named as the licensee in 1898 and then later than our period in 1908 it was being ran by an Ellen O’Connell. During the time up to 1901 it was tied to and therefore was supposed to sell only the beers supplied by Arnott’s brewery, but even after the breweries were closed by Murphy’s in 1901 the ghostly sign remained, getting slowly fainter over the decades but a nice reminder of Ireland’s brewing history for all to see.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But here’s an interestingly footnote. Arnott’s Prize Winning Porter returned briefly in 1997, as according to a snippet in a newspaper column from that year it was rebrewed in some form at least by Murphy’s for the release of the Ó Drisceoil’s book - The Murphy’s Story, which was published in that year. It appears to have been keg only and there were branded glasses issued bearing the name of the porter as well as that of the original brewery. Some of these glasses, and the occasional pump clip, are still to be spotted in pubs around the city of Cork if you know where to look …</p>Liam K<div><br /></div><div>(The image of the brewery layout above is from the Goad fire insurance map from 1897, via Wikimedia Commons.)<br /><div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. The photograph is the authors own and the image cannot be used elsewhere without the author's permission. Newspaper research was thanks to The British Newspaper Archive. DO NOT STEAL THIS CONTENT!</span></div></div></div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-42931516354499482532024-03-07T08:07:00.002+00:002024-03-13T16:43:48.228+00:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #18 - ‘International Bar’ Half-Pint Tankard (c. 1902)<div style="text-align: justify;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpS23LOSg9chxMvVtk-M3MBKAfJ6TjSaqwMm-wzA39L7NrKn0OmXAfsXSq1XPSRZz39BlX2zALL_sjqkt_qEI3DHMra7w6bI-YwWBrdWsXJCGG0e_0vj-gSarlh1jWyO-gkrVqf36yEcsGsWpIl02rfDEfIuRvwT41uwcwNSiNV3j0Ne1WEbz_Uh6HqHiM/s2999/20240303_140952.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2249" data-original-width="2999" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpS23LOSg9chxMvVtk-M3MBKAfJ6TjSaqwMm-wzA39L7NrKn0OmXAfsXSq1XPSRZz39BlX2zALL_sjqkt_qEI3DHMra7w6bI-YwWBrdWsXJCGG0e_0vj-gSarlh1jWyO-gkrVqf36yEcsGsWpIl02rfDEfIuRvwT41uwcwNSiNV3j0Ne1WEbz_Uh6HqHiM/w400-h300/20240303_140952.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>…<span style="font-size: x-large;"> t</span>o run “as dim eyed animals do, towards any glittering object, were it but a scoured tankard, and mistake it for a solar luminary” …</i><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Memoirs of the Life of Scott – London and Westminster Review 1838 – Thomas Carlyle</span></div></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>here is something extremely appealing about public house drinkware. Even an item that has been maimed and repurposed like this once-tankard are a comforting joy when held in hand and raised ritualistically to the drinker’s lips. This vessel is certainly enigmatic in many ways, from the material it’s made from to its exact provenance, it asks more questions than it can answer. Much like a lot of our public house and brewing history it is possible to find out <i>some</i> information from records and writeups but sadly, much is also down to half-educated guess work and assumption. But there <i>are</i> some clues to its past be found on the piece itself, which at least answer some of the more basic questions it poses ... </p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>his tumblerised tankard carries the word ‘1/2 Pint’ as well as the term ‘Masonoid Silver.’ It has a rubbed Edwardian stamp showing a crown flanked by a very faint later E plus an R, with the Uniform Verification Number 6 below the crown denoting it was verified in Birmingham, where it was manufactured. There is also a tiny M to the right of the verification mark whose purpose is unclear although it may reflect a date, but that Edwardian stamp puts its manufacturing firmly prior to 1910 and probably post 1902. At some point someone has removed the handle, which would have been rounded and C-shaped, and the surface is also covered in roughish scratches which means the engraved name showing the words ‘International Bar’ in, and on, a belt and buckle design is almost obliterated. Perhaps it had become damaged in use and repurposed, but as the heavier and deeper gouges are very much focussed on the engraved bar name in order to obliterate it, it would appear that the tankard may have been taken from the bar by somebody for a specific purpose, which has become lost to history.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The belt and buckle device is in fact a 'garter' and appears to have originated from the emblem of The Most Noble Order of the Garter, with the garter in question being a part of a knight's wardrobe for securing parts of the armour together or to the body. This motif turns up in many logos, decorations, and trademarks in the late 19th and early 20th century, perhaps as a way of adding an air of ostentation to a brand, company or object without it being actually connected to the order.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPvTmndLOS3Y1V5SpW78MmFpG3HQvvkn2f_xsZFFrf5N4h9qWiYgFmyhVYfpopQb8HsYntnyMPxBFPynpZXF87qqrpbobflA7_C5NTA700ehxxPeCthikFX4dVDDf7nRIRmkhVEUuEWF_FJSQlhY0R1u-CXGC6WCoCwgSsHKsgYg7Z15xI0rYnt8Bi0Lwa/s3021/20240303_141143.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2266" data-original-width="3021" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPvTmndLOS3Y1V5SpW78MmFpG3HQvvkn2f_xsZFFrf5N4h9qWiYgFmyhVYfpopQb8HsYntnyMPxBFPynpZXF87qqrpbobflA7_C5NTA700ehxxPeCthikFX4dVDDf7nRIRmkhVEUuEWF_FJSQlhY0R1u-CXGC6WCoCwgSsHKsgYg7Z15xI0rYnt8Bi0Lwa/w400-h300/20240303_141143.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">M</span>asonoid Silver was a durable, bright metal alloy developed by Samuel Mason in Birmingham around or prior to 1887, when it first starts to appear under that name in publications. It was originally available in two colours, one as a replacement for silver or silver plate and another as a replacement for copper or brass. It was possibly a type of Nickel Silver, which contains mostly copper with nickel and zinc, but more was more likely similar to an early version of a more expensive alloy patented as Monel in 1906 and composed mostly of nickel with less copper than Nickel Silver and with small amounts of iron, manganese, carbon and other elements. Masonoid was used for many products, particularly those that revolve around the drinks trade such as beer engines and taps, as well as bicycle parts and other applications. The company went through a number of name changes and partnerships, such as The Masonoid Silver and Midland Rolling Mills in 1898, before disappearing from historical mentions by the end of the second decade of the twentieth century and is now only remembered in objects like this.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidCTlnGgx2etqbXG2puZKh8mD1m9rXEAq4WHOqJyf8vD-jOB__V-nZ8K8Py7z64XGhxdPN2kZJpePQh0oYLlFKImBBzfDQ_BhO9D5Nc-trW74MPfxuj_9qHqDIpazJHKFWNYQVt_MZ6_JNeW7cAaNs8-5p2T0uzlI3iY5BrE-CfNfpPpLUeuF-FLa6kYOD/s2981/20240303_141230.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2237" data-original-width="2981" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidCTlnGgx2etqbXG2puZKh8mD1m9rXEAq4WHOqJyf8vD-jOB__V-nZ8K8Py7z64XGhxdPN2kZJpePQh0oYLlFKImBBzfDQ_BhO9D5Nc-trW74MPfxuj_9qHqDIpazJHKFWNYQVt_MZ6_JNeW7cAaNs8-5p2T0uzlI3iY5BrE-CfNfpPpLUeuF-FLa6kYOD/w400-h300/20240303_141230.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>t is tricky to ascertain exactly which International Bar this tankard was made for as there appears to have been a<i>t leas</i>t three public houses bearing that name on the island in the very early 1900s. There are newspaper mentions that reference an International Bar on Market Street in Derry, which was operating around the same time and had a reopening in 1907, which certainly ties in with the date of the tankard. There also appears to have been a pub of the same name in Newtownards and perhaps one in Belfast. It is quite possible that this object relates to any of those bars but it is equally conceivable that the tankard came from The International Bar in Dublin. (Especially given that it was discovered in a shop that specialises in house clearances from the Dublin area.) This bar still exists and appears to have been quite a salubrious spot since the very late 1890s, so it would certainly suit as an establishment that had commissioned its own personalised tankards, but sadly there is no recorded proof of this in the common sources.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu60kZQoxmMAg5FiL8Mm6c2xsATQt2AzRXmjpqfShgWn7L95wS7wmctgAnZEcQcxW7Z1vCfax2_fgdJqXxtNPUgyjhwkC7-NOyRWtxPM8d1hvc7y0ZobzHQifFcTgZcIxHFGHniezD25s6UTlsjN9X33mmZU66us9RHTAkb_u16nsYXKAVXNobpaXWCp6W/s1760/20240303_141338.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1320" data-original-width="1760" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu60kZQoxmMAg5FiL8Mm6c2xsATQt2AzRXmjpqfShgWn7L95wS7wmctgAnZEcQcxW7Z1vCfax2_fgdJqXxtNPUgyjhwkC7-NOyRWtxPM8d1hvc7y0ZobzHQifFcTgZcIxHFGHniezD25s6UTlsjN9X33mmZU66us9RHTAkb_u16nsYXKAVXNobpaXWCp6W/w400-h300/20240303_141338.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he Dublin based International Bar began its beverage selling life on a slightly smaller scale than its current footprint, as it was originally focussed on the side of the building that sits on 8 St. Andrew Street, although with some frontage also on to Wicklow Street as it sat on that corner. As far back as 1827 a Mrs. B Cavenagh (also spelled Kavanagh) had a grocery, tea, wine and spirit warehouse on the site, and a possibly related James Kavanagh of the same address was declared insolvent in 1838, having let the license go into arrears the previous year and the building go into a state of disrepair, so the lease was up for sale at that point. The premises was taken over by a John Hoyne in that year and repairs were made to the building before he was granted a publican’s license, although it was opposed by some local people on the grounds that there were already 19 public houses on nearby Exchequer Street alone! A wonderfully, Joycean named person called Stephen Pidgeon applied for a license for the premises in 1839 and 1840, before it was taken on by John Dunne in 1843. Mr. Dunne appears to have ran it as a spirit grocers until his death in 1880, and by 1885 it was being operated by a John Cox. In 1887 Michael O’ Donohoe, a Cavan native, applied for a license to retail alcohol at 8 St. Andrew Street and was also leasing the 23 Wicklow Street building around the corner by 1892. (That address also appears to have been occupied by a tailor’s shop and then a jeweller and clockmaker, which overlap slightly with the O’Donohoe lease dates, but that might have been on the upper levels of the building or it may have been sublet.) In 1897 Mr. O’Donohoe applied for a new licence to sell alcohol on that attached building on Wicklow Street, it now being an extension of his original business. But big changes were afoot …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">On Friday the 5th of August 1898 the International Bar, as it was then named and as it appears today, was opened as a completely new build on the two sites acquired by Mr. O’ Donohoe. A newspaper advertisement from this time reads thus:</p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">THE INTERNATIONAL</span></div><div style="text-align: center;">ST. ANDREW ST. & WICKLOW ST.<br />___ </div></blockquote><blockquote><p style="text-align: center;">M. O’DONOHOE</p><p style="text-align: center;">Begs to inform his Friends and the Public that his New Premises,</p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">THE INTERNATIONAL BAR,<br /></span>WILL BE OPENED<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">ON<br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">NEXT FRIDAY, the 5th inst.</span></div><p style="text-align: center;">This Establishment has been fitted up throughout with the Electric Light, generated on the premises by powerful electric generator, worked gas engine of Crossley Bros, Warrington, and has already been pronounced by competent judges one of the finest of its class to be found either home or on the Continent.</p><p style="text-align: center;">In point Architectural Design and Beauty it stands second none. The art decorations and ornamentation are of the most modern and up-to-date style. The plans were designed by George O’Connor. Esq, MRIAI, and the building was carried out under his personal supervision. The Sanitary arrangements are of the most Modern Type, and ate complete In every respect.</p><p style="text-align: center;">The International has been built and fitted up regardless of expense.</p><p style="text-align: center;">It is intended it should occupy a foremost place amongst the Establishment class in this city, where Gentlemen from every part the world will find every accommodation and their requirements catered for in the best manner under the personal supervision of the Proprietor.</p><div style="text-align: center;">The Refreshments, both Home and Foreign, will all of the very best manufactured, and no inferior qualities will kept slock.<br />___ </div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;">THE BRANDIES, CHAMPAGNES, WHISKIES, AND WINES,<br />OF ALL KINDS, TOGETHER WITH<br />ALES. BEERS, PORTER, STOUT, AND MINERALS, &c., &c.,<br />HAVE BEEN SUPPLIED BY THE LEADING MANUFACTURERS,<br />And will found fully Matured, and in the finest. Condition.<br />The CIGARS, &c., are all selected from the Best Brands.<br />Mr. O’D. Cordially Invites the Public to Visit his ESTABLISHMENT,</div><div style="text-align: center;">and he guarantees them every attention and courtesy.<br />___ </div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;">LUNCHEONS OFF JOINTS A SPECIALITY.<br />___ </div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">NOTE ...</div><span style="font-size: large;">THE INTERNATIONAL<br /></span>ST. ANDREW AND WICKLOW STREET<br /><span style="font-size: medium;">M. O’DONOHOE, Proprietor</span></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: left;">Another advertisement from later in the month is of a similar vein and includes the following paragraph:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote>The proprietor begs to inform his numerous friends and customers and the public generally that this magnificent establishment - the finest in the city - is now in full swing and worthy the attention of connoisseurs.</blockquote><p></p><div style="text-align: center;">THE BEST OF EVERYTHING SUPPLIED<br />___</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">J.J. & SON'S WHISKIES,</div><div style="text-align: center;">GUINNESS'S STOUT,</div><div style="text-align: center;">BASS'S ALE,</div><div style="text-align: center;">Etc, Etc, Etc</div></div><p style="text-align: justify;">It is certainly a fine building of excellent design and sits very handsomely to this day on that site. No expense appears to have been spared with its build and fit out so it is hardly surprising that shiny new tankards <i>may</i> have been purchased for the premises a few years later, engraved with the bars name. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Mr. O’Donohoe died in October 1904, and his funeral was attended by most of the other licensed traders in Dublin, a sign surely of how well he was thought of by his peers.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>t could be argued that this object is more connected to beer serving and public houses than with actual Irish brewing history, but both are of course intrinsically linked so it is impossible to have a conversation about one without involving the other.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Irish pubs have always been an essential part of Irish brewery history, albeit with their former fondness for English-brewed Bass et al., and their present dalliances with foreign lager brands – although at least, as with an iteration of Bass at one time, many are brewed in Irish breweries.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Irish brewing industry should - rightly - evolve, improve, and embrace the new, but Ireland has lost most of its breweries over the last couple of centuries. They became hollowed out brands within the portfolios of drink corporations, detached and rebooted as one-off, one-dimensional beers, with their history discarded, disfigured, and diluted. But many of the public houses that served the beer from lost breweries still exist in one form or another, and they are entangled in our brewing provenance and 'heritage,' to use an overused word. Many of the public houses of Ireland have now become the historical repositories of our relatively recent beer-laded past, as they have become aesthetics-driven exhibitions of artefacts and ephemera from that now-lost era, even though they lack perhaps the knowledge, the interest, or the want to communicate any of this history to their customers. Understandably, many focus on their own history – sometimes scribbled on the back of a beer mat over a few pints after closing time it appears – but not on the actual libations they pulled and poured over previous decades or centuries.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">A cynic might say that there is little point in trying to communicate history of any type to those who don’t care, but in many cases it is how that information is communicated is the key. Irish bars are certainly good at storytelling, but for today's audience they need something more than just words, they need something tangible and ‘real,’ a touchable connection to our brewing past that will engage the customer and stimulate some conversation. It might be that framed letterhead from Mountjoy Brewery, or the beer label on the wall for D’Arcy’s Stout. It could be an old, embossed bottle from a famous Sligo brewhouse sitting on a shelf, or a price list from a Kilkenny brewery listing all of its beers.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It might even be a worn and damaged tankard that may in the past have been filled with a half pint of plain porter or a pale ale in a newly built bar in a busy city.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">These stories need telling, before all of our history is completely worn away …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span>Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. The photograph and tankard itself are the authors own and the image cannot be used elsewhere without the author's permission. </span>Newspaper research was thanks to The British Newspaper Archive. DO NOT STEAL THIS CONTENT!</span></div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-67943230088076142302024-02-16T08:03:00.002+00:002024-02-16T08:03:26.898+00:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #17 – Time 'Pilsner' Glass (1960s)<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY1VBjJ32y2DRhkV6PzO08XcBldzOvAgsy3AUieMQFLcg_H4n4hr604bTL-MdrjI3S7w4IjQ7HKyASeZdPozTKc_v-kucC83bu_vcAM20PmI0LMUSJnNcto1BLi9EAAnlJ2U6YsjJgRKMIhmGGzGUgdGmoZsJsRyF6YQpFra-cqN8EauJzPip-JK3MZR3Y/s2544/Time.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2544" data-original-width="1967" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY1VBjJ32y2DRhkV6PzO08XcBldzOvAgsy3AUieMQFLcg_H4n4hr604bTL-MdrjI3S7w4IjQ7HKyASeZdPozTKc_v-kucC83bu_vcAM20PmI0LMUSJnNcto1BLi9EAAnlJ2U6YsjJgRKMIhmGGzGUgdGmoZsJsRyF6YQpFra-cqN8EauJzPip-JK3MZR3Y/w309-h400/Time.jpg" width="309" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>here’s pleasure in a glass of beer</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>When hard by work opprest;</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>It soothes the brain with thought o’ertaxed,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>And sets the mind at rest.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Its praises I will loudly sing,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>And sound them far and near;</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>There’s nothing can refresh you like</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A glass of bitter beer.</i></div></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Excerpt from ‘A Glass of Bitter Beer’ by John Drake from 'Jock Sinclair and Other Poems' - 1890</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>t could be argued that the pilsner-style glass used by Irish pubs for over 70 years is one of the most iconic glass shapes that has ever appeared in the hands of an Irish beer drinker. It is an elegant form, if a little top-heavy in appearance when full, although in truth this is balanced by having a thick and heavy base, plus it's incredibly tactile and extremely practical to drink from, with the width of the mouth of the glass perfectly proportioned for either sipping or gulping its contents. This example from the Smithwick's brewery in Kilkenny for their forgotten and (ironically) timeline purged Time beer brand has all of those elements, plus a wonderful, thick gold band around its rim that heightens its graceful beauty.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Time ales were launched by Smithwick’s in 1960 with the aim of revitalising an aging brand for more modern times and to celebrate their (so-called) 250th anniversary. Under this rebrand their top selling No. 1 pale ale would remain the same but their golden export ale was rebranded as Time and their SS ale as Extra Time. A few months later their ruby coloured barleywine was also brought into the fold as Time Barley Wine. The launch meant a complete rebrand for most of the Smithwick’s beers with a new logo, beer labels, coasters and other ephemera, plus of course glassware. Branding on glasses was a relatively new idea here, and Time was probably one of the first beers in Ireland to have its own range of branded glassware. As well as the pilsner glass there was a handmade tankard and a dimple mug, plus Time branded water jugs suggesting to the consumer to have a chaser after their beer – ‘Time for a Chaser!’</p><p style="text-align: justify;">By 1964 Guinness were in control of the brewery and that that was the death knell for the Time brand. It would appear at least that the marketing and research gurus in St. James’s Gate decided to consolidate the range down to just two main products, the barley wine and their newly developed Smithwicks Draught keg beer which was launched in 1965, seemingly as a direct reaction to English brands such as the Cork brewed Watney’s Red Barrel. This new keg beer was - ironically - also available in bottles as Smithwicks D. The Time brand seems to have disappeared that same year and appears just fleetingly and rarely - if ever - mentioned or promoted in the current history of Smithwick’s, as they attempt to draw a direct-if-fictitious line from the present iteration of the brand to a nonsensical beer brewed in 1710.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he origins of this exact glass shape - a trumpet rather than the much older cone style - is hard to track but it may have arrived in this country at least via exotically continental premium lager brands such as Tuborg, Patzenhoffer (Patz) and Carlsberg in the 1950s, where that elegant shape suited the marketing of said beers. It was certainly popularised around this time although there were <i>so-called</i> ‘pilsner’ glasses or tumblers available before this era. For example, James Fox & Sons, the well-known Dublin public house suppliers selling something <i>called</i> a 10 oz ‘Pilsen’ glass in the 1930s, although we don’t know its exact shape. Prior to this period the normal half-pint glass would have been more squat and conical in shaped, sometimes with fluted ornamentation.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Some of those lager branded 1950s glasses still survive and apart from some minor changes they have stayed with us and remained the same over the intervening decades, although modern versions seem to have sadly - if practically - lost their gold rims. (Incidentally, experiments done in the early 19th century state that tea drank from cups with gold rims were at least <i>perceived</i> to taste richer and better, so this might explain another reason for the popularity of this type of decoration.)</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>o this day if you ask for a ‘glass’ (half-pint) of beer - and sometimes minerals (soft drinks) - in a standard Irish pub it will be most likely served in one of these glasses, and for sure if you order a pint bottle in most pubs you will by default be given one with it. Certainly since the middle of the last century, and regardless of the beer style (Time was an ale not a lager for example) this glass type was used predominantly in Irish pubs, including - even now - for draught Guinness at times. (There was a minor flirtation with a half-pint version of the tulip pint glass but it was a little rarer, although that shape appears to be still used in the occasional pub.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">One of the most famous appearances of this glass shape in popular culture is in the 1958 movie ‘Ice Cold in Alex’ where the character Captain George Anson downs a glass of Carlsberg having arrived in the titular Alexandria. (Never mind that in the original book the beer in question was Rheingold, and the imagined glasses were possibly different.) That scene, which was immortalised as a Carlsberg advert in the 1980s, certainly showcased the glass to great effect.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The sizes of these glasses varied a little when used for beer, from 10 fl.oz. versions - a half-pint - up to 14 fl.oz. versions like the Time glass. These larger sizes were quite popular as they held a half-pint bottle with its head from one pour. Only half-pint glasses used for draught beer sales were verified for volume by government bodies here - the others did not require it, as they were served with bottles that were already verified as to the volume they contained.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, Smithwick's Time ales may not have lasted but at least the glass shape did, and hopefully it will continue to be used in this country for the foreseeable future.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">(There is more on the Time ale brands <a href="https://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2020/01/its-smithwicks-time-short-history-of.html">here</a>, and the beer writer Pete Brown has a nice piece on Ice Cold in Alex and that famous scene <a href="https://www.petebrown.net/2010/05/09/they-served-it-ice-cold-in-alex-for/">here</a>. Finally there is a dive into Smithwicks ale and its supposed history <a href="https://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2022/06/beer-myths-on-beer-mats-closer-look-at.html">here</a>.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. The photograph and glass itself are the authors own and the image cannot be used elsewhere without the author's permission. DO NOT STEAL THIS CONTENT!</span></p>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-16301820340800857792024-01-31T07:55:00.001+00:002024-01-31T08:26:07.873+00:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #16 – Cairnes Brewery Invoice (1940)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7pBtW3FDrxmNwF8axCAjCzZzJOOjn9MwggsSuzg3UMWBRzaj7hY4vxICJ2A_QRjZBnERRazgqyozOspKeLMu_KWlOpwF6bVykyy8-T4Ya78f4Fc8fujmtccWNSbCcJKWlNhgafFaekwKzF1Ta0SCJdAvNkvgeyakGO4-HIU_2Rm15ZTerxTF5k4-bVEF9/s3433/20240116_161251.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3433" data-original-width="2575" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7pBtW3FDrxmNwF8axCAjCzZzJOOjn9MwggsSuzg3UMWBRzaj7hY4vxICJ2A_QRjZBnERRazgqyozOspKeLMu_KWlOpwF6bVykyy8-T4Ya78f4Fc8fujmtccWNSbCcJKWlNhgafFaekwKzF1Ta0SCJdAvNkvgeyakGO4-HIU_2Rm15ZTerxTF5k4-bVEF9/w300-h400/20240116_161251.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>I last tasted (and swallowed every drop) a glass of Drogheda strong ale, and if any of my readers in Ireland or England or any where else doubt an Irish brewer’s capacity to brew ale, let them get a bottle of William Cairnes & Son’s Drogheda strong ale, and I will vouch for an ‘encore.’</i></div><p></p><p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>The Whiskey & Allied Trade Review via The Drogheda Argus - October 1897</b></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>f there is one enduring misconception about Irish brewing it’s the often perpetuated myth that breweries in Ireland really only ever brewed stout and red ale, or variants of both of these beers. This impression is somewhat understandable given the behemothic effect that one brand of stout has had on the beer drinkers of the country and indeed the world, plus the clever-if-duplicitous branding of certain so-called 'Irish Red Ales' - a relatively new term in the present interpretation of the style at least. This is compounded by the apathy shown by much of the beercentric population, exacerbated by the utter decimation of most of our regional breweries, plus the neglection of our true brewing history by the latter decades of the 20th century. I doubt most Irish people - let alone those who live beyond our shores - know that in the not-too-distant past there was a wide range of ales brewed in Ireland, although admittedly on a much smaller scale than porter and its extended family.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Thankfully, in the last few decades, the country has started to rediversify into those styles again due to the many microbreweries which have sprouted up across the land but - as noted - this is just a return to the norm of our brewing past, and back to a time when there were many more breweries in Ireland, some of whom were brewing a range of styles to rival or beat many of the world’s breweries of that era. In short, there was a fine selection of Irish-brewed pale and non-red ales of different styles available to our ancestors, as well as other variants, and this is perfectly exemplified by this invoice from Cairnes Brewery in Drogheda from 1940.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Cairnes Brewery started life as the James’s Street Brewery and commenced brewing on the 6th of October 1826, with their first beers being a pale butt and a table beer, followed a month later by a strong ale. Its proprietor William Cairnes had previously been in business - since 1813 - with John Woolsey at the Castlebellingham brewery and had married into the Woolsey and Bellingham family, but that partnership was dissolved in the same year that William set up his own brewery in Drogheda town, with John Woolsey continuing to brew on the original site. In April 1890 both breweries merged to become the Castlebellingham and Drogheda Breweries Limited and were brewing in both locations. The former brewery ceased production in 1923 with all brewing moving to the Drogheda site. The company changed its name to Cairnes Ltd in late 1933 and finally ceased brewing in 1959 when the brewing arm was sold to Guinness controlled Cherry-Cairnes (Distributors) Ltd, a company originally set up to market Phoenix ale.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> A</span> run through of the ales available from the brewery shows what would be seen as an excellent range in many an English brewery at this time, but was relatively extensive for an Irish one - especially this late in our brewing history.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So what exactly were these beers?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The eponymously named ‘Cairnes’ was their standard draught and bottled ale and was described as pale or golden - not red by any means - with a delicate flavour in advertisements from this era, so perhaps akin to and X ale or a pale mild, and indeed they brewery had exactly such a beer – a ‘Mild Ale’ - in its range a few decades earlier.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">‘No. 1 Strong’ may be a version of the older strong mild ale or 'Drogheda Ale' from from a previous era and earlier advertisements. There appears to be no mention of its colour in common sources but an entry on its chemical composition in a Dublin science journal* seems to show it was over 8% abv and it would not be unreasonable to assume this version was the same or similar strength, and it was even mentioned as ‘3 XXX’ [sic] as late as 1950 in a newspaper writeup on the brewery. An advertisement from 1885 shows that Cairnes were brewing an ‘XX Stout Strong Ale (Mild)’ which it would be nice to think was a variant of the same or similar beer, with stout meaning strong here as distinct from the newer connotations of the term. Mild in <i>this</i> case seems to refer to the taste, which it often did in this country and certainly at that time, although it can also mean a fresher or newer beer.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTEjcbKDGfE6ZZNjh9Ca7Ja5uorAD0blJNf7aHfZ5OaOc02ocKZBpf0Mn879PrZvRGlgZowStTASFEmDJzqeJFD3OEd0waQ-LqRcKE8Oc_lGE7S-j47OGyEzQuZWHxOzQVxvuTedDAdb5z-Nn0ybx9FwtWgjuReH_Q8HPnS6LyM77lxBeSI6K57cc9tGJU/s1230/Cairnes.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1230" data-original-width="892" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTEjcbKDGfE6ZZNjh9Ca7Ja5uorAD0blJNf7aHfZ5OaOc02ocKZBpf0Mn879PrZvRGlgZowStTASFEmDJzqeJFD3OEd0waQ-LqRcKE8Oc_lGE7S-j47OGyEzQuZWHxOzQVxvuTedDAdb5z-Nn0ybx9FwtWgjuReH_Q8HPnS6LyM77lxBeSI6K57cc9tGJU/w290-h400/Cairnes.jpg" width="290" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">S</span>tingo was a touted as an Irish Winter Ale and advertisements** from around this time state it was brown in colour, but no mention is made of its strength or taste other than it sharpening the appetite, helping digestion and being refreshing, which <i>might</i> imply it was dry and relatively well hopped? Cairnes appear to be the only Irish brewery to ever brew this style of beer in Ireland under that name, which is often used in England, although how close the Irish version was to the English one is difficult to know.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The name ‘E. I. Bitter’ - East India Bitter - most likely refers to their interpretation of an IPA, a version of which they were brewing for several decades, and back in 1885 it was being advertised as an ‘X Stout East India [Ale]. (Bitter)’ and in 1900 as just ‘E I Bitter Ale’ as per our invoice. Curiously just three years later in 1903 in another advertisement they were brewing a beer under the same name plus one called an India Pale Ale. To add further confusion, in 1905 they had alongside their IPA an ‘I. E. Ale (Dinner) but it’s worth noting that advertisements such as these are not always an accurate representation of the actual output of a brewery. India Pale Ale was a style that was quite common in other breweries in Ireland too, so well before the modern resurgence of this type of beer there were plenty of Irish IPAs.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Nut Brown ale of which, according to our invoice, Mr. Hughes purchased a half barrel is a bit of an enigma as there are very few mentions of such a style in Ireland, although they were certainly brown ales available other than the Stingo mentioned above. Findlater’s Mountjoy brewery made one in the 1950s, and there is a bottle label showing a ‘Mellifont Brown Ale’ - which <i>may</i> be connected to the Cairnes brewery - in circulation too. This is yet another style that is associated with English breweries so it is of interest to see it represented on this side of the water too. Sadly again we know little about it apart from the colour and that it was definitely being brewed at this time.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Pale Ale is next on our list and was probably a lighter version of the I E Bitter and a little stronger than the next brew the Dinner Ale. which was a light and refreshing beer that was served with meals. There appears to be little record of the exact qualities of these two beers from the Cairnes’ stable but they certainly <i>seem</i> to have existed, <i>possibly</i> giving seven ales - plus three porters/stouts - being made by the brewery in the 1930s and early 1940s, although possibly not for much longer than this in truth.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>rish ales had a hard time competing with the popularity of porter in Ireland from the mid to late 18th century onwards, and that issue along with the availability of Scottish and English ales - especially Bass - over here meant that it was an extremely competitive marketplace, with too many brands vying for too few customers. Eventually Smithwick’s, as a brand, won the ale battle with its new kegged draught ale, giving the consumer what it seems they wanted by the latter half of the 20th century.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But back in the day, we brewed pale - and brown - ales, and that's worth emphasising.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;">*The Composition of Drogheda Ale – The Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science Vol. II 1862 - Page 174 (14.3% proof spirit = 8.15% abv, which is 57% of the proof for UK and Ireland in some sources but this may be incorrect?)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">** My own <a href="https://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2018/09/beer-history-cairnes-irish-stingo-ale.html">post</a></p><div style="text-align: justify;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. The photograph and invoice itself are the authors own and cannot be used elsewhere without the author's permission. Newspaper research was thanks to The British Newspaper Archive, and other sources are as credited or linked. DO NOT STEAL THIS CONTENT!</div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-47953565117780541312023-12-21T22:21:00.000+00:002023-12-21T22:21:00.574+00:00Of Lovers & Libations<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Nzgg1mMR0G7B8YyWaomnwFOze99otl1POH-pdYiqoV2_gWBIIbQoxOwUoOxFHtFwj8QqLxiuDC7GEqhIFbfbH1ILpPjf8elEt0RxmTGZFfTRwjhUF6kUHcUQR96BYx18Pq5JCGgNOWvOj6__PFX2BEZulup62c7BdWyKAWt7ePkEcbnlf6igRa2RkPIC/s2989/20231221_215027.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2242" data-original-width="2989" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Nzgg1mMR0G7B8YyWaomnwFOze99otl1POH-pdYiqoV2_gWBIIbQoxOwUoOxFHtFwj8QqLxiuDC7GEqhIFbfbH1ILpPjf8elEt0RxmTGZFfTRwjhUF6kUHcUQR96BYx18Pq5JCGgNOWvOj6__PFX2BEZulup62c7BdWyKAWt7ePkEcbnlf6igRa2RkPIC/w400-h300/20231221_215027.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">P</span>inpricks of light wink and twinkle in the milky smear that runs across the night sky.</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;">In the distance yellow light brightly glows through narrow windows, eclipsed at times.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Two pairs of sure steps on the hard stone road echo from old walls and empty homes.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Hands held, their breath mingles as they stop and gently kiss in the clear and frosty air.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>hey continue onward, closer now, the smell of turf smoke drifting in the too-still night.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Laughter pierces from the briefly opened door, then a booming voice erupts and flows.</p><p style="text-align: left;">A trail of twisted sparks appears then dies in the sky above the clay-fired chimney pot.</p><p style="text-align: left;">A stealing cat weaves between their slowing feet, now the door is within reach. A sigh.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> </p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he latch is thumbed, the door pushed. Heat and light spill out alongside jumbled noise.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Inside the place, the cold eyes of warm bodies settle briefly on theirs, then turn away.</p><p style="text-align: left;">They walk together to the altar of hardened timber, of wet rings, of offerings, of wants.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The curate’s eye caught, the await the ritual of the pour. Two bottles, two glasses. One look.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">A</span> fireside seat found, burning peat hides brazen faces. Low voices, and glares and glances.</p><p style="text-align: left;">They raise their glasses to their lips and drink as one. Darkness and bitterness wash over.</p><p style="text-align: left;">They go to leave, but then a fiddle strikes, a box joins, and a stick beats time against a skin.</p><p style="text-align: left;">One knows this melody and now their voice sings clear and strong of love’s desire. All quieten.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">H</span>urting haunting silence, then hands bang on tables and some nod approval, but to what?</p><p style="text-align: left;">Then, placed with them, two small glasses filled with amber warmth and guarded tolerance.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The music starts again, and the lovers drink, content as now inner passion fills their hearts.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Outside snow begins to fall, twirling and swirling, its flat flakes all different but all the same.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Liam K</p><div><br /></div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-44027503028363333372023-12-07T08:04:00.002+00:002023-12-09T08:47:06.447+00:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #15 – Murphy Stout Label (1960s?)<div style="text-align: justify;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpUYOPan4xwzXAeJK3U6QY6PCS8zeHrrpCkCBExhiGGVCSuP4FlBmZINm544ukdipu_vFY6wlnMun4E6-xe8LSqa1shA-cJlWwi_7MjKvDO72F6OQK5MWucB4imvD2yfz2H7Y4BjTye12rIf7KCjWdP1ORvmyqdhO4DakbKfgHxKhrwYBBqcsfeVIkHYag/s2767/20231206_131652.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2075" data-original-width="2767" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpUYOPan4xwzXAeJK3U6QY6PCS8zeHrrpCkCBExhiGGVCSuP4FlBmZINm544ukdipu_vFY6wlnMun4E6-xe8LSqa1shA-cJlWwi_7MjKvDO72F6OQK5MWucB4imvD2yfz2H7Y4BjTye12rIf7KCjWdP1ORvmyqdhO4DakbKfgHxKhrwYBBqcsfeVIkHYag/w400-h300/20231206_131652.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>ypography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form, and thus with an independent existence. Its heartwood is calligraphy - the dance, on a tiny stage, of the living, speaking hand - and its roots reach into living soil, though its branches may be hung each year with new machines. So long as the root lives, typography remains a source of true delight, true knowledge, true surprise.</i><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Robert Bringhurst - The Elements of Typographic Style (1992)</span></div></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span>ny visitor from Manchester of a certain age who strolls around Cork city might have a nagging feeling of familiarity when they come upon certain pubs that are dotted around its streets. They might pass The Castle Inn on South Main Street and think that there was something inviting about it, or look at the front of the nearby Vicarstown Bar on North Main Street and think that the gold-on-black writing on the façade was calling out to them, as if previously they had drank a pint or two sitting on a stool at the counter. Callanan’s too on George’s Quay looks like somewhere they have been in a previous life, as does Forde’s which wraps around the corner from Barrack Street on to Sullivan’s Quay. Even The High House with yet more gold and black livery, which is appropriately situated at the top of Blair’s Hill – although long closed – feels oddly like something from their Mancunian hometown.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFg33iImKWRelkVscvCUrjIp8Qe5ICvk6le9rugnXVqx32zu7bLdxvIAd9a6Fj3ecbYvDiCSYBY4ADtEdrFfYTmpd57TuDyGF2RjcbDomxbpLS7pbWpbTbpG9HDJwUTRwiykqIdbPZAjtw0Fp3iLInrmfQtpyS2tLADulZOBHS3vKGHBOu6fS3Brtn0wpF/s513/Vicarstown%20Best%20(2).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="513" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFg33iImKWRelkVscvCUrjIp8Qe5ICvk6le9rugnXVqx32zu7bLdxvIAd9a6Fj3ecbYvDiCSYBY4ADtEdrFfYTmpd57TuDyGF2RjcbDomxbpLS7pbWpbTbpG9HDJwUTRwiykqIdbPZAjtw0Fp3iLInrmfQtpyS2tLADulZOBHS3vKGHBOu6fS3Brtn0wpF/w400-h225/Vicarstown%20Best%20(2).jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he more knowledgeable and eagle-eyed of those visitors who are familiar with the pubs and streetscape of Manchester will twig that the lettering and design on the name signs of all of these pubs – and others too – look exactly the same as many of those that once adorned certain pubs in their home city although, unlike in Cork, this familiar capitalised and italicised gilded lettering has almost disappeared, if it's not already gone. More specifically, it exactly matched the typeface and colours of many of the pubs that were once tied to the Wilson brewery of Newton Heath in that English city.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB6v1v59lQX_uIW2PJ9K9Y5Xo1VLvVNyPTzTNOVr08li8SOu8nCX6TLdVwqFubnObD_-1hioRFB_Tvtj22fnI9FfUPllHQ9rm3Ti_4jNAr38KKJdrJAl1AXS-iUpDvuC8FJRBSfvU6BWnS-f4RYoqk3KFfJs4Q3hDKTy1PA08YkMFj4LSHsjPrh-j21RM9/s681/wilson%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="681" data-original-width="511" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB6v1v59lQX_uIW2PJ9K9Y5Xo1VLvVNyPTzTNOVr08li8SOu8nCX6TLdVwqFubnObD_-1hioRFB_Tvtj22fnI9FfUPllHQ9rm3Ti_4jNAr38KKJdrJAl1AXS-iUpDvuC8FJRBSfvU6BWnS-f4RYoqk3KFfJs4Q3hDKTy1PA08YkMFj4LSHsjPrh-j21RM9/w300-h400/wilson%202.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">W</span>hat appears to be a strange coincidence can be relatively easily explained, as there is a clear connection between those Cork pubs and the ones owned by the Wilson brewery, that being the Watney Mann brewing conglomerate. All of the Cork public house mentioned above – along with quite a few others – were tied-houses belonging to, or run for, The Lady’s Well Brewery, which is more commonly known as Murphy’s Brewery. It is now owned by Heineken but still sits on the same site on Leitrim Street just north of the river Lee.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Tied houses, where a public house was obliged in most cases to sell the produce of just one brewery, were extremely common in Cork city and county in the past, where breweries such as Murphys and Beamish & Crawford (and Lanes and Arnott’s at one time) effectively owned the public houses and controlled what was sold by them, and who ran the houses or rented the premises. This arrangement also meant that the brewery was responsible for the upkeep of the buildings both inside and out as well as overseeing and funding any modernisation or refurbishment that was required from time to time.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In early 1967 the Watney Mann group became the majority shareholder in Murphys and in that year it was decided that all of its tied pubs should have a uniform look, so the manager of the tied houses Rex Archer along with Cork illustrator and artist William Harrington were sent off to study the branding and look of the Wilson Brewery houses in Manchester.* Wilsons brewery had itself been absorbed by Watney Mann in 1960 and it appears that shortly after this time new branding was rolled out for its houses. Although Harrington came up with designs for the interior of some of the Cork pubs and perhaps the exterior too, it seems that a decision was made to just copy the typeface and signage from the Wilson’s pubs right down to the gold text on a black background rather than come up with something specifically for Murphy's houses.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5-ckVhyphenhyphenH4Y3lqQhzIORMXPIna-VEy7CotHTkhpeNWFNEvd-v2WiVCBoAK0BIWrWWQVujDvY8pRzjMoMJ8c6FJBuBa3AIUfWaIorZX3TCSfskKV6Rb7NKpDwxleGjmHMyn4TEbNVPL6W8rYy9yG0RIZ-4F9-uYkyQCWSVSHFnFT9QwpHR6eDTDX-Ovz4uQ/s874/Wilsons%204.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="874" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5-ckVhyphenhyphenH4Y3lqQhzIORMXPIna-VEy7CotHTkhpeNWFNEvd-v2WiVCBoAK0BIWrWWQVujDvY8pRzjMoMJ8c6FJBuBa3AIUfWaIorZX3TCSfskKV6Rb7NKpDwxleGjmHMyn4TEbNVPL6W8rYy9yG0RIZ-4F9-uYkyQCWSVSHFnFT9QwpHR6eDTDX-Ovz4uQ/w400-h164/Wilsons%204.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">S</span>ome of those Manchester pubs appear to have had white writing on red but in the <i>same</i> typeface, this appears to be what was called the ‘Watneyising’ of some of the pubs in a CAMRA publication** from 1976, although some photographs from the time also show Watney pubs with the same colour but a <i>different</i> typeface so it seems that those red and white Wilson pubs were perhaps a hybrid design. This ‘Watneyising’ appears to have been rolled back in some cases and the black and gold lettering reinstated according to that same article. It also looks as if at least some of the Phipps breweries houses - a brewery in Northampton in England that was also acquired by Watney Mann in 1960 - had at least one house with exactly the same branding, The King’s Head in Coventry,*** so perhaps the branding originated somewhere other than for the Wilson’s pubs in Manchester and was part of an over all strategy by Watney Mann? (Curiously, a Chester Brewery house in Manchester, a brewery taken over by rivals Whitbread, had a very similar typeface too.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">What could be called the “Wilson’s" typeface (If not” Phipps”?) [ EDIT: It's actually "English Two-Line Antique’] was also adopted by Murphys in and unitalicised form for their name on labels, beermats and other items associated with the brand at this time, as can be seen in the handsome label shown above. This typeface seems to have lasted with some minor changes until the 1980s when the image and branding was changed and updated in the Heineken era. Looking through old advertisements and breweriana there is a similarity in some of the Wilson’s branding – and Phipps too – which is hardly surprising given their shared ownership, and it is quite possible that there are other Watney-owned brands from that era that also share the same layout and fonts.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[EDIT: As it turns out - thanks to Boak & Bailey <a href="http://boakandbailey.com/2023/12/news-nuggets-and-longreads-9-december-2023-wonderful-life/">here</a> - this lettering 'was conceived by the Design Research Unit and applied across the Watney’s pub estate, including pubs owned by breweries it took over' and is actually called ‘English Two-Line Antique.’]</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Even after the Watney Mann era ended at Murphys and the tied houses were all eventually sold off, many of the now independent public house still clung on to the typeface for their name, and a few still do to this day as noted above. Perhaps that tied house program also explains what could be perceived to be a slight lack of surnames on public houses in Cork city when compared to the rest of Ireland, which might certainly make some sense given the actual ownership of many of the pubs at one time.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">That recognisable typeface seems to have all but disappeared in Manchester, the city from which it may have originated, something that is a little sad as there was a certain elegance, and certainly some history, to that “look” which once adorned a considerable number of public houses in both cities.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Although it would be nice to think that perhaps a tiny amount of that style struck some chord in Cork publican's minds, and it might explain the commonness of gold writing on a black background in that city. A lasting reminder, at least to those now in the know, of a small episode in the city’s rich brewing history - 'a source of true delight, true knowledge, true surprise' indeed ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">*This is from the book The Murphy’s Story: History of Lady's Well Brewery by Diarmuid Ó Drisceoil and Donal Ó Drisceoil and I was reminded of the mention by a <a href="https://x.com/TDrisheen/status/1708926159554003021?s=20">Tweet</a> from Tripe + Drisheen about the commonness of the typeface in some of Cork's pubs which were Murphy's tied houses.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">** CAMRA <a href="http://www.ssmcamra.co.uk/OTfiles/Archive/003may76.pdf">publication</a></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">*** Boak & Bailey’s <a href="https://boakandbailey.com/2017/04/modern-pubs-of-1961-watneys-whitbread/">Modern Pubs of 1961: Watney’s & Whitbread</a> ant there's much more about Watney's written by them <a href="https://boakandbailey.com/2019/01/watneys-red-barrel-how-bad-could-it-have-been/">here</a> too.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Image of The Vicarstown Bar is cropped and via their <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Vicarstownbar/photos">Facebook</a> account.)</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Image of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/">The Barley Mow</a> is a cropped/enhanced and from the Flickr account of </span><span style="font-size: small;">Manchester Archives+, shared via </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic)</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Newspaper advertisement is from The Stockport County Express - Thursday 24th June 1965)</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(There are more examples from Manchester of that typeface <a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/nostalgia/gallery/manchester-pubs-past-1-8612507">here</a>.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. The photograph and label itself are the authors own and cannot be used elsewhere without the author's permission. Newspaper research and advertisement reproduction was thanks to The British Newspaper Archive, and other sources are as credited. DO NOT STEAL THIS CONTENT!</span></div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-66780843335018880462023-11-20T08:02:00.000+00:002023-11-20T08:02:29.638+00:00Solved - A Mystery 'Brewery in Ireland' & Guinness's Plea<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxpe06MBzP4ZTMvwHuFNgjy4Rot_ziCEa4pQF2f5u_tNNrMDns4QwW5asaG0KI5M-9D5lUrlko10IkDJ25GaQK87_FxCKThRBZob-hUGXMlCmxczhtyDGQtN54larNq9f5v63kB53N4NeSM_L9hCXvd65ZqubalBDqz6uvukAQBztQCgr3Sv7zz1mmS_lD/s1000/That%20Irish%20Brewery.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="1000" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxpe06MBzP4ZTMvwHuFNgjy4Rot_ziCEa4pQF2f5u_tNNrMDns4QwW5asaG0KI5M-9D5lUrlko10IkDJ25GaQK87_FxCKThRBZob-hUGXMlCmxczhtyDGQtN54larNq9f5v63kB53N4NeSM_L9hCXvd65ZqubalBDqz6uvukAQBztQCgr3Sv7zz1mmS_lD/w400-h280/That%20Irish%20Brewery.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">'THE HUMBLE recorders of the scene all too often pass unsung and even unrecognised. One whose skill is today becoming more appreciated is James Malton, who lived from approximately 1766 to 1803. The illustration is entitled "Brewery in Ireland." Perhaps a reader may be able to identify the subject, as possibly the round tower with lancet windows may still be standing and even some of the buildings in the background.</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Craftsmen of the quality of Malton who leave behind them a series of obviously accurately observed pictures have a great value for the historian. In this alone, which measures just over nine by twelve inches, there is a wealth of contemporary information. In the foreground the broad-tracked barrel-cart, with small details of fittings clearly indicated, dominates the scene; an interesting point with this is that although the surface of the road appears soft and muddy the big wheels are not sinking in very far, which could indicate underlying cobbles or hard surface. At the top of the tower there is a strange piece of balustrade, heading what seems to be some form of vent or chute.'</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">O</span>n the 31st of October 1967 the above write up appeared in The Irish Times in the ‘Art Forum’ section by artist and writer of John FitzMaurice Mills concerning a small watercolour* painting that had been sold that year by The Fine Art Society, London. As you have read, the author asked readers with help to identify the subject of the brewery in the picture, hoping that someone would recognise the distinctive round tower. What appear to be two barrel loaded brewery drays were also captured in the picture, trundling onwards towards a archway in a building in the distance.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This plea was taken up by non-other than <i>‘The Harp - The Journal of the Home of Guinness,’</i> a magazine ostensibly published for the workers in the James’s Gate brewery but read by many others as the magazine found its way around the country via the breweries many employees. The following plea and offer of a reward appeared in an edition of the publication:</p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: center;">REWARD FOR INFORMATION SUPPLIED</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This is a Malton engraving of an Irish brewery. Its situation is unknown to us and we offer a three guinea voucher to any reader who may be able to provide this information. Perhaps some of our older readers in the country may recollect this unusual looking tower. Information may be sent to The Editor, 'The Harp', St. James's Gate, Dublin 8.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">No one appears to have come forward with information of the brewery so there the matter died and appears to have been forgotten, and the reward unclaimed …</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7xYkhYL2dOHcB7ThJ91glUyTrj2gtfiFDr4o4grwQNiJmoUDZ5gExZIuRw3aRQTFr-6jd_6n0LHUIq0pk3reHcYDvW5DkqDZyzj6vhzFFv0BlcHzx0AL_6XXi987UuQesGRtbtXhiP3_UbNW4JdkafuljTSRUB-__rXONfB203B0__UoK54CKJ3ZwnCxd/s1858/Reward.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1858" data-original-width="1150" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7xYkhYL2dOHcB7ThJ91glUyTrj2gtfiFDr4o4grwQNiJmoUDZ5gExZIuRw3aRQTFr-6jd_6n0LHUIq0pk3reHcYDvW5DkqDZyzj6vhzFFv0BlcHzx0AL_6XXi987UuQesGRtbtXhiP3_UbNW4JdkafuljTSRUB-__rXONfB203B0__UoK54CKJ3ZwnCxd/w397-h640/Reward.jpg" width="397" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span>ut towards the end of 2019 the question of this enigmatic Irish brewery resurfaced again thanks to <a href="https://x.com/JohnFit39306470?s=20">John Fitzgerald</a> via Twitter who tagged me in a post, practically challenging me to solve the mystery and attaching the above page from The Harp magazine showing Guinness offering that reward for information along with an image of the artwork. A number of people got involved in the discussion and although I did find out that it had since been attributed to a Michael ‘Angelo’ Rooker on the Sotheby’s website, we didn't discover much more about the illustration apart from confirmation that there seemed to be no response to either query at the time and that the reward appeared to remain unclaimed.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Shortly after I started digging through images of old Irish towers and spending too much time searching for that quite distinctive structure. I even bought a book about the artist - Rooker - to see if that helped pin down where he visited in Ireland but to no avail. I though I was on to something in Louth at one point but that too came to nothing, so eventually I took a break from my searching - but never quite admitted defeat in the hope that the tower would appear somewhere, somehow in some of my other brewery research.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the intervening years I would revisit the subject on occasion and look again for anything that would finally let me scratch that unreachable itch of not being able to solve this conundrum, but I always ended up in a dead end. Of late I had <i>almost</i> resigned myself to never solving the mystery but also hoped that at some point I’d find something during my research that would give me that ‘Ah ha!’ moment, although in truth I had almost given up.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span>ut then it happened …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I was scrolling through a website when a painting’s image jumped off the cover of an old book at me. It was an angled photo but it was unmistakably ‘my’ Irish brewery. There it was, with the dray carts and tower, impossible for me to mistake for anything similar as I had spent so much time studying it …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The arresting issue was the title of the book. It was a 1980s printed facsimile of ‘A History of Southampton’ by Reverend John Silvester Davies.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Southampton? In England? So not Ireland?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And with just a little further research I discovered that this so called ‘Irish Brewery’ picture seemed to be a relatively well-known image of the Polymond Tower in the North-East corner of the old defensive city walls of Southampton. The tower still exists now but it is hugely truncated from what it once was and had been rebuilt many times since its foundations were originally laid many centuries ago. Looking more closely at the image with the benefit of knowing the position of the tower in the streetscape of old Southampton I now saw that what I took to be trees behind the building seemed to be the ivy-covered walls that abutted the tower on the right of the picture, and the faint remaining edge of a long-gone wall on the opposite side was there too.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">More research was required, as I needed to assure myself that the painting was what it claimed to be. The top storeys of ‘our’ tower had been removed in 1828 as they were deemed unsafe, and although there was a brief mention in one of the building's online histories of a sketch of this demolition as it was happening, which would surely be the proof I needed, it seemed to be unpublished in any form. That was until by I came across a paper called <i>'The Military Organisation of Southampton in the Late Medieval Period 1300-1500'</i> by Randall Moffett** that discusses the Polymond tower and includes two telling images. One being a version of our painting from the Southampton Art Gallery storeroom which tells us that the painting is actually by Edward Dayes and - equally importantly - its title is given as <i>‘Tower near York Buildings, Southampton’ </i>from c. 1794. Somewhat different from the artist and title that was attributed to it in the flawed history from the sixties that I had been lead to believe.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Crucially for my much-needed confirmation, the second sketch was that missing image of the tower’s demolition titled <i>‘North view of the North-East tower of the old wall, Southampton as it appeared Dec 3rd 1828.’</i> It can be clearly seen that it is the same building right down to the ivy on the adjoining city wall. There are a few differences with the window style but not enough to make me doubt that it truly is the Polymond tower that is featured in our original painting - not that I should have doubted Southampton’s historians of course! (The paper is copyrighted but I have included its online link details and the page number of the image below.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">How it came by its earlier misattribution and erroneous title might need to remain a minor mystery, as is the puzzle that there appears to be two of these watercolours in existence. It is possible that ‘our’ version came to be looked at as Irish given the original attribution of it being by James Malton, who was lived and worked most of his life in this country. Somebody saw the drays and barrels in the picture and just assumed it was an Irish scene featuring and Irish brewery and christened it as such.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Regardless, I think we can now repeat the more likely painter and its true depiction and title - ‘Tower near York Buildings, Southampton’ by Edward Dayes c. 1794.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span>nd what of that brewery? To claim that three guineas Guinness voucher I still need to name the brewery, even if it is an English one.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And I can - sort of - as down through that opening seen in the distance on the left of the picture stood a brewhouse that became known as The East Street Brewery which according to the one brewery history site*** was founded c. 1786 - eight years before our watercolour was created. There is also note of a R & W Saunders supplying beer from their brewery on East Street in 1809, and a John <i>Sanders </i>was known to be a brewer in Southampton according to a 1790 trade directory along, with 5 other individuals admittedly. Is it too much to suggest that the drays and barrels were heading into the Sa[u]nders’ brewery? Absolutely, but I think it’s fair to say that they were heading to <i>a</i> brewery and there was very likely to be one there at the time of our painting, as such sites tend to change hands and be reused over the years, and this was a perfect location for one along East Street, tucked in nicely just outside what was the city walls. (Although other online resources**** state that there were three brewers operating on East Street up to the 17th century at least so those brewer's names I suggest as being on site - although real - are pure conjecture.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">We can even see inside that opening to the brewery buildings - although it's from a century later when it was Cooper’s Brewery - in an 1895 watercolour by the unrelated William Marshall Cooper*****. Look at the lower archway through which yet another dray cart is coming or going and the structure of the building and roof over it. That’s surely the opposite side of our original picture, leading back up to the tower - meaning we can literally seen through the matching archway at the end of our original picture. It is also quite likely that some if not all of these buildings are from the previous century, so perhaps here finally is <i>our</i> brewery, and certainly their footprint is the same in Ordnance Survey maps from almost 50 years before in 1846 which also show a brewery exactly here by the way.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjtlhHHTlABThkwi9Mdi1TeEB8T5SK3Z9seoo69G-j__rAHRFaXuIbV1XN478_fQiMcXFXNWeZSpXD9l_eSkGB3V4RNFaotdFR_DeUUtX6s_1L1ZHwFeggWZgRwiDDx4kdJIc0LEPS3XfqwInohyphenhyphenS3120kBpu0Twfpz6Pn4gNs7ISfTfde-iD37cQFzx3r/s500/IMG_20231119_204457.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="353" data-original-width="500" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjtlhHHTlABThkwi9Mdi1TeEB8T5SK3Z9seoo69G-j__rAHRFaXuIbV1XN478_fQiMcXFXNWeZSpXD9l_eSkGB3V4RNFaotdFR_DeUUtX6s_1L1ZHwFeggWZgRwiDDx4kdJIc0LEPS3XfqwInohyphenhyphenS3120kBpu0Twfpz6Pn4gNs7ISfTfde-iD37cQFzx3r/w400-h283/IMG_20231119_204457.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">J</span>ohn FitzMaurice Mills was right about the invaluable recording that was done by artists before the age of photography but as we can see we need to treat these sketches and paintings with a little scepticism, especially those with faltering or missing provenance, but I think we can finally put this one to bed - and at long last I’ve <i>almos</i>t completely scratched that nagging itch.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Only one serious question still remains …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">With The Harp magazine no longer around, where do I claim my three guinea voucher? Although given its value now I think I'd prefer three gold guineas ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The original Tweet that started this is <a href="https://x.com/beerfoodtravel/status/1194198345629290496?s=20">here</a>.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">*Watercolour image was shareable via https://image.invaluable.com/housePhotos/Cheffins/97/726497/H0328-L293576612.jpg</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">** Moffett, Randall (2009) - The military organisation of Southampton in the Late Medieval Period 1300-1500. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis, 279pp - Page 28 - https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/436604/1/Moffett.pdf</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">*** That date is mentioned on the Brewey History site here but I can't find verify it - http://breweryhistory.com/wiki/index.php?title=William_Cooper_%26_Co._Ltd</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">****Brewers' Tales: making, retailing and regulating beer in Southampton, 1550-1700 James R. Brown - http://www.breweryhistory.com/journal/archive/135/BrewersTales.pdf</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">***** The Cooper brewery watercolour is from the Sotonopedia site and shared under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License: http://sotonopedia.wikidot.com/page-browse:cooper-s-brewery</span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: justify;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post - s</span><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: justify;">ources are as credited. DO NOT STEAL THIS CONTENT!</span></div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-83658368191770833402023-11-17T07:58:00.003+00:002023-11-18T08:54:29.015+00:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #14 – Guinness Bottle Opener (1970s?)<p></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDUgjIZ-VG_VCeT0gwLXsopJViJhHLAaTa7OPzS-mMW8zAWK8tv4xWiWlCpQap13hrzZjFD63PVRIPFY5s7zs4WUSHM-sQENqUsotJaxywkTcyFzOH7ztdOjkcE2rPcImjnfDs94KisxUMOLfG6vivJki5zV0U1e3UY32ZETOSEhyJHeM89nlVBVby06D/s3648/IMG_20231114_142401.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2736" data-original-width="3648" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDUgjIZ-VG_VCeT0gwLXsopJViJhHLAaTa7OPzS-mMW8zAWK8tv4xWiWlCpQap13hrzZjFD63PVRIPFY5s7zs4WUSHM-sQENqUsotJaxywkTcyFzOH7ztdOjkcE2rPcImjnfDs94KisxUMOLfG6vivJki5zV0U1e3UY32ZETOSEhyJHeM89nlVBVby06D/w400-h300/IMG_20231114_142401.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>‘My sealing-caps are so strong, so constructed, and so firmly applied to bottles that some form of lever or a cork-screw must be employed for detaching them, and my caps are also the first which when applied to a bottle and locked thereto, as described, have the edge of the flange so projected as to afford a reliable shoulder, with which a detaching-lever may be engaged, for enabling a cap to be promptly removed as a result of a prying or wrenching action.’</i></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">William Painter - Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 468,258, dated February 2, 1892. Application filed June 16, 1890, Serial No. 355,603, (No model.)</span></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>here is a relatively famous (in certain circles at least) archive film* from RTE that reports on the ceasing of the cork-bunged Guinness bottle by orders of the brewery, as it was to be completely replaced by a seemingly unpopular bottle closer - the metal cap. In that piece of recorded Irish beer history from 1969, which incidentally shows both the insertion and extracting of corks, there are a few stout drinkers quite unhappy with this change from what was seen as the traditional method of sealing beer bottles in this country. The interviewees argued that cork-sealed stout bottles tasted better than those using a metal cap, with one drinker being shown to be able to pick out the one corked bottle from a row of poured stouts, <i>allegedly</i> based on taste alone. Whether there was an actual difference between corked bottles and metal capped versions is impossible to know, as we are far removed from those times with no real way of doing a similar comparison, but those punters in that bar in Drogheda were convinced that corks were better than crown caps. Regardless of their outrage and unhappiness, Guinness got its way of course and as a secondary consequence those wonderful, levered, cork extractors that existed on most bars in the country disappeared, replaced by the now familiar cap removers which were much simpler to operate although far less theatrical and ritualistic …</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">W</span>hen William Painter received his patent for his improved bottle sealing device in 1892 it was unlikely that he would have foreseen the impact it would make around the world and just how enduring his simple-but-clever patent would be. Hailing from Baltimore in America, Painter was a prolific inventor who appears to have had an obsessive fascination with the sealing and opening of bottles if the sheer number of patents he filed is anything to go by - over eighty in total - although some of those were on subjects such as counterfeit coin detectors and a magnet-based signalling device for telephones. Regardless of these other inventions it is for the design of this bottle closer - soon after called the ‘Crown Cork’ - that beverage suppliers will be grateful to him for, even if most of them have probably never heard his name and certainly don't appreciate the cleverness of an ingenious little device that most people take for granted these days.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Before his invention there were other methods of closing bottles, one of the most popular and historic being the plain cork bung of course, and other metal closer had existed but none were quite as strong and easy to apply as Painter’s. His crimp-edged, strengthened metal caps clamped on the edge of specially made bottles with a cork liner between the cap and bottle rim ensuring an airtight fit. These caps were easy to apply and remove and would go on to revolutionise the drinks industry around the world. They were also disposable - they were never designed for reuse - a clever way of ensuring a steady income for those involved in their manufacture.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">His patent, or patents as there were two for this type of bottle closure device, show how the caps would be used and he goes into extreme detail on how they were developed and how they worked in the accompanying submission to the patent's office. To say he invented these closing devices is somewhat of a mistruth, as he points out in his description that similar versions existed at this time but none were <i>quite</i> as good as those he proposed in his application, and indeed he states the following:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><i>'I do not presume them to be novel as to form and construction. I do believe they are the first caps composed of hard sheet metal which are adapted to the service indicated and that they involve radical and valuable novelty when considered in combination with a sealing-disk and bottle having a locking-shoulder.'</i></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So as with most inventions it involved improvement on an existing design more so that a completely radical new idea. although clearly his were unique enough that his patent was accepted.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHVEAFv57u4cvSM81kl8Affxe47PCdOoiBTzAtJqaCp_kjfSjqJRGYGPashYQZ0FU5ZJJ_5EqKHYkGoq_EMFxYklnCDGTwpSxRmg1AEhXDk-SDumIdOoPLOxJbpTIf7j5dRX3jUFtUmbp9D5HS65SgRMVuAS7T0wK5IpEUpccjvAcHd5CpFvHFpk1RPI8a/s663/Crown1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="663" data-original-width="497" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHVEAFv57u4cvSM81kl8Affxe47PCdOoiBTzAtJqaCp_kjfSjqJRGYGPashYQZ0FU5ZJJ_5EqKHYkGoq_EMFxYklnCDGTwpSxRmg1AEhXDk-SDumIdOoPLOxJbpTIf7j5dRX3jUFtUmbp9D5HS65SgRMVuAS7T0wK5IpEUpccjvAcHd5CpFvHFpk1RPI8a/w300-h400/Crown1.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span>lso in his submission he states that the caps can be removed by the user with a <i>‘hook shaped’</i> lever that would fulcrum off the top of the capped bottle (Fig. 6 above), or by the use of a <i>‘forked opener or leaver which will freely receive the head of the bottle between its prongs’</i> with the bottle head serving as the fulcrum for displacing the cap. He also goes on to say that specific bottle openers of his own devising will be the subject of a separate patent application.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And he was true to his word, as on June the 5th 1893 he filed for a Capped-Bottle Opener, his second such application. (He had previously filed for another type of opener for a different bottle seal design where a concave disc was positioned in a groove inside the rim of the bottle and needed to be plucked out - that sealing method was also been invented by Painter.) This new version is quite familiar to us and is shown in four versions, one which included a clever bung as the handle to seal the bottle after some of its contents were poured, the hook on the other end means that the opener can also be used like his previous opener to remove those internal bung-like seals mentioned above.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYpLxTulC4inDxaCx4vaH7wuzind9oQ4DkL2J-l8alQUOvTS3y1TgNeDjU9UDs4OhJBp7qqzz830149gN7H-HLED3DGJ0eqW7UDfEAtvYlzLaFrGe7q8RflDaKOZxq9JdGurJHOkMLSMOoGt4H1EIzZMwhljARncHzHYTp3Gj7LbjUvCoFM55KoFVABZFx/s724/Crown2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="724" data-original-width="519" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYpLxTulC4inDxaCx4vaH7wuzind9oQ4DkL2J-l8alQUOvTS3y1TgNeDjU9UDs4OhJBp7qqzz830149gN7H-HLED3DGJ0eqW7UDfEAtvYlzLaFrGe7q8RflDaKOZxq9JdGurJHOkMLSMOoGt4H1EIzZMwhljARncHzHYTp3Gj7LbjUvCoFM55KoFVABZFx/w286-h400/Crown2.jpg" width="286" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">H</span>ere in Fig 6 we see the basic shape of the design we know, and in the dotted outline something even more familiar given the object we are discussing. Whether he adapted his design from older, existing openers is unknown but it is quite likely that he was the sole inventor in this case.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">William Painter went on to form ‘The Crown Cork and Seal Company’ and designed machines and equipment to make the process of applying is bottle caps quicker and more expedient - hence his many patents on the subject - and his business became a huge success and there has been much written about him**, although not quite so much in recent years.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Crown Cork made its way to Ireland by 1895 where it is being advertised as used on mineral waters in a Cork-based newspaper - coincidentally. And just a couple of years later these caps were being advertised as being suitable for all bottled beverages including beer, with one advertisement even using the fact they were easy to open by ladies as a selling point! An English version of the Crown Cork Company came into being in 1897, having acquired the European rights for the patent, and there were Irish companies in Dublin, Drogheda and Belfast manufacturing the caps by the middle of the 20th century by which time the patent had possibly expired.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">These caps could also be pre-printed with the drink company’s name almost from their introduction - as the many avid collectors will know - and were probably being used for stouts and ales here - even if in just a small way - for many decades before Guinness finally called a halt to the practice of corking bottles and forced the change completely to Crown Caps. There of course bottlers using these metal sealers before that and indeed, according to David Hughes in his book “A Bottle of Guinness Please” there were five official Guinness logo Crown Cork designs approved from 1934, and it is possible, and probable, they were being used long before then.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he invention of the Crown Cork meant that a whole new industry sprang up for bottle openers, one that continues to this day with a multitude of designs and methods for the removal of these now almost universal bottle sealers. The object shown at the top is just one of those designs and although it isn’t quite as iconic as the older, heavier official Crown Cork opener (see the 1920s' version below) with its registered number on the rim that can be found in many an old cutlery drawer, it is a more fitting version to be used in this series given the brand it advertises. These newer versions have proven difficult to date but they were probably promotional items sold or given away in the 1970s or perhaps the 1960s or even earlier. They were manufactured by John Watts who was based in Sheffield in England and the same design was used for Newcastle Brown Ale and others which just carried the maker's name. Very similar designs bearing the logos of Bass and Carlsberg were also available, although the manufacturer of those is unclear.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Based on the printed design*** on the bottle caps shown above with the opener, Guinness <i>appear</i> to have been using cork-lined caps until at least the 1990s before finally changing to plastic seals and removing the last vestiges of their cork-bottled past.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Given the finickiness of Guinness drinkers we can only assume they were unhappy about this small change too.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">One wonders did anyone do a taste test then ..?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;">*That piece of film can be seen <a href="https://www.rte.ie/archives/2019/0122/1024760-changes-to-bottled-stout/">here</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">** There is a book about William Painter viewable <a href="https://archive.org/details/williampainterhi00pain/mode/2up?q=irish">here</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">*** This typeface was used in early Guinness labels but revived in the late 1990s. The design with those two dots look like the later use but the caps could be from the earlier period.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This post really deserved more research and effort to fill in more details, but time restrictions and a need to not make it too long-winded means it's lacking some finer details..</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBpZlTMR_xWzK8oqYwHjAnK_6Dem7aFc-G7g42wXdHBhWQQoD-ngy0VHfoDU8tMOYknAdMGB_hGsjiLLyQjQteX6P9tzU8tqZcaegCokFoiwJ93kPmX6_DwXsxYK94F0R-Pv3OTOqPnBKOcEISy67C9N6PtMEk2foCf4BfA4ZY9E3PBbHEuSvjTSflv53V/s2650/IMG_20231116_233541.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1987" data-original-width="2650" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBpZlTMR_xWzK8oqYwHjAnK_6Dem7aFc-G7g42wXdHBhWQQoD-ngy0VHfoDU8tMOYknAdMGB_hGsjiLLyQjQteX6P9tzU8tqZcaegCokFoiwJ93kPmX6_DwXsxYK94F0R-Pv3OTOqPnBKOcEISy67C9N6PtMEk2foCf4BfA4ZY9E3PBbHEuSvjTSflv53V/w400-h300/IMG_20231116_233541.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Patents referenced and sources of diagrams:</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">WILLIAM PAINTER, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND. BOTTLE-SEALING Device. SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 468,258, dated February 2, 1892. Application filed June 16, 1890, Serial No. 355,603, (No model.)</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">WILLIAM PAINTER, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND. BOTTLE-SEALING DEVICE. SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 468,226, dated February 2, 1892. Application filed May 19, 1891, Serial No. 393,293, (No model.)</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">WILLIAM PAINTER, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, ASSIGNOR TO THE CROWN CORK AND SEAL COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE. CAPPED-BOTTLE OPENER. SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 514,200, dated February 6, 1894. Application filed June 5, 1893, Serial No. 476,638, (No model.) </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">All via Google Patents</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Both photographs are the authors own and cannot be used elsewhere without the author's permission. Newspaper research was thanks to The British Newspaper Archive and other sources are as credited. DO NOT STEAL THIS CONTENT!</span></p>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-27107888640829247232023-10-24T11:02:00.001+01:002023-10-24T11:02:37.460+01:00Opinion: On Pubs & Provenance<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLtcgjWmZxXFMJKgpNtmcd52jHDvETD_RBx5NPKnR-yEm7GgAdxdknSEC-4V3dcjH2K9bvtOQdYXbm256BWMdr6IfpZnDvvENkeXfgBIikQWdXLWkx-paxiRHwI1WyhUnRo2n6LbwjxS6b9JAwvYtr_dU2bjsiZ4S4DmsZ7Geqt0uXN4BnGudNcIw964vd/s181/IMG_20231024_092634.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="181" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLtcgjWmZxXFMJKgpNtmcd52jHDvETD_RBx5NPKnR-yEm7GgAdxdknSEC-4V3dcjH2K9bvtOQdYXbm256BWMdr6IfpZnDvvENkeXfgBIikQWdXLWkx-paxiRHwI1WyhUnRo2n6LbwjxS6b9JAwvYtr_dU2bjsiZ4S4DmsZ7Geqt0uXN4BnGudNcIw964vd/w320-h318/IMG_20231024_092634.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">M</span>y local town has history.</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It has a castle that dates to the early 13th century, which probably replaced a structure from before that period. The town sprang up just east of the castle on a piece of high ground that rose above the boggy land by the river that separated it from the fortress on its hill that gave the town its name. A community grew and developed around the intersection of two roads, that eventually turned into busy streets as it became a prosperous place, and a stopping place for travellers heading west and south from Dublin and back again. It was once protected by walls and guarded gates that have long since disappeared leaving no trace apart from some lines in recorded history and perhaps the occasional unearthed foundation stones. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The land for miles around the town is littered with megalithic structures dating back to a time before we as a people could record anything in any real or modern sense of the term. The pre-history of this area was most likely passed on orally from generation to generation until that too was lost, misunderstood or mistranslated, and the meanings and true purpose of the dolmens, raths and standing stones that erupt from the earth was corrupted and changed over time into places where the fairies, magic - and sometimes evil - dwelt. That invented history remained for centuries around these sites and became actual history in the mouths of the storytellers and the ears of those who listened - and then repeated it.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">These days we know better, and archaeology, research and rationality have replaced folklore, fear and myth for the majority of our people. Although we do still have a love for a good story, as do the visitors who travel to this island, to our towns, streets and buildings, and many – just like those who live here – are particularly drawn to public houses and the tales that are stored in their walls and floors, having seeped in over lots of years of telling and retelling by many generations.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span> part of me has always wanted to own an old pub. Not the clever part, not the financially astute part, not the curmudgeonly introvert part - but another part that every so often rises up in a fit of manic enthusiasm while I preach my own tales of pub and brewing history from the altar of cool marble that doubles as a bar countertop. I have written about my perfect pub* before. but this would be somewhat different as this would be a place I would own and run, not just visit to sate an appetite for company or reclusiveness depending on my mood, safely ensconced on the right side of that counter.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And it would need to function as a living entity in order to be a viable business.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">True public houses really do live in the truest meaning of the term, although we function within them in a symbiotic relationship of a sort and give them that life. We receive sustenance, plus succour and fulfilment and in return the public house can grow and change and be gainful, an evolving being that functions as part of our interdependency. These places are as real as those stone and earth structures from our prehistory that had purpose because of us, because of people. We cause these things to exist, not the stones, bricks, and timber of which they are composed.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So then why do we judge these component parts to be important? Why is the date of an old brick significant? Why if a carved name on a timber windowsill the reason for a place being worthy? Why would a supposed ancient section ceiling and a few found old coins mean that one public house is superior to another?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In truth these features matter little, as a public house's history can be invented, skewed and moulded into a marketable commodity where that history – whether true or false - is sold as the living thing, not the place itself. That ‘thing’ grows as more myths and legends are stuck upon the body until it becomes a hideous monstrosity that just serves its own purpose and has become detached from the actual place in history where its real story began, to the point where the myth is the thing that lives and grows - and exists. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is a curious thing to me that in a country with such deep and interesting real history that businesses feel the need to create or embellish a heritage of mistruths – crafting fakelore from folklore. Why do they feel the need to do so? Perhaps it is <i>because</i> of a love for that existing rich history, much of which is lost and needs 'finding' in one way or another? Therefore our love of myths and legends allows and encourages us to do so?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Or perhaps, as the more cynical among us might assume, it is for more mercenary reasons …</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span>ut back to the imaginary pub I’d like to own, and what if I wanted to create a history to wrap around it? How could I do so if I was so inclined?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It’s quite easy really …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">There is a pub in my town whose foundations literally sit on the ashes of a previous public house, a place that was called the Red Cow Inn. That establishment faced on to two right-angled streets and is recorded on street maps in the late 17th and very early 18th century right down its exact frontage length on both of those streets, and the document even records who owned the inn in this period. There also exists a merchant token of the kind issued by many businesses in the 17th century, and said token is dated 1657 and reconfirms the name of the inn’s owner as John Masters. Some of the buildings on the street burned down on a couple of occasions after this time so the existing public house structure probably dates to the 19th century - as do the huge amount of Irish public houses - but its rough frontage on one street corresponds to the older inn so therefore we can surely say that a public house has sat on this site to the mid-1600s. Right?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Estd. 1657, huh?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But we can go back even further …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Mentions in local historical publications can push an inn here into the 1500s – so we are now back 500 years which is a good age for any public house, providing we don’t need to look at the actual footprint or any of the extant building …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But what if we want more?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">What if there is a charred piece of timber joist embedded in a wall, found in some rubble on site and used to shore up some subsidence after one of the fires that consumed one of the iterations of a building? Dendrochronology is relatively accurate although it can give varying eras for any given piece of timber. So, if the boffins came back and said the timber was from either 1560-1610 or 1160-1180 then one of those has to be right, and it was found ‘in situ’ so therefore my pub dates from 1160 now, doesn’t it? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Estd. 1160 AD, imagine that!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">(We shall of course discount the known (and actual) fact that timbers were scavenged from the 12th century castle at one time when it fallen into ruin and used in a building right beside our site and these may be the wood that was discovered and dated. Shhhh....)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Is that far enough? No?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">We can go further.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">There is a lost early Christian monastic community that was known to be in the environs of the town, and if one looked at the lie of the land then it would have been on a place that was unlikely to flood - being close to two rivers - but close enough for those rivers to be useful. Our pub site sits on the high ground and would have overlooked both rivers at that time, not forgetting its proximity to two ancient roads that – probably – led to river crossings, so it was surely here was where this community was built? This site was founded in 634 AD according to one source, and would have provided rest, and indeed drink to weary travellers. It was a place where travellers drank alcoholic beverages (as the monks <i>definitely</i> brewed there) or an inn, or public house by any other name surely?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Est. 634 AD …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This establishment is now the oldest public house in Ireland, or at least can claim to be.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>t isn’t of course, as I’ve just fused some real facts and some conjecture into a story that appears to be believable, although all except the actual act of finding that wooden beam and doing the dendrochronology is based on reports, chronicles and actual history that I've forced into a mythical history, although as you can see it required a fair degree of lubrication.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But this might not be enough for me because having the words ‘Est. 634 AD’ might not hold sway with tourists and the general public unless I plaster the walls with old pictures and memorabilia and cart in a few old columns, wonky chairs, an ancient looking hearth and a battered countertop - and let’s not forget a few holy relics and church pews as a nod to its ecclesiastical past – plus that old charred and precious 12th century beam.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">For food we’ll serve Olde Worlde Monk’s Oyster Chowder, then porter and mutton stew with rustic-style bread with bog butter, followed by a seaweed dessert with a shot of sweetened mead.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">We shall buy a red nitro ale from a local brewery and sell it as ‘Monks’ Red Ale’ or ‘Curim Naofa’ – plus we need a dark beer so a rebadged nitro stout will be served called ‘John Master’s Black Porter,’ and a whiskey from a ‘found recipe’ distilled to Mr. Masters exacting standards called ‘Ye Red Cow Inne Uisce Beatha,’ which will be recommended to all the tourist who flock here.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As you can see I could turn that pub into a huge marketing-driven, tourist-focussed enterprise that told a skewed and embellished version of the truth that suited the story … but what have we created?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In truth we have just assembled a pub, one that doesn’t live. It would exist for sure but that is not the same thing. It wouldn’t have a life blood, only the transient infusions that tourists would bring, and success based on a history that was stretched so thin that it resembled the wraiths that reportedly lived among the dolmens and standing stones of our long-lost past.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">F</span>akelore is unfortunately a huge part of our commercial lives, be it Irish pubs or even breweries and it is an ongoing issue, even amongst our newest suppliers and providers of beer. If you tell a story often enough it will spread and take over everything it touches, and you can never take it back. That mistruth, that lie, that embellishment, will always be there sliding into people’s minds and thoughts being constantly repeated, written, rewritten and recorded until the author too believes what they have perpetuated. Perhaps this is worse than that oral tradition of chronicling the past that came before the written word, as it has a permanence that will never really be rectified by those who rail against it.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">We shouldn’t create beer and brewing related history, we should just record facts as best we can at any given time.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And by the way, I’ll never own a pub ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;">(I wrote this piece in a fit of annoyance and anger a few months back and I was inspired to tidy and publish it after reading James Wright's excellent recent post <a href="https://triskeleheritage.triskelepublishing.com/2023/10/22/mediaeval-mythbusting-blog-25-seans-bar/">here</a>.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* <a href="http://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2022/03/pub-fiction-stars-beneath-sea.html">My perfect pub</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">The attached image is the adapted from an image of the actual John Masters Red Cow token from British Museum website.</span></p>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-30468117046983818692023-09-29T10:53:00.000+01:002023-09-29T10:53:38.590+01:00Pub Fiction: Cat, Contraption & Mechanism<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKqJER8h1Gcg1FjnnJO0WO4C7HuXeENbZJhcRlrda9y4Yo1lyKpQe2x3vd57p-oNIUPHICfNVRtaUkrwrIxtP6r7porz6kZHQE6Ft038wkdvP6asrA1z25neEC_FqeQzMvprtwj1NTbUtTRIpUSJxhLVZoNqvQv6Jhmq5HBrhyphenhyphenGk8KerBhix4WUaEH33zl/s620/IMG_20230928_235412.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="620" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKqJER8h1Gcg1FjnnJO0WO4C7HuXeENbZJhcRlrda9y4Yo1lyKpQe2x3vd57p-oNIUPHICfNVRtaUkrwrIxtP6r7porz6kZHQE6Ft038wkdvP6asrA1z25neEC_FqeQzMvprtwj1NTbUtTRIpUSJxhLVZoNqvQv6Jhmq5HBrhyphenhyphenGk8KerBhix4WUaEH33zl/w400-h299/IMG_20230928_235412.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-large;">'S</span>hoo! Git!'<p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Cat skidded along the counter, its paws losing traction on the shiny surface as it tried to escape the flick of a cloth from the Her, knocking a bottle containing the dregs of the dark bitter stuff over and leaving it bouncing and spinning on the cold marble – a small trail of froth and stickiness in its wake. It was usually less clumsy, but the Her had surprised Cat when she had come up from the Underneath and caught Cat staring curiously at the newly delivered ham that she had left hanging from a hook above the counter while she relayed a message to the Him.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'That bloody cat!'</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Cat stopped running when it was out of harm’s way and slinked off towards the other end of the bar, where it sat down and began cleaning itself of the small drops of liquid that had landed on its calico coat while the Her cleaned up the mess on the bar, all the while muttering and throwing annoyed looks at Cat, who stopped its preening every few moments to make sure that the Her was still far enough away not to hit it with anything. From down below in the Underneath came the sounds of clinking and the grunts and groans of the Him and - being by default a curious creature - Cat jumped down from the bar and padded down the worn timber steps, careful to avoid the Her as she headed towards the kitchen with the ham on her shoulder.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Cat sat on a step halfway down and looked at what was happening in the place that it saw as its play- or more accurately hunting-ground. The Him was down here wrestling with a large, heavy wooden barrel that had arrived earlier, while the Himling - who looked like a younger and less rotund version of the Him - stood with his finger rooting in his ear and a glazed look in his eyes.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Jaysus, don’t stand there like a gobdaw, help me with this will ya?'</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This was a common sight for Cat, with the Him doing the work while the Himling just stood around until forced to move and do something by the shoutings of the Him. Cat didn’t really know what was being said but it was no stranger to the tone being used when he occasionally got under the Him’s feet or just generally got too close.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">A similar scene had played out the previous day with Him shouting at the Himling above the dull clinking of glass as the Himling filled a big round tub with the old bottles that had sat in crates down here for the last while. Next the Himling donned a sacking apron and added some cold water from a tap on the side wall to the tub before topping it up with steaming water from a bucket to which he had added some spoons out of a bag labelled ‘Soda Crystals’ - not that Cat knew what the bag contained as it could not read of course. All the while the Him was shouting at the Himling to hurry up as Cat watched on from its perch on a broad shelf filled with dusty paraphernalia. The Himling then got a brush-like thing with loads of bristles and proceeded to push and twist it around inside the bottles one by one, checking them by holding up towards the bare lightbulb that hung from the ceiling, until all of them had been scrubbed. Next the Himling scraped off the old label from the outside of the bottles and rinsed them all before setting them upside-down in a rack in order to drain and dry.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Today the bottles were still sitting there and Cat came cautiously down the stairs to find its perch once again and watch the ritual he had seen happen many times before, pausing just briefly to distractedly push with its paw a few of the wooden corks that were floating in hot water near to a very low stool.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Him and the Himling ignored Cat, as they were currently rolling the barrel back and forth on the cold slabs, which they did for a short while before placing it on its side - and with some effort - onto a low wooden stand. Cat watched as the Him loosened something with a hiss on what was now the top of the barrel before picking up a brass tap with a perforated tube on one end and a wooden mallet, he then wrapped some folded newspaper around the end of the tap and positioned it at the bung at the bottom of what had been the round top of the barrel, before striking the tap end a few times to drive the bung into the barrel followed by the tapered end, with the paper wrapping forming a tight seal. Cat had watched this process on occasion before and sometimes a jet of black liquid would shoot out of the barrel and hit the Him square in the face, causing a string of words to be uttered that would make the Her come down the steps and tell the Him to shut up as there were gentlemen and ladies present in the Up Above that day. But no accidents happened this day, so the Him got a mug and poured some liquid into it from the now secured tap, tasting it before grunting approvingly.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Cat jumped down on the newly tapped barrel and watched as the Him then took the Contraption with its rectangular bowl and 4 pipes and placed it under the tap and proceeded to fill the bowl with black liquid from the tap that was now in the barrel. The Himling then sucked the ends of each of the four pipes to get the liquid to flow into the four bottles he had just positioned under each of the pipes, spitting mouthfuls of black liquid back into the bowl that was being filled. The Himling would take the empty bottles he had cleaned the previous day from their rack at one side of the Contraption and once filled by one of the four tubes, he'd put them on the ground on the opposite side and put another bottle under the filling pipe and repeat the process.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Get off of there!'</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Him had dragged the Mechanism towards the barrel beside where the Himling was leaving the bottles and positioned the bucket of corks beside it, he threw a cork at Cat but missed - Cat just looked at the Him curiously and continued his observations. The Him just sighed and inserted a cork from the bucket into a pull-out section on one side of the top of the Mechanism, he slid that section into place, positioned a bottle on a little plate underneath before pulling down on a long lever that forced the cork into the bottle. He then placed the bottle into a crate and repeated the process, the Him and the Himling working in silence apart from the quiet gurgle of the dark liquid in the Contraption and the dull clunk of the lever in action of the Mechanism.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Oh hello pussycat!'</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Herling had arrived home from wherever she went during the day, and Cat liked the Herling as she gave it little treats of meaty scraps and hard rubs behind the ear, both of which pleased Cat. But today the Herling went to where the Him and the Himling were sitting on the low stools in front of their machines, picked up a crate of filled bottles and carried them over to a table near the back of the Underneath. She opened a brown envelope that was sitting on the table and took out a thick bundle of oval, beige labels tied up with string. She cut the string and left the pile beside the crate of bottles. Then she got a small bowl to which she added a spoonful of white powder from a bag with the word ‘Flour’ written upon it – not that Cat knew that - and mixed them together. Then she used a small paint brush to put some of the mixture on the back of the label and affixed it neatly to a bottle, then she too – like the Him and the Himling – fell into the non-musical rhythm of repetitive work, with the air smelling of hot corks, spilled stout and floury paste, tinged with the greasy metal smell from the Mechanism and the musty odour of the Underneath itself.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Cat wasn’t happy at being ignored, it jumped up beside the Herling and sniffed at the mixture in the bowl before butting her elbow with its head, almost making the Herling drop a bottle.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Silly puss! Don’t do that.'</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Herling picked up Cat and put her back up on the barrel that was almost empty, much to the annoyance and mutterings of the Him. Soon the tap began to gurgle and the tray in the Contraption that the bottles were being filled from was empty. When he had finished corking the bottles, the Him pried out the brass tap from the end of the barrel and used the mallet to beat back a round piece of timber into the hole to seal the cask tight again. Cat had to jump quickly off the barrel as the Him and the Himling lifted the barrel back upright and set it near a trapdoor to the Outdoors where Cat knew these barrels appeared and disappeared from regularly.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Herling was finished putting the beige round labels with writing on them on the bottles and the Him and the Himling took the crates, each holding two dozen bottles, and stacked them at the end of the cellar six high, where Cat knew they would sit for a third of a Moon’s Time before being brought a crate at a time up into the Up Above where the people came and the corks were removed from the bottles with a long handled machine that was attached to the bar, before being poured into a glass in exchange for Round Metal Things that clinked as they were tossed into a drawer underneath the counter.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Cat yawned and stretched, then it sniffed the air for any smell of the Grey Squeakers that sometimes wandered into the Underneath, as it was his job to catch, play with, and crunch them. There was no scent of them today but it would return by its secret way later that night to check again, on its nightly patrol of the Underneath.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Just then the Herling appeared beside Cat and picked it up.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Come on puss, up we go.'</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Cat let himself be carried up the stairs purring contently, with Him and the Himling following behind after having cleaned the Contraption, putting away the Mechanism and mopping the slabs.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">When everyone was upstairs the Him closed the door into the Underneath, and they headed towards the kitchen and the smell of cooking ham. The Him stopped briefly to gather four glasses before opening two bottles of stout and two minerals. They had an hour to eat, drink and rest before the doors would be opened and more bottles poured for their thirsty patrons.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And as ever, Cat would watch over all proceedings …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzJe_jyINnMUhsnbY6LC_GR9QBCRioK5hFSreBOokzBm_JSzHXGNwYxCn4YG_nJ8XiN8iAIvtY2GC1miaQOj6l-oCADwhtRBWVA_RygaVWAsWP3YQU7ePxLw4iIPL0kKOs7RSR0kRYAbs_LdJEHzqymn6wBYHry117uiGxKJWCX-HwaOaQ620qv2_fyG92/s1950/IMG_20230928_235427.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1950" data-original-width="1461" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzJe_jyINnMUhsnbY6LC_GR9QBCRioK5hFSreBOokzBm_JSzHXGNwYxCn4YG_nJ8XiN8iAIvtY2GC1miaQOj6l-oCADwhtRBWVA_RygaVWAsWP3YQU7ePxLw4iIPL0kKOs7RSR0kRYAbs_LdJEHzqymn6wBYHry117uiGxKJWCX-HwaOaQ620qv2_fyG92/w300-h400/IMG_20230928_235427.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Contraption'</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh340ZLzfXK8q7WiMCCZn_WcRSrd6v2iVAgfsBCE5Rcn6grT-XBOAnSYoEL8XooGwpN3aLQCh_UYq98Ue2Ewrbr6NomsDdkrX6Ez_MYQAoiMrs3ZVnpXcLFc4lgud8_ahjxcHkOaWTO8paUjJI0wc1EHQa6VHA5Wc0waDqdCjGR2LMdmK7cyUXAN1Zlj6BK/s2341/IMG_20230928_235439.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2341" data-original-width="1755" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh340ZLzfXK8q7WiMCCZn_WcRSrd6v2iVAgfsBCE5Rcn6grT-XBOAnSYoEL8XooGwpN3aLQCh_UYq98Ue2Ewrbr6NomsDdkrX6Ez_MYQAoiMrs3ZVnpXcLFc4lgud8_ahjxcHkOaWTO8paUjJI0wc1EHQa6VHA5Wc0waDqdCjGR2LMdmK7cyUXAN1Zlj6BK/w300-h400/IMG_20230928_235439.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Mechanism'</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">[The bottling routine described here is adapted from notes regarding the procedure in the 1950s in “A bottle of Guinness Please” by David Hughes, and supplemented by passages in “3 Score and 10 – A Great Leap” by Cartan Finegan plus parts of Flann O’Brien’s “Myles Away from Dublin.”]</p><p style="text-align: justify;">(Cat Photo via rollingroscoe on morguefile.com, and the Contraption and Mechanism photos were taken by the author from the public house display in Carlow County Museum.)</p>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-11753234970800276002023-09-22T10:23:00.001+01:002023-09-22T10:23:32.675+01:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #13 – Pint & ½ Pint Bottles (1920-1950s)<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUgFU9os2GYwMYU-M0C0wBXu715qsgJq409kZyoAC3BiUlIee_3IfKNYgZNwCILQktBxNP98vqJBBhcXirfimGKY0GjVX3OFdsrH7-T8YVi0D-HX8OkfzcqCt7Wdjiv94Va8TPmdLKYjNbwZ9jEqVkcg6yDmBUnM57pQkYII9Ywl-VnSwgp1flSjF9mYLA/s3256/IMG_20230921_230750.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3256" data-original-width="2442" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUgFU9os2GYwMYU-M0C0wBXu715qsgJq409kZyoAC3BiUlIee_3IfKNYgZNwCILQktBxNP98vqJBBhcXirfimGKY0GjVX3OFdsrH7-T8YVi0D-HX8OkfzcqCt7Wdjiv94Va8TPmdLKYjNbwZ9jEqVkcg6yDmBUnM57pQkYII9Ywl-VnSwgp1flSjF9mYLA/w300-h400/IMG_20230921_230750.jpg" width="300" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he words of the rose to the rose floated up to his mind: ‘No gardener has died, comma, within rosaceous memory.’ He sang a little song, he drank his bottle of stout, he dashed away a tear, he made himself comfortable. So it goes in the world.</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">More Pricks Than Kicks - Samuel Beckett (1934)</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div></i></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>n Ireland the pint bottle has achieved a semi-legendary status and is remarked upon and reminisced about it in equal measure as it slowly disappears from the fridges and shelves of the bars in this country. There are still many who appreciate its legacy, history and heritage, even if much of these elements are misunderstood, and there are those who enjoy and savour the taste and flavour of a beer poured the ‘proper’ way from a pint bottle into a ubiquitous flared pilsner glass, or just ‘A Glass’ as it is called in Irish pubs. At this point in time there are just a few beers still available in this Imperial measure and method of serve - the Diageo brands of Guinness, Harp, Smithwicks and Macardles, while Bulmers cider is also offer a pint bottles. These are the last relics of what was a huge industry of the past, where most of the beers consumed on this island were served in pint, half-pint and one-third-of-a-pint bottles, and when bottling companies as well as the publicans themselves bottled huge amounts of the output from Ireland's breweries. There was for sure a trade in draught beer served straight from the cask but this was more limited, and probably more often found, in the busy urban public houses.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So in most of Ireland the bottle was the most common way of drinking beer both at home and in the pub, but our love for the pint bottle is a relatively recent affair, as the half pint version was the most popular way of serving most beers for decades here, and certainly for a long period after the formation of the state in the 1922. It remained so until Draught Guinness and other draught keg beers became popular, and took over the pub beer sales in most of country. So these bottles -especially the smaller size - would have been a familiar sight in pubs, grocery shops and homes throughout Ireland.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Prior to the 1920s there was a mixture of bottle sizes that were known and discussed in the trade by how many of said bottles you could fill from a gallon of beer, so there were ‘12s’, ‘13s’, ‘14s’ and ‘16s’, with the ‘16s’ equating to a half pint (10fl. oz. or 284ml) and the others sizes up to ‘12s’ (13.33 fl.oz or 379ml), and although this latter size were sold as ‘Reputed Pints,’ interestingly there is very little mention of Imperial pint bottles up to this period.*</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The newly created government of Ireland finally got around to addressing the issues around bottle sizes a not long after its formation when they published the Intoxicating Liquor (General) Act, 1924, which states the following:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote>9.—(1) The Minister for Justice may by order prescribe the sizes of the bottles in which any specified intoxicating liquor may be sold, and where any such order is in force it shall not be lawful to sell or supply the intoxicating liquor specified in the order in bottles of any size other than one of the sizes prescribed by the order.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">And then in 1925 the following appears in the Intoxicating Liquor (Standardisation of Bottles) No. 1 Order, 1925:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">AND WHEREAS it has been deemed expedient to prescribe the sizes of the bottles in which ale, beer, porter and stout may be sold:</p><p style="text-align: justify;">NOW I, CAOIMHGHÍN Ó hUIGÍN, Minister for Justice, by virtue of the powers conferred upon me by Section 9 of the Intoxicating Liquor (General) Act, 1924 , and of all other powers enabling me in that behalf, do hereby order and prescribe as follows:—</p><p style="text-align: justify;">On and from the 1st day of October, 1925, all ale, beer, porter or stout sold in bottles containing less than one standard quart shall be sold in quarter-pint, half-pint, or pint bottles [...]</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">This had to be amended on the 30th of December - <i>possibly</i> because the quarter-pint bottle was an error - to read:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote>(2) On and from the 1st day of January, 1926, all ale, beer, porter or stout sold in bottles containing less than one standard quart shall be sold in bottles containing one-third of a pint <i>[my emphasis]</i>, one-half pint, or one pint.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">(This piece of legislation was only revoked in 1983, presumably allowing the sale of any size bottle of beer providing the volume was stated on the label and that volume was correct, although this was probably the case anyway thanks to European legislation and regulations from 1977 regarding alcoholic drink volumes.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This regulations needed to be enforced and further clarification appear to have been needed so we have another piece of legislation added on the 3rd of February 1926 which offered more information in 11 points, the most interesting being:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote>2. These Regulations shall come into force on the third day of February, 1926.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So a change from the date cited above.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote>4. The capacity of each bottle shall be defined by a line stamped on the bottle of not less than three-quarters of an inch in length and distant not less than one-and-five-eighth inches nor more than one-and-seven-eighth inches from the brim of the bottle.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">This helps us to see why an where the fill lines appear on these bottles.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote>6. A bottle which is not completely emptied when tilted to an angle of 130 degrees from the vertical shall not be stamped.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">This simple piece of wording shows why the sloped ‘shoulders’ on bottles are the shape and size they are!</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote>7. The denomination of a bottle may be indicated by the abbreviated form of " Pt.", " ½ Pt.", or "1/3 Pt." respectively.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Again, we can see this on the bottles shown above.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote>8. If a maker's or trader's name is stamped on a bottle, it shall be in letters not exceeding one-half the size of the letters indicating the denomination.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">On embossed bottles this defines the maxim size the bottler’s name can be appear.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">11. In the case of bottles which are in stock or in use for trade on the date when these Regulations come into force, the provisions of Article 8 of these Regulations shall not apply, and the following provisions shall have effect in lieu of the provisions contained in Articles 4 and 5 of these Regulations, that is to say :—</p><p style="text-align: justify;">(a) the capacity shall be deemed to be defined by an imaginary line drawn at one and three-quarters inches from the brim of the bottle ;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">(b) the allowance for error permissible on verification and inspection shall be, in the case of a pint or half-pint bottle, not more than one-and-a-half drachms in deficiency nor more than one-and-a-half ounces in excess, and in the case of a one-third pint bottle, not more than one drachm in deficiency nor more than three-quarters of an ounce in excess.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Provided that the provisions of this Article shall not have effect after the 31st day of December, 1927, or such later date as may be defined by subsequent Regulations, and that after the 31st day of December, 1927, or such later date, no bottle which has not been verified and stamped pursuant to the provisions of Articles 4, 5 and 8 of these Regulations shall be deemed to be lawfully verified and stamped.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">This is a long-winded way of saying that it is permitted to keep using unverified bottles as long as they conform to the legislation regarding volume, and they are destroyed or recycled by the 31st of December 1927 unless new legislation is published - and indeed it was changed on the 7th of January so that said bottles that were stamped or etched according to the legislation could be continued to be used in the trade regardless of their date of manufacturing.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Much of this legislation is tedious and difficult to analyse but Weights and Measures Act of 1928 clarifies much of what had gone before and more importantly gives is some clarity on the mystery of the numbers, letters and writing on the bottles shown here, and most others that are found in the collections of museums and breweriana collectors. It appears it was possible to incorporate verification marks into the manufacturing process of the bottles as part of the mould in which the bottle was formed and this is seen on these examples as ‘DIC’, ‘SE’ and the numbers ‘127.’</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirnCUzjp-wMzv6V-bPPmx0MD-TaMBnAehHmQAlODejFv2FHjeXv_ITR_gsSDoJsfh5xjau61klzA2XSHR-QYLAqAqIsjGfC9LpzAlTkcfD0W4zGfjyZEKGqblXNAJvHiD2C4Ies9_LSyk8MRKfQNG-NflXDEYpIifgzYPbw7Au743kimu-CWl8ZnrflHni/s1626/IMG_20230921_231331.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1219" data-original-width="1626" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirnCUzjp-wMzv6V-bPPmx0MD-TaMBnAehHmQAlODejFv2FHjeXv_ITR_gsSDoJsfh5xjau61klzA2XSHR-QYLAqAqIsjGfC9LpzAlTkcfD0W4zGfjyZEKGqblXNAJvHiD2C4Ies9_LSyk8MRKfQNG-NflXDEYpIifgzYPbw7Au743kimu-CWl8ZnrflHni/w400-h300/IMG_20230921_231331.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">We can break these down as follows:</p><p style="text-align: justify;">SE stands for ‘Saorstát Eireann’ the Irish translation for the Irish Free State which existed from 1922 until 1937.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The letters ‘DIC’ can appear quite puzzling but its meaning becomes clear if you look at the government body who was in charge of all of this legislation – The <b>D</b>epartment of <b>I</b>ndustry and <b>C</b>ommerce.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">127 is a little trickier but if we read Part 1 section 7 of the above mentioned act - Verification and stamping of bottles during manufacture – we see the following:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">The Minister may, if and whenever he thinks fit, grant in respect of any factory in Saorstát Eireann a licence in the prescribed form authorising all bottles to which this Act applies manufactured in such factory to be stamped in the prescribed manner during the process of manufacture with a stamp of verification under the Weights and Measures Acts, 1878 to 1904, as amended by this Act or with an impression derived from such stamp, and a factory in respect of which such a licence has been granted and is in force is in this section referred to as a licensed factory.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Therefore certain large glass bottle manufactures such as the company who produced those shown above – The Irish Glass Bottle Company – could bypass the need to apply individual etched on verification details by getting this licence. So it appears that this number 127 is the licence number given to this factory, which operated in Ringsend in Dublin.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Indeed the act goes on to say:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote>The methods of verification and stamping of bottles to which this Act applies authorised under this section shall, in respect of such bottles manufactured in a licensed factory, be in substitution for the methods of verification and stamping required or authorised by or under the Principal Act.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The company still needed inspectors from The Department of Industry and Commerce to check batches of bottles and certain fees needed to be paid, but it made the process simpler than that for drinking glasses for example which needed to be individually etched with the year date and the inspector or area number in the presence of said inspector. Other parts of this general legislation alludes to these inspectors being members of Gárda Síochána (The Irish police force), or at least appointed by them.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">(The numbers that appear on the bottom of these bottles alongside the obvious initials ‘I. G. B.’ are a little more enigmatic but presumably stand for the mould numbers and variants.) </p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">M</span>uch has been written about the rise and fall of The Irish Glass Bottle Co. but our interests are in how it operated and functioned in the period of our concern - the 1920s. In 1928 an article regarding a visit to the company appeared in The Dublin Leader newspaper:</p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: center;">THE IRISH BOTTLE INDUSTRY</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It was a Wexford man, Michael Owens, who in America first invented an alternative to mouth blowing in the making of bottles. A bicycle pump suggested the idea to him. The modern machines that developed out of that simple idea are still called after Owens, and to-day on the premises of the Irish Glass Bottle Co., Ltd., Charlotte Quay, Ringsend, Dublin, there is at work one of the largest and most modern Owens Bottle machines.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">These bottle works are in full swing now. When we first visited a bottle factory in Dublin many years ago the Owen machines were things of the future, and it was all mouth blowing; in fact we blew a special bottle ourselves and took it home as a souvenir. A modern bottle factory is in parts a very hot place, as the heat in the furnace registers about 1,300 degrees C. Until some time back coal was the fuel used; now oil has superceded[sic] it, though at any time the factory can go back to coal if desirable. The main raw material is sand which is got from the Sutton-Malahide district, and needless to say the lime used is also a native product.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The furnace is going since November 1st last, for once the extraordinary temperature of about 1,300 is reached you have to keep it up, and so the works are carried on in three shifts of eight hours each, and the furnace never cools. The machine delivers the red-hot bottles in the course of not many seconds and workers take them up with long tongs—when you deal with red-hot bottles you need a long spoon—and place them on a steel belt revolving through another furnace. The latter furnace is 8o feet long and is quite cool at the other end; it takes about six hours for these bottles to travel the 8o feet, and by that time they are cooled. The machine is equal to turning out about 2,000 bottles in an hour.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Many things have occurred with regard to bottles in quite recent times, The tariff on bottles is 33 1/3 %, bottles under five ounces—at the request of this Company—-being admitted free. Our readers can guess the size of a five ounce and under bottle, when they are told that an ordinary beer bottle is ten ounces.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Who pays a tariff and to what extent do various parties pay it ? If a tariff excludes foreign goods and the prices of home goods do not rise, there is obviously nothing to pay; the only change is that the home Country has the whole home-market. There are foreign bottles still coming in from Germany, and from England. The prices of the half pint beer bottles is 20/- per gross and the question as to who pays the tariff is easy seen in this particular case. The imported bottles are now sold at about 15/- per gross, less duty, which practically means that Germans and English pay the tariff. In due time when the outside competitors find that undercutting will not down the Irish factory, they will give up the game and the Saorstát bottle factories will conquer the Saorstát market. The slight advantage which jam, sweets, etc., have, owing to existing taxation, has given a great fillip to jam making and consequentially the bottle industry benefits. One of the great results of any manufacturing industry in a country is the consequential effects on other home industries. Jam making has been very considerably extended in the Saorstat[sic] and the Irish Glass Bottle Company is doing a very big line in glass jars for home manufactured jams.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Some time ago there were a variety of sizes - rather of internal content—of bottles in the stout trade; the capacity of the bottles ranged from twelve up to even seventeen bottles to the gallon. The Government have stopped profiteering in that line and have made it imperative that every stout bottle contains half a pint. There is already—and there must be after a certain date—what we might call a Plimsol mark on the neck of every beer bottle it registers the half-pint contents. At the Base of some of the bottles now being turned out the words “Bottle made in Ireland ” are embossed, and we understand that this will, in due time, appear on all bottles turned out in the factory.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is only recently—about two years ago—that the manufacture of white bottles and jars has been started. When we were in the factory last, some six years ago, there were no white bottles being made, and we expressed the hope that that development would come in time. It meant new machinery and large capital expenditure. The old Ringsend Bottle Works over the way are now re-organised, and white glass bottles and jar making are going ahead. The old system of mouth blowing is not wholly discarded, as in cases of special and comparatively small orders it is more economical to manufacture by this method than by machine.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This Company has about five thousand customers. It supplies retailers as well as wholesalers and many of its customers have their names embossed on their bottles. We were glad to see such life and bustle about the place. The Company employ about 120 men, and sometimes the number goes up to about 200, and pay wages to the amount of about twenty-three thousand pounds a year-—a valuable industry. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">This is a great insight into the company at this time and it is presented here in full including the comments on jam jars! It reinforces some of the points and observations made above. What is certainly of interest is the comment that stout was only bottled in half-pint bottles at this time, although there probably were exceptions, as has been stated already.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span> helpful advertisement for The Irish Glass Bottle Company appeared in The Dublin Leader on Saturday 8th of July 1939 which shows a half pint bottle and encourages bottlers to use new bottles and not to recycle older ones – a far cry from the current ethos. It shows the prices of all of the legal beer bottle sizes and lists 1/3 pint bottles as ‘24’s’ which harks back to the older way of describing bottles by how many can be filled from a gallon. This size of bottle by the way was used for barley-wine and even for Guinness at one time, where they were called baby bottles - or even ‘Baby Guinness’ by our nearest neighbours, a name that means a different drink these days of course …</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHhgG1TrZZzsUG6Lgk096lWLlKQ5014qkbzjV6UXAidikfY9kKd9PRQ9A7L901-HQYaRBabLoWmlsdiFkZrGwPyHYEghgzhOixCjgbdyOelR-JrT2fwb2fsD41yUHIOy7XAYT787ejo2bqzxLJcNVtMPij7SH1qF4_2KCE2JETJUWEilnGfpF9WgN46tpy/s1531/Screenshot_20230922_075140.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1531" data-original-width="1017" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHhgG1TrZZzsUG6Lgk096lWLlKQ5014qkbzjV6UXAidikfY9kKd9PRQ9A7L901-HQYaRBabLoWmlsdiFkZrGwPyHYEghgzhOixCjgbdyOelR-JrT2fwb2fsD41yUHIOy7XAYT787ejo2bqzxLJcNVtMPij7SH1qF4_2KCE2JETJUWEilnGfpF9WgN46tpy/w266-h400/Screenshot_20230922_075140.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>t is unclear precisely when this style of bottle with its ‘licence’ fell out of use but they were still being used in the 40s (The design and verification image were still being used in advertisements in 1944) and probably the 1950s – long after the term Saorstát Eireann was made redundant. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">New regulations issued in 1958 introduced a new verification design and regulations for bottles that was to come into force on the first day of January 1959, and which revoked the older legislation. So this appears to be the end of this style of bottle verification and presumably these were replaced by plainer, less embossed bottles of similar shape, and the half-pint version appears to have lost its shoulders in favour of a sleeker look. These bottles presumably feature the new verification stamp, with the date below and the verification inspector or area above. But according to part 6 and 7 of these new regulations:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbfWN4OxIgH-EJLJzMLZ4LTSpRMywg6fp7V6FhHpgEd2ftxtrhJsoD5nv6Q3qnShnfvV6QFbVrdMEb_juDx7W0zD-agf8TzcUvgDJML_i9_y9gYCZbObMEFCi_ZeRIROHMoawf2Ar95LW1IGZF97X45ccFQAMk5mmSkkrXjK8ihs6BvxFhOjrzejmCstBE/s276/IMG_20230921_231534.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="207" data-original-width="276" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbfWN4OxIgH-EJLJzMLZ4LTSpRMywg6fp7V6FhHpgEd2ftxtrhJsoD5nv6Q3qnShnfvV6QFbVrdMEb_juDx7W0zD-agf8TzcUvgDJML_i9_y9gYCZbObMEFCi_ZeRIROHMoawf2Ar95LW1IGZF97X45ccFQAMk5mmSkkrXjK8ihs6BvxFhOjrzejmCstBE/w320-h240/IMG_20230921_231534.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">(1) The stamp of verification to be used at a licensed bottle factory shall be of the form and design prescribed for the purposes or Regulation 5 of these Regulations, save that it shall not be obligatory to include the figures indicating the year of stamping.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1) of this Regulation, the stamp of verification used at a licensed bottle factory in pursuance of Regulation 6 of the Weights and Measures (Stamps) Regulations, 1928 (S. R. & O. No. 72 of 1928), may continue to be used at such factory.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">This would appear to state that the bottle factories <i>can</i> continue to use the older style of verification but could change to the new style - without the date - if they wanted to, but it is unclear when exactly they completely disappeared from the pubs and grocers, although it’s probably fair to assume they were gone by the 1960s.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>t is also unclear when exactly the pint bottle as a serving size began to gain more popularity in Ireland but it was possibly on the rise over this same later period driven by the abovementioned brands, and in 1976 Guinness changed from the old, shouldered bottle like the one shown above to the new rocket-shaped one we are familiar with today. The half pint bottle of Guinness sadly disappeared in 1995**, and all of this size of serve from the other breweries in Ireland were well gone by this stage, as were most of the breweries themselves and the many bottlers both large and small.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">We can see that our love for a pint bottle of any beer is quite recent – or at least relatively so - but that pint bottle is still around, and hopefully will be for a while as a last vestige of a bygone industry and trade.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* There is more on the subject of bottles <a href="http://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2021/02/our-other-bottle-of-stout-no-pints-or.html">here</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">** The bottle change is feature in <a href="http://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2022/12/bottled-irish-beer-history-farewell-my.html">this</a> post.</p><div><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: justify;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. </span><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: justify;">The attached image is the author's own and cannot be used elsewhere without the author's permission. Newspaper research was thanks to The British Newspaper Archive and other sources are as credited. DO NOT STEAL THIS CONTENT!</span></div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-20626731008547988872023-09-07T07:59:00.001+01:002023-09-07T07:59:22.488+01:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #12 – Colonel Murphy’s Stout Beermat (1969)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfltg3eMqSBf4MRbM82iXgjqEu7dcQU9tzsN4TbpdaJjuwX5zcD7YxtKG3yYmtIGVX8RJYEsg3W4JoXQBJfd8yhHvDAaepin7G6yGidTjD4ooJbZasMnqnjNCZZ7hUEMQLnEm1kvdc1lNVSwxE_nWVSWAbuOvGCleS0oPRPneggsgxSd7PRw0cvcOIDK6f/s3111/IMG_20230906_201926.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2333" data-original-width="3111" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfltg3eMqSBf4MRbM82iXgjqEu7dcQU9tzsN4TbpdaJjuwX5zcD7YxtKG3yYmtIGVX8RJYEsg3W4JoXQBJfd8yhHvDAaepin7G6yGidTjD4ooJbZasMnqnjNCZZ7hUEMQLnEm1kvdc1lNVSwxE_nWVSWAbuOvGCleS0oPRPneggsgxSd7PRw0cvcOIDK6f/w400-h300/IMG_20230906_201926.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><i><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">G</span>oodness! A rival ..!</i></div></i><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Top men at the giant Guinness brewing group must be anxiously watching a little experiment which is going on in Manchester. If things go according to plan it could eventually lead to Ireland’s famous stout facing up to a serious rival in this country. […] If Murphy’s stout scores with Britain’s drinkers, then Guinness – Eire’s biggest export* – may find it has a challenger.</i><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: left;">The City Editor at The Manchester Evening News - Tuesday 2nd of July 1968</span></div></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>n July 1968 the Watney-Mann brewery group quietly test marketed a batch of Murphy’s draught stout brewed at The Lady’s Well Brewery in Cork on a target audience in 20 of their Manchester pubs.<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">1 </sup>This soft launch must have been a relative success as it in turn led to a bigger campaign in June of 1969 when Watney-Mann were joined by Bass-Charrington - both giants of British brewing at the time - in trialling and marketing that same Irish stout in their pubs in the hope of unseating Guinness’s grip on the bar counters of Britain. Now under the guise of ‘Colonel Murphy,’ it was trialled in 500 of their pubs in Manchester and Brighton, with the hope of launching it in 8,000 pubs across the island in the future.<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">2 </sup>The name change and choice seems a strange decision, as nitrogenated draught Murphys had just been launched in Ireland the previous year with attractive, trendy branding<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">3</sup>. That new branding featured a modern and stylised version of their famous older image of the strongman Eugen Sandow holding up a horse with one hand, which would seem to have been a much more marketable image and story to use and push in Britain. (‘Colonel Murphy’ was presumably named after Lt. Co. John F. Murphy who was the last of the Murphy family to play a direct role in the brewery.)</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span> newspaper campaign was launched in <i>The Manchester Evening News</i> over a period of months with the tagline we see on the beermat - <i>‘If you like draught stout, you’ll love Colonel Murphy’</i> - hardly the catchiest piece of wording and design ever produced.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The advertisement continues:</p><div style="text-align: justify;"><i></i><blockquote><i></i><blockquote><i>In their time, the Irish have produced two great draught stouts.<br /></i><i>Colonel Murphy is the one you’ve never heard of before,<br /></i><i>Because the Irish have kept it to themselves for the past 113 years.<br /></i><i>Now at last it’s being shipped over from County Cork to England.<br /></i><i>You won’t find it everywhere, but in many Watney-Wilson and<br /></i><i>Bass-Charrington houses. And it’s worth looking for.<br /></i><i>It’s dark, smooth and slightly bitter, with a grand creamy head.<br /></i><i>A noble drink, if ever there was one.</i></blockquote><i></i></blockquote><i></i></div><p style="text-align: justify;">There are obvious issues with this wording such as the comment that there have only been <i>‘two great stouts’</i> produced in Ireland - Beamish & Crawford might disagree for starters, although their stout production was in a state of turmoil at this time - and the implication that Murphy’s never exported stout to England in the past. (They had, and they have done so since too of course.) However, we know from experience that beer marketeers are not the most reliable source, or communicators, of Irish brewing history. ‘Watney-Wilson’ appears to have been referencing the Wilson group of pubs that Watney-Mann had taken over in the early 1960s and who had a considerable number of pubs in Manchester, hence the name use here which would have resonated more with local drinkers presumably.<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">4</sup></p><p style="text-align: justify;">At the end of August a full page advertisement appeared in the same paper that listed every pub in Manchester and the surrounding area that was stocking Colonel Murphy, a list that ran to 347 different establishments.<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">5</sup> The following month in a half page advert under the title <i>‘England’s Gain’ </i>the marketing was still focusing on its Irish origin saying that <i>‘naturally enough the Irish are sad to see it go. It’s dark, smooth and bitter with a grand creamy head. A drink fit for heroes.’</i> It also played with the exclusivity of the beer by saying, <i>‘It’s here. Not everywhere. But in many Watney-Wilson and Bass-Charrington houses. Try it.’</i> So it would appear that the brewing companies were putting a relatively sizable marketing budget behind the launch, albeit just at local level.<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">6</sup></p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">S</span>imilarly themed adverts ran through October of 1969 but alas it was a short-lived experiment, and commenting on the pulling of the brand from its pubs a spokesperson for Bass-Charrington said in a newspaper report in November that <i>‘it would have cost too much to get [it] off the ground nationally’</i> so they had decided that ‘<i>if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’</i> and that both brewing companies would be selling Guinness in their pubs within 12 months. It also quoted a <i>‘jubilant’</i> Guinness spokesperson who said that <i>‘it was the biggest challenge yet to draught Guinness and the fact that these great companies failed will discourage others.’</i><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">3</sup></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Another report regarding Guinness draught’s success in the English market also discussed Colonel Murphy’s demise while noting that both Watney-Mann and Bass-Charrington had breweries in Cork, with the former owning Murphy’s (Lady’s Well Brewery) having acquired 51% of the shares in 1967<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">3</sup>, while the latter controlled Beamish & Crawford, both of which were running below profitable capacity, and the hope was that Murphy’s Stout - albeit under a different name in Britain - would change the fortunes of that brewery if the experiment was a success. The article goes on to say that they might have been unlucky with their timing, as it had been <i>‘a hot summer for their test marketing’</i> but as it was still on sale up until early winter it’s hard to put much fate in that comment. The reporter also makes the point that <i>‘the Bass end of Bass Charrington has taken draught Guinness for some time’</i> so it appears that some of its pubs were already selling it at this time if it wasn't a comment on an older historical connection.<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">7 </sup>The chairman of Watney-Mann, Peter Crossman, also stated in 1970's The Brewing Trade Review that <i>‘although we had an excellent beer which achieved reasonable sales levels, the investment and effort required to catch up with the public awareness of draught Guinness would have been less profitable to the group than the sale of a product already marketed.’</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is worth noting that at this time approximately 30,000 drinking establishments in Britain were selling draught Guinness and that figure was growing at a rate of 25% per annum,<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">8</sup> but this still seems a strange decision given their abovementioned involvement and investment in The Lady’s Well Brewery which brewed the stout, but perhaps it was a sign of them losing their love for Cork and Ireland despite those adverts they commissioned, where they sang the praises of Colonel Murphy, and indeed by the summer of 1971 they had severed their ties with the brewery and sold their stake in it.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">V</span>ery little breweriana seems to have survived of Murphy’s English adventure, but there are - as we can see - some beer mats and there are probably some nice conical pint glasses sitting on the back of a few English collectors’ shelves, but it’s nice to know that at the end of the sixties a Cork brewed stout <i>almost</i> put it up to the biggest player in the stout market in Britain.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It's interesting to think what might have happened if they had succeeded …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* Apart from irksome use of ‘Eire,' surely most of the draught Guinness drank in Britain was produced in their brewery at Park Royal in London?</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">The attached image is the author's own and cannot be used elsewhere without the author's permission. Newspaper research was thanks to The British Newspaper Archive and other sources are as credited.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">1</sup> The Manchester Evening News - Tuesday 2nd of July 1968</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">2</sup> The Daily Mirror - Tuesday 11th of November 1969</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">3</sup> The Murphy's Story - The History of Lady's Well Brewery, Cork by Diarmuid Ó Drisceoil and Donal Ó Drisceoil</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">4</sup> The Manchester Evening News - Friday 1st of August 1969</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">5</sup> The Manchester Evening News - Wednesday 20th of August 1969</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">6</sup> The Manchester Evening News - Thursday 11th of September 1969</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">7</sup> The Birmingham Daily Post - Tuesday 11th of November 1969</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">8</sup> The </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Daily Mirror - Tuesday 11th of November 1969</span></p>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-72586829584484231522023-08-23T16:00:00.001+01:002023-08-23T16:00:35.254+01:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #11 – Mountjoy Brewery Cask Return Postcard (1888)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsY-65657uurEN6wtrIqZT-kCskSVqK2QIAKNzxw1sc2wSf3zCYLuy77P3AI-5HDCv34Px-gDs8t_i5fKP7MUbR-eD2ofU5TO4gN_TKs1YGOJ05_oRWiWmcJNoVfcNJ-c-hk6jSslFVJkY-S2xy8N-Mhdz6HK6ST9oA7RSY1bTmhqbJ0eI0IC_JYD1Fn6_/s3311/IMG_20230815_180042.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2483" data-original-width="3311" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsY-65657uurEN6wtrIqZT-kCskSVqK2QIAKNzxw1sc2wSf3zCYLuy77P3AI-5HDCv34Px-gDs8t_i5fKP7MUbR-eD2ofU5TO4gN_TKs1YGOJ05_oRWiWmcJNoVfcNJ-c-hk6jSslFVJkY-S2xy8N-Mhdz6HK6ST9oA7RSY1bTmhqbJ0eI0IC_JYD1Fn6_/w400-h300/IMG_20230815_180042.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">R</span>eturning to the larger yard, we crossed over to the cask-washing sheds constructed principally of iron and tiled roofs. […] Three thousand casks can be turned out of these sheds daily, and thirty men are employed at the work. Facing these sheds there is a space of ground, upwards of an acre in extent, which is covered in casks …</i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Alfred Barnard, The Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland. Volume II - 1889.</span></div></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>n late January of 1888 some post from the Mountjoy Brewery in Dublin arrived on the premises of James Watford who had a wine and spirits stores at number 76 on the High Street in Bedford in England. The bespoke postcard wasn’t anything special or unusual, and was something that the Mountjoy Brewery probably posted in reasonably large quantities every month, being just another part of the accounting, notification and checks that were carried out by all breweries in this era.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The prepaid halfpenny postcard was dated and posted on the 19th of January 1888 and on the back was printed the following message:</p><p></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><i>Messrs. FINDLATER & CO., Have to this date received the undermentioned Casks, and placed the same to the credit of your account.</i></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">There follows a list of cask sizes from Hogsheads (54 Imperial gallons) down to Firkins (9 Imperial gallons) and it is beside this last size that the number 5 is written and below that a list of the reference numbers of those casks and the words <i>‘ad[d]ressed 23/11/87 + 28/12/87.’</i> Additionally there is a diagonal stamp across all of this bearing the words <i>‘FINDLATER’S MOUNTJOY BREWERY Co., LIMITED.’</i></p><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">This postcard only tells us part of a story, as it just acknowledges the return of casks to the brewery from a delivery of stout to Watford’s drink store in Bedford, which as well as being involved in spirits and wine were ale and stout bottlers at this time, but we can expand at least a little more on the tale this object can tell …</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWiVIzDrVwS-FrjESTrdz0vhxod0JstceDj5ehtbuX8m7hjY1agbLx4LaGiS3KDIolOlARDxCIDfRrW3WLGNaAuRClcEINcYs5MEmMMIdh8T4IUTBNhxDVcRrfXh_U_4RdVKJZjeGeFLWYVMHKYrK2R54M7vIfxt8O4dDxaNcPpiv2I_xEXOZQe2R3-L1P/s2916/IMG_20230815_175957.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2187" data-original-width="2916" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWiVIzDrVwS-FrjESTrdz0vhxod0JstceDj5ehtbuX8m7hjY1agbLx4LaGiS3KDIolOlARDxCIDfRrW3WLGNaAuRClcEINcYs5MEmMMIdh8T4IUTBNhxDVcRrfXh_U_4RdVKJZjeGeFLWYVMHKYrK2R54M7vIfxt8O4dDxaNcPpiv2I_xEXOZQe2R3-L1P/s320/IMG_20230815_175957.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">M</span>ountjoy brewery was founded in Dublin in 1852 by a group of Irish and British businessmen and was one of the largest stout exporters in the city - and country - in the late 19th and into the early 20th century. It was a part of the large Findlater mercantile empire that was well known in the food and drink industry in general. In the late 19th century Mountjoy Brewery only brewed porters and stouts according to Barnard’s description of the brewery, and it appears from advertisements in British papers at this time that they were sending Extra XXX Stout, Extra XX Stout and X Stout in that direction and their brewings widely available in many towns. One of the most popular products was called ‘Nourishing Stout,’ which was also marketed as Crown Stout.<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">1</sup></p><p style="text-align: justify;">We will never be sure exactly which stout - or stouts - were being sent to Watford’s but it was likely to have included that Nourishing Stout, as that was extremely popular at this time and for decades after. Indeed back in 1871 Findlater, Mackie & Co. a bottling and drink company based in England and connected to the Dublin firm were sued by Messrs. Ragget for using the term ‘Nourishing Stout’ on their beer. The case was dismissed as the word ‘nourishing’ was not seen as a trademark infringement, just a descriptor. It came out during the hearing that Ragget’s were not brewing the stout themselves, they were sourcing it from Truman’s brewery in London and bottling it under their own label, and it was reported that this was also where Findlater, Mackie & Co. were sourcing theirs!<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">2</sup> Why they weren’t using a Dublin brewed version of a ‘nourishing’ stout from their related brewery - if that report is correct - is a mystery, as Mountjoy were exporting to England at this time, but may have just come down to logistics and convenience, or perhaps some other internal issue. It also emerged that Raggets had already stopped a ‘Nourishing Dublin Stout’ from being sold under that description, and newspaper records show there was one being sold in 1869 with no brewery mentioned and one also being sold in 1872 brewed by Jameson, Pim & Co.<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">3</sup></p><p style="text-align: justify;">But back to our casks and what is perhaps also of interest is that Mountjoy Brewery claimed in the 1860s to be the <i>‘only Dublin brewers who send out all sizes of casks in English measure.’</i><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">4 </sup>How true this claim is might be difficult to verify but it was certainly true that many Irish breweries were using Irish cask sizes up until at least the turn of the century, and some even longer. An Irish barrel was 40 Irish gallons which was roughly the equivalent of 32 gallons whereas an Imperial ‘English’ barrel was 36 gallons.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">What is clear is that there were many casks, regardless of their size, going back and forth across the Irish Sea in the latter part of the 19th century and there was a great deal of logistical work needed to document, trace and return these casks to their rightful owners. This postcard is a literal snapshot of that process and the communication that was needed for tracking individual casks, which would have been recorded on the delivery dockets and invoices sent out by the brewery at the time of dispatch.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">To give an idea of the volumes involved the total exports of porter from Dublin in 1888 amounted to the equivalent of 424,205 hogsheads.<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">5</sup> Much of this was probably shipped in some smaller sized casks like Mountjoy’s firkins, so the total number of items shipped may have amounted to close to a million perhaps, of which not all would have returned of course. Even still, this is a huge amount of paperwork and organisation, a side of brewing that can be forgotten about compared to the actual ‘glamour’ of the brewing process itself.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Incidentally in 1888 the Mountjoy Brewery were only sending out the equivalent of 11,595 hogsheads, 6th on the list behind D’arcys, Phoenix, Jameson and Watkins, with Guinness topping the list naturally with 330,088 hogsheads by volume. Although it is worth noting that Mounjoy were in a slump in sales at this time compared to the decades before and afterward where they came second on the list at times.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And these casks would also need sniffing, sorting, cleaning, repairing, stacking and host of other jobs performed on them before they were filled and sent out, and the whole process of recording and retrieving would start yet again. A small glimpse at where some of this took place is mentioned by Alfred Barnard in the opening quotation.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Simple, fragile and ephemeral objects like this brewery postcard are important reminders of our brewing heritage, giving us a glimpse into our past, although admittedly not a very exciting one perhaps.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But because this object exists and was kept and passed on through numerous hands it became a tangible record of what a huge brewing city Dublin was in the 1880s, and that Irish brewing history exists beyond those breweries whose beers and history survived.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><div style="text-align: justify;"><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">1</sup> Warrington Examiner 18th September 1875 and Leicester Daily Post 6th June 1889</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">2</sup> The Law Reports : Equity Cases Including Bankruptcy Cases, Before the Master of Rolls, the Vice-chancellors, and the Chief Judge in Bankruptcy · Volume 17 1874 - Editor: George Wirgman Hemming</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">3</sup> The Shrewsbury Chronicle 29th November 1872</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">4</sup> The Birmingham Daily Gazette 19th May 1868</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">5</sup> The Railway News, Finance and Joint-stock Companies' Journal 1889</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">More information on the Mountjoy brewery can be found in <i>Findlaters: The Story of a Dublin Merchant Family</i> by Alex Findlater</span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: justify;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. </span><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: justify;">The attached images are the author's own and cannot be used elsewhere without the author's permission. Newspaper research was thanks to The British Newspaper Archive and other sources are as credited.</span></div></div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-72101371948551179132023-07-09T16:42:00.001+01:002023-07-09T16:42:31.034+01:00Opinion: On Beer Twitter ...<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh106a_bg0j4j4OVJsP4z91j9lLmTbwSH-2g2OHmqAxf1T-_vaJK0ejyBf-NRlFX601aA1oBZ6984TH3QfnlhC4sE_PRHLaOVuuju2-5AG4BwHlUnjRPgHn-AarRb2I6h_S0ktMQR1XxadtKEbMgkvHHbwA9w6q9TU0Xd-97guMKjFQ1aTMooXM9js6bC0I/s2974/IMG_20230709_155049.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2230" data-original-width="2974" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh106a_bg0j4j4OVJsP4z91j9lLmTbwSH-2g2OHmqAxf1T-_vaJK0ejyBf-NRlFX601aA1oBZ6984TH3QfnlhC4sE_PRHLaOVuuju2-5AG4BwHlUnjRPgHn-AarRb2I6h_S0ktMQR1XxadtKEbMgkvHHbwA9w6q9TU0Xd-97guMKjFQ1aTMooXM9js6bC0I/w400-h300/IMG_20230709_155049.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he beercentric side of Twitter is for me like a favourite pub …</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It's one I’ve been going to for quite a while because it’s easy to reach and familiar to me – comfortable perhaps. I’m on at least nodding terms with many of the clientele who frequent it and I interact with all of them a little differently. Some I greet with humour, others with sarcasm and a few with serious replies to their question. Many I can sit beside unbidden to have a chat with and vice versa, some I greet briefly, and a few I just salute. Some I've fallen out with, for now ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> And of course there are some I ignore completely, as they do me.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I don’t like the politics and opinions that certain other patrons subscribe to - in fact I find their choices dreadful - but I can easily ignore their treatise to join their legions and tend to change the conversation to other topics or just move away to another barstool with a polite excuse. Occasionally a rowdy, group of loudmouths come in and start shouting nonsense but I have the ability to mute them and continue my conversations with others, although sometimes I’ll just sit quietly with my pint, being amused - or often bemused - by their antics and stupidity.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The business changed hands a while ago but it made no real meaningful difference to my visits to the place, even if the new owners did do some odd things like letting back in some of those who were previously barred and limiting the number of drinks for some of their customers. They also created a VIP section that you had to pay to enter, and they changed the furniture around a little, but the fixtures and fittings remained pretty much the same. As did the core clientele, although some folks have left or are threatening to leave, and a few don’t call in quite as often as they used to do.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But for me personally the place operates in the same <i>general</i> way. I can enter through the same front door and choose who to sit with, who to talk to, and who to ignore - although admittedly I'm not on the premises as often as others so perhaps that makes a difference. For me it’s the people within the walls who make the pub - it's only a building after all - and if you enjoy conversing and interacting with them then why leave or change locations? I’ve investigated some other pubs to see what the fuss is about; I’ve even drank in one or two - but they are not quite the same. They feel wrong, they are not a good fit for me and not all of the people I enjoy mingling with are there either. Also, some of the new pubs have too many rooms or are so big that it’s impossible to find others inside, and certainly to hear people speak - and it’s even hard to find a comfortable, familiar-feeling seat.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It’s not a perfect pub by any means but perhaps I’m like one of those shattered old men you see in black and white photographs of a pub from the past, who sit at the bar with their pint and their newspaper and a quizzical expression on their face, and who you can tell needs that place more than it needs them. Who interacts just enough to get enjoyment, who like conversing from the safety of their barstool or that comfortable seat in the snug. Who can preach with the knowledge of never being taken seriously and find a willing pair of ears in moments of acute exasperation or troubled desperation.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Selfish or foolish as it may be, I’ll be staying put until the turn the key in the lock for the very last time, or it burns down around me ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Cheers.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please note, all content published here is my own unless and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post.</span></p>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-8461532104970707202023-06-23T08:03:00.003+01:002023-07-29T09:20:37.145+01:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #10 – The Guinness Waterford Tankard (1960s)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBOxx05oFsvkz5QA81N7RGfvERTufialRhE1ooK-4q3ipHf0DiPmUfBs4H0WhawXKFjmOm1a6RhnU2NLtQHj9QpQNvd6y-_rUPnTZlhnmrgOjq5jflgyhPpAbPNTi5kOmm73cVPG_jg-Xc5o3scrMNJdrpZIIxNxWfE9iZuWQPvTKTZRP1ATKKpsMtSThN/s3444/IMG_20230622_201914.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2583" data-original-width="3444" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBOxx05oFsvkz5QA81N7RGfvERTufialRhE1ooK-4q3ipHf0DiPmUfBs4H0WhawXKFjmOm1a6RhnU2NLtQHj9QpQNvd6y-_rUPnTZlhnmrgOjq5jflgyhPpAbPNTi5kOmm73cVPG_jg-Xc5o3scrMNJdrpZIIxNxWfE9iZuWQPvTKTZRP1ATKKpsMtSThN/w400-h300/IMG_20230622_201914.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span>ut when a cauliflower-wigged tankard of brown stout crowned the repast, his rapture knew no bounds. He pressed it with ecstasy to his lips, and sang joyously –</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Porter! Drink for the noble souls!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Raise the foaming tankard high!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Water drink, you water think –</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>So said Johnson – so say I!</i></div><p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Merrie England in the Olden Time by George Daniel (Bentley's Miscellany, Volume 7 - J. M. Mason, 1841)</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>here is probably no piece of vintage, beer-related glassware that is talked about in the same reverential tone as the Guinness Waterford tankard. For many collectors of breweriana finding an absolutely perfect example is akin to discovering The Holy Grail, and <i>almost</i> as hard to acquire. Even those who show indifference to Guinness itself have a fondness for the barrel-like shape, the curvaceous handle, and that gold lettering with the harp sitting above. It has, for many at least, a deserved iconic status in Irish - and British - beer history, much more so than the relatively recent interloper that comes in the shape of the <a href="http://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2023/03/100-years-of-irish-brewing-in-50_8.html">tulip pint glass</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Admittedly, the quotation above by George Daniel is a little out of kilter with the timeline, material and origins of the beer-related item we are focussing on here but it is an evocative piece of prose and poetry in honour of a tankard of stout. The wonderfully described <i>‘cauliflower-wigged’</i> and <i>‘foaming’</i> description of the head on the vessel in that piece is at odds with how we see draught stout’s image now, but it might be viewed by some as a better manifestation and a more inviting portrayal of that drink than the sterile, domed band of nitrogenated bubbles to which we have become accustomed these days.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span>lthough our tankard was indeed made in Waterford it is not strictly speaking the ‘Waterford Glass’ that is world renowned for its quality, substance, and appeal, but rather a different quality of product that was being made by the company for domestic and bar use from when the firm started producing glass in Ballytruckle just outside Waterford in 1947. The material used for these items was soda glass which contains no lead or potash as opposed to the crystal glass that the company is well known for producing. This type of glass was being made right up until 1970 in the company’s plant at Johnstown - where they had moved to - in the centre of the city, and was still being sold for a number of years after that. As well as Guinness tankards the company also produced branded glasses for many other drinks such as Carling Black Label, Idea, Harp, Carlsberg<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">1 </sup>and probably Time, Smithwicks, Phoenix, Double Diamond, Celebration and many others. Interestingly, they also produced another iconic piece of glassware, the stemmed glass for Irish Coffee with the gold band on top and a shamrock on the flattened section of the stem, which were exported to North America in large quantities<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">1 </sup>These, along with the barware and the many lines just for domestic use, meant that the Waterford Glass Company were quite a prolific maker of daily-use glassware as well as high-end lead crystal. It is probably fair to say that almost every Irish household of a certain vintage has a piece of ‘Waterford Glass’ in a cupboard or on a shelf, although most owners would not recognise those pieces as such.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Many of these lines were stickered with a rectangular label on their base with the words <i>‘Waterford Domestic – Made in the Republic of Ireland’</i> or a lozenge shaped one in silver and black with <i>'Waterford Barware - Made in the Republic of Ireland.'</i> Those stickers are obviously now quite rare on any glasses used in the pub trade but some examples still exist with the label in place and intact.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Without some insider knowledge of the company's process of making all of these glasses we can only speculate as to how exactly they were created, but they appear to have been mould-blown by mouth rather than by machine and then, in the cases of tankards, the handles were dropped on and shaped by hand afterwards. This would seem to be the most efficient way of producing such a large quantity of relatively uniform products in a cost-effective way - but this is mostly speculation.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">G</span>lass tankards were quite a rare thing in Irish pubs in any part of our history up until the 1960s, with pewter mugs and fluted or plain conical pint glasses (tumblers as they were often called) being used up to that time along with Noniks with their pronounced bump near the top of the glass. In England certainly, and perhaps the rest of Britain, glass tankards were much more in use regionally at least, with dimpled mugs and multi-faceted tankards being relatively popular up to this period. This may be the reason why Guinness decided to launch this style of glass for its new Draught Guinness once they had ironed out any issues with the Easi-Serve dispense of their new stout and were viewing a campaign to install the new system in as many pubs as they could on these islands. Our near neighbours were huge consumers of Guinness in various forms, and the London brewery at Park Royal was in full swing so it would make sense that decisions were made based on that market rather than the Irish one.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The tankards weren’t used at the initial launch of Draught Guinness in 1961 but appear to have been rolled out sometime after 1963, and there are certainly surviving Irish examples of the glasses with verification marks for that year. In fact, early in Draught Guinness’s launch in England it was advertised in dimple mugs, a thought which would horrify and perplex many of today’s most militant Guinness drinkers!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Alan Wood, who took up the position of Guinness Advertising Manager in Britain in 1961 states in an undated note in <i>‘The Guinness Book of Guinness’</i> that the tankards <i>‘just happened’</i> and were part of that Draught Guinness roll-out <i>‘throughout Britain’</i> – and presumably Ireland around the same time. He also implies that the Waterford Glass Company were looking for a line that they could relatively easily produce, which they could use as a starting point to expand into this type of branded, bespoke barware product, and something that would also help with training and apprenticeships. The discussion between the two companies focussed on a lightweight, <i>‘generous’</i> looking tankard that would show-off the aesthetics of the beer, and that had a <i>‘quality feel’</i> that would suit a pint which would be a little more expensive than the norm. Waterford Glass came up with the design and at a price that very much suited Guinness’s budget. Interestingly, Mr. Wood says in the same note that <i>‘hundreds of thousands’</i> were produced and possibly a million!<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">2</sup> (There are currently no figures available as to how many were actually produced although the appear to have been packed in boxes of six, and if every pub on these islands received a box or two then the numbers would soon add up ...)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The golden logo applied to the tankards comes in at least two variants, the first being the lettering that had been around for decades with slight changes up until sometime in the mid-sixties when the company changed to the second version, the Hobbs or Hobbs-face stencil-like font with gaps in the narrow points of the letters. (This was first used in 1963 on posters and named after Bruce Hobbs at the SH Benson advertising company, who was allegedly inspired by street signs in Paris and the crude stencilled lettering on hop sacks.<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">3</sup>) The earlier font also seems to have a less commonly seen version of the harp logo which differs a lot from the more ornate versions seen on bottle labels and was possibly for ease of printing, although it was replaced by a lightly simplified version on the later glasses and elsewhere. Also of note is that on some earlier versions of the half pint glass the logo faces a right-handed drinker whereas it usually points outward and away from them - and should do from a marketing standpoint on any glass. The tankards came in pint and half pint sizes, as well as a smaller run of three-pint versions for use as displays in pubs. These have become the <i>real</i> Holy Grail of Holy Grails for collectors and feature the word ‘Draught’ above ‘Guinness’ in the early letter and logo style.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In print, the glasses appear to have been first used in advertising Draught Guinness on posters in Ireland in 1963<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">3</sup> and in newspapers in this country by the following year. They first appeared in Britain on advertising posters in 1966 /1967, when <i>‘the tankard was adopted as the symbol’</i> for the product.<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">4</sup> (Those advertisements also feature the ‘older’ style typeface, which appears to change around the end of the decade to the newer version, as mentioned above.) The tankard falls out of favour with marketing companies around 1980 and rarely appears after that, replaced by the conical glass for a while and then the aforementioned tulip pint glass we are now very familiar with from advertisements and social media.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2020/02/a-brief-and-incomplete-history-of-irish.html">Verification marks</a> seem to have been applied around the time that the glasses were originally made and before the logo was applied, this can lead to errors and confusion in dating certain glasses. For example there is an officially verified tankard from 1969 which has the logo for Cork city’s 800-year anniversary in 1985 on the side of the glass. Curiously, this version has the Guinness logo on both sides, which wasn’t a common practice and these <i>may</i> have just been commemorative gifts. If it was used in pubs then this Cork version helps to show how long these tankards lasted in the trade, which would have been about two decades. It should be noted that these tankards weren’t universally used for draught Guinness on these islands, as many publicans used some of the more ‘normal’ styles of practical glassware instead or as well.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT95urKqGQFiuGiMXUQzcThvypjmBRG1qkRSKDlMjfCta3Cgg_8sg3wKqKQQduU-5jd7W3U0IzwIL2NQwvXvE_x8hB1nZBjFMMEhwL4qtTnmrVWEUWBkRse8Gcwco7y2HCw4NXgonpQNEDcfwPVbKFFpXwPxViKmvvF0t54DwZWULRWXn9JGDWjpKJ74CR/s2736/IMG_20230622_201754.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2052" data-original-width="2736" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT95urKqGQFiuGiMXUQzcThvypjmBRG1qkRSKDlMjfCta3Cgg_8sg3wKqKQQduU-5jd7W3U0IzwIL2NQwvXvE_x8hB1nZBjFMMEhwL4qtTnmrVWEUWBkRse8Gcwco7y2HCw4NXgonpQNEDcfwPVbKFFpXwPxViKmvvF0t54DwZWULRWXn9JGDWjpKJ74CR/w400-h300/IMG_20230622_201754.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The design may have been an excellent conception and these glasses were relatively tough but they were notorious for cracking and breaking at their Achilles' Heel where the handle meets the top of the glass - a fault often seen on specimens found for sale today. They were not really suitable for the modern pub – not to mention how unkind dishwashing machines were to gold lettering – so it is unlikely that the publican's who used them mourned their passing, although many have revived or remade the old red Guinness lightbox tap fronts that carries their image, while serving the beer in curvaceous but unhandled pint glasses just to add insult to injury.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Many also disappeared out of pubs by way of theft. In 1978 in Lincolnshire in England two ladies were convicted and fined £25 each for stealing two <i>‘special and distinctive </i>[half-pint]<i> Guinness mugs’</i> from a pub having been reported to the authorities by the publican – both women admitted to <i>‘taking the glasses worth £1.20, out of the pub in their handbags’</i> according to a local paper. It appears from this that Guinness charged the publican £1.20 for a half-pint tankard.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>here were other, later versions of this Guinness tankard too. A pressed glass edition was available from probably the 1980s with gold or beige lettering and it can be easily identified by its flattened, moulded handle as distinct from the hand-added, rounded handle on the originals. German glass producers Sahm also produced a 400ml similar tankard with the Hobbs typeface in gold in the 1970s. There was also a French-made half pint version with a more rounded handle<sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">5</sup>, and Viners of Sheffield produced an attractive pewter version too, both of these are probably also from the seventies.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW7WVHl5JxgBBAB8qgnBGDyOAsyOEoy3cIXkSJGXX6mVKN_ES8y3rpLTUxq0GBmUMNsGK2l5N0KAvNRMcKsV7REAdm1FMaMZ-GD92v_58cZpPReI0J3v-cjCNIMQjDtXGPOCD3UKyaWA1SFff54xtDt55lQm8FxDABPav0_uvXqmAdZGlgBRtnadGdGEoK/s3251/IMG_20230622_201601.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2438" data-original-width="3251" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW7WVHl5JxgBBAB8qgnBGDyOAsyOEoy3cIXkSJGXX6mVKN_ES8y3rpLTUxq0GBmUMNsGK2l5N0KAvNRMcKsV7REAdm1FMaMZ-GD92v_58cZpPReI0J3v-cjCNIMQjDtXGPOCD3UKyaWA1SFff54xtDt55lQm8FxDABPav0_uvXqmAdZGlgBRtnadGdGEoK/w400-h300/IMG_20230622_201601.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">After the Guinness tankard was launched it opened the gates for almost every other Irish brand of beer and soon tankards were everywhere in pubs in Ireland in the sixties and early seventies. Time, Smithwicks, Double Diamond, Phoenix, Carling Black Label, Celebration, Bass, Watney’s Red Barrell and Macardles all had glass tankards of various types and designs, many made by the Waterford Glass Company as mentioned above. The Harp tankard, in its second or third version, was the last to be used in pubs, probably in the mid-nineties and long after the other brands had disappeared - or their tankards had at least - or changed to something less cumbersome to suit a changing drinker. <i>[EDIT: The Franciscan Well Brewery were using a branded glass tankard for their beer up until quite recently, and possibly still do - thanks to Keith @j_k357 on Twitter.)</i> Unbranded glass tankards were also used in Irish public houses for a time, before finally falling out of favour in the late nineties apart from the occasional hold-out like J & K Walsh in Waterford who were using a tankard for Guinness and other beers up until relatively recently.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">P</span>erhaps the glass tankard is due a revival here in Ireland? Maybe an enterprising microbrewery will include one in their selection of beer glasses?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So hopefully one day soon we can pour a proper stout into a branded glass tankard again to create that cauliflower-wigged stout, and raise that foaming tankard high …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So say I!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">1</sup>Waterford Crystal – The Creation of a Global Brand, 1700-2009 by John M. Hearne</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">2</sup> The Guinness Book of Guinness 1935-1985 edited by Edward Guinness</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">3</sup> The Book of Guinness Advertising by Brian Sibley</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">4</sup> The Book of Guinness Advertising by Jim Davies</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">5</sup> The Guinness Archive Online Collection</p><div><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: justify;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. </span><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: justify;">The attached images are the author's own and cannot be used elsewhere without the author's permission. Newspaper research was thanks to The British Newspaper Archive and other sources are as credited.</span></div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-79490542045473319562023-06-08T07:57:00.001+01:002023-07-19T16:33:40.869+01:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #9 - At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien (1939)<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ7CGT1SFb9Jqj_X69aooYvRhCDSLeLOZzHDy44sKvLdafUE0HTxxUgPOtvv8y0NCL16eaWVdcKd2WdfftUrEe1x3ZuFvJ0bV2Uu6NK1v1Wi6M41sB1VeP8E8vGYy-Zq4dSPMLsPxcntvXe8d1Bh3EaJs-Sa2qJ4JvGj9f_Aq5tlRXvd7U3nlRrkHDWQ/s3508/IMG_20230531_210043.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2630" data-original-width="3508" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ7CGT1SFb9Jqj_X69aooYvRhCDSLeLOZzHDy44sKvLdafUE0HTxxUgPOtvv8y0NCL16eaWVdcKd2WdfftUrEe1x3ZuFvJ0bV2Uu6NK1v1Wi6M41sB1VeP8E8vGYy-Zq4dSPMLsPxcntvXe8d1Bh3EaJs-Sa2qJ4JvGj9f_Aq5tlRXvd7U3nlRrkHDWQ/w400-h300/IMG_20230531_210043.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">W</span>hen things go wrong and will not come right,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Though you do the best you can,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>When life looks black as the hour of night –</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.</i></div></i><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Excerpt, ‘The Workman’s Friend’ from At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien (Brian O’Nolan)</span></div></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>here seems to be a tenuous - or at times blatant - connection between certain generations of Ireland's most well-known writers and our beer and general drinking history. Be it Joyce, Behan, Beckett or in this case Flann O’Brien, there is always something mentioned or alluded to in the text that directly or indirectly links back to a past of public houses, or lost beer brands, or a long-forgotten part of our drinking culture. <i>At Swim-Two-Birds</i> is certainly an interesting book, and although it might not be classed as overly challenging compared to other novels such as Joyce’s Ulysses, it is by no means an easy or simple text for most readers to get their heads and hearts around given the writing style, storyline and movements of the characters. But that tradition - for want of a better word - of drink being an almost integral part of Irish literature is there from the start in O'Brien's book, as there is a mention in the opening pages to a mirror bearing the names of <i>‘Messrs. Watkins, Jameson and Pim’</i> and their <i>‘proprietary brand of beer’</i> (presumably O’Connell’s Ale) which the book’s narrator uses as a shaving mirror in his bedroom.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But of course, this book is best known for its reference to that ‘Pint of Plain’ from the opening quotation.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span>rian O’Nolan, or Flann O’Brien or Myles na gCopaleen or George Knowall to give him just a few of his semi-official names, was born in Strabane in 1911, one of twelve children. He lived most of his life in Dublin working at various jobs while writing books, newspaper columns and other works. He certainly had a quite difficult live but his biography is not the focus of this piece, but rather it is his first novel <i>At Swim-Two-Birds</i> and in particular a piece of poetry - or 'pome' - written by a fictional poet* called Jem Casey and titled <i>‘The Workman’s Friend.’</i> The verses are recited in a public house by Paul Shanahan, one of the main characters in the book and is an ode to the comfort and healing qualities of a <i>‘Pint of Plain.’</i> The book itself, although well received by his peers, wasn’t a bestseller on publication, and indeed it wasn’t really until it was republished in the 1960s that it would be seen as a classic piece of Irish literature by a wider audience.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The verses of this ode to ‘a pint of plain’ have been much spoken of, printed, sung, and repeated since they were first published and the term is still used right up to this day in print and on social media, but what exactly was ‘a pint of plain?’ As it appears that many use it without thinking on the actual meaning of the word ‘plain.’</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Plain' in this case is short for ‘plain porter,’ a term whose use goes back to the 1700s, and it was the weaker sibling to ‘stout porter.’ And stout in this case means a stronger porter (the word stout was used for other styles of beer too in the past), and although we won’t go into the much-repeated and often wrong history of porter to any great extent here, we can <i>generally</i> say that most breweries in Ireland had two strengths of this dark beer for non-export consumption, or at least two styles that were more most popular with drinkers on this island.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, in very general terms, many Irish breweries in the late 18th and on into the very early 20th century had a weaker porter called variously X Porter, X Stout, Single Stout and other names, and also a stronger version generally called Double Stout, Extra Stout, XX Porter or XX Stout. (This is somewhat of an over-simplification, as even these various porters which are casually grouped together here could be wildly different in strength and ingredients depending on the era and the brewery - but you get the point.) There were other porters being brewed, including ones for export, with some breweries producing various other strengths in between, but this is a fair summation of the two types most commonly available. The lighter in strength of these beers came to be known by drinkers as just ‘plain’ - hence the ‘Pint of Plain’ - and the stronger was more often than not known just as ‘stout.’</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Most stout was bottled by independent bottlers or by the publican or grocer and getting a pint of draught stout from a cask appears to have been relatively rare, especially outside of the main urban centres on the island. The bottle of stout ruled the countertops and tables in the pubs in most of Ireland, with its weaker sibling, plain porter, available mostly in the big cities like Dublin and Belfast. Some porter was indeed bottled but much of it was served from casks and was essentially a live 'conditioned' product containing active yeast to produce carbonation. It would remain being sold that way until the early 1970s, when the production of Guinness’s porter - the last of its type – ceased and was totally usurped by Guinness Draught.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And so should have died ‘The Pint of Plain’ …</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">E</span>xcept it didn’t, or at least the term itself remained, but instead it was transferred to a pint of draught stout and usually the Guinness version (rather than Murphy’s or Beamish) which is marketed as a such rather than a 'porter' regardless of its strength and taste. It is certainly possible to make an argument that draught Guinness is the modern equivalent of that lost porter in alcohol content, and thanks to the marketing gimmick and the aesthetic need of the two-part pour, which was supposed to imitate the high and low carbonated mix of how Guinness’s porter was served in some public houses - mostly in Northern Ireland.<s><sup><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IE; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">#</span></sup></s> There is also the fact that stout <i>is</i> a type of porter (as it is also a beer regardless of what people seem to think) when taken in the modern sense and usage of the words.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But if we revisit the text we need to take the words verbatim. So that given the time it was written and what was available in the public houses that the author was familiar with then the drink referred to was a cask conditioned single porter, and some would therefore say that this lost porter is the only drink that the moniker ‘Plain’ can be used for - even though some characters appear to drink just stout elsewhere in the book.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Does that mean we can’t ever use the term ‘a Pint of Plain’ ever again? Well one could again argue that the only truly legitimate pint of plain can be something that is called ‘porter’ by the brewery, is served on cask, and said brewery would also need to brew a stronger version they call their stout so that they have both it and a ‘plain.’ There might be a little leeway on the cask stipulation but the assertion certainly needs to obey the other rules for the term to be used, and then and only then, some might argue, can you say that you are drinking a ‘Pint of Plain’….</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But of course in reality you can call your pint anything you like.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">F</span>inally, the poem’s title of a ‘The Workman’s Friend,’ or versions of it, seems to have been a common enough term even before the publication of <i>At Swim-Two-Birds</i>, as <i>The Irish Independent</i> on the 2nd of January 1917 carried in a piece about price increases in Dublin the following comment:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><i>‘The pint of “plain” or workingman’s drink, goes up to 5d.’</i></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">This shows that the connection between plain and workingmen – unsurprisingly – is older than the book, and probably quite a bit older, plus given the wording it seemed in common parlance, and of course beer itself was often seen as a worker’s drink anyway.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Quite rightly ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2023/06/100-years-of-irish-brewing-in-50_23.html">(Here's the link to object #10)</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;">*Possibly based on a poet called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Casey_(poet-priest)">James Casey</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><s style="text-align: left;"><sup><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IE; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">#</span></sup></s> It is worth highlighting that there is very little evidence of the practice being widespread, and much of the country was drinking stout from bottles anyway. Incidentally, the jug pour was probably more common, where a high carbonated porter was poured into a jug to left settle before being used to top up glasses. There is a video of this exact practice which some claim show the high-low pour but it shows no such thing. I have written more about this topic <a href="https://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2022/03/that-porter-pour-another-high-low-film.html">here</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Further Reading:</p><p style="text-align: justify;">A Biography on Flann O'Brien <a href="https://www.dib.ie/biography/onolan-brian-flann-obrien-a6969">here</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">More on the Pint of Plain by Gary Gillman <a href="https://www.beeretseq.com/atrue-pint-of-plain/">here</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Martyn Cornell has some porter history <a href="https://zythophile.co.uk/2010/11/22/the-origins-of-porter-and-a-bit-about-three-threads/">here</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And the complete poem or 'pome' is everywhere ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">The attached image is the author's own and cannot be used elsewhere without the author's permission. Newspaper research was thanks to The British Newspaper Archive.</span></p>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-76206867391478424762023-05-26T12:24:00.001+01:002023-07-19T16:31:45.042+01:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #8 - Label Facsimile for Greenmount Brewery (c. 1870)<div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_50owN3XxagYX1Xrh5wxKoSOkPBflBHTa8Tl7Fw-YAr_kutzh1Lid-5gQN_teEhXIN20Vlv6F-DRFHKvWwt51psiRXQ8-X3ITY2qss_kvTWeYEvrZw2A_CgwNsbeiD9_mW-y3lAdCBYegnnke1pXco-F1gUy6gX_G1NhSgI0lO9mN6nYEnqEtxE6CKg/s2371/IMG_20230526_112239.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2371" data-original-width="1777" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_50owN3XxagYX1Xrh5wxKoSOkPBflBHTa8Tl7Fw-YAr_kutzh1Lid-5gQN_teEhXIN20Vlv6F-DRFHKvWwt51psiRXQ8-X3ITY2qss_kvTWeYEvrZw2A_CgwNsbeiD9_mW-y3lAdCBYegnnke1pXco-F1gUy6gX_G1NhSgI0lO9mN6nYEnqEtxE6CKg/w300-h400/IMG_20230526_112239.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Perry Archive in Portlaoise Library</span></td></tr></tbody></table></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he PALE ALE was beautifully clear, bright, and sparkling. It had a very pleasant bitter flavour of the Hop, and was full-boiled to the taste. It contained more than the average of alcohol and substances which give to Ales of this kind their nutritious and exhilarating properties.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>The Samples I examined were well fermented, and would keep a due length of time. They contained all the essentials of PALE ALE of the first class, viz. :- Flavour, brilliancy of condition, and keeping qualities. […] “Greenmount Pale Ale” must become a formidable competitor to the English and Scotch Ales.</i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i>I remain, Gentlemen,</i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i>Your obedient Servant,</i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i>ROBERT GALLOWAY, F.R.S.,</i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i>Professor of Applied Chemistry.</i></div></div><p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Saunders' News-Letter 23rd May 1868</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>f you walk down Clanbrassil Street and cross the busy Robert Emmet Bridge over the Grand Canal on the south-side of Dublin then head further south on to Harold’s Cross Road you will pass on your right hand side a row of pleasant-looking brown brick low-rise apartments and some equally plain but inoffensive offices, and behind those a collection of commercial and residential structures that cover most of the site. Early maps label the area as Cherry Orchard (not to be confused with the same-named suburb of west Dublin) which might relate to a larger area stretching in a thin plot further north beyond the canal or may just demark a space where there was once an actual cherry orchard - most likely both. The area is now known as Greenmount and has been for many years, presumably after Greenmount house which was just southwest of this location, with the name is still in use in the warren of lanes and streets around here, and it has been home to much industry and business over the centuries – including a brewing enterprise.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">G</span>reenmount Brewery was a joint venture between the elegantly name Robinson Gale Perry and an enigmatic Mr. Alexander, plus possibly other partners, and traded as Alexander, Perry & Co. Mr Perry was part of the Perry family of brewers, maltsters and businessmen from Laois, being one of the sons of Robert Perry and born in 1833 in Rathdowney. His unusual middle name is in fact his mother’s maiden name, an Elenor Gale also from Laois. There is no doubt that there is a bigger story that should be told regarding the Perry family and their various enterprises, including the brewery in Rathdowney which lasted into the 1960s, but for now we will focus just on Greenmount brewery site and history. Regarding the Mr. Alexander whose surname is also on the company name there appears to be very little trace but there was an Edward Alexander of Greenmount listed in Thom’s Almanac from 1870, which could be the missing joint owner. Indeed, there are Alexanders connected with the well-known Pim family who owned the nearby clothmaking company and all - including the Perry family - were Quakers so there seems to be a strong likelihood that this is the correct family at least. (A curious note on the company name is that many in the past and present seem to think the owner’s name was ‘Alexander Perry’ due to the comma being misplaced in the company title, with corrections appearing in newspapers such as times where donations were given by the brewery to various causes.)</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>here is a relatively full description of the brewery featured in <i>The Irish Times</i> on the 12th of December 1867, eighteen months or so after the brewery was started, which gives some detail of the building and its operations.</p><p style="text-align: center;">GREENMOUNT BREWERY.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote><i>We have pleasure in laying before our readers the following short description of the brewery lately erected by Messrs. Alexander, Perry and Co., at Greenmount, Harold's-cross-bridge.<br />This brewery was commenced on May 1st, 1865. A rough sketch of the proposed position of the different utensils and the necessary dimensions of the building was furnished by Mr. Robinson Perry, one of the partners, to Mr. John McCurdy, the eminent architect, in Leinster-street. After severe competition the contract we awarded to Mr. S. H. Bolton, of South Richmond-street, and the construction reflects great credit on both architect and builder, for its superior style and finish.<br />In the lower portion of the building is the malt-room, where the process of brewing first commences. The malt Is drawn from air-tight bins, and emptied into a hopper, from which it is elevated and discharged into a separator and joggler; the former removes all the dust and small grains, the latter retains all the stones, &c. The malt falls on to metal rollers and is crushed, then elevated to a large hopper placed over be mash tun.<br />The upper portion of the building is occupied with the next operation, which is to boil the water for the mash. This is dine in large wooden backs, lined with copper, the water being heated by passing steam at a high pressure through copper coils lying on the bottom of each vessel. The hot water is conveyed to the next stage, and through a mashing machine, on entering which the malt Is allowed to fall on to it, and the two are mashed up by a series of rakes revolving at great speed inside this machine, discharging the two into the mash tun, where they are allowed to stand for some time. This tun is fitted with a false bottom, which permits the extract from the malt to pass through, leaving the "grains" behind. This extract, now called worts[sic], runs direct into the coppers, where the hops are added. The worts[sic] are then boiled a sufficient time to imbibe the flavour and bitter of the hop, and are discharged direct into a hop-back. This is a square vessel, supplied with a false bottom, which permits the liquor to ran off to a large cooler, leaving the hops behind, where it is rapidly cooled by a fan, and is then allowed to pass over one of Morton and Wilson's patent refrigerators, which quickly cools It down to the temperature desired by the brewer; the wort lastly rubs into the fermenting tuns. The fermentation being completed, the beer runs down into swan-necks or puncheons in the cleansing cellars. The barm being all worked out of the drink in these vessels, the clear beer racked into casks, where it is left to arrive at maturity.<br />There are two large cleansing for this process, also a large store, where piles of the different ales and beers are ready for delivery. In the cask department the casks are all washed by machinery, then steamed, and dried by heated air.<br />The boiler-houses and engine-room are situated at one side of the brew-house, from whence all the shafting, &c., is driven. All the iron work and the large pillars were erected by the eminent firm of Courtney, Stephens and Co., and the shafting by Mr. Edward Toomey, of the Phoenix Works, all of which are a credit to both these Dublin firms.<br />The brewery is capable or turning out 1.000 barrels a week, and for compactness and economic principles cannot be surpassed; the use of pumps, requisite in other breweries, being dispensed with hastens the process, thereby ensuring [the] keeping quality in the beer.<br />The mild ale and bitter beer brewed by this firm are of an excellent quality, finely flavoured, and have a good body; and we believe that before long to Greenmount Bitter Beer" will be as well known and appreciated in Ireland as Bass and Allsopp are in England.</i></blockquote></div><p style="text-align: justify;">It is thanks to descriptions such as this that we can get an inkling of the internal workings of the lost breweries of Ireland and, as flawed and weighted as many newspaper reports can be, at least we can have some record and proof that these places existed and how they operated. (A later write-up in the same newspaper related to a different enterprise on the site mentions a description of the actual building as being <i>‘five stories high and 100ft long’</i> with an average <i>‘depth of 213 feet’</i> and two stores running parallel to the main building 100ft long and 30 or 40ft wide. It appears not to have been altered externally for the new business.)*</p><p style="text-align: justify;">We also get a possible start date of 1st May 1865 for the enterprise and it appear it was newly built at that time, plus early maps show virtually no structures on the site. The first newspaper mention is in an advertisement dated exactly a year later on the 1st of May 1866 in <i>The Freeman’s Journal</i> for the sale of an adjacent premises which is said to be <i>‘adjoining the Greenmount Spinning Mills and Brewery’</i> so we can be relatively sure it existed by this time at least.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The second part of a write-up on the brewery on the 1st of June 1868 in <i>Saunders' Newsletter</i> very much repeats the Irish Times article regarding the brewery itself to the point of near plagiarism, but it does add the snippets that the brewery gave employment to sixty men at this time and that the site covered three statute acres. The opening section of the article reads like an advertisement - which it probably was – but it does supply us with more information such as how the brewery had an <i>‘extensive trade in their Irish ales </i>[..]<i> in the west of England, Scotland, and Wales’</i> which we shall confirm later. The piece also rails against the Irish ale retailers love of Bass and Allsopp’s ales and how Greenmount now <i>'supplies private families themselves to the extent of nearly three hundred </i>[quarter?]<i> casks per week.’</i> This can perhaps give us a snapshot of the retail trade in ale in Ireland at this time and how difficult it was for smaller, newer breweries to compete with established brands on the grocery floor or public house counter - plus ça change!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The article goes on to mention what was being brewed at the time, with the pale ale being <i>‘fully equal to Burton’</i> only cheaper, there is also a bitter beer that is <i>‘not so strong, but finely flavoured, bright and sparkling, with good tonic qualities.’</i> The piece goes on to say that there are two kinds of stout made there, an Imperial and an XX porter, <i>‘with the latter possessing a good body, and equal to any we have ever tasted.’</i> The Imperial was thought of as <i>‘very fine, but expensive’</i> but it <i>‘is becoming celebrated, and is one of the most popular drinks in Liverpool and other seaport towns in the west of England, where extra strength is looked for.’</i> This 'stout' may be being confused with the Imperial Ale because as we shall see there are no other mentions of an Imperial Stout elsewhere, and might show that the writer might not be fully versed in the beers of the brewery after all! The only other fact of note is that the malt for their bitter beer was supplied by Giltrap and Sons, Newark in England – whether it was only used for this beer is not totally clear but it certainly reads as so.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">To add to the above descriptions the brewery incorporated an extra element of cooling in 1870 with the installation of an ice machine made by Messrs. Siebe Brothers of Lambeth, London, which as well as making blocks of ice <i>‘as clear and solid as the “Wenham Lake” ice,’</i> was utilised in <i>‘cooling the worts[sic] by sending the half-frozen water in air-tight tubes passing through the vessels.’</i></p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">W</span>e can add more information to the beers listed above. and perhaps a little clarification too. by looking at some newspaper advertisements from the period.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The label facsimile - which is used like a logo on a financial record held in the Perry archives in the local studies department of Portlaoise Library - shows that at one time the brewery was selling pale ale, extra stout and imperial ale and this can be verified by newspaper advertisements from 1869 and very early 1871. The quote at the beginning of this article is part of an advertisement for <i>‘Greenmount Pale Ale”</i> which ties in with the label facsimile and gives us a reasonable description of its qualities, albeit from what was probably a paid source.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">There is a particularly nice advertisement in <i>The Monmouthshire Merlin</i> of the 13th of February 1869 which shows that Greenmount Brewery were selling <i>“Dublin Imperial Ale”</i> in Newport, Wales from an agent called Robert Perry, who is quite possibly a relation of the brewery owner.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7hAzq_ke5xAcNeEkTcqFL5CcjGJLQu-P3G4o5v12g5C0fJ3O2HrfyM5fx9eqIUpuyrov_YkwUgODf_hAQhwd2VWwwwJI5Gv5nVXvrQQz_POFdpSJir6OOoM7_FnEYuAqR9YfqUZRmkXI6ZmBPAXAYwkTfZJx9w2mvcog-0m0LFX5eVDYTXQmQ_r50mw/s395/Perry.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="395" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7hAzq_ke5xAcNeEkTcqFL5CcjGJLQu-P3G4o5v12g5C0fJ3O2HrfyM5fx9eqIUpuyrov_YkwUgODf_hAQhwd2VWwwwJI5Gv5nVXvrQQz_POFdpSJir6OOoM7_FnEYuAqR9YfqUZRmkXI6ZmBPAXAYwkTfZJx9w2mvcog-0m0LFX5eVDYTXQmQ_r50mw/w400-h264/Perry.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Prior to that, according to <i>The Bristol Mercury</i>, the brewery was looking for a local agent as early as January 1867 to sell <i>‘”Mild” and “Pale” ales; also, “Single” and “Double Stouts”</i> in the city, and in the same month they were soliciting trials of their East India Pale Ale in The Freemans’ Journal in Dublin. From November 1867 they were advertising a <i>‘Bitter Beer’</i> for sale at 1s a gallon in various editions of Dublin newspapers which was <i>‘not so strong a Pale Ale’</i> and had <i>‘a light tonic quality.’</i> The word ‘beer’ at this time meant a lighter and cheaper type of malt-based beverage in Ireland.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">More confirmed export evidence can be seen in <i>The Croydon Chronicle</i> from the 28th of May 1870 where an agent took out a reasonably large advertisement complete with exclamation marks for their <i>‘Dublin Pale Ale’</i> and which was claimed <i>‘for flavour and quality this ale surpasses any other offered in the district.’</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGw5YpHE7JStTSff2sG8xqAGzU6I4W4msr0NdCaOvA5GOCyhoP3dO86fCbXL_MijkkbFSh0vo6V9EXUZadL2jG6M2q-QXVu8ltgA-P160o5MCrVULO2fG0zsrQCSlU8_4Pra_mIVAkyNrESe0onaPFCL3l967pYzhau7pyjpvM1oe8HRxubKuK3vW1cA/s1080/Screenshot_20230526_113555.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="809" data-original-width="1080" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGw5YpHE7JStTSff2sG8xqAGzU6I4W4msr0NdCaOvA5GOCyhoP3dO86fCbXL_MijkkbFSh0vo6V9EXUZadL2jG6M2q-QXVu8ltgA-P160o5MCrVULO2fG0zsrQCSlU8_4Pra_mIVAkyNrESe0onaPFCL3l967pYzhau7pyjpvM1oe8HRxubKuK3vW1cA/w400-h300/Screenshot_20230526_113555.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">By 1872 an agent advertising in <i>The Wexford Independent</i> could offer Pale Ale, XXXX Strong Mild Ale and Dublin Porter in hogsheads, barrels, half barrels, and quarter casks from the October brewings of the previous year, plus there were advertisements in other parts of the country in other years too, showing that their beers were <i>relatively</i> widespread in parts of Ireland.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Interestingly, by January 1872 in another advertisement for their pale ale in <i>The Freeman’s Journal</i> that contains yet another positive report from Robert Galloway, the company name of <i>‘Robinson G. Perry, and Co.’</i> is used, which suggests the recent departure of Mr. Alexander from the business.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span>ut by the end of 1872 a new enterprise – The Irish Whisky Distillery Company – had been formed with a view to converting the brewery into a distilling entity, and among the directors is <i>‘Robinson G. Perry, Merchant, Rathdowney Brewery, Queen’s County’</i> along with a William James Perry and some other high-profile business people. The abridged prospectus published in papers in December 1872 state that on the 15th of October of that year that Fredrick William Zurhorst agreed to purchase the ‘premises, known as the Greenmount Brewery, for the sum of £36,000, to be handed over to the company, with all the necessary appliances in complete condition for the Distillation of Whisky, within three months from the incorporation of the Company, capable of turning out 200,000 gallons of Whisky annually.’ The conversion from brewery to distillery was fully completed by 1874 and another of Ireland's breweries disappeared from view.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So it would seem that there was more money projected to be in whisky than in pale ale, and although there is a further chapter that involves the history of the distillery, including a fire and a conversion to an oil company, our interest in the site as part of our lost brewing history ends here.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Robinson Gale Perry died in Brentford in England in 1917 at the age of 83.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">F</span>or an epilogue we will go back to June 1868 and a response by Samuel Haughton to that article that appeared in <i>Saunders’ News-Letter</i> quoted from above that sang the praises of the brewery. Carlow born Samuel Haughton was a priest, doctor and writer on scientific subjects. Amongst other things, he is gruesomely known for ‘The Haughton Drop’ - the calculation needed for a humane and swift end for those about to be hanged, but he was thought of generally in good terms. He was a supporter of temperance and Father Mathew so it comes as no surprise that his comments regarding Greenmount brewery are less than flattering. He speaks of the evils of <i>‘Seductive Liquors’</i> and <i>‘deplores that money and intelligence are so freely employed in a business that creates much of the misery and crime that exists around us.’ </i>But his real issue is with the comments by way of the Galloway quote used in the original piece which stated that intoxicating beverages are nutritious, plus that sales of said products are good for the country as a whole, as implied in said article. He takes a huge swipe at Galloway saying, <i>‘I doubt if there be one intelligent man now to be found among scientific men to maintain that this poison can afford any nutriment to the human frame.’</i> He goes on to berate the press by saying, <i>‘Let not then the editors of our public press any more give currency to the idea that alcoholic liquors of any description aid men in the performance of their bodily or their mental labours.’</i> Lastly he aims his well-spoken words at the brewers, refusing to agree that they are manufacturers - as stated in the piece - and saying that <i>‘a manufacturer is one who takes raw materials of little previous value, and by art makes them into things of great value. The brewer, and the distiller also, does exactly the reverse of this. He takes articles of the first necessity, and of the highest value to man, and transforms them into poison, injurious to the health, and ruinous to the happiness of man.'</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">He must have went apoplectic when he saw the brewery - by far the lesser of two evils for many temperance people - converted into a distillery in his lifetime.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But at least he had shuffled off his mortal coil before the ‘Guinness is Good for You’ campaign began …</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2023/06/100-years-of-irish-brewing-in-50.html">(Here's the link to object #9)</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;">(There is a photograph of the oil company set up by the artist Louis le Brocquy’s grandfather <a href="https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000736891">here</a> which is on the same site, and the entrance and the five-story building are <i>probably</i> from the original brewery site, even allowing for damage caused by an 1877 fire.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">*The description above is from an article on the distillery in <i>The Irish Times</i> on the 18th of November 1873, and again the implication is that there was very little change to the external parts of the building but that floors were added internally and a new chimney.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">The logo/label shown is part of the Perry Archive in Portlaoise Library and the attached image is the author's own and cannot be used elsewhere without the author's permission. Newspaper research was thanks to The British Newspaper Archive from whom I have received permission to publish images.</span></div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-59490369042828996912023-05-17T12:17:00.001+01:002023-05-31T21:02:11.856+01:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #7 - Time Beermats from Smithwick's Brewery (1962)<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLX1EGc0NNnshdXdlBtfKgybtmck_AxcV_ypr00QxeEq0U4UvQlJqdPHOkf1btoxyvhmxQNwlV3EIzjFV9UgW6I9NTJwm9kUStvn0DWWzXlq0t5RDPDhmBe7hj1OHN_SOjj6YadjxMoT0CI8-h5GQuWWU0Pczk8MjlCDOVs5eFae9B13pIb6c9Mxt9mQ/s2736/IMG_20230516_193036.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLX1EGc0NNnshdXdlBtfKgybtmck_AxcV_ypr00QxeEq0U4UvQlJqdPHOkf1btoxyvhmxQNwlV3EIzjFV9UgW6I9NTJwm9kUStvn0DWWzXlq0t5RDPDhmBe7hj1OHN_SOjj6YadjxMoT0CI8-h5GQuWWU0Pczk8MjlCDOVs5eFae9B13pIb6c9Mxt9mQ/w400-h400/IMG_20230516_193036.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">'T</span>he manufacturers of Time Beer have produced a number of new drip mats with some very amusing little designs, all based on well-known and popular Irish tunes such as ‘The Mountains of Mourne,’ ‘Come Back Paddy Reilly,’ ‘The Pride of Petravore’ and ‘Phil the Fluter’s Ball.' These Percy French melodies are as popular throughout the country as ever and it is certain that they will be known even more so now through this original idea of these manufacturers.</i>’</div><div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Drogheda Independent - 2nd July 1962</span></div><p style="text-align: right;"><i></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span>eermats are a part of pub paraphernalia which are very much taken for granted these days, as the hold very little interest to most drinkers apart from their practical use in absorbing spills from overloaded pints, or for soaking away the condensation that forms on a cold glass. They also have less obvious uses such as their use in letting others know you’ll be back shortly to finish your pint if you place one on top of your glass in a pub, not to mention their extremely important use as dewobblers for tables. And as much as they are still used for marketing beer and other products and services, they really have become just a practical object stacked on the bar with the paper straws and swizzle sticks.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The history of the use of beermats in Ireland probably goes back to the early part of the 20th century in one form or another but it was only in the 1950s and 1960s that the became more commonplace in Irish pubs, where as well as being used to reinforce establish brands, they were also used to tout a plethora of new beers that were arriving on to the Irish market from home and abroad to satisfy the changing taste of the modern drinker.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And one of those beer brands was called Time.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyGQZ6JYuTn5fyQmXSlk4kwmeKdf19iECuwWvKLn5gJBiMmlS5-xcH6W7x_B_fQpyWUZalD5FI3fbgfHfDosysHiPG2OsLRNn5eBbI5LLGvZdhqZXuDRyTXF9kXcCrZX9eG09NNAFImPN4Uc_1PdYVpACJiB-wSL4TdwA-M5YwWW7JvA9Gz-6EXB5gtg/s2736/IMG_20230516_193140.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2736" data-original-width="2736" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyGQZ6JYuTn5fyQmXSlk4kwmeKdf19iECuwWvKLn5gJBiMmlS5-xcH6W7x_B_fQpyWUZalD5FI3fbgfHfDosysHiPG2OsLRNn5eBbI5LLGvZdhqZXuDRyTXF9kXcCrZX9eG09NNAFImPN4Uc_1PdYVpACJiB-wSL4TdwA-M5YwWW7JvA9Gz-6EXB5gtg/w400-h400/IMG_20230516_193140.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">S</span>mithwicks – or St. Francis Abbey Brewery to give them their proper title – launched the ‘Time’ rebrand of most of their ale range in March of 1960 to coincide with their "250th" anniversary celebrations. During this upheaval their best-selling 'No. 1' pale ale would remain unchanged but their ‘Export Ale’ would become ‘Time Ale’ and their ‘SS Ale’ would become ‘Extra Time Ale.’ Their barley wine would also be rebranded in October of the same year to ‘Time Barley Wine’ and a few years later in 1963 a new lager called ‘Idea’ was launched and these five beers would form the Smithwicks’ range at that time.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The rebranding appears to have been an attempt to bring the brewery’s image into the modern world of the sixties, which was a time of huge change in Ireland and not least on the brewing side of consumerism, when many of our breweries were about to go through changes and launch new beers, and English brands - some brewed in this country - were starting to creep into public houses around the country. Phoenix with its modern image had been launched in 1956 and it was making inroads into the sales of some of the established ale brands, which - keep in mind - were relatively small to begin with compared to the volumes of the bigger porter brands.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">There was a further minor attempt and modernisation around 1962 when the word ‘ale’ was replaced by ‘beer’ in advertisements, labels and other marketing material. It could be assumed that the former was seen as too old-fashioned - stuff that your grandfather drank - whereas the latter sounded fresh and modern to the trendy ears of that era. Smithwicks also had an eye on the export market so a name and branding such as this would certainly have been helpful in that endeavour, as it was easy to communicate, not to mention simple to pronounce.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">There are few records remaining of what these beers looked or tasted like but advertisements from this time describe Time Ale as <i>'full of golden goodness'</i>, while Extra Time was <i>'so smooth, so mellow,'</i> and Time Barley Wine was <i>'rich, ruby and heartwarming'</i>. Time Ale itself was served in half-pint bottles and on draught, Extra Time came in half-pint bottles, and Time Barley Wine in smaller bottles again.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In 1964 Guinness announced that they had acquired 99% of the ordinary shares in Smithwicks brewery and around this time public tastes were changing from paler relatively sharper ales towards those that was darker and sweeter, and Smithwick’s Draught was created by Guinness the following year to meet this demand. This was probably driven by the introduction of Watney’s Red Barrel (first imported and then Cork-brewed in Murphy’s Lady’s Well Brewery) and other similar keg ales to this country, and with the launch of this new beer the Time branding disappeared, leaving behind just a reasonable amount of marketing baggage, beermats and labels to show that it existed for a short period in the first half of the 1960s. The Guinness controlled Smithwicks’ Brewery continued to operate in Kilkenny until 2013, when it was closed and the production of all St. Francis Abbey Brewery beers was moved from their home as part of a consolidation of their total production.*</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBLITlUSIyO7dqAftqBNW4LuGM8LDefldLieZRsNNI8vUWYe0p1a7Ud8kN8AeH1ZbX0W1UHjliljfKWhlhgOuXm1DHdTUFJcPNB7bupZ9ru536UjbpMs0nvusg9qHjn2J9ZNnTioCXJm3vCGLRsWVP3ZbboVOqalkbTfuOV6abhXFRXAWcFOK9_qJy7g/s2706/IMG_20230516_193210.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2706" data-original-width="2706" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBLITlUSIyO7dqAftqBNW4LuGM8LDefldLieZRsNNI8vUWYe0p1a7Ud8kN8AeH1ZbX0W1UHjliljfKWhlhgOuXm1DHdTUFJcPNB7bupZ9ru536UjbpMs0nvusg9qHjn2J9ZNnTioCXJm3vCGLRsWVP3ZbboVOqalkbTfuOV6abhXFRXAWcFOK9_qJy7g/w400-h400/IMG_20230516_193210.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>hese beermats were issued in 1962 around the time that the minor rebrand from ale to beer occurred and feature part of the lyrics of songs by Percy French combined with illustrations by Bob Fannin. They appear to have been launched in two batches with the second set of four differing from the originals by including a copyright notice for <i>'Keith Prowse, by arrangement with Piggott’s'</i> instead of just a copyright for the beer brand, and also with the word <i>‘Printed in Germany’</i> now appearing under the brand. Percy French lyrics were handled by a number of publishers including Piggot & Co. in Dublin and Keith Prowse in London, hence their mention. In addition to the lyrics printed on the first batch the second are comprised of the following of French’s songs ‘McBreen’s Heifer,’ ‘Little Bridget Flynn,’ ‘Are ye Right There, Michael!’ and ‘Slattery’s Mounted Fut.’</p><p style="text-align: justify;">They are quite substantial compared to modern beermats being twice as thick and around ten percent wider. There is embossing around the lines of the drawings and the logo adding to that sense of quality. and they are - obviously - similar to some of the beermats produced for the German domestic market at this time. It is curious that given the contemporary feel of much of the other marketing for the range that these seem to be more traditional in tone and content, although perhaps the cartoons were perceived as having a modern look in the sixties which is harder to gauge from this vantage point. Another set of beermats produced for the brand feature football, bowling, golf and hurling and are also printed in Germany, and they certainly have a more modern feel with a similarly very well designed and produced look. That batch were designed by Adsell Ltd. in Dublin and the Percy French/Bob Fannin range were most likely designed by the same company, as they handled much (or probably all) of the marketing and advertising for Smithwick’s around this time. There were also square beermats being produced with just the brand name which were being printed in England, as well as a round version - both of these are lighter in quality than the German made mats and may date from later in the brand's brief history. (By the way, Smithwick’s lager brand - Idea - used at least some beermats printed in Ireland.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But this wasn't the first time these lyrics and cartoons were used by Smithwicks, as with a little detective work it can be seen that they were first published by them in a calendar in 1960 to mark that alleged 250th anniversary of the founding of the St. Francis Abbey brewery, and at roughly the same time as the range was rebranded. It contained twelve illustrations some of which were used for the beermats two years later, although the brand itself appears to get no mention in the calendar. The illustrations are all signed by Bob Fannin, whose signature is sadly missing from the actual beermats and this calendar might be the only record remaining of who drew these illustrations outside of a dusty folder in a lost filing cabinet in Kilkenny or Dublin.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiezR6VFAAKgybT0PFlNiDk_geW9RPlQ5fBlZ4FIN_qm7g8sC7vKREdaFnUE2k7GV2WCBZkIxgOya7NHBWXUxPc3ElhAtZBdCy0tti6lDI6QPbrG4kTZNWcWoFVbuxV2V0LWmqgT78dTEL-5JvkFCZ38hR4-yWkXHuSCs8qyJNB7s2aRqLnL8ty4O5Teg/s2483/IMG_20230516_193243.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2483" data-original-width="2482" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiezR6VFAAKgybT0PFlNiDk_geW9RPlQ5fBlZ4FIN_qm7g8sC7vKREdaFnUE2k7GV2WCBZkIxgOya7NHBWXUxPc3ElhAtZBdCy0tti6lDI6QPbrG4kTZNWcWoFVbuxV2V0LWmqgT78dTEL-5JvkFCZ38hR4-yWkXHuSCs8qyJNB7s2aRqLnL8ty4O5Teg/w400-h400/IMG_20230516_193243.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">W</span>illiam Percy French was born in Roscommon in 1854 and was a prolific writer and entertainer. He was educated in both Ireland and England, and lived in the latter for a time, as well as travelling to America and Europe to perform. He is probably much better known in Ireland than in England as most of his more famous songs are very much Irish in content, humour and language and he is probably best known for ‘The Mountains of Mourne’ and ‘Come Back Paddy Reilly’ which have been sung by many artists, the former was even covered by Don McLean in the 1970s. Percy French died in 1920 and is buried in Lancashire in England.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Limerick born Bob Fannin produced cartoons for publications such as The Irish Field and The Evening Herald and should perhaps be better known given the level of detail and expressiveness of these drawings. He died at the age of 75 in late 2000.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">G</span>iven their physical qualities as well as their design, these illustrations and verses from a now defunct brand are arguably the finest looking beermats ever produced in this country. There are few if any other examples that have all the qualities that these possess, and if the business and brand history of the St. Francis Abbey Brewery had taken a different turn they might be being touted, reproduced, and exalted in the timeline of Irish brewing history. These illustrations might adorn t-shirts in shops and poster in pubs around the country, instead of falling into the large bin of discarded Irish beer history - a purged part of our brewing heritage from the early sixties that doesn’t quite fit into a prescribed and promoted timeline.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">They are perhaps a fitting symbol of the Irish brewing history that we lost but which we can rediscover, champion and promote - given time, research and access to the right material.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Our brewing history isn’t dead, it sits on shelves, and in binders, drawers and cupboards - just waiting to be rediscovered.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2023/05/100-years-of-irish-brewing-in-50_26.html">(Here's the link to object #8)</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* Adapted from a piece on the Time brand I wrote about <a href="http://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2020/01/its-smithwicks-time-short-history-of.html">here</a>, which lists any references from this section.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>References:</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The William Percy French <a href="http://lh-roscommon.interleaf.ie/exhibits/show/percyfrench/page1">Collection</a> in Roscommon County Library</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Smithwicks Calendar - De Búrca Rare Books Catalogue 130 Summer 2017</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Bob Fannin obituary via <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/bob-fannin-1.276076">The Irish Times</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Further Beermat Reading:</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Boak & Bailey - <a href="https://boakandbailey.com/2020/06/faq-when-did-beer-mats-come-in/">FAQ: When did beer mats come in?</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Martyn Cornell - Beer Memorabilia published by Apple 2000 ISBN 1-84092-214-1</p><div style="text-align: justify;"><div><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">The beermats and the attached image are the authors own and cannot be used elsewhere without the author's permission. Newspaper research was thanks to The British Newspaper Archive.</span></div></div></div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-39425413033578981392023-04-25T20:03:00.004+01:002023-07-19T17:01:15.633+01:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #6 - A Drayman's Delivery Docket from Sullivan's Brewery (1892)<p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZgyRE5j7PzaJMVadg159KthntaBE7A9V6Qgc93_4VuLLwzOOjDaQDaoG3NzL44Mm8ahHZ-NlM-3PafzkwNMHY3eiA68oBY5dk6OuP3HLq1bHAdzEb0Q18dMH6Q9nB11RbH_oH6zUKrIexEi9Tcydz7E6B0QE473qXzakWVMbPddcqdlkO95lhbHRXYw/s2801/IMG_20230419_164758.jpg"></a><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZgyRE5j7PzaJMVadg159KthntaBE7A9V6Qgc93_4VuLLwzOOjDaQDaoG3NzL44Mm8ahHZ-NlM-3PafzkwNMHY3eiA68oBY5dk6OuP3HLq1bHAdzEb0Q18dMH6Q9nB11RbH_oH6zUKrIexEi9Tcydz7E6B0QE473qXzakWVMbPddcqdlkO95lhbHRXYw/s2801/IMG_20230419_164758.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZgyRE5j7PzaJMVadg159KthntaBE7A9V6Qgc93_4VuLLwzOOjDaQDaoG3NzL44Mm8ahHZ-NlM-3PafzkwNMHY3eiA68oBY5dk6OuP3HLq1bHAdzEb0Q18dMH6Q9nB11RbH_oH6zUKrIexEi9Tcydz7E6B0QE473qXzakWVMbPddcqdlkO95lhbHRXYw/w300-h400/IMG_20230419_164758.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span> could speak of the beer drinking capabilities of some of the Walshe mountain girls - but why should we cavil at the amount of refreshment which is taken after a walk of twelve miles from the hills, another return walk of similar length in perspective, and in addition holding on in the dance "to tire each other down" for some three or four hours? Could we say half a gallon of that washy stuff known in Ireland as "pale butt," was too much for a girl? You may think so, reader, but I do not. The question is, after all, one of stowage.</i></div></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A Strangers Impressions of County Kilkenny – The Kilkenny Moderator - Saturday 19th July 1851</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>hose comments were made by a tourist who was staying in Bishop’s Hotel in Thomastown, Kilkenny and were in regard to a fair day in the town, and the people who came in from the countryside for dancing and socialising. Regardless of the comments on the ability of <i>‘the Walshe mountain girls’</i> to consume <i>‘refreshment,’</i> his description of a drink called ‘Pale Butt’ and it being ‘washy stuff’ is of interest to those curious about Irish brewing history. We must keep in mind that elsewhere in his report to the newspaper he twice mentions drinking Cherry’s Double Stout, so his opinion of other beers might be in relative terms but <i>‘washy’ </i>can hardly be regarded as a praisesome term for any drink.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">O</span>ur related brewing object is a delivery docket for a half barrel of Pale Butt from 1892, brewed by Sullivan’s Brewery which operated from James’s Street in Kilkenny on the site of an earlier brewery being operated by a Mr. Archdeakin in at least 1702. As ever with Irish brewing history the facts are a little muddy but the brewery on James's Street appears to have passed through different hands - for example a John Hennessy was a brewer on this street in 1788 - before the site became vacant in 1790. It was purchased and reopened by William Sullivan and William Loughnane in 1810. Mr. Loughnane appears to have left the business as it was operating as 'Messrs. Sullivans Brewery' in a newspaper article in March 1815 when a fire broke out in the malt house there. (Indeed, a portion of the brewery was destroyed by another fire in October 1880 while the funeral was taking place of the then owner James Sullivan's brother Francis - grandsons of William and sons of Richard Sullivan M.P.) The company - which employed 150 people at one point - actually consisted of two breweries and a bottling store for mineral water and soft drinks when a new brewery was completed not far from the original site in June 1877. This new site was possibly a repurposing of an existing brewery as there was a Hibernian Anchor Brewery on the street in 1859, and that fire in 1880 destroyed part of the old brewery, not this new premises. It appears to have stayed in the Sullivan family until it finally closed in 1919, the brewery being taken over by Smithwick’s and closed with the employees receiving <i>'a fortnight's notice that their services will be dispensed with.'</i> according to one newspaper. Parts of the premises were subsequently used as a maltings by the Smithwick brewery and the site is now a carpark for Market Cross Shopping Centre. Advertisements from 1895 show that Sullivan’s were brewing a pale butt, a double stout, sparkling ales and hop bitters as well as manufacturing and bottling Mineral waters at this time.*</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The half barrel of pale butt was delivered to a Laurence Long who had at this time a public house and grocery store on the corner of Barrack Street and the Castlecomer road, which is now known as Lenehan’s Public House. According to newspapers of the time he appears to have sold the business to Rose Lenehan in 1913 and took over a premises instead on John Street (now called The World’s End Bar) which he ran very briefly until his untimely death that same year.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The drayman who delivered the cask on his route was a J.(?) Dowling and the cask number was 2574. This number ensured that the casks could be tracked and returned to the brewery. It was also helpful if a full barrel of beer was stolen, and a newspaper report in The Kilkenny Moderator on the 26th of October 1892 records that a barrel of pale butt was stolen from a Mr. Grace on Parliament Street in Kilkenny and was tracked to a house on Horse Barrack Lane (which curves from Parliament Street along the front of the Smithwick’s brewhouse that is now the new Abbey Quarter Development Building) where the number confirmed it to be the missing cask. The two thieves who had attempted to sell the barrel to some public houses without success were sentenced to a fortnight hard labour in Mountjoy prison in Dublin.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he words ‘pale butt’ relating to a type of beer seems to be one of those relic terms which lost favour over time. It is certainly mentioned by William Ellis in the 1737 edition of <i>The London and Country Brewer</i> as <i>‘pale Butt-beer’</i> from Somerset, and over here in<i> The Parliamentary Register: Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons of Ireland</i> in 1793 in an enquiry into brewing and distilling here ‘pale butt’ is mentioned twice as a common commodity before that date.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As we move forward in time ‘pale butt’ appears to be a term that remained much more common in Ireland than in England, Scotland, or Wales if the unscientific method of looking at mentions in the newspapers of the mid-19th to the very early parts of the 20th century is to be used as a measurement. (It was certainly still used elsewhere but it wasn’t quite as common and isn’t the focus of the topic here.) Breweries such as Lett’s. Watson’s, Cherry’s, Keily’s, Smithwick’s, Sullivan’s, Castlebellingham, Dower’s and others were all using the words to describe a beer style at one point or another. And although the term seems to have begun in England, its relative decline outside of Ireland is yet another reminder that although we share a lot with the island to our East, we are remarkably different in many ways, not least how language changed and evolved here or - in cases like this perhaps - stalled. With regard to brewing, this may be because of the large number of English brewers who came over to Ireland to set up and work in the breweries here, and the terminology they brought and left behind in the late 18th and early 19th century stayed here long after newer words and meanings had replaced them across the water, just as some ‘normal’ daily words in common use have remained here too.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">From a practical point of view a beer butt is a wooden barrel that is twice the volume of a hogshead at 108 Imperial gallons and in the above-mentioned publication that Mr. Ellis asserts that it was the best size for fermenting and condition beers due to aspects of its physical size and volume and that <i>‘butt-beer is at this time in greater reputation than ever in London ...’</i> As we can see from the docket (and the mentions below) the beer certainly wasn't always supplied in a butt-sized barrel.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>o find out where pale butt fitted into an Irish brewery's range of beers we need to return yet again to the advertisements in newspapers of the time in question, which is a somewhat inaccurate method of research in many ways but it is unfortunately one of the few resources we have, given the dearth of old brewing records available to the public. Taken singly they might be unhelpful but by looking at the many mentions and references we have we can begin to build a better picture of what type of beer this was and where it fits into our brewing history.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">There are early mentions of Irish brewers brewing the style, for example a David Sherlock on Glover's Alley, a table beer brewer, had <i>'commenced the brewing of Porter, Ale, Pale Butt and 30s</i>[hilling]<i> Beer'</i> according to <i>The Dublin Evening Post</i> from the 5th of January 1797 and in <i>Saunder's News-Letter</i> on the 9th of November 1799 Thomas Fullam advertised himself as a <i>'Pale Butt, Ale and Table Beer Brewer'</i> on Constitution Hill in Dublin. (Pale Butt was his dearest beer of the three, which is worth keeping in mind for later.) In <i>The Hibernian Journal</i> on the 21st of September 1805 William Robinson of 110 The Coombe in Dublin was advertising his <i>‘Pale Butt, Porter, & Small Beer Brewery’</i> while in <i>Saunders's News-Letter</i> on the 4th of July 1808 Andrew Maziere of James’s Street also in Dublin was advertising <i>‘Porter, Pale Butt, and Table Beer.</i>’ An advertisement in <i>Saunders's News-Letter</i> on the 5th of April 1813 for beers from the Castlebellingham brewery mentions <i>‘strong ale and pale butt’</i> (in later advertisements table beer is also listed) and in <i>The Tipperary Free Press</i> on the 3rd of January 1829 Greer & Murphy of The Clonmel Brewery were listing double strong ale, pale butt, ale, porter and table beer all as separate products. Where prices are mentioned, pale butt is generally on the cheaper side of things with the odd exception, such as the early mention by Thomas Fullam above.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">By 1835 Thomas Cherry of King Street Brewery in Waterford and Creywell brewery in New Ross was advertising what looks like a hierarchy of brewings as <i>‘XX and X ale, and Pale Butt’</i> (with <i>‘Beer’</i> tagged on to the end of the line up in later advertisements) in <i>The Wexford Conservative</i> of the 23rd of December 1835, and a list of beers for sale in <i>The Drogheda Conservative Journal</i> on the 31st of March 1838 lists pale butt, plain ale, X ale and XX ale in ascending order of price, with all but the pale butt listed as from Cairnes’ brewery in Drogheda, although they <i>were</i> brewing such a product in the previous decade so it may have been theirs too.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Up in Belfast Charles Murison was brewing nine beers in 1842 – XXX, XX and X ales, XX and X Brown Stout, Superior Porter and Pale Butt, Family Pale Beer, and Common Beer, which were listed in that order according to an advertisement in <i>The Belfast Mercantile Register & Weekly Advertiser</i> on the 22nd of February 1842. Most revealing is the following passage:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote><i>To those who prefer a stronger article for table use than beer, the Pale Butt will be found a very pleasant beverage, as a medium between Ale and Beer.</i></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1n5fL50mChrgDLD0NRwl5W1GRbgJ4w1R9xxFxxAsIEAdGTlZMNofFduL97nly1M7q_IebozZct3mGsXP8kWj_-wGqw7riF28tZHpqhHioz-Uz5KcYQnP2MJqKSOTXWLG8folSSw6yyqUEAEfWLRA-1dv4e1YJJtsYNltZVebhXULyJOyL8RgMsxWo6e92/s1503/Screenshot_20230719_165316.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1503" data-original-width="992" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1n5fL50mChrgDLD0NRwl5W1GRbgJ4w1R9xxFxxAsIEAdGTlZMNofFduL97nly1M7q_IebozZct3mGsXP8kWj_-wGqw7riF28tZHpqhHioz-Uz5KcYQnP2MJqKSOTXWLG8folSSw6yyqUEAEfWLRA-1dv4e1YJJtsYNltZVebhXULyJOyL8RgMsxWo6e92/w264-h400/Screenshot_20230719_165316.jpg" width="264" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>his is quite telling as it seems to confirm what we see in other advertisements, that pale butt appears to be a lighter and cheaper type of beer, or had certainly morphed into that by the early-to-mid-19th century. It is worth noting that I have used the word beer in the modern all-encompassing sense often here, but from what I have seen from this and other advertisements in the past we used the term ‘beer’ here in Ireland for the weakest and lightest form of brewed beverage – and this is probably a hangover from the popularity of table beer as a general beverage in the late 18th and early 19th century. It would appear that the name clung on here for a weaker brew, so at this time – and later – ‘ale’ didn’t mean an unhopped product and ‘beer’ a hopped one as it may have done elsewhere (or earlier) the terms were used to signify strength with our pale butt in the middle at this time.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, just to reiterate, at this time it appears that of the paler brewings in Ireland we had in ascending order of strength and cost - ‘beer,’ then ‘butt,’ then ‘ale.’ (We also had ‘brown beers’ brewed by St. Stephen’s Brewery in Waterford and others, which were probably a lighter version of their ‘basic’ porter.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">If we want more reinforcement of this theory we can look at Sullivan’s rival in Kilkenny, the St. Francis Abbey Brewery of Edmond Smithwick who in 1852, just a couple of decades after commencing to brew on an old distillery site, was producing <i>‘Double, and Single, Stout Porters; Extra Strong, and Strong Ales, Pale Butt, and Table Beer’</i> in and advertisement in <i>The Kilkenny Moderator</i> on the 21st of January of that year. Helpfully too, St. Stephen’s Brewery listed their prices in <i>The Waterford Chronicle</i> in December 1874 which starts with a XXXX sweet ale at 21 shillings and drops through India Pale Ale, XXX Mild and Family Ale to Pale Butt at 8 shillings for a firkin of 9 Gallons.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZCLMLFSPwDe9rErH0EMmuQMHdPrsX5ndccHFKmtadSJlYpTap2bQvyIsu6G607vE0sDqYkTsDUKS1mgshTqUGWJClPg85rVXSfVIZK9b4Zzn3_jBUJXq2VL_GpxcMIkXDetCSHF7Y89Q8N8VijtCTluw9hHm9KJ5qalkCHPGLonOb-_wJwalhJ1bqHRZg/s1904/Screenshot_20230719_165854.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1904" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZCLMLFSPwDe9rErH0EMmuQMHdPrsX5ndccHFKmtadSJlYpTap2bQvyIsu6G607vE0sDqYkTsDUKS1mgshTqUGWJClPg85rVXSfVIZK9b4Zzn3_jBUJXq2VL_GpxcMIkXDetCSHF7Y89Q8N8VijtCTluw9hHm9KJ5qalkCHPGLonOb-_wJwalhJ1bqHRZg/w228-h400/Screenshot_20230719_165854.jpg" width="228" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span>s late as 1900 the brewers of Louth were publishing a list of price increases for their beers in <i>The Freeman’s Journal</i> that once again lists a range based on prices starting with the most expensive with strong mild ales then East India and Amber Ales, followed by Pale Butt and then Dinner and an enigmatic East India Beer and lastly plain ‘Beer,’ and if price equates to the quantities of ingredients used then we can take pricing as being a relatively safe way of judging the strength of the beer. There are a few exceptions where a Pale Butt mention is prefaced with ‘Strong’ but generally speaking 'Pale Butt' appears to be a weaker brew than ale … ‘washy’ as described by the writer quoted above.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As to its exact taste, St. Stephen’s Brewery were involved in a dispute with a publican regarding the quality of their beer as recorded in <i>The Clonmel Chronicle</i> on the 8th of April 1874, where <i>‘two kilderkins </i>[of East India pale ale] <i>turned out inferior, and he had to sell all as pale butt.’</i> This gives an inkling of how it tasted as it was clearly not as strong in relative terms as their IPA. An article in <i>The Freeman’s Journal</i> from the 15th of March 1913 quotes an English writer from 1798 who wrote about <i>‘a sweetish malt liquor, called ‘pale butt,’ unlike anything I have ever drunk elsewhere,’</i> which again helps a little with how it tasted and reinforces that the name was not very common in England even at that time. Yet another mention in a court case recorded in <i>The Kilkenny Moderator</i> on the 27th of December 1865 states that <i>‘it would take a long time to get drunk on ‘pale butt,’'</i> and another in <i>The New Ross Standard</i> on the 20th of September 1907 which mentions that Cherry’s pale butt was ‘<i>not very strong.’</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, pale butt could possibly be best described as a low-hopped, slightly malt-forward beer, pale in colour, low in alcohol and cheap to buy – but still a little stronger and not as cheap as the ‘beer’ available at this time. All of which is of course pure conjecture, but it seems to be the correct assumption.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">That term for a style of beer brewed in Ireland seems to have disappeared from the island in the first decade of the 20th century, but did the actual product itself disappear too? Perhaps, but it may have lingered briefly, renamed as a mild or X ale in some breweries, but with the huge popularity of porter and stout here it may have just disappeared, being unwanted and unneeded, and ultimately unfamiliar to a 20th century drinker. It might be argued that it returned in spirit at least in the new beers that appeared in the middle of that century like Phoenix and Smithwick’s Draught – low-ish alcohol beers that were made for drinking in relatively large quantities on social occasions.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">O</span>n that note let us return to Sullivan’s Pale Butt and specifically to an account of a Harvest Home feast (a relatively common occurrence in the Big Houses in the past) from <i>The Farmer’s Gazette</i> on the 18th of October 1850 which seems quite fitting to end with …</p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"><i>HARVEST HOME AT FARMLEY CASTLE, KILKENNY</i></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>The annual substantial feast came off at this ancient and time-honoured establishment, on Saturday last, when all the workpeople, with their wives and families, were most sumptuously entertained. The rooms were most tastefully decorated with flowering shrubs and evergreens - “Nature's own darling hue;” and when the apartments were brilliantly lighted up, all had a most imposing and thrilling effect - thanks to the superior taste of Brette, the carpenter.<br /></i><i>The dinner being over, the musicians poured forth their most soft and enchanting strains, which made the old and feeble forget their infirmities, and the youthful their previous toil, and all joined in the merry dance, which was kept up in the true Irish fashion, until very late hour.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i>“How gaily, even amidst gloom surrounding,</i></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>They still canst wake at pleasure's thrill,</i></div></i><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Like Memnon’s broken image sounding,</i></div></i><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Amidst desolation, tuneful still.'' </i></div></i></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Even the noble-hearted proprietor and his lady did not disdain to take the hands of their simple-hearted and grateful rustics, and share with them the pleasure of dancing the merry “foxhunter’s jig.” To the eye of the philanthropist, surveying at this moment the happy faces of the entire company, he could not but bless the source whose bounty contributed so largely to make so many of the children of toil and labour delighted and comfortable. Sullivan's pale butt, and Jamieson’s stingo, were done ample justice to, with abundance of tea and coffee for the teetotallers. Great merit is due to Mr. Mclntyre, the intelligent and respectable steward of the establishment, for the orderly manner in which everything was arranged.</i></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">As florid and loquacious as this report is it certainly paints a picture of enjoying a nice beer or two to celebrate an occasion, where all are welcome and there is something for everyone – even those wanting a ‘washy’ pale butt ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;">P.S. I have at times used the word beer in its modern general sense here as well as highlighting where in the past that same word meant the lightest of brewed beverages, and I hope the context of their use differentiates one from the other.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* Adapted from a piece on Kilkenny breweries I wrote about <a href="http://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2019/08/brewing-history-some-notes-on-pre.html">here</a>, which lists any references.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">(<a href="http://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2023/05/100-years-of-irish-brewing-in-50.html">Here is the link to object #7</a>)</p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">The docket and the attached image are the authors own and cannot be used elsewhere without the author's permission. Newspaper research and images are thanks to The British Newspaper Archive.</span></div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-47357972803376245112023-04-07T10:14:00.000+01:002023-04-07T10:14:07.059+01:00Opinion: Guinness and Me – Love and Hate at the Heart of Darkness …<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg91915MLXwd3WdAZXziW5gnLFeQm-RUvMgL2KvXR9q1Vig5iHysRCyZy31MCsEL4lE1FDWYJ12CWEqgcpeKLRiQDHqfaYcoVHIXEFeVGb51NO5hGaY3jXjkSna-87IwDaq76fvxrK4PLK0n6VcRK4R9Prnl0NxGKEV9M4u2qPWMHop_zBuhQ4QuZf7DA/s1254/IMG_20230406_232724.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="940" data-original-width="1254" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg91915MLXwd3WdAZXziW5gnLFeQm-RUvMgL2KvXR9q1Vig5iHysRCyZy31MCsEL4lE1FDWYJ12CWEqgcpeKLRiQDHqfaYcoVHIXEFeVGb51NO5hGaY3jXjkSna-87IwDaq76fvxrK4PLK0n6VcRK4R9Prnl0NxGKEV9M4u2qPWMHop_zBuhQ4QuZf7DA/w400-h300/IMG_20230406_232724.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-large;">M</span>y first encounter with Guinness was as a small child in the very early seventies when my father would on occasion bring home four or so half-pint bottles after work from the local grocery shop that doubled as a public house - as many still did in rural Ireland in the last century and well before that too. I was only three or four years old but I can still clearly remember sitting on the floor at his feet playing while he sat on an armchair beside our Stanley cooker. He'd pour one into into a glass before placing the empty bottle beside the chair leg with a clink of glass on tile. I’m sure this ritual happened on a Friday because my mother would be baking as she normally did on that evening and the smell of soda bread filled the kitchen along with the heat from the stove. Under his watchful eye (and out of my mother’s) I would pick up the small, stumpy bottle and put it to my lips, before tipping it back and letting the tiny dregs of stout coat my tongue and cause my mouth to pucker. I guess I just wanted to be part of his Friday night tradition of enjoying those hard-earned bottles at the end of a long arduous week. He wasn’t much of a drinker in truth so it’s curious that this is one of my earliest remembered interactions with him, and although small parts of it might be misremembered and embellished by the progress of time and a need for joyful memories, the basic elements are true.<p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">For my next serious encounter we need to fast-forward a few years to the late eighties. While listening to a gig in a local bar in town a friend persuaded me to order a draught Guinness as a change from the usual pint of Harp, as that was what he drank. I certainly didn’t take to it at the first sip, as taste-wise it was radically different from my lager, but something must certainly have appealed to me as I continued to drink it for almost two decades. It might have been the influence of my drinking partner, who also introduced me to smoking - although that was a habit I thankfully didn’t take up - or maybe I liked how it looked, or perhaps I felt I was cool to be drinking it - as if I had finally grown up? I’m really not sure. Certainly – at first anyway – the actual taste didn’t play a part and I doubt any nostalgic longing to my childhood did either.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But I grew to love my pints of Guinness.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I drank it all over Ireland, in parts of England, and a lot of Europe too. I savoured pints from Dublin to Kerry, and Mayo to Cork. I drank it gladly in pubs in Islington and Hounslow, Birmingham and Manchester. I even consumed it on cold nights in Irish bars in Innsbruck and Bruges, and on summer holidays in Greece and Italy and many other too-hot countries. To me it always tasted much the same, apart from some (perceived) exceptional pints served to me on a particularly memorial night and early morning in The Strand guesthouse on Achill, and a dreadful one I had when hungover in the middle of a ridiculously hot day in Protaras, Cyprus.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I would not say I drank it exclusively, and I was never a huge drinker, but it was certainly my number one beer by quantity.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But around 20 years ago I fell out of love with Guinness and I can’t remember <i>exactly</i> when or why, it was certainly a case of ‘it’s-not-you-it’s-me,’ as apart from the dreaded and still linger legacy of Guinness Extra Cold I don’t believe the beer in my glass changed much? I moved back to lagers - usually foreign - often in bottles and rarely to same brand twice, as I was interested in trying new drinks as part of a journey into expanding my food and beverage palate. In my defence back then it was mostly strange lagers which were available apart from one local microbrewery which I certainly flirted with off and on. This change might also have coincided with a camping trip we made around Europe where four of us would bring a case of lager back to our campsite to share, and every night it was a different localish brand, so variety and variation of a sort became the norm.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But then came a trip to Belgium with a group of friends in 2008 and obviously after that I became an insufferable beer snob for a short while as I trod a path well worn by many before me. I wasn’t trying to be that sort of person but somehow the waves of Belgian beer and its culture – however tourist-focussed relatively new it was – washed over me and I was born again, baptised in sour ales, blondes and tripels. I became ‘That Guy’ in the bar who was always trying to persuade others to drink ‘craft’ beers from the newly emerging scene here, or dusty bottles of German bocks, Trappist ales or whatever wasn’t mainstream. I did succeed in converting many of my friends and family along my apostolic-like journey, but I cringe somewhat now as I look back on that early time of shunning certain beers and wonderful bars based solely on their line-up. I spent so much time making meaningless scribbles in notebooks and on apps and finally on a blog, notes that rarely mattered as I wound never drink that beer again. I continued to look for the next beer, the new beer, the rare beer.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I won’t say it was a waste of time as such, as I did enjoy every minute of it to be fair, but a small part of me regrets spending so much time on analysing beers and less time experiencing and enjoying them more with the company I was with in some fantastic places.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But soon enough I began to mellow and instead of instigating a talk about beer in a pub I’d let others ask me about what I was drinking (and ask why I spent so long taking pictures of it – more wasteful time!) and used that as a way of getting people to initially talk about beer and then often to trying one, because I really do like to talk about beer and brewing, often to the point of not recognising the abject boredom in my friends faces. More recently I developed a taste for cask ales, which I had only previously tried and somewhat dismissed in England decades ago, and I also began to appreciate lighter styles like mild ales, lager and porters, although mostly from local or small breweries. I also started frequenting 'normal' pubs more often instead of forcing others to my craft-centric places, and there I revisited Guinness Draught again for the first time in decades …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I was underwhelmed. It was fine, there was certainly nothing wrong with what I was poured. It tasted just like it was supposed to, quite mild and slightly bitter, but it lacked … something? Depth and character perhaps? Possibly because I’ve had my palate assailed by the uber-sour, the ultra-hoppy and the over-sticky beers for too many years so I didn’t appreciate the nuanced flavours of this iconic brand – and maybe my age played a part – but how come I could pick these up in cask ales or even understated lagers?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I was certainly disappointed, as part of me wanted it to be a beer I could like because it would make my drinking life and choices in non-craft pubs much easier and maybe more enjoyable. Sadly, that was not the case – there would be no returning of long-lost love into my life. I even tried it again elsewhere but there was no connection, no grá. Nothing.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The romance was truly over.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-O-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">N</span>ow let me be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with draught Guinness. Taste-wise it isn’t dreadful or crap or any of the other words that some have called it. It’s certainly – and ironically – plain for a stout, but no doubt that is its appeal to many. Like Coors, Rockshore, Smithwicks and a host of other macrobrewed beers it is the simplest of its genera and that makes perfect sense, as most people aren’t like those of us who feel the need to talk almost constantly about what we are drinking. Macrobrewed beers are the lubricant to the cogs of conversation and socially enjoyment for the vast majority of beer drinkers, and drops of anything thicker would jam the mechanism or at least slow it down - and I’ve come to appreciate and understand that at least.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I have no objection to nitro-served beers either, in fact I’m quite partial to them at times. But it must be noted that nitrogen does dull – or soften let’s say - the flavours of beers and it certainly changes their taste profile, taking the edge off of it. Therefore if you want (and you may not of course) a nitrogenated beer with any kind of pronounced flavour then – for me, and only me – it needs to start from something with a stronger and fuller flavour profile than Guinness, so for my palate that means stouts which are a little less dry, such as Murphy’s and Beamish on the macro front. For me, both of these are better as nitro-served products, with Guinness and Island’s Edge both on the drier side and relatively similar.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Of course, microbrewed nitro stouts are generally speaking a cut above any of those for my palate, as <i>again</i> – to be clear – personally I am looking for more flavour in my beer these days.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">(And yes, I have done a blind tasting.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But I still drink Guinness by the way, although only in bottles when I’m ‘stuck’ in places where there is no option for something with more flavour and usually only if bottles of Macardles ale are not available – as it at least has some sort of pronounced flavour. This version of Guinness – ‘Original’ or XX, or Extra Stout – is quite different to Guinness Draught, being just ‘normally’ carbonated apart from anything else. When served at shelf temperature it is a much more appealing and beguiling product than its draught cousin – although it is still far behind most microbrewed bottled stouts. (<i>Again</i>, I have blind tasted a selection of bottled stouts.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And I certainly don’t love it ... but I do like it.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-O-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>hese days I don’t generally push microbrewed beers over macrobrewed, as I no longer feel it is my vocation to preach to others regarding what they drink, but I will more often than not favour microbrewed (‘craft’) beers over macrobrewed ones purely on taste. This coupled by the fact that I’m drinking more homebrewed beers these days due to experimenting with Irish historic beer recipes and the need to brew and sample the same. I’m more of a drink-and-let-drink sort of person now, apart from some gentle and expected ribbing of friends and family when it comes to their choice of beers.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But there are beer related matters that irk me and cause me consternation.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The first – as many of you know - is how many Irish restaurants and chefs or butchers and bakers will shout loudly about ‘Artisan’ and ‘Local’ with all the produce the cook and bake with - apart from beers of course, where most will happily include Guinness in their steak pies or brown bread, and baste their locally sourced fancy beef joint in Smithwicks. Some will get into bed with any drink multinational who waves a cheque at them, or they will promote their love of pints of certain mass-produced beers on social media, while in their next post telling their followers not to go to chain cafes, international fast-food restaurants or to eat anything that hasn’t been sourced 10km from where we live by a small farmer or grower. The worse thing is that neither they or their followers can see or appreciate the irony and hypocrisy because, ‘It’s just beer, isn’t it?’ It doesn’t seem to count because beer, perhaps, has always had a stigma attached to it that spirits and wine do not. This is why most restaurants will carefully curate a wines list and have a literal showcase of proper Irish spirits but have three taps of ‘big’ beer on, or worse still a rebadged microbrewed beer under the house name. Which perhaps shows the lack of pride and confidence that some breweries have in their beers, plus the lack of integrity that the restaurant has for its customer – a complete absence of respect for the product and drinker. Would they lie about their meat and other produce too? It makes me wonder about the producers' names on their menus, are they fake too? (It surprises me that practically all craft beer drinkers think this is an okay practice – as long as it isn’t a 'big' brewery doing it …) I am generalising here of course and it is a road I have gone down before but it is worth reiterating here for context.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The other group that infuriates me are the beer drinkers who preach about drinking from small producers and supporting craft, but make an exception for pints of draught Guinness – and only Guinness I might add.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Let me be clear – <i>yet</i> again – this isn’t every beer drinker out there or even craft beer drinker, as there are many beer omnivores who just drink (and write) about beer in general and don’t pontificate – but some do indeed lecture us about big beer versus small and those are the drinkers whose Guinness exception I cannot understand. I am indeed one of the much maligned ‘drink what you like’ brigade who at this stage in their journey through life - probably aided by age - really agrees in that mantra, even if others think it trite. And age has also turned me into a grumpy cantankerous creature who is likely to call out what can only be classed as insincere and contradictory behaviour.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In Animal Farm one of the rules painted on the barn walls is famously ‘All Animals are Equal’, which – spoiler alert – had the words ‘… But Some are More Equal Than Others’ added to it. This attitude looks to also apply to certain ‘craft’ beer drinkers who will embrace the joy of a macrobrewed nitro stout but would be quick to jeer their drinking partners if they ordered a pint of Coors, Tuborg or even Heineken no doubt. As I have mentioned above, these beers are no worse or better than Guinness at face value, all just being the less flavoursome versions of their styles.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I also firmly believe that if any of their beloved small breweries produced something with such a basic flavour profile it would get very few stars on certain drink apps and get called out as boring at the very least on social media by those who appear to worship craft beer even as they not-so-secretly drink from the well of St. Arthur within the Gate.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I have tried to get me head around this apparent aberration and misplaced need, simply because it appears out of kilter. Is there something comforting in the colour and texture - perhaps? Is the heritage a factor (although most beers have that)? Is it the taste in itself (as discussed above I don’t think it can be that either)? Perhaps it’s the marketing? Maybe it’s the ritualistic process of the pour? It certainly isn't price related. In truth I don’t know but I do know that, like with the food gurus already mentioned, there should be a degree of self-awareness as to how this looks. To return to a previous topic, imagine if a respected food writer, who focussed entirely on local artisan products was seen eating and waxing lyrically about a Big Mac? There would be uproar and condemnation from all sides of the food sector.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Yet it’s accepted for beer.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As ever, none of this applies to you dear reader unless you feel it does, and only you can decide that ...</p><p style="text-align: center;">-O-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>t is also worth reiterating that I <i>don’t</i> dislike Guinness in general, it would be quite difficult to take that stance give how much I read about it and how much I have written about aspects of its history.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But I do hate the drink equivalent of the Cult of Personality that has arisen around it.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I hate some of its drinkers, specifically those who genuinely mock others for their glassware or how their beer was poured – especially on social media.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I hate how some people seem to think they have a psychic ability to know what a Guinness tastes like from a picture alone.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I hate all the marketing guff that has been spouted over many years.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I hate how - by accident or design - it has completely taken over Ireland’s brewing history and eclipsed any hope of our real beer history from shining through.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I hate how it seen as such a huge part of out tourism industry to the detriment of other smaller enterprises, regardless of how lucrative this is for us as a whole.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I hate how it is normally the only stout available in a bar in Ireland outside of the bigger cities.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I hate how people have turned St. Patrick’s Day into ‘St. P-Arthur-ick’s Day’ and how the whole day now revolves around drinking Guinness in every part of the world where that day is celebrated. (I’d almost prefer more green beers!)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I hate how it has become ubiquitous with my country, a place I truly love. Ireland isn’t Guinness and Guinness isn’t Ireland.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And mostly I hate that 'Brand Guinness' – more often not pushed by Guinness themselves, but its followers – has (figuratively) left a sour taste in my mouth, even as I write about it, research it, and on occasion drink it in one form or another, and perhaps in doing so making me just a big a hypocrite as those I have issue with …</p><p style="text-align: center;">-O-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span>ut there are also a few other uniquely Irish reasons for some on this island to dislike the brand, the company, and the beer itself, whether rightly or wrongly.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Back in the day it gained the moniker ‘Protestant Porter’ and catholic drinkers were encouraged to shun it and to even destroy barrels of it on occasion for reasons I won’t go into here. There are many anecdotes and possibly some falsehoods as to why this happened but the term and the tales are still remembered and repeated for right or wrong in certain circles.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">They are also blamed by many for closing down most of the other breweries in Ireland and buying them up, or sometimes vice versa. It could be argued that it was shrewd business practices and a better and more consistent product, coupled with a better logistical infrastructure that closed the other breweries, and that Guinness just mobbed up the detritus. My own feeling is that it was a little of both, but that resentment is still there for an albeit small minority of people here.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Some have still not forgiven them for ‘supplying’ the British with truck beds on which the army built armoured cars in the Irish rebellion of 1916. (Some sources report they also used Guinness fermentation vessels on the back of the trucks but this is untrue as it can be clearly seen in photographs that these were the front ends of locomotive engines, although from what source I know not.) There are also those who argue that these trucks were requisitioned from Guinness against their wishes, but either way you can see how all of this <i>might</i> stick in the craw of those of a certain age and historical bent.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Its parent company’s brand monopoly – along with others in fairness – on the bar counters of this country is somewhat unique, as every establishment has had almost the same line-up (give or take a couple of brands) for decades here until the slow rise of the new brewers. Those microbreweries have had immense difficulty getting their taps on display for various reasons, although in truth not all of these issues can be laid at the feet of the big drink companies - as some blame must be apportioned to the bar owners and the punters too, but it explains the dislike it has by many in the microbrewery sector. (I am aware that this lack of choice in Irish pubs is the reason why some feel 'forced' to drink draught Guinness too – as it is perceived to be the best option where the choice of something more flavoursome is missing. Although many of you dismiss The Large Bottle much too quickly in my opinion ...)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">These are issues that those from outside Ireland who don’t know much about our beer scene or real brewing history are possibly unaware of (and the huge majority of tourists who drink here wouldn’t care anyway) as they honestly just want to try one brand of beer when they visit – regardless of its past or present image.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-O-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span>ut I truly do believe you should drink what you like, but we also need to be aware of honesty, truth and hypocrisy. To be partisan in the beer world is a difficult thing, as nostalgic needs, marketing and just the plain love of a brand can make you wobble on your high horse and end up under its hooves. You can be fooled by mood, location and your fickle palate – the Guinness I drank in Achill and in Protoras came out of a barrel that originated from the same brewery and, not withstanding a dodgy beer line, the biggest variable in the equation by a wide mile was me, my palate and mood.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">If you want to celebrate Guinness by all means do so, but then praise all beers and don’t mock other people’s choices and preach to them about the inadequacies of Coors Light when you are drinking what could be argued is its equivalent in the stout world. (I am acutely aware that all of this may come across as preachy here, but this wasn’t the intention – or not completely anyhow – clarity was.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Finally, just remember that as much as it is okay for people to like and enjoy Guinness, and millions do as it is a consistent and ‘quality’ product, it is also okay for others to dislike certain aspects of the brand and its drinkers, although ironically many of us are indifferent to the actual product itself at this stage of our beer-soaked journeys …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Love beer. Love all beer …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Please note, all content published here is my own unless and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post.</span></p>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-48636897960885378922023-03-16T07:59:00.003+00:002023-05-17T12:31:13.354+01:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #5 - Mountjoy Brewery's Dublin Pale Ale Bottle Label<div class="separator" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJDBV6ekynNrHSd7Y9od1MVl1KG6TkaNj1jclMx_M7oWNAYC-ZkB_JwKMpHBPkAgoB_jdtbfdLJT98DBTH2euKnNJPOeCwsRsnyhO9hM4e2af0tCiwnaF2GJ8qolaUC73TyCjy750OdeOZQT8_CkI3kf6dYrT-W8xmYrgsrdt6yyswtrvzE3Um3zV2BA/s2432/IMG_20230315_211237.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><blockquote><div class="separator" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJDBV6ekynNrHSd7Y9od1MVl1KG6TkaNj1jclMx_M7oWNAYC-ZkB_JwKMpHBPkAgoB_jdtbfdLJT98DBTH2euKnNJPOeCwsRsnyhO9hM4e2af0tCiwnaF2GJ8qolaUC73TyCjy750OdeOZQT8_CkI3kf6dYrT-W8xmYrgsrdt6yyswtrvzE3Um3zV2BA/s2432/IMG_20230315_211237.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJDBV6ekynNrHSd7Y9od1MVl1KG6TkaNj1jclMx_M7oWNAYC-ZkB_JwKMpHBPkAgoB_jdtbfdLJT98DBTH2euKnNJPOeCwsRsnyhO9hM4e2af0tCiwnaF2GJ8qolaUC73TyCjy750OdeOZQT8_CkI3kf6dYrT-W8xmYrgsrdt6yyswtrvzE3Um3zV2BA/w400-h300/IMG_20230315_211237.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>... after the cad came back which we fought he wars a gunner and his corkiness lay up two bottles of joy with a shandy had by Fred and a fino oloroso which he was warming to, my right, Jimmy, my old brown freer? - Whose dolour, O so mine</i>!</div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: right;">Finnegans Wake - James Joyce (1939)</div></blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">F</span>or readers of Irish literature there are few books as chaotically incomprehensible as Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, where even having a glossary at hand which helps give meaning to the odd words barely makes a dent in the reader’s understanding of what is actually unfolding between the pages given the unfathomable grammar and syntax. But, from the point of view of Irish brewing history, it has permanently recorded what may be a reference to a lost Dublin pale ale into a famous work of fiction, as the words <i>‘two bottles of joy’</i> are believed by some to be a reference to an ale brewed by the Mountjoy Brewery in the first half of the 20th century. This may not be the case of course, as a ‘bottle of joy’ could be taken to mean a bottle of any alcoholic drink to many people, and said brewery were more famous for their porters and stouts than their ales for the earliest parts of their history.</div><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span>ccording to <i>Findlaters: The Story of a Dublin Merchant Family</i> by Alex Findlater, Mountjoy Brewery came about when six businessmen decided to establish a brewery on Russell Street on the north side of Dublin in 1852. The era they were about to enter was perhaps the heyday for the bigger Irish breweries, one reason for this was that the temperance societies were a little more subdued than they had been in previous decades, and anyhow had driven people away from strong liquor towards beers and weaker alcoholic drinks which were seen as somewhat less harmful. There was less competition from smaller local breweries too, as they went into a decline - one from which they have just recently recovered. Exports of beer from the island was also relatively high so it was certainly a good time to consider establishing a new brewery, and at this time porter and was in the ascendency so that was what the brewery initially supplied to both the local and export trade. Indeed, Alfred Barnard visited the brewery around 1888 for his books on the breweries of these islands and at that time could say with some authority that Mountjoy brewery only brewed porter and stout at this time, and a few years later in <i>Ireland: Industrial and Agricultural</i> published in 1902 the author also says that only porter and stout were ever brewed there up to that time.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Obviously ale – as distinct from porter - was being brewed in Ireland during this period and for many centuries before, and beers termed ‘pale ale’ had been brewed in the previous centuries. A Jonathan Herrod opened a brewery in Dublin in 1786 <i>‘exactly on the Burton plan’</i> to brew <i>‘Strong Pale Ale’</i> as reported in <i>Saunders's News-Letter</i> in February of that year, and the same publication notes that a C. Dubois was brewing an amber and a pale ale amongst other styles in 1805 in a brewery on Mecklenburgh Street also in Dublin. There is little doubt that beers which were pale in colour were being brewed in Ireland before these examples but seeing the words in print certainly add weight to its prevalence. (It is worth noting that there were no beers called ‘Red Ale’ at this time, that term was used in certain historical publications referring to poetry and prose from ancient history, and only came into use again in the latter part of the 20th. century, although amber ales certainly existed by name.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The term <i>‘Dublin Pale Ale’ </i>dates from at least the end of the 19th century as, Alexander, Perry & Co. of the Greenmount Brewery were brewing a beer by that name in 1870 according to advertisement in newspapers such as the <i>Croydon Chronicle</i> and <i>Newry Telegraph</i>. This could be classed as just a descriptor more so than a style or brand name as such, but it again is a nice early example of the wording in print.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It seems likely that Mountjoy Brewery first starting brewing ales around 1916 as that is when the registered the word <i>‘Joy’</i> to be used as a trademark in conjunction with their beers according to the <i>Brewery History</i>’s <a href="http://breweryhistory.com/wiki/index.php?title=Mountjoy_Brewery_Ltd">website</a> entry for the brewery. This date is backed up by some similar but slightly earlier label designs in Niall McCormack’s book of labels - <i>‘Grand Stuff’ -</i> which offers the opinion that two of the earlier labels date to the 1910s. Those labels do not have the word <i>‘Mount’</i> sitting above the word ‘<i>Joy’</i>, and this may be a later redesign as a way of reinforcing the name with the brand. Items like this can be quite difficult to date but the label shown above may be from the 1930s or a decade later, and the brewery were advertising their ‘Joy Ales’ in newspapers from at least 1930 so, we can be sure that they existed at this date at the very least. They were brewing more than one style of <i>‘Joy Ale’</i> too, as along with the <i>‘Dublin Pale Ale’</i> they brewed a <i>‘No.1 Strong’</i> and also a barley wine, as well as a short-lived brown ale from 1953.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgagaEQVynOt1a_r3WdV4nXeafVm0PthaIVDVa4IKXGOCfTZ4A1QX_DzVAoIK9BIftpPHydLaF1ngw1q1BTVWMCfQFEdpBp_bP9ENwWKWfDu8-Q1V6deNVA7VIUrNi_94sv2ErA5s-XZWdo9U87svu93pqZbQCGbrg2plD8-KyWzzGm4ZMF4-uWAJNxmQ/s1808/IMG_20230315_211008.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1808" data-original-width="1355" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgagaEQVynOt1a_r3WdV4nXeafVm0PthaIVDVa4IKXGOCfTZ4A1QX_DzVAoIK9BIftpPHydLaF1ngw1q1BTVWMCfQFEdpBp_bP9ENwWKWfDu8-Q1V6deNVA7VIUrNi_94sv2ErA5s-XZWdo9U87svu93pqZbQCGbrg2plD8-KyWzzGm4ZMF4-uWAJNxmQ/w300-h400/IMG_20230315_211008.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>heir ales – or at least some of them, were available on draught as well as bottle to the consumer, again according to newspapers of this time which evokes the wonderful idea of being able to ask for a ‘Pint of Joy’ in your local public house.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This mental image brings us on to a catchy jingle published in Brian O'Higgins’ Wolf Tone Annual in the 1930s that goes as follows:</p><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I’ll tell you what, sir –:<br /></i><i>There’s nothing surer,<br /></i><i>For all man’s worries,<br /></i><i>It’s a perfect curer.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i><i>It wipes the blues out,<br /></i><i>At a single sitting,<br /></i><i>And sends high dudgeon,<br /></i><i>To the dickens flitting.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i><i>With its pleasant presence,<br /></i><i>Sweet peace comes stealing,<br /></i><i>It promotes good humour,<br /></i><i>And a friendly feeling.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i><i>Joy Ale its name is,<br /></i><i>See it brightly bubblin’<br /></i><i>It’s the Joy of Ireland,<br /></i><i>And it’s made in Dublin.</i></div><p style="text-align: justify;">(It is worth noting that Dublin certainly rhymes perfectly with bubblin’ when the former is spoken in a certain Dublin accent!)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe3SyB0UHGPcoT_btqs4TMWzuu7NKZgMIweVAuXzgW0wOrKm76fVsa1bng1Pqp1-7VEbj0Q49H3VyvSsg1-uYreTYXcMz2dSUnVSAJEymdsRsnT8GYGD7xHyeagAatMoJTbQ0WD3113nO6gqpYjcDuxFt7uaeWd2zoQX4SlTG3Dvztj5Xrfzon1-q_UA/s1080/Screenshot_20230315_210824.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="1080" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe3SyB0UHGPcoT_btqs4TMWzuu7NKZgMIweVAuXzgW0wOrKm76fVsa1bng1Pqp1-7VEbj0Q49H3VyvSsg1-uYreTYXcMz2dSUnVSAJEymdsRsnT8GYGD7xHyeagAatMoJTbQ0WD3113nO6gqpYjcDuxFt7uaeWd2zoQX4SlTG3Dvztj5Xrfzon1-q_UA/w400-h199/Screenshot_20230315_210824.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: center;">Sligo Champion - September 1933</div></span><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">J</span>oy Ale was quite heavily advertised in newspapers as has been mentioned but also elsewhere, as there is also a photograph of people queueing for a tram in 1948 with the words ‘Joy Ale’ written brightly across the front on the Irish Times <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/luas-not-patch-on-old-dublin-tram-system-1.2203431">website</a>. The name was also written in large letters above the breweries name on the side of the brewery itself, as can be seen in this undated (c. 1970) image from Dublin City Libraries.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dublincitypubliclibraries/52113520242/in/gallery-186395973@N06-72157721164523353/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="108_Mountjoy_Brewery"><img alt="108_Mountjoy_Brewery" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52113520242_8f0e119fb6_w.jpg" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script><span style="font-size: x-large;">R</span>ight up as late as April of 1955 the <i>Irish Press</i> could carry the following piece about the beer:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i></i></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><i>Joy Ale has proved itself on the hard-fought battlefield of public taste, and has won a special niche in the heart of ale drinkers, not only in [Dublin] city but also a good competitor with cross-channel ales.</i></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">But sadly this heart-felt love was not enough to save the brewery and it closed in 1956, and so Ireland lost yet another of its former brewing giants. And one that had outlasted many of its rivals.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;">We might wonder what Joyce would have said about the loss of Joy Ale?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Although it probably matters little - as it is unlikely we would be able to understand him …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;">(<a href="http://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2023/04/100-years-of-irish-brewing-in-50.html">Here is the link to object #6</a>)</p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Newspaper advertisement image © The British Library Board - All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) from whom I have received permission to display this image on this site. Label images are the authors own - as are the labels themselves. Embedded brewery image is via Dublin City Libraries Flickr page and copyrighted to them.</span></div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-85954123777496227782023-03-08T13:40:00.003+00:002023-06-18T12:44:12.011+01:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #4 - The 'Irish' Tulip Pint Glass<div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"><i></i></div><blockquote><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBPRABlIEptH32iodmLNaf0C6h5NPHz1IvMN9psXjNrYkww167oarvjzsiXFxsSfmRTB5hPvT_YVxhp_tN6w4CWqk40wxPg-qTWe9VAwdATxKa8MarwB9heEPyur0zRhPgTBIY9ZbuaC6bzne0bcGQ6jvLtIRrBS4R4nViAO35IFYPJKIzrVftNioGRQ/s2456/IMG_20230307_143319.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2456" data-original-width="1841" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBPRABlIEptH32iodmLNaf0C6h5NPHz1IvMN9psXjNrYkww167oarvjzsiXFxsSfmRTB5hPvT_YVxhp_tN6w4CWqk40wxPg-qTWe9VAwdATxKa8MarwB9heEPyur0zRhPgTBIY9ZbuaC6bzne0bcGQ6jvLtIRrBS4R4nViAO35IFYPJKIzrVftNioGRQ/w300-h400/IMG_20230307_143319.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span>esthetical judgments can be divided just like theoretical judgments into empirical and pure. The first assert pleasantness or unpleasantness; the second assert the beauty of an object or of the manner of representing it. The former are judgments of sense; the latter are alone strictly judgments of taste.</i></div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"><i>A judgment of taste is therefore pure only so far as no merely empirical satisfaction is mingled with its determining ground. But this always happens if charm or emotion have any share in the judgment by which anything is to be described as beautiful.</i></div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Critique of Judgment, Immanuel Kant - 1790 (As translated by J. H. Bernard)</span></div></blockquote><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"><i></i></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>t would be extremely difficult to have a discussion on the history of the tulip pint glass – sometimes called the ‘Irish Pint Glass’ or ‘Irish Tulip’ – as it pertains to beer in Ireland without mentioning how it is the glassware of choice for almost every Guinness drinker to the point where it is also thought of as ‘The Guinness Glass.’ Rightly or wrongly, words such as ‘Classic’, ‘Traditional’, and ‘Iconic’ have been attached to this glass style for some time, and from a purely practical point of view it is certainly fit for purpose for nitrogenated beers, as the distinctive inward curve helps force the head to form a bump over the top edge of the glass to create the somewhat meaningless ‘domage’ revered by stout drinkers. The narrow, curvy waist is appealing too from a tactile point of view, it being a reasonable circumference to feel comfortable in the hand and makes for a balanced feel when lifted to the lips. So, it is quite easy to see its charm as a vessel for holding such a product, and perhaps shows why it became so popular in this country compared to other regions of the world.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But it could be argued that the belief that this is the only glass that Guinness Draught should be served in lies at the feet of the marketing people who are responsible for the image that is so idolised of a ‘Perfect Pint’ and, since the advent of image-laded social media, is reinforced by influencers and others who have taken up the mantle of ersatz marketeers for their favourite pint. This in turn has led to the demonisation of pints that are deemed to be badly poured or are served in anything other than a tulip pint glass by a certain section of Guinness drinkers, where the viewer’s palate is swayed enough by this image to declare it a ‘bad pint’ without actually using any of their taste buds. And although this may seem absurd and laughable to many a rational mind there is no doubt that rightly or wrongly this mind-set prevails in a certain sector of beer drinking society. It is explainable up to a point, as many have their favourite glass style for whatever beer they drink, but most do not believe it radically changes the actual taste in any real way.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And the opposite-if-similar effect might be argued for those who look at a photogenic pint and assume that it will taste excellent based on its appearance alone, perhaps deceiving their tastebuds into believing that a stout tastes better than the same thing from a straight tumbler, stemmed glass or tankard. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I doubt Kant ever thought that his words would be used in a discussion on the aesthetics of a pint of stout but nevertheless they do perhaps hold true with regard to how we judge what may or may not be a good or bad drink – charm and emotion do perhaps affect the literal judgement of taste.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Conversely it could be argued that appearance and the subjectivity of opinion <i>should</i> be used as part of our general consumption and appreciation of beer – it does anyway as we have seen – and that there is no great harm in this belief. After all, this is a trick that food purveyors and restaurants have used for many years where the image presented on the plate in front of you fools your palate into believing and accepting that taste-wise the meal you are eating is greater than the sum of its parts. We eat and drink with our eyes and all other senses, and this does indeed taint our fickle palates for good or bad.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he tulip pint glass is a relative latecomer to the world of beer glassware, arriving in public houses after the straight-but-angled conical pint (Shaker), and the Nonic with its practical if hated bump. Dating evidence for this type of social history object is quite difficult to pin down, as descriptions of glasses in books, newspapers, and other printed media rarely if ever mention a glass’s shape apart from differentiating occasionally between a tumbler and a handled mug. Catalogues from glassware suppliers are also hard to come by so we are left with photographs of drinkers and barmen in public houses and similar establishments to guide us as to when certain shapes first arrived in Ireland. The shape appears in <a href="https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/history/gallery/step-back-time-1960s-northern-23502085?utm_source=linkCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar#12345680">photographs taken in Kelly’s bar in Belfast in 1963</a>, and it would be fair to assume that they were also available down south around this time. Very early examples of date verified tulip pint glasses appear relatively rare too, with the earliest in the author’s collection dating to 1967. Given this evidence we at least have a rough date for its introduction to these shores (and quite probably to pubs in general) as the early sixties or <i>perhaps</i> a little earlier, although as the oft repeated adage goes, absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo2YYYh-ZQK4oVEdqywOfmCbruWKNLJ5ao34TuWm8gcxKErWga4Wd5Fr8qmjQRgIq0k3APFT9zausA_IQjqyy_sNxp5e4BCLlNrcjEC-o4MbM54YnlFsZ9q68xdFesh8t89kg7ZxDJ8Bppc2yiTyIL1PmzjBHtTYI4didINtOmjyYuc0ERY3Cfk3ZsTw/s2610/IMG_20230307_143025.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2610" data-original-width="2610" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo2YYYh-ZQK4oVEdqywOfmCbruWKNLJ5ao34TuWm8gcxKErWga4Wd5Fr8qmjQRgIq0k3APFT9zausA_IQjqyy_sNxp5e4BCLlNrcjEC-o4MbM54YnlFsZ9q68xdFesh8t89kg7ZxDJ8Bppc2yiTyIL1PmzjBHtTYI4didINtOmjyYuc0ERY3Cfk3ZsTw/w400-h400/IMG_20230307_143025.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span>randed tulip pints appear around 1967 and it is highly likely that they were first used – along with, or not long after, the pint glass tankard – for Smithwick’s Draught ale in Ireland, although there is a need to be wary about this assumption, as glasses can be branded years after their verification marks have been applied. Nevertheless, the brand used by Smithwick’s product on this glass appears to match its earliest design, and not long after this time Double Diamond had their own branded version in Ireland, as there exists pint glasses with verification marks for 1972.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhweEBzYvaOjQKilradt9KKHCCvobxYPbweGb4IJW4HxRSW7NN8qKQu3KyQ7oo1mYt_Ec2Wvb8CvhRNClLALThUMdmK0ki4CUYpT012X1amnSo_BbNKfcB30yIonoK5FqxKifaHyh8uMbC-DXZSz_85rB_Su3IiDiaeCKzJzjlHiSrhQN43WZyKmSpHtA/s722/20230308_122115.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2548" data-original-width="2452" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeLE8IMZgVGqq4nESoDVW_IosGsarrpwhyGr_8I3Ie_7QiECDfW0a7p6vNxGnUh930ogn7g1W0mRDtgfnCPFjeazRL5iNMELTSytTDZkWn6M9soFS3BWdzpTni8mVnFL19AHVfgpu8Y8Yjbzav5R8BD7jDJ23O_DPJE7P_ilJbriPdMXNaGFE-fRHRFg/w385-h400/Tulip.jpeg" width="385" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://repository.dri.ie/catalog/g445rw16x">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://repository.dri.ie/catalog/g445rw16x">Dublin City Library and Archive</a></span></div></div></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span>lthough there can be no doubt that Guinness was being poured into tulip pint glasses from when they were first introduced - as attested by that photo taken in Kelly's pub flagged above - the earliest evidence found of a branded Guinness glass being used in Ireland dates from 1976 in a Fáilte Ireland promotion shot of the interior of The Derragarra Inn in Co. Cavan, but Guinness were still using their branded tankard as well as conical glasses at this time too. This branded tulip may be very much an outlier but it at least gives us an indication of when such glasses were available.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4kwWIt-HsLPIgoFWEArt0mGFdvA8M1A83cvuNMkgm-UaLfaOU042EihugVaaLtcTESw-NjNfDK4sX4DNGLUow2f_EqPq_Ba8VOG5SN2u11diJ3GlPvXDne4pq73_wiQItL2_pO61xAryLfn0VCV7VdZAMRj7PWtIKbtwh8we0vUf9j_VpwzFjw797tw/s722/20230308_122115.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="722" data-original-width="721" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4kwWIt-HsLPIgoFWEArt0mGFdvA8M1A83cvuNMkgm-UaLfaOU042EihugVaaLtcTESw-NjNfDK4sX4DNGLUow2f_EqPq_Ba8VOG5SN2u11diJ3GlPvXDne4pq73_wiQItL2_pO61xAryLfn0VCV7VdZAMRj7PWtIKbtwh8we0vUf9j_VpwzFjw797tw/w400-h400/20230308_122115.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Close up image - <a href="https://repository.dri.ie/catalog/g445rw16x">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://repository.dri.ie/catalog/g445rw16x">Dublin City Library and Archive</a></span></div></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he most notorious early use by Guinness of a branded tulip pint was for the ill-fated launch of <a href="https://www.rte.ie/archives/2014/0626/626466-space-age-launch-for-guinness-light-1979/">Guinness Light</a> in 1979, and it was not really until the 1980s and beyond that Guinness – as well as a host of other beer brands – began using branded versions of this style and variants of it in any major way. (It is possibly of interest to mention here that the updated version of the much-loved tulip launched by Guinness a few years back is yet another bone of contention for some Guinness drinkers.)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimZl09dmM754Mp-BS2s1qPMtN8o-b_D-tY7DTFUSHyvhaBV9x3zJZEemUmtSSS-LO18ahyW3wkikhSy94DJwjkFVs7Zx3Wmps1VJ8nvW2YhEcE-Yoy5GR7HvCd1a8s31n9wDyknYcxN4kBXwX1nNrqiwnnYSYZmZg4NTZXXwt9z5q3YvsPJYheR-qUPQ/s2671/IMG_20230307_143824.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2671" data-original-width="2670" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimZl09dmM754Mp-BS2s1qPMtN8o-b_D-tY7DTFUSHyvhaBV9x3zJZEemUmtSSS-LO18ahyW3wkikhSy94DJwjkFVs7Zx3Wmps1VJ8nvW2YhEcE-Yoy5GR7HvCd1a8s31n9wDyknYcxN4kBXwX1nNrqiwnnYSYZmZg4NTZXXwt9z5q3YvsPJYheR-qUPQ/w400-h400/IMG_20230307_143824.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>t is debatable whether it could be said that this shape is the ‘iconic’ glass for Guinness purely from a history point of view, as surely the famous tankard – that features prominently on those retro bar fonts still seen in pubs around the country – or the conical glass that graced much of the early advertising for more than half a century are equally as worthy of selection, not to mention the myriad of other Guinness glassware that has been used over the decades. It if fair to say that the age of the drinker plays a part in their believe regarding which glass should reign supreme – I think many of a certain age (although not necessarily old) might prefer the tankard in looks if not in actual usage.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj00FkQwRKwZBNLUajDlGnEoBzstZEj0tUKMXUtDFEraCbEBuSQKDbMLaJQhqbT42Yf1b2tsaW-pGDeGUBMmzxBLweA5sRSHx254pqZPvVmu3Ev9VI4yDROp_zTjsShr1xJwolUn3JF7RKA8KTfu-CS8O2FNMOBzMSc_U_0BFOzQIHYKtI4KaclmAFdXw/s2619/IMG_20230307_144347.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2619" data-original-width="2617" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj00FkQwRKwZBNLUajDlGnEoBzstZEj0tUKMXUtDFEraCbEBuSQKDbMLaJQhqbT42Yf1b2tsaW-pGDeGUBMmzxBLweA5sRSHx254pqZPvVmu3Ev9VI4yDROp_zTjsShr1xJwolUn3JF7RKA8KTfu-CS8O2FNMOBzMSc_U_0BFOzQIHYKtI4KaclmAFdXw/w320-h320/IMG_20230307_144347.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuGpmkEF376EszKHercyS97Kbn9-c6UWEgVrqbHbiaLRBfR3bbyqcJK2oeyKUHAWsliSpdPhTpJINk-M3Hrp6drmyP6zc6baJ7wO_EU7eORwOg1lKIit5W9MA-rDRsE1EDlAW6cdlqUhOuolTuIboJ_dfiKCpRUFFii0FsF61piWzzTd6tCWgMHp41UA/s2470/IMG_20230308_123231.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2469" data-original-width="2470" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuGpmkEF376EszKHercyS97Kbn9-c6UWEgVrqbHbiaLRBfR3bbyqcJK2oeyKUHAWsliSpdPhTpJINk-M3Hrp6drmyP6zc6baJ7wO_EU7eORwOg1lKIit5W9MA-rDRsE1EDlAW6cdlqUhOuolTuIboJ_dfiKCpRUFFii0FsF61piWzzTd6tCWgMHp41UA/w320-h320/IMG_20230308_123231.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>t is worth noting that there were two half pint versions of the tulip produced but the taller version shown below appears not to have fared as well as its more popular brother and may have disappeared by the 1990s. Its heavy base made it a little unwieldly and perhaps there were thoughts it could be used as a formidable weapon!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiihuGOoOw0nZFjOPxdzxk4zoAY5MLcPsWWtaM5Ton458ARIv-3b_H4YGnp9k5s0S5NxkSvBxg6xEYDExgvKzgGMtAuALM-_POtwjFVar0u-b5ZUItIvtWxZvK5Iqsk35qpZXhPuc0geDMAblONDTn24lvI9HUA4VPbXs3945kclHQSgc5_p8uYy4HzUw/s2014/IMG_20230307_143952.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2014" data-original-width="2013" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiihuGOoOw0nZFjOPxdzxk4zoAY5MLcPsWWtaM5Ton458ARIv-3b_H4YGnp9k5s0S5NxkSvBxg6xEYDExgvKzgGMtAuALM-_POtwjFVar0u-b5ZUItIvtWxZvK5Iqsk35qpZXhPuc0geDMAblONDTn24lvI9HUA4VPbXs3945kclHQSgc5_p8uYy4HzUw/w400-h400/IMG_20230307_143952.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span>-o-</div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>here is currently no information as to who first made this shape of glass but there is a good chance that it was from the prolific Ravenhead glass company, and they were certainly making them in the 1980s as attested by the logo on the bottom of glasses from this period. Also, Celtic Glass who were decorating glassware for Guinness and others were using Ravenhead as its supplier from when they commenced business in the 1970s, but here is no actual proof that they were first to introduce the design.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is also worth highlighting that there <i>may</i> be something more to the popularity of glasses with curved sides (either outwards or inwards), as <a href="https://www.wired.com/2012/09/drinking-glass-psychology/">studies showed</a> that the consumer drinks more quickly from a curved glass that from a straight-sided version. We need to be wary of such claims but this <i>might</i> explain the love by both breweries and the publicans for this shape, as the customer will drink more beer which is of course to the benefit of both of those enterprises!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps whether we follow the musings of Kant or the practicalities of science, all parties can end up as winners in the pub by using a tulip pint glass if they so wish? Either that or many drinkers have been fooling themselves as well as being fooled by those who supply beer and glasses for half a century or more!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Fool me twice…?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2023/03/100-years-of-irish-brewing-in-50_16.html">(Here is the link to object #5)</a></p><div style="text-align: justify;">(This is certainly a post that might need editing if more information comes to light ...)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. </span><span style="font-size: small;">Glass and Glass images are the authors own and cannot be used elsewhere without the author's permission.</span></div></div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-2687570034850663352023-03-01T14:13:00.001+00:002023-03-12T13:12:17.336+00:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #3 - Cask Label for Perry's IPA<p></p><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-size: x-large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEhlyAc8_h3fPhZ3QLw3MXK040p9lj6vV789ORWJb8_Ll_o13ul7WA7fYAkgmsDj5N7rXWC7DxsJkSFJOCZOaRXy6fxs7yD3IqgmruWGRh2Qjq6mFEiXYgvnBW8RfAk8pj8aREfQjjq2m2y-YtPk0g89LbmT_rMqe22xrTFgT9X0WaDbzDkXbafF0-Cw/s3242/IMG_20230226_143522.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2431" data-original-width="3242" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEhlyAc8_h3fPhZ3QLw3MXK040p9lj6vV789ORWJb8_Ll_o13ul7WA7fYAkgmsDj5N7rXWC7DxsJkSFJOCZOaRXy6fxs7yD3IqgmruWGRh2Qjq6mFEiXYgvnBW8RfAk8pj8aREfQjjq2m2y-YtPk0g89LbmT_rMqe22xrTFgT9X0WaDbzDkXbafF0-Cw/w400-h300/IMG_20230226_143522.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><i>P</i></span><i>erry’s “Indian Ale” has the reputation of being stronger and better in quality than any other pale ale, whether manufactured in England or Ireland. And having once tasted that particular beverage one is inclined to be in complete agreement with that claim. In point of fact, the fame of this ale has extended to England and Scotland and large quantities of it is found in the wine cellars of connoisseurs in those two countries. […] There is one great advantage in drinking Perry’s Indian Ale; one cannot drink three glasses of it without feeling happy. Neither is it possible after so many glasses to remain unmoved; but better still, there are no “after effects” from this beer – and that is the verdict of one who knows.</i></blockquote></div><blockquote><p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Leinster Leader - 27th May 1933</span></p></blockquote></div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">U</span>nlike bottle labels, which are a relatively common find for the small number of Irish breweries that survived into the first few decades of the 20th century, cask labels seem to be much rarer. This is of course because they were produced - and needed - in smaller quantities, and because they ultimately ended up back in the brewery who issued them or they became detached from the casks during handling or cleaning, but they do become available at times and facsimiles litter the internet on various sites, perhaps from stock acquired from closed breweries. It is at this point even difficult to know which breweries used them and which used coloured rims to differentiate their various beers – like Guinness did – or used other methods. This <i>relatively</i> rare survivor measures 164mm (6 7⁄16") in diameter and possibly dates from the late 1920s or the 1930s.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I am sure that some of the more casual drinkers in Ireland would be surprised that there was an Irish IPA available in this country at this time, as many see them as a recent phenomenon over here, but as many will also know, the history of calling a certain style of beer ‘India Pale Ale’ or something close to that, dates back over a century from the time when this label was issued, and its history in this country dates back almost as far.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">For example, Eliza Alley, Sons & Co. in Townsend Street in Dublin were selling their <i>‘East India Beer’</i> in 1842 and declaring it similar to <i>‘Hodgson’s Pale Ale’</i> which was one of the more popular versions available in England – and beyond of course – at this time. Pale ales were available well before this date but this is an early reference to something that was at least implied to be an IPA, to use its modern moniker. This style of beers was brewed by various breweries in various guises for the next hundred or more years in this country and the last brewery to brew a beer under this name was the shown label’s owner - Robert Perry & Son Ltd. of Rathdowney in Laois, who were still brewing a version as late as 1964 according to their brewing records, although by this time it may have just been called ‘Perry’s Ale.’</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk_AhO2SSWQyy3l3B82-FLs0dL0kG3E5VHBvPCXf_ciD_DuCHm9zZjHPLceaTjLBJ37Akqm8a1cHAQr5Zgj266-y1b1s23-dRiEExDIbvTEImTrybf_f-3QN_oRot5lyPnFkapfCFTPzvG/s400/First+IPA.jpg" /></p><p style="text-align: right;"></p><div style="text-align: right;"><blockquote><span style="font-size: x-small;">Freeman's Journal - 12th August 1842</span></blockquote></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he brewery visit quoted above mentions that Perry's only used Irish malts and no adjuncts and that appears to be true at this time but in later recipes for their IPA they were using Californian barley, inverts sugars, malt extract, and caramel, as well as the usual Oregon and English hops. Their range in the 1930s consisted of a Pale Ale, IPA, X Ale, XX Ale, X Stout, XX Stout, and on at least one occasion a Special Stout. There is another version of this label that shows that there was a bottling IPA being shipped to independent bottlers and public houses as well as a draught IPA that was served straight from cask, and indeed the source quoted above mentions <i>‘four varieties of draught ale being available and two varieties of bottled ale'</i> – the two bottled probably being their IPA and the XX ale based on surviving bottle labels from this era.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The barrel sizes used by Perry’s around 1900 were 52 Gallon hogsheads, 32 gallon barrels, 16 gallon ½ barrels and 8 gallon ¼ barrels to use their own terminology from showcards showing their range and size from that period. These are different to Imperial barrel sizes used elsewhere on these islands, where a ‘Barrel’ was 36 gallons, and it may have created havoc for those who needed to keep account of barrels and returns back to Ireland from England and elsewhere, unless they had 'export' barrel sizes? These Irish volumes were a leftover consequence of Ireland having their own system of measurement in the past, and that obviously included other volumes like pints and gallons too - so the Irish pint was a smaller serve than an Imperial pint at one time, and this may have had other consequences as will be seen when we discuss glassware at a later point in the series.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">S</span>omewhat later, in June 1950, a photograph appears in the Waterford Standard that shows part of a <i>‘big cargo of beer casks from Liverpool’ </i>that has been loaded onto <i>‘one of a fleet of lorries’ </i>being readied for dispatch to the brewery in Rathdowney, and gives an idea of the volume and size of a ‘barrel’ of used at this time, and by now Perry’s <i>may</i> have changed to the Imperial barrel size of 36 Gallons.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4MbSJAIoXLpOGpb5f6YigHzXQfavOHj_ub6oNbwjVEDBM4qP1uSVlfP0p019_W1R_pZMRe-S9skDC-EVP4-fQKG-e1Srvhd8V3SSv9bSbuWh1jbMqkZ4fyzIGSGwEmz9vu5_DSMwoKlHK4FxvQ_udQBF44NqmSz5Z6OchDuJAXRxamXQUhWcrqy7ldA/s976/Perrys%20Truck.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="976" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4MbSJAIoXLpOGpb5f6YigHzXQfavOHj_ub6oNbwjVEDBM4qP1uSVlfP0p019_W1R_pZMRe-S9skDC-EVP4-fQKG-e1Srvhd8V3SSv9bSbuWh1jbMqkZ4fyzIGSGwEmz9vu5_DSMwoKlHK4FxvQ_udQBF44NqmSz5Z6OchDuJAXRxamXQUhWcrqy7ldA/w400-h255/Perrys%20Truck.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">F</span>inally, here is another quote from The Leinster Leader writeup from 1933:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">D</span>uring my visit to the Brewery I witnesses an incident worthy of narration. I was seated in the office when an employee entered and spoke to my host who offered him some money. This the man declined and spoke in undertone to Capt. Pim who nodded his head and with a smile wrote something on a piece of paper and [I] must have betrayed my curiosity for Capt. Pim explained that the man and two others had for personal services rendered requested that they be given as payment a glass each of Perry's Indian Ale; and the paper he had given was an order to that effect. It was then I decided to sample that ale for myself and came to the conclusion that those men were rare good judges of an excellent drink.</i></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">What this says about the quality of the beer over the need or want of the employees to drink on the job is a subject that could be up for debate, but it certainly sounds like a ringing endorsement for Perry's IPA, although any editorial advertisement such as this needs to treated with at least a hint of scepticism.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">(The Captain Pim mentioned here ran the brewery at this time and may be related to the Pim in Jameson, Pim & Co., the brewing company that merged with Watkins brewery in Dublin in the early 1900s, and possibly to the Pims who had a brewery in nearby Mountmellick in the 19th century. Perhaps not, but it would seem that the brewers of Ireland were a quasi-incestuous lot, as the same names appear time and time again in various breweries and related enterprises throughout the country.)</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he idea of being able to buy a pint of Irish-brewed IPA poured from a wooden cask is certainly of great nostalgic appeal to those who enjoy our Irish beer history and would love to taste any connection with our long-lost brewing past. And it can be sampled in some ways, as certain homebrewers have repeated those recipes with minor success (and albeit with some changes, interpretation and substitution), all they need is a wooden cask, a nice brass tap - and a label to stick on its end for that last piece of authenticity ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2023/03/100-years-of-irish-brewing-in-50_8.html">(Here is the link to object #4)</a></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Newspaper images ©The British Library Board - All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) from whom I have received permission to display these images on this site. Label and label image are the authors own and cannot be used elsewhere with out the author's permission.</span></div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-76846809134419101272023-02-16T08:07:00.001+00:002023-03-05T12:13:17.092+00:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #2 – Guinness’s Brewery Guide Book (1914)<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote><i><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: xx-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXsqHD49qmUapqbyCK2CN9nmjMcEK-934Hf2VcYIDTbXxast8lmYaSUZMICvrw8ov8qugYpyoB2PDc3sR5hOFtgJ3AP8N2dgcW-K14AWA2IdM0NgAFbQdFe7fXSz3Eizbt66H54P-C3mJtJslow_rwWNNxSM6b32lZlnUjOi6YqbU1_1HrqZ47_QcRdw/s3287/IMG_20230215_205017.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3287" data-original-width="2465" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXsqHD49qmUapqbyCK2CN9nmjMcEK-934Hf2VcYIDTbXxast8lmYaSUZMICvrw8ov8qugYpyoB2PDc3sR5hOFtgJ3AP8N2dgcW-K14AWA2IdM0NgAFbQdFe7fXSz3Eizbt66H54P-C3mJtJslow_rwWNNxSM6b32lZlnUjOi6YqbU1_1HrqZ47_QcRdw/w300-h400/IMG_20230215_205017.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>here is a constant stream of visitors passing through the brewery. A special office and staff is set aside for their reception. They come in from the street, and hand over their permit to a clerk, who in return for it supplies them with an illustrated guide book to the works, containing at the end a packet of half a dozen beautifully finished post cards of various parts of the works.</i></div></span></i></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b></b></span></p><blockquote style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>A visitor to the Guinness brewery reporting in The Kirkintilloch Herald - 19th August 1914</b></span></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he Guinness Storehouse and the attractions contained within have been consistently topping the most visited places in Ireland for many years, and regardless of what people think of its history, heritage and beer there is no doubt that it has been a huge success from a tourism standpoint, enticing many a visitor to these shores and to the city of Dublin since it opened in 2000, replacing the older visitor’s centre in the Guinness Hop Store. According to Guinness’s own marketing, at The Storehouse you will <i>‘experience the history, heart, and soul of Ireland’s most iconic beer’</i> by means of multiple floors filled with all thing Guinness and Guinness related.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Visiting the famous St. James’s Street Brewery is not a new phenomenon and dates back quite far, as there were visitors getting a look inside those famous gates, and right into the brewery itself, well over a century ago at the very least. The guidebook shown here dates from 1914, the very year of the above quotation and sounds extremely like the one described in it, although sadly this one is missing the six postcards and the envelope from the back. The well-worn embossed cover with its wonderfully scrolled decoration and even the text itself evokes that era just at the start of the Art Nouveau period and this design appears to have been in use until a more durable and substantial hardbacked guidebook was introduced in the 1920s. There were earlier versions too such as one form 1897 titles <i>“A Visit to St. James’s Gate Brewery Dublin”</i> published by the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company in England mentioned in the Dublin Daily Express in August 1897 and an earlier one with the same title in the National Library of Ireland dated 1889 printed by Wilson, Hartnell & Co. of Dublin - incidentally, a company which is still operating today under a somewhat different if related guise.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPilZXh2HjW7ssvBtFpJGiXF2iBEqWilJ62cJbkt858h7ywvMlMdzb4OXA7pVwYiRPOU1hwKxHuZ9YIJCAqq635A70yxKsX9sFRtd2EN9EEikfjDK_v4NNAwnJ1PANgDXXbhbnCT2DCVLOZRd1RpwJo-iaJ6vUhMharA8Kjw1LQf984nh1jtAXwTmGtA/s3515/IMG_20230215_204847.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2636" data-original-width="3515" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPilZXh2HjW7ssvBtFpJGiXF2iBEqWilJ62cJbkt858h7ywvMlMdzb4OXA7pVwYiRPOU1hwKxHuZ9YIJCAqq635A70yxKsX9sFRtd2EN9EEikfjDK_v4NNAwnJ1PANgDXXbhbnCT2DCVLOZRd1RpwJo-iaJ6vUhMharA8Kjw1LQf984nh1jtAXwTmGtA/w400-h300/IMG_20230215_204847.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he 1914 publication was printed by James Walker Ltd. from Rathmines, Dublin who claimed to be <i>‘Printers to the Brewery’</i> according to the end page of the booklet. The small volume features a brief history of the brewery as well as a description of what the visitor will see as they journey through the works. The brewing process is described in reasonable detail within its 16 printed pages of text as the visitor is taken through the newer of the two breweries on the site. Interestingly that journey included a visit to the then new fermenting house which was built in 1907, this is the building that currently houses the modern visitor’s centre with the Gravity Bar where people can try the beer perched on top. That 1914 tour also ended with some beer sampling, with four types being offered – <i>‘”Foreign” Stout for export to foreign countries; “Export” Stout for special trade; ordinary Double Stout, generally called Extra Stout; and Single Stout generally called Porter.’</i> Some facts are listed in the back of the booklet too, including that the brewery covers 50 acres; uses 180,000 acres of barley and 8,000 acres of hops; they were selling close to 100 million gallons of beer a year; the amount of duty paid by the company in 1913 was £1,368,355, which was almost triple what the next largest brewer on these islands paid; staff numbered 3,650; and the number of bottle labels issued daily put end to end would reach from Dublin to the Isle of man, and the total quantity issued in 1913 would stretch 26,000 miles, <i>‘or more than round the world.’</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The descriptions and facts in the guide book had been written, assessed and vetted by Guinness and although they give quite a lot of interesting detail, it perhaps lack some of the more entertaining descriptions and interesting nuggets of information we might crave. For that we must turn to the words written by those who went on these tours and then wrote about them in newspapers and in other publications.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he Journal of the British Dental Association, Volume 9</i> published in 1888 does not at first glance seem to be somewhere to find a poetic and dramatic recount of a visit to the brewery but it contains a wonderful report of a visit to the Guinness site by someone who signs themselves ‘Stout and Mild’ regarding an excursion by the association to the James’s Gate Brewery in August of that year. It is peppered with the flowery prose that was quite common at this time.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>“In companies of twenty the members of the Association, and their friends of both sexes, were led off by courteous guides holding high office in the establishment and were initiated into all its mysteries. Mysteries there were, sufficient even to satisfy a modern romance writer. Indeed, the wanderings of Rider Haggard's mysterious ‘She,’ in the bowels of her rocky African fortress, or of Virgil and Dante's in the infernal regions, sink into comparative insignificance when compared with the wanderings of the British Dental Association through this weird region of booming machines, steaming cauldrons, colossal mash tubs and frothing seas of darksome liquid.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Forward went the little companies, soon falling apart, by foaming torrents of sweet-wort dashing side by side with cooling streams, on either side endless plains of germinating grain. High above head advance parties could be seen threading their way across narrow bridges and looking small at the dizzy height, like roped gangs of mountaineers when viewed through telescopes from some Alpine valley. Onward still now peering through the Stygian darkness of unfathomable reservoirs filled with the fermenting liquor, whose heavy froth could dimly be seen rising and falling in sullen gloom as it emitted its deadly gaseous poison. On again now letting the eyes wander at leisure over veritable oceans of tranquil stout, calmly awaiting the right moment for ‘cooling down.’”</i></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It would be quite difficult to find a more remarkable description of a tour of any brewery, and the writer continues …</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>“At this point the Association reassembled, and a dainty little railway train awaited. All being seated, the diminutive engine started off at a merry pace, but soon however entered a darksome tunnel which led by a spiral descent to a part of the establishment, on the level of the Liffey, where a new world opened up. Here the barrelling process held sway. Barrels in thousands were everywhere. Barrels were being made, mended and filled the stout being conducted in pipes from the storage vats. Little railways, both broad and narrow gauge, intersected in all directions. It was amusing to see the way in which the narrow gauge engines were made serviceable on the broader gauge when necessary. These little creatures were lifted bodily into the air by a sort of crane, where they snorted with evident delight at the prospect of their promotion, and were then let down into trucks on the broad gauge line, whose wheels by an ingenious arrangement they were able to keep in motion. </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>But one thing remained, and that was to taste the result of all this outcome of human ingenuity, skill and enterprise. The Association tasted and pronounced the result excellent.”</i></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is fascinating to hear amongst all of that flamboyant description how the narrow gauge engines were used on the larger gauge system – not to mention that wonderfully imagined thought of a ‘snort’ of delight that they gave at the knowledge of moving up in size!</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span>nother professional group, <i>The Society of Chemical Industry</i> also reported on a visit to the brewery in 1891, which was published in <i>The Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions</i> in 1892, and although quite matter-of-fact compared to the above piece it relays some interesting ‘facts’ - although we must be quite wary of anything reported by visitors.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote><i>“About one tenth of the whole is roasted malt, giving the beer its characteristic colour and flavour, the rest being the ordinary dried variety Irish, Algerian and Tunisian barley are all used.”</i></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So our writer is reporting that at this time 10% of the grains used in the brewery were roasted malt, and that some of the pale malt, or most likely the barley used to make the malt, was North African in origin. That same Algerian and Tunisian barley is mentioned as being used by Power & Son’s distillery, a place they visited before heading to Guinness’s. Indeed, a messenger had to be sent from the Guinness brewery to Power’s to find out where the visitors might be as it was feared they might have gone astray!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The writer continues the tour into the fermentation area.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><i>"The requirements of the work [in cooling the fermenters] however made another machine necessary, and one with liquid carbon dioxide was put in. In order supply this it was suggested that the carbon dioxide given off during fermentation should be collected and compressed. This was done and the surplus sold other users of freezing machines worked by liquid CO2."</i></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It appears from this report that Guinness were harvesting and reusing the carbon dioxide that was a by-product of brewing in their cooling systems, and were also selling it elsewhere at a price reported to be 4d per lb. and in bottles containing 25 lbs. each. This is certainly an ingenious and profitable way of making money from something that is essentially a waste product, and is something that is still being done by breweries to this day.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The report of the tour contained more information too, such as how the casks were cleaned in an ingenious way …</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><i>"The cask is placed in a cradle, is partly filled with hot water and closed by a bung to which a spiked iron chain is attached inside. The frame communicates a tumbling motion to the cask and at the same time rotates it about its major axis, so that the washing action of the water and the scraping action of the chain take place at every part of its interior."</i></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The writer also goes on to mention how the rims of the casks are colour coded depending on what they contain, single stout (porter) being white, double stout the familiar red, and the export yellow. (Something that was reported by Alfred Barnard on his visit to the brewery for his books on the breweries of these islands around this time too, and Alfred goes into much more detail on the brewery, buildings, process and other details than any other author at this time.)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAa-iTYDZI84VxkON6tnnGGoSCt6qcsFbPQ4EDPK6VTExt9ApW_t-EFs0lsCFeCW3H6n5HlxMlh6IQUhlVo_eFLnI5zutXeUcq1eBVhsBXC2mZrTyShuwy6YI95lAG_vLR9fPlUrfdd_dB3Ac0QsllZ1NXZEeG-msKKdFb1rWYsrm_JweYiB7d9wvEVg/s3420/IMG_20230215_204807.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2565" data-original-width="3420" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAa-iTYDZI84VxkON6tnnGGoSCt6qcsFbPQ4EDPK6VTExt9ApW_t-EFs0lsCFeCW3H6n5HlxMlh6IQUhlVo_eFLnI5zutXeUcq1eBVhsBXC2mZrTyShuwy6YI95lAG_vLR9fPlUrfdd_dB3Ac0QsllZ1NXZEeG-msKKdFb1rWYsrm_JweYiB7d9wvEVg/w400-h300/IMG_20230215_204807.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">O</span>ur starting quote referenced a visit by an unknown writer in a newspaper to the brewery in 1914, the date of our guide book. The title of the piece was '<i>A Political Pilgrimage to Ireland – Visit to Guinness’</i> Brewery and in the article the writer impresses upon the reader just how ubiquitous Guinness is in the city of Dublin – this hasn’t changed in a century.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><i>"Guinness’ Stout dominates Dublin. […] As soon as you pull up your blinds in the morning you see a line of barges making their way down to the harbour laden with barrels of stout. […] If you cross the street without due care you are apt to be run down by Guinness’ motor lorries rushing the stout down to the place of embarking [and] the firm’s traffic all but monopolises the streets of Dublin."</i></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The author also mentions that all Guinness ‘motor men or bargemen may be known by their <i>'head gear'</i> as they all wear <i>‘felt hats of orthodox shape with a black band of glaced [sic] leather going right over the crown from ear to ear.’</i> These appear to be bowler hats like the one shown here from a later guide book, with the band clearly visible.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWSclp_IaQYBphHbCxZiiER3u599O6r30FUm2xdDVshW0Y_zrO0cbP8VEF-xF-Zk_C-mdeuThvz19KD8M_LHsDgB2k3N5mZWDPB3OuiZ3PW6xY0ort9gnPAzsiR1FX0xjaFPptyb9d42ZhPWo_ZGsNkvpAS3ctBT8gEHLE3GbSecGGlkMWNBmf2yQlA/s1850/IMG_20230215_204729.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1850" data-original-width="1387" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWSclp_IaQYBphHbCxZiiER3u599O6r30FUm2xdDVshW0Y_zrO0cbP8VEF-xF-Zk_C-mdeuThvz19KD8M_LHsDgB2k3N5mZWDPB3OuiZ3PW6xY0ort9gnPAzsiR1FX0xjaFPptyb9d42ZhPWo_ZGsNkvpAS3ctBT8gEHLE3GbSecGGlkMWNBmf2yQlA/w300-h400/IMG_20230215_204729.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Our visitor also tells us that at this time the site had 9 miles of railway track and 20 locomotive engines, and other figures such as the total amount of water used by the brewery is 7 billion gallons a year!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">There are more figures to come, the above-mentioned fermenting house that is the current visitor’s centre was originally constructed with 2 million bricks and 3,650 tons of steel, along with 200 thousand cubic feet of concrete. That building contained 16 fermentation vessels with a total capacity of 208 thousand gallons. The vat house nearby contained 190 vats with a total storage capacity of almost 14 million gallons or 110 million pints or porter. Those were made of English oak and hooped with of half a mile of iron strapping. On the transport side of things, the stables housed 100 horses – mostly Shires and Clydesdales – and the company operated 60 motorised lorries that could reach the heady heights of 12 miles per hour. (That comment makes a mockery of the earlier comment about being run over by a <i>‘rushing’</i> vehicle! )1,500 new casks are made weekly and up to 15,000 casks can be filled daily, with a dozen being filled at once from each racking engine. (I truth, most of these figures had been pulled by the author from a slightly early edition of the souvenir guide, as the one shown here was printed a couple of months after their visit, but the design seems to be very similar if not the same.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And lastly of course the author got to sample the produce – the same four variations mentioned above – <i>‘In neat aluminium mugs the visitor gets a fair sample of each, and with his breath turned makes his way into the outer world.’</i> It is of interest to see that right up to the end of the tour the focus is on the process and the product, with the sample beers at the end served in plain metal mugs. There is no hint at the marketing that would follow, where the idea of ritual, aesthetics and the drinking experience – rightly or wrongly - would perhaps become more important than the actual beer itself, although obviously you need to have a product before you build hype. That might make some people a little sad about how our brewing history has been reduced to products where we once had breweries, with beers like Smithwick’s as well as Guinness, and even the less well known Macardle’s each having essentially been compressed into a brand, and it could be argued that in doing so it severed their true historic connection to a richer and more varied past for many drinkers - a connection we should try to re-establish.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Regardless of all that, there is many a beer historian and others who would love a chance to experience the beers of this earlier era. Perhaps Guinness might oblige at some stage with a new/old exhibition where visitors get a chance to taste the porters of the past, preferably out of one of those aluminium mugs …?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Liam K</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2023/03/100-years-of-irish-brewing-in-50.html">(Here is the link to object #3)</a></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. The images of the featured booklet are the authors own, as is the booklet itself.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmLQDrcvC81MNA52MOimR5K69Lts-WBypnFQkG9WYnpt0xrfVramxaQhR6nSXRNL0MkxVxWZiYr-kjDwVnP337jVoJ-H02zsUTgmcwQpNcIRF7mSUlQrCkwWP-rosBtWoNqYzjnBDE3Otv0lkV92EQeIGBVrHloD4wk6wNHJi-27pHY9_a1r5hiWiwLQ/s3386/IMG_20230215_204921.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3386" data-original-width="2539" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmLQDrcvC81MNA52MOimR5K69Lts-WBypnFQkG9WYnpt0xrfVramxaQhR6nSXRNL0MkxVxWZiYr-kjDwVnP337jVoJ-H02zsUTgmcwQpNcIRF7mSUlQrCkwWP-rosBtWoNqYzjnBDE3Otv0lkV92EQeIGBVrHloD4wk6wNHJi-27pHY9_a1r5hiWiwLQ/w300-h400/IMG_20230215_204921.jpg" width="300" /></a></div></div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6291499137127413508.post-26083329728442098362023-02-10T08:04:00.003+00:002023-03-05T12:15:38.882+00:00100 Years of Irish Brewing in 50 Objects: #1 - D’Arcy & Son's Anchor Brewery Livery Button (c. 1900)<p style="text-align: justify;"><i></i></p><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcBQi5CWY1DvHaZ4H_qExJG0qvEzPYUFH5jgE4hRInxJbbt-XGw27bkAn2y2iaA_xaV8CAZwXsD8AVGMs0c-AVaTL-Ava_SN2ffAjmcOf4LzoyLgGU12MJt03AVl0adMphPaRbGBmvNUk1_8VPvgtYb7jQkdtmkjjE74AHloZ01jL5LQy18XaJkrKWYA/w400-h300/IMG_20230110_130859.jpg" /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">O</span>n the closed square piano a pudding in a huge yellow dish lay in waiting and behind it were three squads of bottles of stout and ale and minerals, drawn up according to their uniforms, the first two black, with brown and red labels, the third and smallest squad white, with transverse green sashes. </i></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><b><i>James Joyce – The Dead</i></b></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: right;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>hat colourful description by Joyce of bottles of beer lined neatly on top of a piano in the supper room which was situated upstairs in a tall house on Usher’s Island - a little west of the centre of Dublin city on the south side of the river Liffey - is quite a strong and evocative image, the words conjuring up the formality and neatness of soldiers in uniform on a parade ground in a time long gone. The story is set around the end of the 19th century and at that time there were a number of breweries within the general vicinity of that house, and it is very probable that these unnamed (and of course fictional) beers were the relatively local Guinness stout, plus imported Bass ale from England as both were extremely popular at that time in households in the city and their labelling would fit Joyce’s description.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And although we will be staying around the environs of Usher's Island, it is a uniform other than the military ones alluded to above that is of significance to those with an interest in the history of our country's brewing past.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-o-</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">W</span>hen we consider those who work in breweries we tend to focus on the owners and the actual brewers of the beer, but there are a host of other departments in any successful brewing business such as marketing, administration and - very importantly - the logistics of getting the beers from the supplier to the consumer. Nowadays, transportation is often handled by cold-chain distribution in vans and trucks but in the past the delivery of beer would have been literally handled by draymen who drove their horse drawn carts laden with barrels through the cities and countryside, going either directly to the local bottlers and wholesalers, or to canal boats and trains for distribution around the whole country, or perhaps even to ships - starting a journey which might bring those barrels half way around the world.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This small button measuring 3cm (1 3⁄16 inches) in diameter is made of a copper alloy - possibly brass - and shows some green patination where the gilding has worn away to expose the base metal. It is probably from the livery uniform of one of the draymen who worked for the Anchor Brewery of John D’Arcy & Son on Usher Street, not far from where those aforementioned other-uniformed squads lined up. It features the words <i>‘J. D’Arcy & Son Ltd. Brewery’</i> and a nicely embossed anchor whose pronged ends appear to resemble demons’ tails. The button must be from between 1896 and 1926 give the date when the brewery became a limited company and when it closed, but it is probably from the earlier part of that period given other examples of the same style date from that era. The reverse is missing the eyelet and shows the name of the supplier <i>‘Comyns & Son, College Green, Dublin’</i> who were sellers of livery uniforms too, although there is no indication that they also made any actual uniforms for D’Arcy & Sons - they may have just supplied the buttons to the brewery for use by another maker - but it is certainly possible they did so.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYF3cyeGMp25FMr-PTD3FS_RVFjO2Ty-4ED-LeCRWY2l5nEsPSDpw2_5LZjYzi-Lwz_AL7PHCTU6WWoLDkcP1QV_zctKNwY7qcs3G1Mx_47E-7r1LAFDcED8hEYU2Rn1ChnQ4rC0QV4iYz0ekFg11_VNPKfM_e7KEhTL8GJw3sgXtWolDnUv_IS2ljDg/s1739/IMG_20230110_131137.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1304" data-original-width="1739" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYF3cyeGMp25FMr-PTD3FS_RVFjO2Ty-4ED-LeCRWY2l5nEsPSDpw2_5LZjYzi-Lwz_AL7PHCTU6WWoLDkcP1QV_zctKNwY7qcs3G1Mx_47E-7r1LAFDcED8hEYU2Rn1ChnQ4rC0QV4iYz0ekFg11_VNPKfM_e7KEhTL8GJw3sgXtWolDnUv_IS2ljDg/w400-h300/IMG_20230110_131137.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>n the book <i>‘Ireland: Industrial & Agricultural’</i> published in 1902 there is a photograph of a drayman wearing a double-breasted livery jacket, and although the buttons cannot be made out clearly, it would seem logical that they would be similar if not the same as the one shown here. The drayman is holding a beautiful, four-year old roan Clydesdale gelding called <i>‘Butter Scotch’</i> and they had jointly won the top award for the best horse and float at the Royal Dublin Society Spring Show in 1898 as well as the Guinness sponsored Challenge Cup for overall best horse and vehicle - awards which D’Arcy’s were well used to winning according to press cuttings from this era. The fine-looking gentleman’s name was Thomas Curran and they beat competition from The Mountjoy Brewery, two of Guinness’s floats, and one from Bass, Ratcliff, and Gretton Ltd. to win their awards according to RDS records.</div></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0UQ84XZcKCpMFdBbrflPfUPRBVhCTm6P95_HiPH-Fez4Kfxedvr3GvxIOkDwFlX7kmpXh3lkxGcBZfWRcqvIufwm-MA1ahepLpwyQQ0iSguViSpBRp4mCL4WW04yDnkwqx8jc0dTXTLzRyT-pYUQYd6exovKoi3RGl6CK47YCOhVH90g26bXbJIbS3g/s1218/IMG_20230118_164755.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="912" data-original-width="1218" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0UQ84XZcKCpMFdBbrflPfUPRBVhCTm6P95_HiPH-Fez4Kfxedvr3GvxIOkDwFlX7kmpXh3lkxGcBZfWRcqvIufwm-MA1ahepLpwyQQ0iSguViSpBRp4mCL4WW04yDnkwqx8jc0dTXTLzRyT-pYUQYd6exovKoi3RGl6CK47YCOhVH90g26bXbJIbS3g/w400-h300/IMG_20230118_164755.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span>round 1889 Alfred Barnard visited D’Arcy’s for his series of books on the breweries of Britain and Ireland and wrote extensively about the business. As ever with his visits, Alfred goes into a lot of detail regarding his tour of the brewery and its layout but of most interest with regard to our current topic is the mention of fifty Clydesdale and ‘Irish’ horses being stabled on the site, with more being hired during the busy season. D’Arcy’s employed upwards of 300 people at this time too, some of whom would have been the draymen who worked with those horses, delivering casks of Darcy’s porter around the city. We can see some of those draymen again in this sketch from Alfred’s book and the uniforms of the dray men are visible, as are the floats - or drays - themselves.</div></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdMHQ0jFkTIt9sZAM5nSeBacZacqIs2QNfHYAIxv5Lu0XY2Win1W985dEtzVMJFK6N_-pIIMKm5MghAKq4gHM5JDT_ZWAbRxnBVUTRZaqTk25Fm3vprUMzSIbnDeC00M2yJzxyTwDswd_AqddUk5eizYCtgyYM4ru8pwljS5CJUGgGjIq7L2tlC93W9A/s1029/D'Arcy%20Court%20Yard.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="1029" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdMHQ0jFkTIt9sZAM5nSeBacZacqIs2QNfHYAIxv5Lu0XY2Win1W985dEtzVMJFK6N_-pIIMKm5MghAKq4gHM5JDT_ZWAbRxnBVUTRZaqTk25Fm3vprUMzSIbnDeC00M2yJzxyTwDswd_AqddUk5eizYCtgyYM4ru8pwljS5CJUGgGjIq7L2tlC93W9A/s320/D'Arcy%20Court%20Yard.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>o get a better idea of the layout of the brewery we can look at the Goad’s Fire Insurance Map from 1893, and this gives another good insight into the brewery layout in glorious detail, including the buildings with the extensive stables mentioned by Alfred. Incidentally, you can also see how the site backed on to the John’s Lane distillery of John Power & Son, indeed in places it is difficult to make out where one begins and the other ends.</div></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR2T75-djLutfrBreb3nCk_fOjaUMYxVz4R88RthVDeQcz3_ieLuSOoGKMCNOoGbHPbRu_lGwASSZtZw3LGDFmXLl7eW7UcCeqO3aCLC8EfJ0ndcJHC44ZcRO5NkOYlorE35pGcsnhAquQi8U99W5g4WwrnJZ8tkvgxRCZ0eRbAmWfBuEd5CUiTX285w/s3658/Insurance_Plan_of_the_City_of_Dublin_Vol._1;_sheet_14_(BL_146692).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3658" data-original-width="3094" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR2T75-djLutfrBreb3nCk_fOjaUMYxVz4R88RthVDeQcz3_ieLuSOoGKMCNOoGbHPbRu_lGwASSZtZw3LGDFmXLl7eW7UcCeqO3aCLC8EfJ0ndcJHC44ZcRO5NkOYlorE35pGcsnhAquQi8U99W5g4WwrnJZ8tkvgxRCZ0eRbAmWfBuEd5CUiTX285w/w339-h400/Insurance_Plan_of_the_City_of_Dublin_Vol._1;_sheet_14_(BL_146692).jpg" width="339" /></a></div><span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>his map ties in nicely with this sketch of the brewery from Stratten & Stratten's <i>'Dublin, Cork, and South of Ireland: A Literary, Commercial, and Social Review'</i> from 1892. This again shows our draymen coming and going from the brewery and aids our understanding of the scale of the business.</div></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT0hXDbZkGGYZa_Asqt8ko2-8AEgM9r8rOQEwlL7ReZxyOdOu0Qir04iZGiuhpXCb4-Zol_M5B5fOalPFlTOG3R15-3xG4TI4-wHS4pA712suLNc_PaJIMJHaI9EGppjOwgh4KdDwt_1JraOvMzdsMbU7w0GaX8b_duEPxC-5gtI5urP65lBhwr9TzJg/s685/Anchor%20Brewery%20Aerial%20Good.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="446" data-original-width="685" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT0hXDbZkGGYZa_Asqt8ko2-8AEgM9r8rOQEwlL7ReZxyOdOu0Qir04iZGiuhpXCb4-Zol_M5B5fOalPFlTOG3R15-3xG4TI4-wHS4pA712suLNc_PaJIMJHaI9EGppjOwgh4KdDwt_1JraOvMzdsMbU7w0GaX8b_duEPxC-5gtI5urP65lBhwr9TzJg/w400-h260/Anchor%20Brewery%20Aerial%20Good.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>his button is a tiny but tangible and tactile part of Ireland’s brewing history and deserves to be appreciated as such, and we can now perhaps picture in our minds a drayman at the turn of the last century donning his livery uniform before starting the hard work of delivering casks of ale around the city of Dublin. This type of button did not just adorn the livery uniforms of D’Arcy’s brewery, as they appear to be a relatively common addition to many a jacket at that time and later. The Phoenix and Guinness breweries used them too, and it is probable that all of the bigger brewing concerns in Dublin and elsewhere had similar. There is very little provenance attached to the example shown here but looking at the broken eyelet it is likely that breakages and losses were common, and no doubt there are a quite a few similar buttons to be found, perhaps in the corner of an old cellar or having fallen through a grating on the street, still waiting to be found by an appreciative soul.</div></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzTbixihuOOBwI9RZNnnFUq_cPe0WTETBljNmZzQb95UD2Tr1YpzdHs797R2SJ0r3ANIo7wyKGnt5nYSS8-Hu9RHYGsOEntdedIgwFNi7JZknq20FuD_1cRWYQxMPR4-HWEQOz3j4akfP-sNAXT2WjkHdu1JqotWIdDri35W55MOfohxoGh2FinUDifA/s656/D'Arcy's%20Entrance.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="656" data-original-width="372" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzTbixihuOOBwI9RZNnnFUq_cPe0WTETBljNmZzQb95UD2Tr1YpzdHs797R2SJ0r3ANIo7wyKGnt5nYSS8-Hu9RHYGsOEntdedIgwFNi7JZknq20FuD_1cRWYQxMPR4-HWEQOz3j4akfP-sNAXT2WjkHdu1JqotWIdDri35W55MOfohxoGh2FinUDifA/w226-h400/D'Arcy's%20Entrance.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><p></p><blockquote></blockquote><div style="text-align: center;">-o-</div><div><br /></div>Some Brewery History Notes: A Complicated Backstory ...<br /><blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he foundation date of the original brewing concerns that occupied the site of D'Arcy's Anchor Brewery is unknown according to Alfred Barnard in his write-up mentioned above - although other sources such as an advertisement by the brewery in <i>The Sport</i> in May 1897 and a write up from which the above image of an entrance gate is taken in <i>The Freeman's Journal</i> in September 1913 mention a date of 1740 - which we must take with a pinch of salt. Alfred also mentions deeds in the possession of the then proprietor which date back to 1782 when the site was owned by a Kavanagh & Brett, with the brewery coming into the hands of John D’Arcy via a John Byrne in 1818, and was owned by his son Matthew D’Arcy at the time of Alfred’s visit. The brewery was expanded by Matthew with the addition of more land, buildings and equipment and by then the area taken up by the brewery and its operations was seven acres. Of note was the mention of a copper brew kettle of <i>‘mammoth’</i> proportions which was said to be the largest in the world at this time – an interesting claim if hard to prove. It held 1,300 barrels, took over a year to make and on its completion <i>‘thirty people partook of refreshments therein.'</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">We can add further to that information, as John D’Arcy was in partnership at first with a James McNulty according to <i>Saunder’s Newsletter</i> in October of 1819 when that partnership was dissolved. The earliest mention of a brewery on Usher Street in newspapers is for a porter brewery owned by Samuel Madder & Co. from London who were brewing there in 1785 according to <i>Saunders's Newsletter</i> in April of that year. In 1797 it was owned by a John Ormston who became bankrupt according to <i>Saunder’s Newsletter</i> from June of that same year. A newspaper advertisement in <i>The Hibernian Journal</i> in March of 1806 states the brewery was owned (or operated) by an Edmund Grange & Co., where they produced porter under the Hibernian Anchor Porter Brewery name, and a Leeson - a famous Dublin brewing family name - is mentioned with Grange as an owner in Saunders's News-Letter of March 1809. John Byrne may have been the next owner of the site before then selling it to John D’Arcy. To add further complications the aforementioned Kavanagh & Brett were still brewing together up to 1799 when their partnership was dissolved according to Saunders's News-Letter in October of that year, with John Brett residing in Usher's Island. This is at odds with their mention by Alfred above but they may have been brewing on a different site.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Anchor Brewery appears to have had quite a convoluted history, not helped by the issue that there may have been multiple breweries on Usher Street and the streets surrounding it, which may muddy the ownership details. It is possible that there were breweries side-by-side that became a single entity in time. There are a number of histories available online and in books but many seem to just repeat parts of Alfred Barnard's history, although some do give a varying account - so reader beware.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: center;">-o- </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">F</span>inally, it is worth mentioning that by 1914, when Joyce’s Dubliners book of short stories that features The Dead was eventually published, Darcy’s brewed <i>‘O’Connell’s Dublin Ale’</i> as well as porter, having acquired the brand when the bought The Phoenix Brewery a few years previously. Later examples of the labels from D'Arcy's time of marketing the brand are red in colour so <i>perhaps</i> the original Phoenix label (from around the same period as our button) was also a shade of red? It would be fanciful to think that it was beers from the Phoenix brewery that were in Joyce’s head at the time he wrote those lines, but <i>perhaps</i> I am wrong about Guinness and Bass and there is a - albeit tenuous - connection between the passage quoted above and D'Arcy's brewery on Usher Street ...</p>Liam K<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://beerfoodtravel.blogspot.com/2023/02/100-years-of-irish-brewing-in-50_16.html">(Here is the link to object #2)</a></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpi5lHZfAwAqorarnwL9A-RG-u8LQC_vQs2FdvigFyyJ_1wy0xuhfdRTCnhh9IeV7LLyXBXS4fTH9lnty9Wvyf0czg-qE6-yw76j6f-Cu5CjH2Ae1PrzAdTOTtZonj7vNIlJHEIZBgNF9HIZxADxjrx5RHC0v3bO428UP6HmGZ6U6ZIjM2OwqubOc86g/s1439/Screenshot_20230111_143329.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1439" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpi5lHZfAwAqorarnwL9A-RG-u8LQC_vQs2FdvigFyyJ_1wy0xuhfdRTCnhh9IeV7LLyXBXS4fTH9lnty9Wvyf0czg-qE6-yw76j6f-Cu5CjH2Ae1PrzAdTOTtZonj7vNIlJHEIZBgNF9HIZxADxjrx5RHC0v3bO428UP6HmGZ6U6ZIjM2OwqubOc86g/s320/Screenshot_20230111_143329.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Newspaper image of D'Arcy's brewery gate © The British Library Board - All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) from whom I have received permission to display this image on this site. Button images are the authors own - as is the button itself - and the image of the D'Arcy Label is from 'The British, Foreign, and Colonial Tradesmarks' Directory' from 1866. The Goad fire insurance map of Dublin was sourced from Wikimedia Commons. Other images are from where stated.</span></div></div>Liamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15232909461477844968noreply@blogger.com1