Tower Stout - Beamish's Rebrand

Image Source - Author's own collection

As we have learned from previous posts on the subject, the brewing trade in Ireland in the 1960s was extremely volatile with many new beers entering into the pub scene and some changes of name and identity from the existing Irish breweries like Smithwick's with their Time rebrand. It would be foolish to think that the Cork brewers were unaffected by the unrest, especially as they were contributing to much of it themselves, and indeed it was at this time that Beamish & Crawford decided to rebrand their famous black beer (or a version of it) as Tower Stout - named after the iconic tower on the older beer labels and logo.

Image Source - Cork Examiner September 17 1968

Launched on draught and bottle as Tower Export Strength Stout in January 1968 by Sean Lemass in his role as chairman of United Breweries of Ireland¹ - who was in danger of being called a serial beer launcher as he had previously launched Idea lager for Smithwick's. This was Beamish & Crawford (or Eddie Taylor's Canadian Breweries via UBI strictly speaking) going head-to-head against Guinness and an advertisement² from that time certainly implies that ...

"We said to our brewers: Brew the most perfect pint that has ever been tasted in Ireland. Spare no expense."

It goes on:

"Three centuries of tradition and £1,000,000 went into the making of it. (When you're competing with a giant, you can't afford to pinch the pennies). They have come up with a stout the equal of which has not been seen in Ireland. A richer, rounder flavour, brewed to export strength, and extra creamy head - and it costs no more than an ordinary pint. We modestly believe that Tower is an incomparable stout."

We can assume from the description and appearance that it was a nitro stout like Guinness but as to what 'export strength' meant in alcohol terms we can only guess.

At the International Brewing, Bottling & Allied Trades Exhibition held in London in April 1968 Tower received a gold medal, which their marketing team capitalised on in the advertisements around this time. In September of the same year it was the stout of choice at the Cork Harbour Oyster Festival where along with 6,000 oysters they hoped to sell 3,500 glasses of Tower stout.³ 

So all was looking rosy for the brand it seems ... or was it?

Image Source - Cork Examiner January 26 1968

According to Beamish & Crawford: The History of and Irish Brewery by Donal Ó Drisceoil & Diarmuid Ó Drisceoil it was not well received in the UK - where they had hoped for to steal sales from its rivals - and there were complaints here of inconsistency and of its 'laxative effects'⁴ which presumably could not be blamed on the oysters!

More importantly it failed to make any impact on Guinness's sales, in fact it appears to have had the opposite effect, driving more stout drinkers towards that consistent and known brand.

And so Tower limped along - unloved and unwanted - until it was replaced by Beamish Cream Stout at the end of 1971⁴, and so disappeared another Irish beer brand.

Image Source - Author's own collection

Glasses, labels and other breweriana seems scarce apart from the occasional beermat but they do occasionally surface from presses and cupboards to find their way into charity shops, vintage stores, or online auction sites.

Image Source - Author's own collection

Here are two pint glasses of different shapes which show the Tower Stout logo, although some of the gold has worn away. They are also of interest as they were verified in 1963 and 1964, which was a few years before the beer's launch and shows that Beamish & Crawford were branding from an existing stock of glasses. It is also a lesson that the verification date on glasses should only be used as an indicator of a brand's age, as the actual printing may be younger.

Liam

[Edited 22/2/2023]

With thanks to Robin Power (@robinpower6 on Twitter) for pushing me to buy the two pint glasses shown.

(All written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without full credit to its source and a link back to this post. Please be aware that my own photos are watermarked.)

References:

¹ Cork Examiner - January 19th 1968

² Cork Examiner - January 26th 1968

³ Cork Examiner - September 17th 1968

⁴ Beamish & Crawford: The History of and Irish Brewery, Donal Ó Drisceoil & Diarmuid Ó Drisceoil (2015) 

Note: The above mentioned Beamish & Crawford: The History of and Irish Brewery, Donal Ó Drisceoil & Diarmuid Ó Drisceoil is a book that should be on the shelf of anyone interested in Irish beer history and is still available online and in bookshops.