Our Other Bottle of Stout - No Pints or Half Measures...

One thing about the brewing industry in Ireland that I never gave much consideration to was the sizes of bottles used by Irish breweries and bottling companies in the past. Nowadays we have 330ml and 500ml for most bottling apart from the odd pint bottle used by some of the bigger companies plus the 375ml or 750ml bottle used occasionally for those who want a corked-and-caged product. This size issue came up in a previous post when wondering what exactly a 'snipe' bottle meant to a publican, so it got me looking into the beer bottles sizes of the past, which I assumed were just pint and half pint bottles, as that was all I ever heard about or saw until those newer metric sizes came on the scene.

My usual starting point for these questions are the newspaper archives and an early mention I found was regarding a bottling dispute between Cade & Sons, Ltd. and John Daly & Co. Ltd. in Cork, reported in the Dublin Daily Express on the 29th April 1910, which was about minimum pricing agreements - but what grabbed my attention was a discussion about bottle sizes. Part of the hearing was with regard to 'Mr. Beamish', where he discusses putting a new stout he is brewing which is '10 degrees stronger than Guinness' and how he wanted the bottlers to put it in 'the ordinary bottles'. The witness was surprised by this idea as Beamish & Crawford's ale was in '16 to the gallon bottles' and always had been so he suggested it would be wise to bottle his stout in the same bottles. Mr. Beamish then asked the bottler would 'the man on the street object to that sized bottle, [He] thought not as the usual consumer who looked for a long drink asked for a pint of stout.'

A '16 to the gallon bottle' is of course a half pint (284ml or 10 fl oz), so what did Mr. Beamish mean by the 'normal bottle'?

Clarification is given later in the article where it is stated that 'Lager beer and Bass's strong ale were always bottled in 16 to the gallon bottles, also Beamish and Crawford's ale. The other stouts had previously been bottled in 14 to the gallon bottles.' That '14 to the gallon' calculation works out at 325 ml (11.4 fl oz) approximately which to me is pretty close to our 'modern' 330ml (11.6 fl oz) bottle. So can we take from this that Cork bottles stouts were sold in 330ml bottles in 1910? I believe so, which is a half century (or more) before the point where I thought that this bottles size had appeared on our shores.

So where were these odd sized bottles coming from? These could in fact be 12 fl. oz. bottles, which would make sense as a rounder figure but the article goes on to discuss bottle shipments and errors in sizes and states that the bottles came from a German firm, which makes me think that these 330ml bottles came form Germany too, or at least the continent, which would also make perfect sense as I assume (somebody please correct me if I'm wrong) that this was a common size over there? With that in mind and for the purpose of this article I will refer to them as '330'ml bottles.

Next we jump forward to 1923 and a report in the Drogheda Argus and Leinster Journal on the 9th of June regarding a food commission inquiry into the price of a standard bottle of stout, where we see a mention incidentally a that a 'barrel' contains 128 pints or 16 gallons, not a proper 'Barrel' size but an Irish-sized Kilderkin I believe - a warning as to how we need to be careful about what is communicated through newspaper articles. More importantly for this discussion we see this comment:

In Drogheda the licensed traders deal exclusively with the same companies the Ringsend Bottle Co, and for glasses with the Irish Glass Co. "The trade" gives 14 bottles to the gallon, or 38 doz bot[tle]s to the barrel. It did happen, however, that in Drogheda some bottles came in from other parts of Ireland - they were smaller bottles, and ran 16 to the gallon. He explained that if there were small bottles used they would get greater number of bottles of stout. The trade put down as the nearest average about 39 dozen to the barrel.

There are a couple of errors here by my maths, firstly they are now talking about proper Irish barrel sizes at 32 gallons and secondly the maths for the smaller half pint bottles is a little off, I make it 42 doz to the barrel - maybe a little less allowing for head space if the bottles themselves held a half pint to the top. Aside from the quoted maths and the implications for pricing that it may imply it is clear here that Ringsend were making '330'ml bottles for beer for stout and that this seems to be the standard with the half pint perhaps common in other parts of the country. One question it raises is to whether Ringsend were making a 330ml bottle from moulds imported from the continent, whether the had created their own, or if these were indeed 12 fl.oz bottles.

We also have this passage:

President [of the committee] - Isn't it a fact that in 1914 the bottles were larger than at present? 

Mr Tallan [Solicitor for the bottlers] - Well I believe there were twelve bottles to the gallon twenty years ago. 

President - Well, there must have been a demand for these small bottles. How did they creep into the trade? 

Mr Tallan - Oh, there must have been a demand for them somewhere. In England there is smaller bottle used in the trade. These bottles may be made for export purposes. They may be made for use in some districts, but you take it from me that there are none purchased by by the traders that I represent except the 'standard bottle.'

There are a few points to digest here, firstly we see that a '12 to the gallon bottle' - 379ml or 13.33fl.oz. -  was in use (Close to the 375ml bottle used today, another continental import?). That perhaps, the half pint bottles were used for export, which was later denied by one eminent bottler, Mr. Blood. The fact that Guinness was being sold cheaper in the UK and up north was explained away by export rebates.

That '12 to the Gallon" bottle appears to be the quasi-official 'Reputed Pint' as an advertisement in the Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier on the 19th April 1865 with regard to a discussion on tariffs - admittedly reverencing an Australian newspaper - states:

Ale; porter, spruce, and other beer, cider, and perry, per gallon, in wood, for six reputed quart bottles, or for 12 reputed pint bottles, 6d.

From this I infer that these were all the same volume so a reputed pint is one twelfth of an Imperial gallon.  The use of the reputed pint - and the reputed quart - in this country needs a separate article at some point, I also wonder if there is a connection between it and the 'Meejum', as I've seen mention of reputed pint glasses.

Then in a report in the Freeman's Journal published on the 10th Jan 1924 with regard to alleged profiteering by publicans in Dublin, where a bottle of stout went from 2d to 8d in ten years or so. This opinion piece goes on to say of the publicans

 Not content with charging the higher price, they changed the size of the bottles which gave 12, 13 and 14 fills to the gallon, reducing their capacity so as to measure out sixteen. And this state of affairs has continued since 1920, during a period when general costs, including wages, were on the downward grade.

So more confirmation of the sizes and the size change it appears. They also published the maths as to the extra profit that was being made by publicans, which I won't show here, and they go on to state that 'It is well known that in many, if not most, [public] houses sixteen bottles are measured to the gallon.' The writer references a report by the Commission on Prices where they had bought bottled stout from eight different licenced houses in Dublin and the contents of each measured. The contents were reputed to be between 16 and 17½ bottles per gallon, with just below the 14 bottles per gallon - averaging 15½ bottles per gallon - close to a half pint. That commission also rejected a statement by the publicans that 'the stout bottles mostly in use in Dublin were "14" bottles.'

The commission goes on to recommend that 'The use of a standard bottle should be made compulsory' and went on to recommend a maximum price of 6d a bottle for stout - although it does not actually state what size bottle they think should be used for the bottling of said stout, but it can be inferred from their comments that the half pint bottle now seems to be the new standard.

Next we have a piece from the Freeman's Journal on the 7th November 1924 regarding The Free State government's new Intoxicating Liquor Bills. In one debate over new legislation it is reported that Mr. O' Higgins - the Minister in charge - wished to make a statement with regard to Section 7 of the Bill, which dealt with intoxicating liquor in bottles and was regarding the  acceptance of a standard size for bottles, and that he had mentioned the adoption of the the '14 to the gallon bottles size' - our '330'ml again - but had been told that 90% of the bottles being currently used were the half pint size and that his off-hand remark about using the larger size had caused consternation amongst bottlers, publicans and manufacturers.

It is of interest that Richard Beamish weighs in with a remark that it would take 'five years to clear the present stocks' of '14 to the gallon' but that 'the trade generally would accept a standard of 16 bottles to the gallon' - the half pint bottles, so Beamish & Crawford and other brewers and bottlers seem to be using this smaller size predominantly at this point. The article goes on to state that there needs to be more discussion regarding bottle sizes.

Another newspaper report a week later shows that the the bottle question was still being debated and a Dr. Sir James Craig states that 'before the war the standard was 12 bottles to the gallon and that the commission held last year the case put forward on the behalf of the vintners was 14 to the gallon. Since then they had raised it to 16 to the gallon.' This ties in a little with what I've reported above although I don't think the 12 to the gallon was as popular as he states, although he could be speaking from a local perspective, but personally I think he was in error or misinformed. In the same article Mr Hughes from Dundalk is of the opinion that the Minister should 'now state that the standard bottle would be 16 to the gallon' but Mr. O'Higgins said that he would need to consult other departments before deciding.

That leads us nicely to the published Intoxicating Liquor (General) Act, 1924, which states the following:

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.

And finally in 1925 the following appears in STATUTORY RULES AND ORDERS. 1925. No. 56. - INTOXICATING LIQUOR (STANDARDIDATION OF BOTTLES) No. 1 ORDER, 1925..

AND WHEREAS it has been deemed expedient to prescribe the sizes of the bottles in which ale, beer, porter and stout may be sold:

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:—

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 as hereinafter defined:

(a) The quarter-pint bottle shall be one which when filled with liquid up to one and three-quarter inches from the top will contain not less than forty-nine two hundredths (49/200), nor more than fifty-three two-hundredths (53/200) of one standard pint.

(b) the half-pint bottle shall be one which when filled with liquid up to one and three-quarter inches from the top will contain not less than ninety-nine two hundredths (99/200), nor more than one hundred and three two-hundredths (103/200) of one standard pint.

(c) The pint bottle shall be one which when filled with liquid up to one and three-quarter inches from the top will contain not less than one hundred and ninety-nine two-hundredths (199/200), nor more than two hundred and three two-hundredths (203/200) of one standard pint.

Given under my hand and seal, this 31st day of March, 1925.

(Signed) C. Ó hUIGÍN 

BUT then on the 30th of December this was changed to read the following

(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 [my emphasis], one-half pint, or one pint.

Indeed an advertisement in the Evening Herald on 17th of December of the same year for 'New Bottles' lists 'Porters (16 to Gallon) (Standard Size) confirms that this is indeed the new norm.

(And it seems that is how it remained until this was all revoked from 1st January 1984 by Michael Noonan.)

It would appear that my larger '330'ml bottle has been superseded by the half pint, the pint and the one-third of a pint (189ml - 6.66 Fl. Oz.) bottle at this time, and perhaps I've finally found out what a snipe bottle of beer was in Ireland - a third of a pint?

So it seems that up until 1925 (and from a date I don't know) we had a number of sizes for bottles of beer and that we were possibly close to taking that '330'ml bottle as our standard, if not perhaps for the wish of bottlers or publicans to make a few more pennies on their porter. In any case the bottle sizes pre 1925 is not anything that I expected, as there seems to have been a free-for-all on sizes and not just the pint and half pint bottle that I had expected to find.

I wonder was this the norm elsewhere at the time?

Ending on another note -  I find it strange that the Imperial pint bottle (as distinct from the 'Reputed Pint' bottle mentioned above), a size that was to become ubiquitous in Irish pubs a few decades later gets no mention in any of the articles referenced until we get to the legislation itself. It features on occasion elsewhere with regard to court reports and advertisements but it seems to me that 'The Large Bottle' has a much shorter history that what we think? (I'm not saying it didn't exist in every pub or location, it's just that it's absent from any mention in the places I looked, which means only that...)

But that's a subject for another day...

Liam

(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 source and a link back to this post.)

Newspaper 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 here). 

'Where do you get your Cooper?' Ireland's first beer brand...?

From the end of October 1862 until early 1863 the following piece appeared as a short editorial-like column in a number of Irish and English newspapers:

Bottled Cooper

“What stuff is that?” growled out a passenger seated alongside the driver of omnibus the other day when he heard him smack his lips after swallowing a pint of new decoction and exclaiming “That’s first-rate.” The old roadster, looking sneeringly round, exclaimed “Don’t you know? Why, to be sure, its half porter and half stout.” The inquisitor was still dissatisfied asking, “Why call it Cooper?” This was enough to rile even a ’bus driver, at the same time feeling a thorough contempt, for such glaring ignorance that he weighed over to himself whether or no he should then satisfy his importunate companion ; but taking pity upon one evidently “from the country,” he ejaculated, “Oh, do you want to know that too ? Well, that’s easily answered. You must know that some time ago Jack Cooper, who used to drive one of the Brompton’s when be pulled up at the White Horse Cellar, Piccadilly, always had glass of this stuff; and the potboy seeing his ’bus pulled up, would always sing out – ‘Another glass of Cooper.’ The barmaid knew what was meant; but nobody else. Well, you see, this name got abroad, and now everyone does his Cooper. Take my advice, ‘Governor,’ when you feel dry take a drop.” Reader be very much obliged for this solution. Few people indeed know the origin of the word “Cooper.” Now, however, we have just had an improvement introduced in the shape of “Bottled Cooper.” Messrs. Beamish and Crawford, brewers, of Cork, who have had the supplying of the refreshment department the International Bazaar, and whose beers, by-the by, have been patronized for the quality and price, finding it necessary to have agent, appointed Mr. Henry Johnson, of the Circular Vaults, St. Paul’s; and him the public have to thank for the introduction of this popular drink. The idea suggested itself to him that what was palatable as draught drink would be doubly so when bottled.

Now I am certainly a fan of the odd piece of beer-related fan fiction but let us not put too much faith behind the story of the origin of the name 'Cooper' which is usually described as a half-and-half mix of stout and porter, and allegedly named after actual barrel coopers, but it does highlight a little known story about Beamish and Crawford's arrangement with Henry Johnson to sell their stouts in London. This is well covered in Beamish & Crawford - The History of an Irish Brewery, where a small chapter in the book explains, according to the authors, how Henry Johnson makes contact with Richard Pigott Beamish and how it was agreed that Johnson would sell a mix of their year-old Extra Treble Stout and Single Stout from his warehouse in London. It would be bottled there and sold with a nice bright label bearing the Beamish & Crawford name with a trademarked image of a castle flanked by two soldiers over the word 'Cooper', (I will not reproduce it here as I am unsure of copyright issues with posing even fragments of the above mentioned book.) and caged with branded corks, at a price 2s and 6d for a dozen pint bottles - cheaper than similar products and at what were said to be draught beer prices. (Although as you can see from the advert at the top of the page, some of Johnson's agents sold it for more.) There was even a recited advertising 'jingle' called, 'Where do you get your Cooper?' to accompany the launch.

It all ended in tears, as Johnson had both supply and quality issues (He apologised for both in the advertisement below.¹) and was accused of using other brewer's beers instead of Beamish & Crawford's (Where did you get your Cooper indeed Mr. Johnson!?), so the brewery cut its ties with him at the end of April in 1863 and he was declared bankrupt not long afterwards. (A J. Hazard was selling 'The celebrated bottled Irish Cooper' in June of 1863 from the same address as Johnson's.²) You can read more about it in the book but it raises a few interesting points and I have other thoughts on it too...

The most important point perhaps is that I think that Cooper may have been the first Irish - or at least Irish brewed - beer to be marketed with a brand, jingle (I know I am taking liberties here...) and editorial advert? I am not aware of any others that existed this early anywhere else on these islands in fact, although I have not overly researched it to be fair. I would guess that it was certainly the first trademarked Irish-brewed beer ...

And there are a few more points to make too...

In August 1862 there were a couple of advertisements³ for Beamish and Crawford's Extra Treble Stout bottled with the above mentioned castle label and corks but not the Cooper name, this to my mind means that perhaps the whole range mentioned including the single and double stout had similar branding and perhaps the castle trademark covered all of the range, not just the later Cooper? The 'Cooper' appears to have been launched in September of that year, as it was not mentioned in those previous month's advertisements. Here is a copy of the first advertisement I can find for a beer with the Beamish & Crawford "Cooper" name and stating the blend - old vatted treble and single stouts - from the London Morning Post of the 1st of September.

It is worth noting that according to an advertisement for his Irish Cooper from March 1863 Johnson was then selling the unblended Extra Treble Stout. (Called 'The Burgundy of Ireland' according to some advertisements. Edit: This name was misattributed.) plus interestingly a 'Drogheda Strong Ale' as well as East India Pale Ale, but there was no sign of the single stout he supposedly blended with the triple.⁴ (By the way, directly above this March advert is one for bottled 'London Cooper' from Laidler and Fitch - some more local competition it seems!)

So was this the first bottled Cooper on the market? I can find some from Whitbread and others after this date but not before. And where did the bottled version actually originate if not Johnson, and Beamish and Crawford? In 1871 'The Cooper Company' claim to have originated the product in 1862 and were still selling it at the same price of 2s and 6d per dozen,⁵ so I'm quite confident that the bottled form of cooper - at the very least - originating from that original Cork-London partnership.

Next, in 1872 the following wonderful advertisement appears in the Islington Times:

This label is almost identical to that used by Beamish & Crawford and Johnson for their product apart from replacing their names with the name of the new company, and it still carries the trademarked logo. So does this mean that the Cork brewery were still supplying The Cooper Company or has all the branding and trademarks passed to that company when they bought out Johnson's bankrupt one? I suspect the latter and that Beamish & Crawford no longer had anything to do with it, certainly in the Beamish book I referenced above there is no mention of any continuation to supply after they withdrew from the arrangement.

Along with that advert there is an interesting report on a visit to The Cooper Company under the Hop Exchange on Southwark Street in London by a Percy Russel as part of a series of writeups under the title 'Metropolitan Industries'. In it he addresses the hygiene issues raised by a previous contributor to the newspaper with regard to brewing and bottling in general and he goes into some detail on the cleaning process for each bottle in the company's vault. More importantly for our story he also states that it is 'comforting to see by the branded barrels that the Irish stout does enter into the 'Cooper' and that the label is as true as a bank of England note.' He goes on to mention 'the happy blending of different brews' but annoyingly doesn't mention any of the actual brewers involved. He also mentions that The Cooper Company also export their beer to 'Shanghai, touched Tientsin, and even reached the Mikado of Japan himself.' (Indeed, according to an advertisement in The Times of India it was being sold in that country in 1877 too.)

In 1875 The Cooper Company were selling their Cooper at the same price as previously - and they were also selling Treble Dublin Stout by this time, as well as 'family' ale and India pale ale - and here is what they say about the Cooper product itself in an advertisement from this date:

The Cooper's Company Cooper is not plain porter, under the assumed name of Cooper, but is what the Cooper Company originally professed it to be - viz., Dublin Vatted Stout and London Porter. [My emphasis]⁶

So, that is somewhat of a change from what it started out as, and I think  that perhaps this company was indeed formed on the ashes of Johnson's old company or was relaunched in this way by a former agent of his perhaps? (Johnson's stock of ports, sherry and 30 dozen bottles of Cooper were auctioned in November 1863.⁷) It would appear that the statement of what Cooper was in 1875 - although probably true at the time it was published - had been twisted to something more marketable, as Dublin Stout and London Porter were likely to be a more saleable commodity at this point, and readily available too. The irony is that given the shenanigans of Johnston that this later blend is quite possibly what he was actually selling to unsuspecting punters back in 1863!

At the end of the above mentioned advertisement the company also say they bottle Guinness Dublin Stout and Mander's Invalid Stout as well as an enigmatic 'Red Cross Treble Dublin Stout'. Mander's Invalid Stout was an XXX stout so I believe it was both the 'Red Cross' and the Dublin stout used to make the company's Cooper at this time, as it would make logical sense.

(Curiously, in 1886 Cundell and Camozzi in Tavistock were selling a bottled Cooper that was a mix of 'Stout and Bitter' for 2s per dozen.⁸ Make what you will of that blend, as it was just in an advertisement...)

Anyhow, as ever I have probably raised more questions than I have actually answered, but it is good to get this part of Ireland's - and London's - brewing history online and findable for others.

Perhaps some Cork brewery might revive the 'Celebrated Irish Cooper', or maybe a Dublin and a London brewery could do a collaboration?

Just don't forget the marketing, the trademark - and to write that jingle!

Liam

(All written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and can not be reproduced elsewhere without full credit to its source and a link back to this post.)

Advert  - Holborn Journal - Saturday 21 February 1863

¹London Evening Standard - Monday 09 March 1863

² Illustrated Weekly News - Saturday 27 June 1863

³ London Evening Standard - Thursday 28 August 1862

⁴ London Evening Standard - Tuesday 17 March 1863

⁵ Stroud News and Gloucestershire Advertiser - Friday 18 August 1871

⁶ Kilburn Times - Saturday 10 July 1875

⁷ London City Press - Saturday 31 October 1863

⁸ Tavistock Gazette - Friday 05 November 1886

All via The British Newspaper Archive and Beamish & Crawford - The History of an Irish Brewery (2015) by Donal Ó Drisceoil and Diarmuid Ó Drisceoil

Newspaper images © The British Library Board. All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk). 

Beamish & Crawford's Celebration Ale - The Original Rebel Beer from the Rebel County

Following on from my last post about Tower Stout it seems appropriate to continue with another lost Beamish & Crawford beer, this time an ale launched to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Touted as a 'strong ale'¹, Celebration arrived smack bang into the hard fought beer drinking world at a time of severe upheaval in the Irish ale scene, and into that short period in the 1960s and early 1970s when their sales were in the ascendancy.

Image Source - Author's own collection

On the 4th of April 1966 the Monday edition of The Irish Press carried a short column sandwiched between escalating problems in Vietnam and an obituary for the car designer Battista Farina stating that a new ale called simply 'Celebration' would be for sale on draught from that date in fifty Dublin pubs. The official launch had been the previous month in Cork city and county² after it had been blind tested for several months, so presumably it was decided that a new ale was firstly needed, or needed by Beamish & Crawford anyway, and it must have been relatively well received by Cork's finest ale drinkers.

Image Source - Unknown Paper September 3rd 1966 

By July of 1966 it had received 'outstanding popularity in Waterford and throughout Ireland' and it was available in half-pint bottles, pint bottles as well as on draught, and it claimed that it was 'the only ale sold here [in Ireland] in pint bottles'.¹ (There's a picture of the stubby pint bottles here.) I wonder was this the start of the South-East's love affair with the large bottle of ale?

By December of 1966 it was mooted that Celebration would be launched in the UK - somewhat ironically given what it was launched to celebrate - in some of Charringtons United Breweries 6,205 tied houses in which Beamish & Crawford's owners Canadian Breweries had a 10% stake. At this time it already had 15% of the ale market in Ireland and the company were also making inroads into the lager sector with Carling Black Label.³

Although imported before then, towards the end of 1968 Bass began to be brewed in Beamish & Crawford and this was followed by Worthington's in late 1969, adding to a severely crowded draught ale marketplace of Smithwicks, Watneys Red Barrel, Phoenix, Macardles, Double Diamond and a number of smaller ale brands. Bass sales soon outstripped Celebration and in April 1970 its above mentioned Dublin taps were withdrawn along with those in northern half of the country, the half pint bottles were dropped and it seems to have quietly ceased to exist entirely in 1971² as the company put its faith in Bass for the battle of the ale market share.

As to its taste, appearance and alcohol content I can only guess at two, but it was certainly a pale ale like Phoenix more so than a darker one like most of its other rivals. In 1966 it won a gold medal in Brussels but this doesn't tell us much, and two of the beermats in my possession use words such as 'Big Beer', 'Full Bodied' and 'Powerful' which perhaps hint at its taste and marketing strategy - more telling perhaps as to its strength might be this quote from a Cork forum:

"It was by far the strongest drink to hit the bars at that time.I still hear stories from ould fellas chatting about the state and condition that fellas would get in,from drinking 'a few pints'"

Make of that what you like...

Image Source - Author's own collection

My collection of Celebration breweriana is quite scarce but I do possess a nice set of beer mats and a pint bottle label, sadly I don't have one of the nice Waterford glasses that you can see in the advertisement above and on one of these beer mats - yet...

Image Source - Author's own collection

Liam

(All written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and can not be reproduced elsewhere without full credit to its source and a link back to this post.)

References:

¹ Munster Express - 8th July 1966

² Beamish & Crawford: The History of and Irish Brewery, Donal Ó Drisceoil & Diarmuid Ó Drisceoil (2015) 

³ The Cork Examiner - 15th December 1966

Advert via local library local studies room

Brewing History: Some Notes on Pre-Twentieth Century Kilkenny Breweries

From 'The Official Illustrated Guide to the Great Southern & Western Railway' - 1866

[Revised & Expanded - May 2025]

The early brewing history of Ireland is a murky place to visit, especially when it comes to trying to pinpoint the exact position of the breweries and the names of the brewers that operated in any give town. Even finding a mention of their very existence is a tricky job until we get to the era of commercial directories, better record keeping, accurate maps, and - most importantly - the archived content of newspapers. Even after that point the real history and development of breweries can be difficult to track, especially beyond The Pale where much of our brewing history and the actual records of the breweries have become lost or locked out of sight in the many brewery closures and takeovers that occurred over the centuries.

Kilkenny's brewing history suffers from similar issues in one way but is somewhat different in another, as much of that history is difficult to clearly see due to being muddied by decades of marketing spiel which has been repeated and reprinted over the years - ironically - by those business which survived.

But there are a couple of helpful - although not primary - sources that can be used in trying to track down the historic commercial breweries of Kilkenny. The first is ‘The Brewing Industry in Kilkenny’ by T. B. Halpin which was published in the ‘Old Kilkenny Review’ in 1989. The second is the ‘Irish Historic Towns Atlas, no. 10, Kilkenny’ by John Bradley, who references Halpin's article quite often in his own work. Along with these two excellent sources we have other information from both online resources and archived papers which give some interesting insights into brewing in the city in the 18^th and 19^th century. These are backed up by various commercial directories of the time, where many similar names crop up over the years, often in different locations which adds to the headache of unravelling who brewed where in the city. We also need to be careful with some references, as malt houses can confused with actual breweries by some historians - both then and now. These are often separate entities although both can coexist on the same site of course. When quoting names, it is also worth mentioning that the lessor, lessee and the actual brewer in these establishments were quite often different people, which adds yet another layer of complexity to any research into names associated with any potential brewery sites.

-o-

A snapshot of the ebb and flow of breweries is given by Bradley as:

In 1787 there were ten breweries in the city, by 1824 the number had declined to five, and in 1837 it had fallen to four. There was evidently a flurry of activity in the years immediately following because by 1839 the number had increased to eight, but the expansion was short-lived. In 1841 there were five breweries and by 1856 there were only two — St Francis' Abbey (Smithwicks) and James's Street (Sullivans).¹

The earliest reference for a brewery location is on Pudding Lane in 1660, and the earliest mention of a named brewer is for a Miles Lyons in an unknown location in 1691 but the earliest mention by name and location is James’s Street Brewery established by a person named Archdeakin in 1702¹, and Bradley suggests there was brewing on this site before this date. (Some years later a Mathias Archdekin[sic] occupied a brewery and Distillery near Blackmill up until 1821⁴ which I have not seen mentioned elsewhere.) The brewery on James's Street appears to have passed through different hands - A John Hennessy was a brewer on this street at least in 1788³ - before becoming vacant in 1790. It was purchased and reopened by William Sullivan and William Loughnane in 1810⁴. 'Messrs. Sullivans Brewery' is mentioned in a newspaper article in March 1815¹³ when a fire broke out in the malt house there. (Indeed a portion of the brewery was destroyed by fire in October 1880¹⁴ 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 - 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 1877¹⁵, the fire three years later destroyed part of the old brewery, not this new premises. It appears to have stayed in the Sullivan family - albeit after becoming a limited company in 1903 - until it finally closed 1919, after being taken over by the rival Smithwick’s brewery and closed with the employees receiving 'a fortnight's notice that their services will be dispensed with.' according to one newspaper¹⁷, with parts of the premises being subsequently used as a maltings by Smithwicks⁴. Unfortunately, most of the site is now a carpark for Market Cross Shopping Centre, although I found a c.1946 photo of the ivy-covered entrance to the brewery in Halpin’s article and online here with another view here. This entrance appears to have been built in 1896 when James's Street itself was widened and this gateway built¹⁶.

An interesting aside to the actual brewing process, which helps to point to all the auxiliary jobs associated with breweries that are rarely considered, is that in 1897⁶ only Sullivan’s were using solely local cut corks to bottle their beers, Smithwick’s used a mix imported and locally made ones.

Advertisements like this one from 1895⁷ 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, and note the plural 'breweries'. We can be relatively sure that they were brewing more than just these styles over the years too.

Here is another from The Kilkenny City and County Directory and Guide from 1884:

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Curiously there is also a mention of a Hibernian Anchor Brewery¹⁸ on James’s Street in 1859 which Bradley suggests may be the same site as Sullivan’s Brewery, and I now believe it was where Sullivan's built their new brewery. The Anchor brewery was owned by a T. Dunphy and Son and were brewing 'superior porter and ales' ¹⁹ at this time. There is a George Reade brewing in James' Place in 1839 so perhaps there is some confusion over sites, or the names of the actual brewers working in the breweries owned by others, which - as mentioned - is often the case in brewing history.

-o-

The biggest mover and shaker in Kilkenny brewing was started by Edmund Smithwick who opened St. Francis Abbey Brewery around 1827 after leasing the site of Bren(n)an’s distillery in that year. (Just to note that Brennan is a surname that crops up repeatedly in the names of brewers/distillers in the various commercial directories – although admittedly it if a very common local name.) The site is listed as a distillery at St. Francis’s Abbey run by Patrick Brenan[sic] in Pigot’s Directory of 1824, and the following year he was producing 26,000 gallons of spirit according to custom and excise reports for the period. An advertisement for its letting at this time clearly say it is a distillery that could be converted into a brewery⁸. Edmund is listed as a grocery and a wine merchants in Pigot’s also in 1824 and was in partnership with and Owen C. O’Callaghan - this partnership was dissolved in July 1827 along with a similar partnership for a corn, flour and boulting business⁹, so his commercial interests were extensive - as were his fathers - but there appears to be no mention of brewing until after the leasing of the distillery site.

As mentioned, the site was only leased by Edmund in 1827, here is a note of the sale of that lease by Dudley Brennan son of the Michael Brennan above in 1867 via a solicitor's journal. The name William Archebald seems to be the earliest one connected to this lease.

So if there was any commercial ale brewing on the site before this time there is no reliable record of it (which means just that of course), although Halpin – who worked in Smithwick’s - suggests there may have been brewing for personal consumption on or near this site by an ancestor of Edmund - John Smithwick - when he was in partnership with a Richard Cole. [In fact, Cole's site was nowhere near the St. Francis Abbey, it was near the Black Abbey and whose rough location can be seen in a more detailed post referenced below.] A messy article celebrating the brewery’s 275^th anniversary¹⁰ mentions first brewing dates of both 1706 and 1710 as well as mentioning a free farm grant for a brewery and distillery close to the brewery site given to the above-mentioned Cole. Curiously and article in the same paper 25 years before states that the firm (not brewery) of Smithwick’s was established in 1710 at the same time that Cole established a brewery, although as mentioned this seems to have been a brewery for household consumption if it existed. Any reliable articles I have come across state there is little evidence of beer brewing on the site prior to 1827 and some even point out that the site's connection with the Smithwick’s family was broken with the death of John anyway.¹¹ There is a story that the Smithwick’s could not officially declare their interest in the brewery prior to Catholic Emancipation due to Catholics not being allowed to own businesses, but it does not explain why Edmund, who owned a business in 1824 with O'Callaghan as we can see above, could not have put his name in directories or elsewhere at this time as a brewery owner with a different partner if such was the case? A better claim may be that the Smithwick family were in business in Kilkenny from 1710 but - perhaps - not always in brewing ... maybe others can add more factual information to this. [Please see the link at the end of this section of the article regarding the Smithwick's brewery.]

George Measom in ‘The Official Illustrated Guide to the Great Southern & Western Railway’ mentions a visit to Edmond Smithwick’s brewery in 1866 where he sings the praises of the beer and the brewery while giving a nice description of the premises and supplying an excellent illustration of the site, which I have used at the start of this post. Interestingly he gives the date the brewery was established as 1828, presumably with the brewery's blessing at that time...

Anyhow, in 1897 Smithwick’s were brewing stouts and mild and bitter ales as well as an East India pale ale and a dinner ale¹², and like Sullivan’s they also bottled mineral waters.

Here is another advertisement from The Kilkenny City and County Directory and Guide from 1884 where they are showing off their depots both in Ireland and overseas:

It is probably worth noting too that the Smithwick family do not seem to have owned the abbey itself until quite late on in their story, as according to George Henry Bassett in The Kilkenny City and County Directory and Guide:

The outlook from it is into the yard of Messrs E Smithwick and Sons St Francis Abbey Brewery. In this yard many tablets originally belonging to the Abbey are set into the walls. The Abbey itself with a very choice fruit garden and cottage was sold a few years ago for 600 to the late Mr William Morrissey hardware merchant Mrs Mary Morrissey his widow is now in possession. She has had the floor of the chancel laid with a carpet of living green and takes great comfort in her proprietorship.

So it appears that in 1884 it was not owned by the brewery itself, nor was it part of it by my reading of the above, and indeed in a meeting of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland in 1868 there was concern for the condition of the tower and the following was said:

The ruins of the Abbey including the tower were possessed by a person who had not the means of doing anything to preserve them. Although they adjoined the Brewery of the Messrs Smithwick, unfortunately they did not belong to those gentlemen - if they did, no subscription would have been thought of, for the work would have been done at once without assistance from any other source. The Messrs Smithwick had most liberally headed the subscription list with a donation of £10, and would afford any facility and assistance in their power.

So, generous indeed but not the owner of the abbey...

(The Smithwick's brewery was closed by its then owners Guinness in 2013 with production moved to Dublin.)

[It is worth reading this post for further and expanded information on Smithwick's brewery and the claims regarding its founding date and the age of the current beers brands.]

-o-

There were plenty of other breweries in the city of course, such as St Mary's Brewery, Coal Market (now Parliament Street) ran by Robert Terry & Sons which he bought around 1862 and was up for sale again just two years later in 1864. What is interesting about this is that it lists all of the equipment in the brewery at the time of sale, such as an eight-horsepower steam engine, an O’Reilly’s large refrigerator, a sky cooler and fermenting squares, not to mention 600 casks.

The brewery was being sold by a Thomas Murphy in 1861 under the same name, having been recently renovated²⁰. As a curious aside James Stephens, a noted republican and founding member of the IRB, was thought to be hiding in the remains of the brewery in 1866 while on the run from the authorities^21. The brewery dated back to at least 1828, having been ran by a John Meighan until it was put up for sale in 1839²¹. 

There was also a substantial brewery at Newgate being sold as a going concern in 1837, which 'with an additional fermenting Tun' would be capable of producing 10,000 barrels a year²². An Edward Smith and James Innes are brewing 'Ales and Beer' there later in the year. It is called the New-Street Brewery at that time but is most likely the same location²⁶. The partnership was dissolved early the following year, with Smith carrying on the business on his own thereafter²⁷.

John Street also had a brewery at one time, where a Denis Cormack²⁴ - a surname that appears relatively often in connection with brewing or distilling - was in trouble for letting what was once a brewery, but had been converted into a distillery by this point, end up in a state of severe disrepair. It was described as a 'brewhouse, malthouse, mill and mill-race' when it was leased to a Henry McCreery and John Kinchela in 1786 by an Anthony Blunt's widow before eventually coming into the hands of Cormack via his father of the same name. A brewery in the possession of a Alexander Gray along with a malthouse was being let in 1823 near this location but may not have been the same premises²⁵.

There was an 'Old Brewery' in Irishtown being let in 1812 that had been in the possession of one William Brandish up until late that year, when he passed away²⁸.

Incidentally, according to Halpin⁴ there is a Kilkenny connection with two famous Dublin brewery names as John Brennan, a brewer in partnership with a Cormick⁵ in Pennyfeather Lane, who moved to Dublin when their brewery closed in 1841 and became manager in O’Connell’s Brewery. His son Charles later bought the business and it became the Phoenix Brewery.

Many of these premises can be seen on the older OSI maps for those who need to pinpoint them exactly, and this is my no means a complete or exhaustive list, but it gives a good indication of the level of brewing in the city in the past.

Liam K.

(I should point out that I am not a Kilkenny local and have relied purely on sources referenced above and cited below for this post, nor am I a historian so I would welcome clarification of any the issues, dates or comments made here. Please feel free to read any of the articles, newspaper clippings and other sources I reference and get back to me on any points.)

(Expanded 7/1/2020 & again on 27/10/22 & yet again on 14/5/2025)

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. Research was via my local library, The British Newspaper Archive, Google Books and other sources mentioned. PLEASE DON'T STEAL THIS CONTENT!

References:

¹ John Bradley, Irish Historic Towns Atlas, no. 10, Kilkenny. Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 2000 (www.ihta.ie), text, page 8.

² Finn’s Leinster Journal – 17/11/1821

³ Lucas’ Commercial Directory

⁴ ‘The Brewing Industry in Kilkenny’, T. B. Halpin, Old Kilkenny Review 1989, pages 583-591

⁵ Shearman’s Commercial Directory

⁶ Kilkenny People – 2/10/1897

⁷ Kilkenny People – 9/11/1895

⁸ Finn’s Leinster Journal – 20/1/1827

⁹ Finn’s Leinster Journal – 7/7/1827

¹⁰ Kilkenny People – 27/9/1985

¹¹ DAR - Section 2 Understanding the site History and Chronology - Draft Masterplan for Abbey Creative Quarter (Former Smithwick’s Brewery and Bateman Quay/Market Yard area)

¹² The Tuam Herald - 10/7/1897

¹³ Saunders's News-Letter - Thursday 9th of March 1815

¹⁴ Kilkenny Moderator - Wednesday 27th of October 1880

¹⁵ Freeman's Journal - Thursday 7th of June 1877

¹⁶ Kilkenny Moderator - Saturday 3rd of October 1896

¹⁷ Carlow Sentinel - Saturday 25th of October 1919

¹⁸ Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Saturday 9th of April 1859

¹⁹ Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Saturday 16th of April 1859

²⁰ Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Wednesday 6th of February 1861

²¹ Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Wednesday 10th of January 1866

²² Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Saturday 8th of June 1839

²³ Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Saturday 11th of March 1837

²⁴ Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Saturday 1st of August 1846

²⁵ Dublin Evening Post - Saturday 30th of August 1823

²⁶ Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Wednesday 27th of September 1837

²⁷ Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Wednesday 10th of January 1838

²⁸ Kilkenny Journal and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Saturday 9th of May 1964