Tuesday, May 13, 2008

My Goodness... My Guinness

Looks like the Guinness we drink may no longer be made at the same ancient St. James Gate Brewery. Actually I'm not sure I follow the article... is the new brewery solely intended to supply the UK and Ireland? Think we'll notice a difference?

Click on the tittle to read the article.

4 comments:

  1. Hmm - they always say that the closer you get to the brewery the better the Guinness is - wonder how this will play in. It sounds like Guinness may already be brewed worldwide.. although the article is a bit hard to understand.

    When I visited Ireland a few years ago we toured the St. James' Gate brewery. Unlike the Coors tour, you don't actually go into the actual brewery, but into an out of commission brewery, which is closer to a museum than anything else. The tour ended at the top of the brewery in a glass-walled pub with a birds eye view of Dublin and pints of the freshest Guinness in the world. Delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This isn't just to reduce the workforce down to 250...developable land anywhere arpund Dublin is worth top, top dollar. The St. James' Gate site is smack in the city centre and will demand unbelievable prices. I'd imagine that despite this restructure costing 600million they easy make a profit after the site is turned into tiny box flats.
    You never know...i may be renting one soon!

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's true, the only breweries that produce "true" Guinness are, St. James and I guess now Waterford. As for the remainder of us on the globe, our Guinness is made from a malted extract produced now from these two places. It is a larger scale comparison of a homebrew kit to brewing with whole grain.

    If what Andy said is feasible, it would make sense. I know most of you don't follow the market of hops and grain, but right now there is a massive worldwide shortage of brewing grains and more importantly , Hops.

    Due to bad weather in the western US and an unseasonal freeze in Europe, most of the hop crops were lost. The prices have spiked as much as 8x. Breweries are using alternatives, less hops, less grain, more rice and corn. According to the brewmaster at Barley's, some smaller breweries are having to band together to get hop orders. The larger breweries suck up so much of the crop that there is little left.

    For us home-brewers it means a batch that once cost $20, could now be north of $60. It's no longer more cost effective, but the beer is still way better.

    As for the Guinness thing, I'm sure none of us will notice a thing.



    P.S. - Support your local brewery!!! For those of you in Grandview, GO TO BARLEY'S!!! Try a pint of Nitro Joe.

    ReplyDelete
  4. If I remember correctly from the tour, Guinness sold in North America is brewed somewhere in the Caribbean. Not that it tastes bad here, but the fresh stuff is much better across the pond.

    At the end of the tour your ticket allows you a free pint, a full pint for the guys, a half-pint for the ladies. Ladies like Karen, who was 15 at the time.

    ReplyDelete