Guinness has ramped up production of the black stuff at its Dublin brewery as it prepares for pubs in Britain and Ireland to reopen.
At the start of the lockdown in Ireland, Guinness reduced operations at its famous St James’s Gate brewery to the minimal level required to keep yeast stocks alive.
It was the first time that had happened since the 1916 Easter Rising rebellion in the city.
Hundreds of thousands of unused kegs of the stout were taken back from shuttered bars and repurposed to fertilise Christmas tree plantations as part of the brewery’s forestry commitments.
Now production has been stepped up once again as pubs and bars across Ireland, the UK and beyond prepare to start welcoming customers back.
Four and half gallon kegs are filled up with beer at the St James’s Gate Guinness brewery in Dublin as production ramps up in preparation for bars re-opening in the UK and Ireland. At the start of the lockdown in Ireland, Guinness reduced operations at its famous St James’s Gate brewery to the minimal level required to keep yeast stocks alive. It was the first time that had happened since the 1916 Easter Rising rebellion in the city.
Kegs of Guinness are stacked ready for distribution at the St James’s Gate Guinness brewery in Dublin as production ramps up in preparation for bars re-opening in the UK and Ireland. Hundreds of thousands of unused kegs of the stout were taken back from shuttered bars and repurposed to fertilise Christmas tree plantations as part of the brewery’s forestry commitments.
Mariusz Brzyk assistant manager of Paddy Cullens pub in Dublin takes delivery of fresh Guinness as bars across Ireland in preparation for bars re-opening in the UK and Ireland. Anticipating the challenges the drinks industry is set to encounter in the era of social distancing, Guinness owner Diageo has announced an £80 million ‘Raising the Bar’ fund to help pubs pay for new hygiene and safety measures – £13 million of which is being made available on the island of Ireland.
Anticipating the challenges the drinks industry is set to encounter in the era of social distancing, Guinness owner Diageo has announced an £80 million ‘Raising the Bar’ fund to help pubs pay for new hygiene and safety measures – £13 million of which is being made available on the island of Ireland.
The PA news agency has been behind the scenes at St James’s Gate to witnesses the scaling up of operations.
Aidan Crowe, the director of operations at the brewery, said Guinness decided in the early days of lockdown to support its on-trade customers by retrieving the kegs that were set to go undrunk due to the closure of hospitality outlets.
‘It’s been a tough time in the brewery but it’s been a much tougher time if you’re trying to run on-trade outlets in this part of the world,’ he told PA.
‘That’s why it was very, very important right from the start of the lockdown to support the on-trade as much as we could. That’s why we took the decision to bring back all of the beer from the on-trade.’
Steve Gilson checks on the progress of a brewing vat at the St James’s Gate Guinness brewery in Dublin as production ramps up in preparation for bars re-opening in the UK and Ireland. Aidan Crowe, the director of operations at the brewery, said Guinness decided in the early days of lockdown to support its on-trade customers by retrieving the kegs that were set to go undrunk due to the closure of hospitality outlets.
Guinness delivery trucks at the St James’s Gate Guinness brewery in Dublin as production ramps up in preparation for bars re-opening in the UK and Ireland
Aidan Crowe, Director of Operations at at the St James’s Gate Guinness brewery in Dublin as production ramps up in preparation for bars re-opening in the UK and Ireland. Asked how many litres had been returned, Mr Crowe said: ‘You’d probably make me cry if I started to add it all up, but it’s hundreds of thousands of kegs and we’ve still got some products to decant and we’ve still got some markets that haven’t finished returning their beer to us. So a lot of beer and a lot of kegs.’
He added: ‘Basically what we do is we take all the keg beer back and we decant it and we disperse the product through a number of environmentally sustainable routes.
‘The vast majority of the beer goes to willow and Christmas tree plantations, it’s used as nutrients in those farms.
‘We’ve also diverted some product through to anaerobic digesters, where it produces a bio-gas.
‘Actually, we’re quite optimistic that, in the long term, that bio-gas can be a suitable fuel source for us to use here in the brewery.
‘And then we’ve also diverted some of the product for composting.
‘So it’s an unprecedented problem for us to have and we wanted to ensure that in terms of how we manage that and manage the beer it was environmentally sustainable, because that’s so critically important, not just for our business, but obviously for the country as a whole as well.’
Logistics Manager Colin Griffey with Kegs of Guinness stacked ready for distribution at the St James’s Gate Guinness brewery in Dublin as production ramps up in preparation for bars re-opening in the UK and Ireland
A truck filled with kegs of Guinness leaving the St James’s Gate Guinness brewery in Dublin as production ramps up in preparation for bars re-opening in the UK and Ireland
Four and half gallon kegs are filled up with beer by special machines at the St James’s Gate Guinness brewery in Dublin as production ramps up in preparation for bars re-opening in the UK and Ireland
Asked how many litres had been returned, Mr Crowe said: ‘You’d probably make me cry if I started to add it all up, but it’s hundreds of thousands of kegs and we’ve still got some products to decant and we’ve still got some markets that haven’t finished returning their beer to us. So a lot of beer and a lot of kegs.’
The main brew house at St James’s Gate produces 7.2 million hectolitres (720 million litres) a year.
That amounts to 39 pints a second all year round.
Ordinarily, St James’s brews 2.5 million pints of Guinness every day and 1.5 million pints of other beer and stout.
But all that was scaled back in the last two weeks of March and first week of April.
‘Our biggest job really over that period of time was just managing what was an unprecedented downturn,’ said Mr Crowe.
‘Probably going back to 1916, actually, is the last time we had such a dramatic short-term change.
Beer taster Stephen mulligan tests the quality of batches of Guinness as production ramps up in preparation for bars re-opening in the UK and Ireland at the St James’s Gate Guinness brewery in Dublin
Beer taster Stephen mulligan fills out a form on batches of Guinness as part of the quality control which takes place at the world famous brewery in Dublin
‘Now, thankfully, we’re on the other side of that, we’re ramping up very, very strongly through the months of June and July.’
St James’s Gate’s three largest markets are Great Britain, Ireland and North America but overall it distributes to 130 countries worldwide.
All stout, beer and ale produced at the height of lockdown was used only for canned products.
So while the kegging operation at St James’s Gate ground to a near halt, canning and bottle operations in Belfast and Runcorn actually stepped up production, to meet the added demand from the off-sales trade.
A worker places lids on four and a half gallon kegs of Guinness at the St James’s Gate Guinness brewery in Dublin
Kegs of Guinness stacked ready for distribution at the St James’s Gate Guinness brewery in Dublin as production ramps up in preparation for bars re-opening in the UK and Ireland
Mariusz Brzyk assistant manager of Paddy Cullens pub in Dublin hands over a fresh pint of stout after taking a new delivery of Guinness as bars across Ireland in preparation for bars re-opening in the UK and Ireland
Mr Crowe said the biggest challenge the brewery now faces is the uncertainty about what demand will look like in the first few months of eased restrictions.
‘We’ve got to be prepared for different eventualities,’ he said.
‘If it’s slower than we expect, we’ve got to be ready for that. If it’s significantly busier than we expect, we’ve got to be ready for that too. And we are ready, we will be ready.
‘It’s a much nicer set of challenges to be trying to manage than the challenges that we had back in March when everything was being ramped down.’