Brewed at St. James’s Gate in Dublin since 1759, Guinness has been around long before trains, planes and automobiles were used to ship cargo to its destination. But of course, the casks needed to get to the ale house, so transport has always been a huge part of Guinness’ story.
Whether bringing vital equipment and raw materials to the brewery at St James Gate or sending the final product out to customers all over Dublin, Ireland, and the world, transport solutions and logistics are (almost) as inherent to our journey as the hops in our stout.
So, how did we do it? Hop aboard and grab a seat while we transport you through the journey of our transport history.
Before everything else, there were the Guinness horses. From 1759, Guinness was transported from the brewery on horse-drawn drays. The team of Guinness horses were big, working breeds like Clydesdales and Percherons - strong draft horses that could pull at least their weight in stout! They worked in pairs and were often named in pairs (Thunder and Lightning, Pride and Prejudice, to name a few).
When the Grand Canal finally connected Dublin’s River Liffey to the Shannon in the late 18th Century, those horses began to pull barges of stout from the north of Ireland to the south, via our waterways. They were also able to pull the casks to Dublin Port, for overseas shipping…
The 19th century saw Guinness’s export trade boom, where it gained huge popularity in our neighbouring Great Britain but also such far-reaching destinations as Barbados, Sierra Leone, and New York. We began to brew a special new type of porter that became known as Foreign Extra Stout, higher in alcohol and hop content to help it withstand long sea voyages and arrive at its destination in a drinkable condition.
By now, horsepower still dominated our more local deliveries, but things were getting a bit busy for our fillies to manage. Our growing production required more robust systems, and our horses needed to be able to put up their hooves and have a rest.
In 1873, the brewery doubled its size after purchasing new land across the road from the initial brewery site. By 1877, we had completed an internal narrow-gauge railway consisting of eight miles of track to efficiently move materials and casks across our now 64-acre site. This railway initially used steam locomotives. In the same year, we also commissioned a fleet of steam-powered barges, all named after Irish rivers, to ferry an ever-increasing number of casks from a jetty on the Liffey to Dublin Port. By 1886, Guinness had become the world’s biggest beer brewery. By 1900, our sales hit 1.2 million barrels, with ships carrying Guinness to Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
We commissioned shipping companies to export our products overseas since we began exporting in 1796, but as our business grew, it became clearer that the best course of action was to navigate the seas on our own boats. We purchased the S.S. W.M. Barkley in 1913, the first of nine ships acquired prior to 1977.
The S.S. W.M. Barkley was torpedoed during WW1, an incident that resulted in the loss of five crew members (nine were saved). The rest of our fleet had a long and successful stint on the high seas. We used our fleet in the early 1990’s, when better quality control and efficiency saw our shipping era phased out, and our ships were replaced with transportable tanks.
The Miranda and Patricia were the last two ships in the Guinness fleet. They were decommissioned and sailed out of Dublin’s fair city for the last time in 1993.
Things are a little different these days.With our commitment to maintaining sustainable and eco-friendly practices, we have moved to electric vehicles where we can. In 2022 we introduced twenty electric vehicles, including 15 vans and four electric keg trucks!
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Our transportation journey mirrors our growth as a company. From horses and barges to steam, then diesel, and now electric vehicles, we’ve always been looking ahead for a better way to bring our pints to the people.
Come to see us at the Guinness Storehouse and you can explore that fascinating history in our Transport Exhibition, where we tell the story of how we’ve kept the pints flowing over the years, no matter the distance.