A FAMOUS BREWERY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11127, 16 November 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

A FAMOUS BREWERY.

Among the places of interest visited by Mr R. M. Birrell during his stay m Ireland was Guinness's brewery, m" Dublin. This business was founded m 1759 by ancestors of the Guinness family. For nearly 70 years the business was entirely local, and then it was extended until the name of Guinness became known m all quarters of the globe. Mr Birrell obtained some interesting particulars of the way m which the business has increased. The amount sold m 1906 was 27 times as much as m 1840. The water used for brewing and cooling purposes is as much as 591 million gallons a year. The brewery' is composed of three levels, upper, middle, and lower, and the upper being on the south side of the street and the middle and lower on tho north side, communication being made by two tunnels under the street. The railway tunnel is on the corkscrew principle, owing t° the gradient of 1 m 39, and a drop of 25 feet, and makes two circles under the other before crossing the road. The passenger tunnel is approached by a flight of steps, and is perfectly straight. In the racking room the stout, which has flowed all the way from the upper level m pipes is filled into casks. There are nine retorts, capable of racking 12,000 casks m a day of eight hours, and fitted with a simple arrangement by which the man m charge can tell at a glance when each cask is filled. The area of the brewery covers fifty acres. A year's supply of raw material for the brewery requires the cultivation of 130,000 acres of. barley and 7000 acres of hops. The sales are equivalent to 76,540,000 gallons m. a year. The sum paid m excise duty m a year amounts to nearly a million pounds, more than twice the amount paid by the next largest brewery m the United Kingdom. The number of staff and employes is 3240. The number of bottle labels issued daily (about 3in m length) would, if put end to end, reach across the Irish Channel from Kingstown to Holyhead, and the total amount issued m 1906 would stretch three-quarters of the way round the world. ' ■"