Irish breweries history

last day of December a determined young man named Arthur Guinness rode through the gate of an old, dilapidated ill equipped brewery sited on a small strip of land on Dublins Jamess Street. He had just signed a lease on the property. His friends shook their heads in disbelief. For ten years, Mark Rainsfords Ale Brewery had been on the Market and nobody had shown any interest in it. The Street was already festooned with similar small breweries, all attracted to this spot by a good supply of water.
Throughout the city of Dublin there were about breweries at that time, all, it must be assumed, small. Mr. Guinness newly aquired brewery was no more than average. But Arthur was about to change all of that. He was thirty four years old. At that time, beer was almost unknown in rural Ireland where whiskey, gin and poteen were the alcoholic drinks most readily available. In spite of this and the poor quality of beer avaliable in larger centers link Dublin, it was recognised, paradoxically, that brewing although constantly under threat from imports was probably the most prosperous of the very few industries in Ireland at that time.
In addition to ales, Arthur Guinness brewed a beer relatively new to Ireland that contained roasted barley which gave it a characteristically dark colour. This brew became known as porter so named because of its popularity with the porters and stevedores of Covent Garden and Billingsgate in London. Porter had been developed in London some years earlier and was imported into Dublin to the detriment of local brews. Arthur Guinness finally had to choose between porter or the traditional Dublin ales.
Deciding to tackle the English brewers at their own game, Arthur tried his hand at porter. He brewed the deep, rich beverage so well that he eventually ousted all imports from the Irish market, captured a share of the English trade and revolutionised the brewing industry. The word Stout was added in the early as an adjective, qualifying the noun porter. An extra stout porter was a stronger and more full bodied variety. Stout evolved as a noun in its own right, as did the family name of Guinness. Guinness Stout was available abroad, and Guinness St. Jamess Gate Brewery was the largest in Ireland. the annual production of Guinness brewed had surpassed one million barrels a year and by St. Jamess Gate was the world's largest brewery.