Diageo to close St. James Gate? (Guinness)

[Kevin B]

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/brea...

Not that any Guiness here in the U.S. comes from there. I personally don't think it will happen. The brewery is the #1 tourist destination in Ireland so I would like to believe that the government will declare it a landmark if Diageo appears to be moving ahead with development of the site.

[Jim Dorsch]

AFAIK all draught Guinness in the US comes from the St James's Gate brewery.

[LStaff]

Is it really, or has Guinness been trying to pull the wool over our eyes? Despite their representatives claims that draft Guinness is brewed to completion in Ireland, I find it very hard to believe that they ship extract to 45 countries around the world but the US is getting a finished keg product that has been shipped across the atlantic.

[JessKidden]

So, is the US Gov't (in form of both the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau of the Dept. of the Treasury [which regulates labeling of beer] and Homeland Security [which inspects imports]), the ocean freight companies, the trucking companies, the longshoremen, the truck dock workers and the Canadian brewery workers (who put the "Brewed in Ireland" labels on the Guinness Daught kegs, cans and bottles) all in on this scam?

"Here's some free Guinness T-Shirts and Pint Glasses, boys, just keep your traps shut..."

There's no doubt that Diageo is "vague" about the origin of Guinness Extra Stout sold in the US on their website (when I sent them an e-mail for specifics they said that "GES in the US *can* be brewed in Canada..." Huh?), the labels of both GES and GD (in the US) are pretty clear- GES=Canada, GD=Ireland.

It does amaze me that such a common, rather mundane family of beers has such a history of myth, urban legend and controversy behind it.

[LStaff]

OK, so where can I go see the same info from those Federal depts., freight companies, etc that you have seen? And where can I contact all those brewery workers you have contacted? Maybe they promised to give them all those free Guinness towels that some people never got to keep quiet? ;-)

I will concede that there is no keg label in the COLA database for Guinness that says brewed in Canada. All the keg labels say BEER PRODUCT OF IRELAND (that word product is curious) and brewed in Ireland, by Guinness, St. James Gate etc. But are they allowed to say that if it was partially made in Ireland? It does seem like kegged Guinness is really brewed in Ireland, but I will never stop questioning that fact.

C'mon now, how can you be not be surprised that there is so much myth, urban legend, and controversy of the origins of Guinness in this country? When you brew so many different versions, ship extract to 45 other countries, put together some product in Canada so you can still call it imported in the US, it seems quite logical to question the origin of their product. Throw the conglomerate penny pinchers called Diago into the mix and I have no faith or trust in what their PR reps say and instead start to follow the money trail - and when relpies to specific inquiries are written vaguely enough to cover all their positions, it makes you go hmmmm...

[therev]

The fact of the matter is all Draught (cans, bottles, kegs) is brewed at St. James Gate. The extra stout, due to its carbonation as opposed to the draught being infused with nitrogen, is cheaper and easier to produce in N. America.

[Loren3]

Not to sound snarky, but where is this "fact of the matter" published? It seems that if the parent company were proud of that fact, it would be more prominently displayed, elminating all doubt. Instead, it's couched in vagaries. For example, their US website says of St. James Gate "it’s still our spiritual home". It does not say that they still brew it there. Their map of the world claims that the Guiness available on tap in the US come straight from their Dublin headquarters. Not canned, not bottled, just tap. And not St. James Gate, just Dublin Headquarters.

You could liken it to Sam Adams, "Boston" lager. Where in the US can you buy a bottle or keg of it that was actually brewed in Boston? Does it matter to its fan base? No.

But in the end, why do we care? Guiness fans (of which I am not one) love the stuff, and it seems to taste just fine, so I guess it really doesn't matter where it's brewed.

Enjoy it!