Beamish & Crawford was a famous porter brewer in Cork, Ireland. The brewery closed in 2009. Beamish stout is now brewed at Heineken’s ex-Murphy stout plant in the same city.
In 1950 Beamish made a determined push in the American market. Read the background in an advertorial-style piece that year in the Irish-American Advocate, a long-running New York weekly that closed decades ago.
In the article, Beamish reviewed the current brewing range:
At present four types of Stout are brewed:
A Porter for consumption “on draught” in Ireland.“XXX” Stout for consumption “on draught” and in bottle for Ireland and in bottle for the United Kingdom.“Knuckleduster”—a stronger stout for consumption in bottle for the United Kingdom.“Foreign Extra”—a still stronger and well matured stout, in bottle, for export to all countries abroad, including, of course, the U.S.A.And so, with progress and expansion, the aim of those who guide the destinies of the Company to-day, Cork men and Irishmen, will have reason to continue to feel justly proud of this Brewery they have known for generations …
Of these beers, it appears only the Foreign Extra was sent to New York. A fine image of the modern-sounding Knuckleduster label appears at the BestBeerStuff t-shirt and apparel site.
This four-cornered brewing strategy, with gravities rising from four to eight per cent ABV (approximately), was followed by Guinness, too, Beamish’s “bigger brother”. See e.g. Ron Pattinson’s tabular data here, and Jess Kidden’s survey of Guinness’ ca. 1950 marketing. Kidden included the following helpful Guinness summary:
In the 1940s* Guinness bought a brewery in Long Island, New York, the E. & J. Burke Brewery. Purpose: to brew Guinness stout domestically. Burke had been the venerable distributor for Guinness in America, starting in the 1800s.
The Stateside-based Burkes finally went into brewing for themselves, shortly after Prohibition. A Burke Ale in 1934, and Burke Stout in 1938 (see Kidden timeline) were marketed in New York. A 1934 ad for Burke ale touted its “winter ale” qualities, suggesting a robust beer of the stock type.
A 1938 ad in the Advocate depicted a tall bottle of Burke stout with an “auld sod” label. It promised a traditional, “dry” flavour. By 1949 Guinness had purchased the Burke brewery and was brewing Guinness Extra Stout there, ceasing finally all production of Burke stout.
Why would Beamish choose this time to expand in the U.S. market, when Guinness was making a determined effort to brew stout locally?
Inferentially because Beamish could market itself as truly Irish, given its beer was still made in Ireland. This is confirmed by its advertising. On the same page as the advertorial a Beamish box ad included “Imported” in prominent type. Other wording in the ad placed further emphasis on the Irish origins.
The message to the intended market was, Guinness in America was no longer quite so Irish as in the past. For a time after Guinness started brewing on Long Island it still imported Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, but soon stopped that to avoid confusion in the market. See David Hughes’ discussion in his book “A Bottle of Guinness Please”.
In 1952 Guinness was sued for anti-trust violation by Dublin Distributors, Inc. (DDI), a local business. DDI for years had been a sub-distributor for Burke, thus obtaining its supplies from Burke, later Guinness-Burke, and wholesaling the beers through the New York area.
But DDI had also agreed to represent Beamish, for its push in New York. DDI argued some customers wanted an all-Irish stout. Guinness, trying to protect its domestic business, understandably didn’t want that competition, and terminated DDI’s distribution of Long Island-made stout.
It appears the litigation was resolved on the basis DDI could distribute Irish-brewed Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, the type historically imported by Burke, but not locally-brewed Guinness Extra Stout. Some years ago I believe I saw a news item confirming this but cannot locate it now.
If this deal did result, with a dual Guinness product once again in the market Guinness’ market profile became muddied once more. For his part, David Hughes attributed the failure of Guinness in Long Island to the beer made there: too strong and sweet, he wrote.
He noted Guinness did make adjustments to the brewing in the early 1950s, but it seemed not to have helped.
By the mid-1950s Beamish and Guinness are duking it out for the small, mostly ethnic stout market in the U.S. In that period an interesting news item in the Advocate listed a series of Irish products promoted in New York by the Irish Export Board.
Both Beamish and Guinness stouts were featured, plus food and other items. (A marmalade maker, Lamb’s, featured a coarse-cut peel version aged seven months, to lend a “winey” flavour. Sounds good).
By the early 1960s Guinness has bought out DDI. But this was years after closing its Long Island brewery. Would Guinness have succeeded with U.S.-made stout if Beamish had not made a determined pitch for the American market, or if DDI had not launched its lawsuit? Or was the product just wrong, as David Hughes argued?
Guinness in recent years has re-established a brewery in America, near Baltimore.** It produces lager but not the classic Guinness stouts.*** The Long Island experience was probably telling in this regard, although I am not so sure it would be a mistake to brew Guinness in America again.
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*Hughes says 1943.
**Note added in April 2023: earlier this month Guinness announced the production brewery near Baltimore will close. It appears the bar and small experimental brewery there, called Open Gate, will continue, and a new Open Gate will still open soon in Chicago as planned.
***It had brewed a draft milk stout at Baltimore Open Gate, and other experimental types.