Our Story

Guinness marks half a century of brewing beer in Malaysia with three beautifully conceived, limited-edition designs for Foreign Extra Stout, inspired by the country’s vibrant culture and history.

Guinness launches the Brewers Project, based at the brand new Pilot Brewery at St. James’s Gate. This select group of enterprising brewers is set on a quest to explore new brews, reinterpret historic recipes and experiment with ways to bring exciting new beers to life.

Guinness marks 250 years of innovative brewing with an entire year of firsts, including a retrospective campaign that pays homage to 80 years of Guinness advertising and a spectacular live TV commercial. Arthur’s Day celebrations kick off a remarkable worldwide toast – joined by 50 million people – and a €2.5 million Arthur Guinness Fund is launched, created to empower social entrepreneurs across Ireland.

We take our revolutionary widget technology a step further to bring you Guinness Draught… in a bottle.

The Guinness® Rocket Widget is awarded the Queen’s Award for Technological Achievement, beating the Internet to be voted by Britons as the best invention of the previous 40 years.

The launch of the Pure Genius Campaign – including the 'Man with the Guinness' TV commercials – ushers in another wave of creative expression.

Fusing over two centuries of brewing heritage and innovation, our Nitro IPA is born. Everything you’d want from an IPA blended with everything you’d expect from Guinness, it features a unique blend of carbon dioxide and nitrogen to balance out the profusion of hop flavours.

A new campaign heralds the start of another chapter in our considered and courageous advertising legacy, championing a life ‘made of more’ and celebrating the attitude shared by Guinness brewers and drinkers alike.

A former fermentation plant at the St. James’s Gate Brewery is transformed into a seven-storey interactive experience bringing the story of world-famous stout to life. The Guinness Storehouse® opens its doors to the public and becomes the official home of Guinness in the historic heart of Dublin.

The launch of our iconic ‘Good Things Come to Those Who Wait’ campaign.

The ever-inventive brains at Guinness dream up the first ever widget, which nitrogenates canned Guinness so it retains its smooth and creamy taste.

Nigeria becomes the first country outside the UK and Ireland to brew its own Guinness: the beginnings of a brand new brewing heritage.

Marking 200 years of brewing success with typical Guinness flair, the company drops 150,000 embossed bottles into the Atlantic Ocean from 38 different ships over a period of six weeks. The bottles contain some unusual documents, namely a colourful certificate from ‘the Office of King Neptune’, a booklet recounting the story of Guinness, a special gold-coloured Guinness Stout label and even instructions on how to turn the bottle into a table lamp.

A history of imaginative advertising begins here. The first press advertisement for Guinness appears featuring the slogan ‘Guinness is Good for You’. Following its success, Guinness enlists gifted landscape artist and portrait painter John Gilroy to bring to life two groundbreaking, long-running campaigns: ‘Guinness is Good for You’ and ‘My Goodness, My Guinness’. The latter features a menagerie of zoo animals, including the now-famous Guinness toucan.

We become the first brewer to employ scientists to help us create the perfect beer. Michael Ash is one such man – he invents Guinness Draught’s distinctive ‘surge and settle’ effect and the world’s first nitro beer. And with a skilful pairing of nitrogen gas and carbon dioxide, Guinness Draught is born. Distinguished by its velvet-smooth texture and legendary stormy surge upon pouring, Guinness Draught brews up a storm all of its own by establishing itself as the top-selling Guinness beer with lightning speed.

Guinness has always been about beer and people, and WWII is no exception. All British Troops in the British Expeditionary Force in France receive a bottle of Guinness to accompany their Christmas dinner.

Guinness hires a university science graduate for the very first time. The appointment of Oxford-educated Thomas Bennett Case heralds the beginning of a new wave of innovation at St. James’s Gate.

The company commissions a brand new fleet of custom-designed Guinness barges to transport its precious cargo along Ireland’s River Liffey.

The famous buff Guinness trademark label is introduced, bearing three devices: Arthur’s signature, our legendary harp symbol and the Guinness name.

Given the perils of early sea crossings, at this point in time, most Irish breweries are satisfied with domestic sales. Not Guinness. By 1858, their beer is already being exported as far as New Zealand.

A dark beer from London – called ‘porter’ due to its popularity with the city’s street and river porters – is becoming ever more popular in Dublin. Never one to play it safe, Arthur makes the courageous choice to stop brewing ales and concentrate on perfecting his bold, black beer.

Fortune favours the brave: Arthur brews his first West India Porter, a precursor to the Guinness Foreign Extra Stout enjoyed all over the world today.

On the 31st of December 1759, Arthur signs a 9000-year lease on a small, disused and ill-equipped property at St. James’s Gate and starts to brew ale.

At 34, Arthur decides to try his luck in the country’s capital. A floundering brewing industry makes this no easy task, but – true to form – Arthur is undeterred.

Arthur Guinness is born in Celbridge, County Kildare.