Great Northern Brewery, Dundalk

Infobox Brewery
name = The Great Northern Brewery


caption = The Great Northern Brewery, Carrick Road, Dundalk
location = flagicon|IrelandDundalk, Ireland
owner = Diageo
opened = 1846
active_beers = brewbox_beer|name=Harp Lager|style=Pale Lager brewbox_beer|name=Smithwick's Ale|style=Irish Red Ale brewbox_beer|name=Carlsberg|style=Pale Lager brewbox_beer|name=Satzenbrau|style=Pilsner brewbox_beer|name=Warsteiner|style=Pale Lager brewbox_beer|name=Tuborg|style=Pale Lager
seasonal_beers =
other_beers = The Great Northern Brewery, on the Carrick Road, Dundalk is an Irish brewery home to Harp Lager.

History

The Great Northern Brewery in Dundalk, Ireland is the second largest brewery in Ireland after St James’s Gate Brewery.

Diageo’s association with brewing in Dundalk dates back to the late 1950s, when what was then the Great Northern Brewery was bought by Smithwick’s Ale of Kilkenny and subsequently by Guinness.

Up until 1960, the brewery had produced stout and ale. However, in response to an increased demand for lager at that time, Guinness converted the brewery into a modern lager operation. [ [http://books.google.ie/books?id=QqnvNsgas20C&pg=PA616&lpg=PA616&dq=great+northern+brewery+dundalk&source=web&ots=b51SfR1RAO&sig=jBrtvYFyseLO54ndwD1pe7WNvaw&hl=en#PPA616,M1 A History of Beer and Brewing By Ian Spencer Hornsey, Royal Society of Chemistry (Great Britain)] ] Working with German master brewer, Dr Hermann Muender, and local ingredients, Harp Lager was created. [ [http://www.diageo.ie/Company/Brewing/Dundalk/CompanyBrewingDundalk Brewing in Dundalk – Diageo Ireland ] ]

Harp Lager

Harp Lager was first produced in 1960 in the Dundalk Brewery as a bottled beer, in response to the trend among drinkers in Britain and Ireland toward continental lager. By 1961 it was brewed under an alliance of the brewing companies, Courage, Barclay & Simonds, Scottish & Newcastle, Bass, Mitchells, & Butlers and Guinness. These companies grouped together under the name of the Harp Lager Ltd. consortium. By 1964 it was also being sold on draught. Members of the Harp consortium changed over the years, with Courage and Scottish & Newcastle leaving in 1979 but becoming franchisees.

Dr. Hermann Muendar, a German "Braumeister" (master brewer) was chosen to manage the new venture. He was suited to the task, having gained considerable experience supervising and directing the re-building of war damaged breweries in the Ruhr area of Germany. And so Harp Lager was born, with the Brian Boru Harp as it emblem.

Marketing

Harp Lager has a long history of sponsoring major sports teams and events in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, including Dundalk FC (from the mid-1980s to the beginning of this century), the Belfast Giants [ [http://www.ifsgroup.com/news/news_giants.htm Harp Lager Belfast Giants] ] ice hockey team (since replaced as sponsors by Coors) and the FAI Cup.

In 2005 Harp saw a makeover, Diageo Ireland separated the brand from Guinness and gave it a new look, with new advertisements appearing on TV [ [http://www.businesseye.co.uk/stories/?issueid=27&storyid=117 Harp Lager Relaunch September 2005] ] . Ironically there is no longer an actual Harp on the design of the new tins and bottles. US and Canadian sold bottles still bear the Harp logo (as of 2007).

Expansion

Within 12 months of launch in 1960, Harp had become an established brand throughout Ireland. A year later it was launched nationwide in Britain. This success meant that the brewery’s capacity had to be expanded to meet demand.

Today, the brewery has extensive facilities and it produces and packs a collection of beers and ales, including Harp Lager, Smithwick's Ale, Satzenbrau Pils, Carlsberg and Warsteiner. Some 80 people are employed across a range of disciplines including production, supply, customer service, technical and quality control. [ [http://www.diageo.ie/Company/Brewing/Dundalk/CompanyBrewingDundalk Brewing in Dundalk – Diageo Ireland ] ] In recent years there has been substantial investment which has seen the addition of:

* A new brewhouse
* Additional fermentation vessels
* A pall filtration plant
* A carbonation/nitrogenation plant in the existing filtration centre.

Closure

On the 9th of may 2008, Diageo announced that the brewery, along with its Kilkenny plant, would be closed by 2013 with operations moving to either St. James's Gate or a new brewery to be built near Dublin [ [http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0509/guinness.html RTE news: closure of two Diageo breweries] ] .

Gallery

References

External links

* [http://www.hoganstand.com/general/Identity/extras/heritage/stories/brewing.htm/ History of Brewing in Dundalk]
* [http://www.diageo.ie/Company/Brewing/Dundalk/CompanyBrewingDundalk/ Official Diageo Page]