A 9,000 year lease

Mondo Social Updated on 2024-02-01

Speaking of which, Guinness started with £100. He rented a brewery in the small town of Lexlip, 17 kilometres west of Dublin, and five years later set up his own brewery in Dublin, located on St James's Gate Street in the heart of the city, a name that we can now see on the front of the beer cans in Guinness.

Factory rent is £45 per year. But the founder thinks more long-term, and in addition to himself, he also thinks about his sons, grandchildren, and beyond his descendants. The final lease was signed for a period of 9,000 years. He has not been forgotten by his descendants, and the signature of Arthur Guinness can still be seen on Guinness vasks today. Arthur Guinness is a shrewd businessman as you can see from the signing of the lease, and this characteristic is also reflected in the beer he produces.

At the end of the 18th century, the tax levied on beer in England was calculated by the amount of malt in its raw materials, and the more malt, the more tax paid. So Arthur Guinness changed the 5% black malt to a direct roast of non-malted barley. This was supposed to be a reasonable way to avoid taxes, but I didn't expect it to be a big success. Unmalted barley gives a different effect on the palate, as it is rich and creamy even at low concentrations of beer.

It is because of this innovation that in just 10 years, Guinness has gone from an obscure and featureless Porter Distillery to the largest brewery in Ireland, and even by 1886 Guinness had spread all over Europe, and there were small pubs with only ** Guinness beer, each one overcrowded.

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