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Guinness to take in giant beer vessels

Tuesday, February 19 10:33:10

Diageo Ireland today took in the first delivery of ten new giant brewing vessels for St. James Gate, which between them can brew up 40 million pints a week.

The enormous brewing vessels which are up to 85ft in length and up to 28 tonnes each in weight arrived in Dun Laoghaire Harbour on Sunday evening after being shipped from Menen in Belgium via Rotterdam.

Once erected, the largest of the vessels will be capable of holding just under one million pints at a single time.

The arrival of the vessels is part of the E153 expansion and re-development of the St. James's Gate Brewery. Construction of the project started in early summer 2012 and the plant will start producing beer in June 2013.

The brewing vessels will be unloaded by crane at the pier in Dun Laoghaire Harbour and will remain there until they are transported in convoy towards St. James Gate in the early hours of Wednesday 27th February when traffic is lightest.

Diageo are working along with Dublin City Council and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to minimise any disruptions.

This is the first of three such deliveries of twenty-seven brewing vessels in total which will take place over the remainder of February and early March. At its full length, the convoy from Dun Laoghaire Harbour to St. James Gate will measure about 300 metres long and will move at an average speed of 4 - 6km per hour.

Paul Armstrong, Supply Chain Director at Diageo Europe Beer Supply, who is leading the project said: "The arrival of these vessels symbolises that the long term future of brewing in the heart of Dublin is secure for the next generation. The new vessels will be partly responsible for brewing 40,000,000 pints of stout and beer each week, most of which will be exported to markets across the world. The scale and size of the vessels underscores the role that Diageo plays in the Irish economy in terms of employment, exports, agriculture and tourism."

"The arrival of the vessels is also an important milestone in construction of the new E153m brewery which is being built at St. James Gate. The new brewery will be the first-of-its-kind on the island of Ireland and will use state of the art plant and processes to minimise energy consumption and greatly reduce environmental impact. It will save an Olympic swimming pool of water every 30 hours and will save enough energy each year to power 1,200 Irish households."

"At Diageo, we are proud of the brewing legacy at St. James Gate and the investment in this new brewery will provide the competitive manufacturing platform we need to support Diageo's ambitions as we look to the future."