Arthur Guinness started brewing ales from 1759 at the St. James's Gate Brewery, Dublin. On 31 December he signed (up to) a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum for the unused brewery.[5][6][7] Ten years later on 19 May 1769 Guinness exported his ale for the first time, when six and a half barrels were shipped to Great Britain.
"Stout" originally referred to a beer's strength, but eventually shifted meaning toward body and colour.[8]
Arthur Guinness started selling the dark beer porter in 1778.[9] The first Guinness beers to use the term were Single Stout and Double Stout in the 1840s.[10] Throughout the bulk of its history, Guinness produced 'only three variations of a single beer type: porter or single stout, double or extra and foreign stout for export'.[11]
Already one of the top three British and Irish brewers, Guinness's sales soared from 350,000 barrels in 1868 to 779,000 barrels in 1876.[11] In October 1886 Guinness became a public company, and was averaging sales of 1,138,000 barrels a year. This was despite Guinness' refusal to offer their beer at a discount and no advertising.[11] Even though Guinness owned no public houses, the company was valued at £6 million and shares were twenty times oversubscribed, with share prices rising to a 60% premium on the first day of trading.[11]
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