Packaging Beer
The 1950’s saw the emergence of the pasturised beer process and his meant that beer could be more stable which helped maintain the bright, sparkling look that we now expect in a glass or a bottle of beer. As a direct result Macardle Moore like other breweries enlarged and improved its bottling facilities. These facilities were to become an increasingly important part of Guinness’s strategy at the time and in 1990 Macardle Moore became the centralised bottling facility for Guinness Ireland. The bottling line handled up to 1,000 containers per minute, many of which were returnable bottles which are reused in order to be more Environmentally Friendly. 1993 the installation of a new draft canning line costing £22 million commenced. At speeds of up to 1,200 cans per minute, the line packaged Canned Draught Guinness for the Global Market through the use of its innovative In-Can system which was later to be replaced by the ‘floating widget system’. This provided a jet of nitrogen internally into the can which would reproduce a naturally creamy Guinness head once the can was opened. Many other National and Global canned products such as Budweiser, Harp, Carlsberg, Satzenbrau, Sapporo and of course Macardles Ale were all canned using state-of-the-art equipment and skills at the Dundalk plant. 1995 heralded a further major upgrade of the Macardles’ bottling capacity, reflecting Guinness’ faith in the skills of the employees and the company’s future plans at that time. The packaged (bottle and canned) beer market was expected to show a continued growth not only in Ireland but also in the U.K. , continental Europe and the USA. Macardle Moore and Co was uniquely equipped to maximise the benefit of projected sales were promised to come.