This came out of an Irish mail list I subscribe to:
Secret 'Essence Of Guinness' Exported To Africa
Tue Mar 2, 2004 08:48 AM ET By Stephen Cunningham
WATERFORD, Ireland (Reuters) - The secret "essence of Guinness" has been the subject of more bar room speculation than possibly of any other beer in the history of brewing.
For centuries, a mysterious ingredient has been used to make Ireland's famous creamy black stout. Until now, the undisclosed component has been a closely guarded secret behind the imposing walls of the drink giant's St. James's Gate headquarters in Dublin.
But soaring demand from Africa, where Guinness is seen as a macho drink and nicknamed "Viagra" after the virility drug, has led to severe capacity constraints.
That in turn has forced the company for the first time to let the secret slip away from Dublin, and into a $50 million modern plant in Waterford in the southeast.
Not that the Waterford brewers are any more lax with the secret.
"Every single drop of Guinness that leaves our plant contains the 'secret essence' but only three people in the world know what that is," said Colin O'Brien, operations manager at the plant, recently opened by parent company Diageo.
Tight security guards the riverside site in the city's Mary Street, which has itself been home to brewing for more than 200 years.
Only key members of staff enjoy privileged access, via swipe cards, to the secret processing area where the elixir is added.
"Even people who make it don't have the full facts -- they receive instructions which they follow to the letter but they have absolutely no idea what's in it," O'Brien added.
It's common knowledge that roast barley, water, hops and yeast all go into making a typical "pint of plain."
SECRET SINCE 1759
However, one other ingredient has been shrouded in secrecy since Arthur Guinness purchased a failing brewery on the banks of Dublin's River Liffey in 1759 and poured his first pint of Guinness.
From behind giant screens, the ingredient in question is incorporated into the color and flavor base that makes Guinness concentrate before being dispatched to Africa.
The plant will use over 9,000 tons of Irish barley each year to produce 1.58 million gallons of so-called Guinness Flavor Extract for export.
One pint of the concentrated stuff makes approximately 50 pints of the poured version, and at full production, the plant will have the capacity to produce enough for 550 million pints of Guinness a year.
Guinness was introduced to Africa in the 1820s by European merchant sailors who preferred to load up with the heavy stout rather than other beers because a higher concentration of alcohol gave it a longer shelf life. The first Guinness exports to Africa were to Sierra Leone in 1827.
Nowadays, Diageo employs 5,000 workers in Africa in breweries from Lagos to Nairobi.
Such is the demand from Nigeria in particular that workers in Waterford work round the clock to manufacture the secret ingredient.
Guinness sales notched up growth of about eight percent last year in Africa, with Nigeria ranked as its third-largest global market outside Ireland and Britain.
With sales on the wane in its home markets, Africa is set to overtake these two in the next few years as the biggest market.
"People aren't going into pubs as much as they used to and lifestyle choices have also been a factor," said O'Brien, who also cited the fashion for novelty "alcopops" aimed at young drinkers.
In years gone by, it took months to transport Guinness by sea to Africa but the journey can now be made in around 28 days.
The African-style version tastes sweeter and heavier than the traditional draught popular in the West.
Such is its popularity among Ireland's fast-growing immigrant population that Guinness has started to replicate Guinness manufactured in Nigeria on its home turf.