Ed Hinchy: Beamish & Crawford
Title
Ed Hinchy: Beamish & Crawford
Subject
Beamish and Crawford Brewery
Description
Ed talks about his involvement with Beamish and Crawford
Date
21 May 2012
Identifier
CFP_SR00448_hinchy_2012
Coverage
Cork; Ireland; 1960s - 1970s;
Relation
The Counting House: Beamish Brewery in the '60s & '70s.
A Short film produced by Mark Wilkins for the Cork Folklore Project using audio from this collection over images from the Roy Hammond Collection.
A Short film produced by Mark Wilkins for the Cork Folklore Project using audio from this collection over images from the Roy Hammond Collection.
Source
Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive
Language
English
Type
Sound
Format
.wav
Interviewee
Interviewer
Duration
91 Mins, 11 seconds
Location
Ballintemple, Cork
Original Format
.wav
Bit Rate/Frequency
24bit / 48kHz
Transcription
The following is a short extract from the interview transcript, copyright of the Cork Folklore Project. If you wish to access further archival material please contact CFP, folklorearchive@gmail.com
M W: So it's like the percentage of Celebration beer is stronger than your normal, was stronger than the other products that were popular at the time.
E H: It was stronger for its original gravity.
M W: Right.
E H: But, I mean there were other types of beer which do that still today. I forget what they are called now, they are malt liquors or something like that, they call them. It’s a, it's not something we wanted to continue with anyway, you know, we had that time, we had very good products. We had Beamish which was getting funding to relaunch it and you can see later that there was a version of Beamish called Tower Stout put out. It was, I think a little cheaper.
M W: And what year was that? Would that have been? I can’t remember Tower Stout at all.
E H: Yeah, that would be, being around the same time in the, between 1966 and 1970 ish, you know, around that time.
M W: Right.
E H: But then you know, you had a dilemma between two different versions of the same stout and that idea didn’t work. And it was withdrawn again, and the company just promoted the one stout, you know from then on.
M K: I think, I am just thinking as we are talking to me there as well, ‘cause I know that Guinness’ who obviously would have been, probably your main competitor
E H: Yes.
M W: would have had the monopoly obviously because they are such a huge, you know pan-global you know company, hadn’t they at some stage over the years, haven’t they brought out various products that kind of fell, variations of Guinness that just fell by the wayside? You know or that didn’t quite take off the way, maybe they would have liked it. I’m just wondering with Beamish is it that people get so used to one brands that’s Beamish that people just associate with, almost, almost have a, I won’t say a psychological attachment but some sort of, you know.
E H: Feel that it's some other, it was inferior.
M W: Yeah, you know.
E H: Yeah. Yes, that is a fact. People would be suspicious and yes Guinness did launch quite a number of versions of stout, even as late as the second millennia. I have tasted a few of them, up, up in Guinness itself. The thing is, you know that the, the technical staff of breweries meet regularly and they don’t have any difficulty with, with discussing technical matters often, quite often, but when you get to commercial [word unintelligible] that’s a different question. [laughs]
M W: So it's like the percentage of Celebration beer is stronger than your normal, was stronger than the other products that were popular at the time.
E H: It was stronger for its original gravity.
M W: Right.
E H: But, I mean there were other types of beer which do that still today. I forget what they are called now, they are malt liquors or something like that, they call them. It’s a, it's not something we wanted to continue with anyway, you know, we had that time, we had very good products. We had Beamish which was getting funding to relaunch it and you can see later that there was a version of Beamish called Tower Stout put out. It was, I think a little cheaper.
M W: And what year was that? Would that have been? I can’t remember Tower Stout at all.
E H: Yeah, that would be, being around the same time in the, between 1966 and 1970 ish, you know, around that time.
M W: Right.
E H: But then you know, you had a dilemma between two different versions of the same stout and that idea didn’t work. And it was withdrawn again, and the company just promoted the one stout, you know from then on.
M K: I think, I am just thinking as we are talking to me there as well, ‘cause I know that Guinness’ who obviously would have been, probably your main competitor
E H: Yes.
M W: would have had the monopoly obviously because they are such a huge, you know pan-global you know company, hadn’t they at some stage over the years, haven’t they brought out various products that kind of fell, variations of Guinness that just fell by the wayside? You know or that didn’t quite take off the way, maybe they would have liked it. I’m just wondering with Beamish is it that people get so used to one brands that’s Beamish that people just associate with, almost, almost have a, I won’t say a psychological attachment but some sort of, you know.
E H: Feel that it's some other, it was inferior.
M W: Yeah, you know.
E H: Yeah. Yes, that is a fact. People would be suspicious and yes Guinness did launch quite a number of versions of stout, even as late as the second millennia. I have tasted a few of them, up, up in Guinness itself. The thing is, you know that the, the technical staff of breweries meet regularly and they don’t have any difficulty with, with discussing technical matters often, quite often, but when you get to commercial [word unintelligible] that’s a different question. [laughs]
Citation
Cork Folklore Project , “Ed Hinchy: Beamish & Crawford,” accessed April 25, 2024, https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/62.