Arthur Guinness started brewing ales from 1759 in Leixlip, then at the St. James's Gate Brewery

Arthur Guinness started brewing ales from 1759 in Leixlip, then 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.Ten years later on 19 May 1769 Guinness exported his ale for the first time, when six and a half barrels were shipped to England.

Guinness is sometimes believed to have originated the stout style of beer. However the first use of the word stout in relation to beer was in a letter in the Egerton Manuscript dated 1677.almost 50 years before Arthur Guinness was born. Arthur Guinness started selling the dark beer porter in 1778.The first Guinness beers to use the term were Single Stout and Double Stout in the 1840s.