Guinness Fills Its Last Wooden Beer Cask

On March 15, 1963, Guinness filled and dispatched its last wooden beer cask from the St. James’s Gate brewery in Dublin. Wooden casks had been used to condition, store, and transport Guinness for almost two centuries, supported by a large brewery cooperage that manufactured and repaired reusable vessels for distribution in Ireland and abroad. Guinness had introduced aluminum kegs in 1946 and used the new metal containers alongside wood during a prolonged transition. The final wooden cask marked the end of traditional cooperage as a central part of Guinness production and distribution. It also illustrates the broader twentieth-century shift from handcrafted wooden beer containers to standardized metal kegs that were easier to clean, handle, maintain, and integrate into modern draught-beer systems.