The roots of the Murphy Brewery run deep. In 1856 James J. Murphy and his brothers formed James J. Murphy & Co. and established Lady’s Well Brewery in Cork. Their principal product at that time was porter, a dark beer and the forerunner to stout. Even 100 years ago the Brewery was responsive to changing tastes. Murphy’s Stout, a stronger or ‘stouter’ version of porter, was first brewed in 1889 and gradually surpassed porter in popular taste. The quality of this new product was recognised at an early stage, when it won the supreme award at the Distillers, Brewers and Allied Trade exhibition in Dublin in 1892 and Manchester in 1895. In its early years the company also brewed Lady’s Well Ale, a light coloured beer. That tradition has been revived after a gap of over a century with Murphy’s Irish Red and Amber export beers which are its modern equivalents.
