DUBLIN, Ireland — The air in Dublin's St. James Gate area along the River Liffey has a sharp but pleasant tang: the smell of roasting barley that gives Guinness Stout, the national drink of Ireland, its distinctive color.

For St. James Gate, which once served as an entry to the old, walled Irish capital, is the home of the Guinness Brewery, the world's largest producer of the dark, heavy brew known as stout. With its dark, heavy brew, Guinness is successfully bucking an international trend toward the lighter-colored, less-alcoholic lagers that has swept America.

Worldwide sales for the Guinness Brewery are reaching record highs and the outlook for the nearly black, brew with the rich, creamy head is favorable.

"Our sales are up by 20% in Ireland and in Western Europe," said Pat Barry, director of corporate affairs at Guinness Ireland. "We are strong in Africa and in Asia too."

In the United States, Guinness remains a specialty beer, and as Barry noted, "We were up 19% in the States last year. Of course, we had tie-ins with the World Cup soccer matches last year. That helped."

Now the brewery is pushing a chain of Irish pubs to promote its product. Old Guinness is distinctly up.

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In Ireland, Guinness has been a hit since the first batch was brewed not long after 1759 when young Arthur Guinness bought a failing brewery on the banks of the Liffey and began making ale, a slightly heavier form of beer.

The brewer, then 34, was attracted by a new dark drink coming into Dublin from London. It came in kegs and was called "porter" because it was favored by the porters in London's Covent Garden market. Its other name was "stout porter" to describe its strength, and the word porter was often dropped.

The brew took its characteristic dark color from the roasted barley added to the malted barley for color and body. The slightly bitter flavor comes from hops, the creamy head from yeast and the freshness from the water of the Dublin Hills.

Initially, the Guiness trade was local but it soon spread throughout Ireland, transported in kegs on the country's canal network. Later, with Dublin a major city of the expanding British Empire, Guinness expanded too--throughout the world.

Buyers came to Dublin, paid for their orders, and by 1803, Guinness West Indies Porter was being loaded aboard ships underway to the Caribbean area.