Forget dry January, it could be dry December Guinness fans after pub owners were caught up in the growing demand for stout due to its newfound popularity among Gen Z, many of whom like to pose with a pint in hand on social media.
With its thick white foam head and agonizing pour time of 119.5 seconds, the black stuff has traditionally been favored by older men and rugby teams.
But all bets on who will order a pint of beer are off thanks to a celebrity-fueled renaissance that has Kim Kardashian and Olivia Rodrigo among the unlikely poster children.
However, Guinness’s growing vogue is causing headaches for publicans during the Christmas party season, as the drink’s owner, Diageoforced to limit weekly orders after a period of extreme demand.
The company cannot increase supply as its Dublin brewery is already running at full capacity, of course.
A Diageo spokesman said the past month had seen “exceptional consumer demand for Guinness in the UK”.
“We have maximized supply and are proactively working with our customers to manage distribution to trade as efficiently as possible,” they added.
Over the past few years, Diageo has increased its marketing efforts and worked with influencers to raise the profile of Guinness, and it has worked. Kardashian made headlines last year when she dined on pints in a London pub, while Rodrigo wore a ‘Guinness is good 4U’ t-shirt to a show in Dublin this year.
While Guinness was winning over women and young people in general, recent international rugby competitions in the northern hemisphere will also add to the pressure on supply.
However, the brand is defying the gravity of a dying market. Although the total amount of beer sold fell slightly between July and October, during the same period demand for draft Guinness grew by more than 20%, according to industry analysts CGA.
The brand has benefited from viral marketing that involves drinkers sharing photos and videos of the perfect or not-so-perfect pint ( Fuck London Guinness Instagram account has a huge amount of followers).
This amateur content often includes a “tilt test” where drinkers tilt their glass at a 45-degree angle. If it’s at cream level, the contents won’t spill, it claims.
This renewed appreciation for the 265-year-old drink has led The Devonshire pub, a revived Soho institution, to draw huge crowds based on its claim to pour the best pint of Guinness in London.
The famous publican Oisin Rogers they brought in bar staff from Dublin’s Kehoes pub, itself a pint of Guinness institution, to add authenticity.
But it’s not time to start stocking up at the supermarket just yet. Wetherspoonone of the country’s biggest landlords, with more than 800 pubs, has assured customers it is “fully stocked with Guinness”.
“The fashion gods have smiled on Guinness, which used to be consumed by people my age but is now widely embraced by younger generations,” said Tim Martin, Wetherspoon’s 69-year-old founder. The company hoped that Guinness would be able to “increase production … which it has always been able to do in previous Christmas periods”.
The distribution of liquid (black) gold is only happening in the UK and is not expected to continue as Diageo pours cash into its St James’s Gate brewery in Dublin and also builds a new €200m (£166m) brewery in the county Kildare.
