At her London pub, landlady Kate Davidson has taken to issuing Guinness ration cards, but still the beer has run out amid a UK shortage of Ireland’s national drink.
Bars across the UK, even Irish ones, have reported limited supplies of the black stuff since Guinness owner Diageo announced earlier this month that it was experiencing “exceptional consumer demand.”
“I’m a bit shocked because it’s Christmas,” said Davidson, co-owner of the Old Ivy House, where an empty upside down Guinness glass signaled that its tap had run dry.
Photo: AFP
“I wouldn’t have expected them to run out at this time of year,” the 42-year-old said at the cosy boozer in the Clerkenwell area of central London.
A number of factors have meant that Diageo has become a victim of its own success.
Diageo chief executive Debra Crew earlier this year said that Guinness consumption was up 24 percent among women, as the company shifted its marketing strategy to attract new consumers.
So-called “Guinnfluencers” online — including Kim Kardashian, who has posted a photograph of herself with the beer on Instagram — have been credited with fueling the stout’s appeal among Gen Z, and a viral craze online where drinkers take a big gulp to try to line up the beer with the glass’ Guinness logo in a challenge called “Split the G” has also helped.
Diageo began restricting the number of barrels of Guinness that pubs in the UK can buy because of the soaring sales of the stout.
The dark, creamy liquid, traditionally seen as the drink of choice for rugby fans and middle-aged men with beards, had soared in popularity among younger women.
Davidson first realized there was a problem when she tried to make her normal weekly order of seven or eight barrels, to be told she could only buy four.
“The brewery confirmed that they were being rationed by Diageo, so they were passing on that ration [to us],” she said.
Davidson and her business partner came up with the idea to introduce the ration card, which requires customers to purchase two other drinks before being allowed to buy a Guinness.
It notes “these difficult times of Guinness rationing.”
“It’s just a bit of fun, really,” Davidson said. “Nobody’s turned around and walked out.”
Despite the initiative, the barrels — which hold 88 pints of Guinness each — were empty by Friday night. The drink will not be back on tap until the next delivery tomorrow.
“It’s kind of sad,” 39-year-old Guinness fan and tattoo artist Claudia Russo said, knocking back a Bloody Mary instead.
Sales of Guinness by volume in the UK soared by almost 21 percent between July and October, despite the overall beer market gradually declining, according to food and drink market research brand CGA by NIQ.
“Over the past month we have seen exceptional consumer demand for Guinness in Great Britain,” a Diageo spokesperson said in a statement. “We are working proactively with our customers to manage the distribution to trade as efficiently as possible.”
Shaun Jenkinson, operations director for the Katie O’Brien’s chain of Irish pubs, said that it had been receiving “about 70 percent of the stock required to fulfill orders at present.”
He said via e-mail that he has received “continued warnings from wholesalers that they are not expecting to be able to meet our requirements in the run-up to Christmas.”
The Times reported that the shortage was encouraging “panic buying” — worsening supplies.
“Stop young people drinking Guinness and there won’t be this problem,” 79-year-old author Howard Thomas said at the Old Ivy House. “Keep it for the old people.”
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency and the Pentagon on Monday said that some North Korean troops have been killed during combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region. Those are the first reported casualties since the US and Ukraine announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost three-year war. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said that about 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded during a battle with the Ukrainian army at the weekend. The casualties occurred around three villages in Kursk, where Russia has for four months been trying to quash a
ROYAL TARGET: After Prince Andrew lost much of his income due to his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, he became vulnerable to foreign agents, an author said British lawmakers failed to act on advice to tighten security laws that could have prevented an alleged Chinese spy from targeting Britain’s Prince Andrew, a former attorney general has said. Dominic Grieve, a former lawmaker who chaired the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) until 2019, said ministers were advised five years ago to introduce laws to criminalize foreign agents, but failed to do so. Similar laws exist in the US and Australia. “We remain without an important weapon in our armory,” Grieve said. “We asked for [this law] in the context of the Russia inquiry report” — which accused the government
A rash of unexplained drone sightings in the skies above New Jersey has left locals rattled and sent US officials scrambling for answers. Breathless local news reports have amplified the anxious sky-gazing and wild speculation — interspersing blurry, dark clips from social media with irate locals calling for action. For weeks now, the distinctive blinking lights and whirling rotors of large uncrewed aerial vehicles have been spotted across the state west of New York. However, military brass, elected representatives and investigators have been unable to explain the recurring UFO phenomenon. Sam Lugo, 23, who works in the Club Studio gym in New Jersey’s Bergen
RSS