Guinness: how Irish stout became a British obsession

A rapid rise in demand has left pubs across Britain facing a potential shortage of Guinness in the run-up to Christmas.

Distributors have been allocating less than "usual" to pubs to try and "make sure there's enough stock to meet demand", said the BBC. The parent company of the famous Irish stout, Diageo, said it was working as "efficiently as possible" to meet the "exceptional consumer demand for Guinness in GB" over the past month.

The upswing in Guinness' popularity in the past few years has seen it become the "nation’s most popular beer" and has "broken the shackles of stereotype" as a pint for "rugby lads, hearty fellas, stout chaps, anyone with half a connection to Ireland", said The Times.

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'Golden age'

The centuries-old stout is "defying an industry setback faced by other brewers" and is "entering its golden age", said Fortune. Diageo has leant into growing social media hype around the drink and the "level of detail that goes into pouring it", with no other brewer able to compete with the "quality-based exclusivity" of Guinness, which makes up a "big part of its charm".

The social media "Guinnflencers" and trends like "splitting the G" (where your first swig leaves the beer level halfway up the letter G on the glass) have "helped Guinness shift its old-man reputation" and its "demographic is getting younger", said The Drum.

According to the most recent YouGov data, Guinness is the most recognisable beer brand (alongside Heineken), and is currently the second most popular beer or cider behind San Miguel (which has also experienced a recent popularity surge). That data also suggests it is growing in popularity with women, while Diageo's own data said consumption "is up 24% among women".

There hasn't been "any big marketing push from the brand in recent years" (although it has partnered with the Premier League this season) but the "free marketing" it has received from "cool sections of the internet without spending a penny" has led to an "increased pick-up of millennial drinkers between 25 and 44", said Fortune.

There are "parallels between Guinness’s renaissance and the growth of craft beer", said Fortune, but the latter's more recent surge in popularity may be a "backlash to the craft ale trend" that has been so prominent over the "past decade", said GQ.

'Hard to provide an alternative'

Guinness, like most other leading beers, is produced by a "global drinks conglomerate", but its unique appeal is partly down to its history, said The Times. It has a "sense of rootedness" against the "backdrop of endless and interchangeable craft beers that spring up and fade away", making competing with it or finding a popular alternative extremely challenging.

The "uniqueness of Guinness" makes it hard to come up with an alternative, said the BBC. Some pubs have been "stocking up on Murphy's", but that has led to its brewer "limiting allocations" as well.

Diageo has to be careful not to "overproduce" to meet the "temporary mismatch between supply and demand", Professor Michael Lewis, a supply chain and manufacturing expert from the University of Bath, told the i news site. Guinness lasts only "around two to three months in an unopened keg", leaving the brewer with a "constant battle to keep the capacity and demand in check".