Some pubs begin to run out of Guinness due to low supply limits
Some Irish pubs in Great Britain have told the BBC they have run out of Guinness stock this week after restrictions on supplies were imposed ahead of Christmas.
The Liffey in Liverpool, where Guinness is usually the top seller, says it is without the alcoholic beverage from Wednesday.
This is one of a number of pubs to tell the BBC they have closed in recent days, some have managed to restock supplies, but it is uncertain how long stocks will last.
Guinness owner Diageo announced this last week Limiting how much pubs can buy Due to “extraordinary consumer demand” in Great Britain.
The limits only apply to pubs in England, Wales and Scotland, not Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
“It’s just a bit of a shambles at the moment and it’s killing me,” said Steven Crosby, landlord of Irish-themed pub The Liffey.
He normally gets 12 lots of 50-litre barrels per week from his main distributor, but he said last week he was told he could only get one – and by midday on Wednesday it was completely gone. .
“I’m still waiting for this moment,” he told the BBC on Friday night. “I was promised today, but it never came true. Now we’ve been promised again for tomorrow, but I won’t hold my breath.”
He says some of his regulars are not coming, others are staying for one more stop and then leaving, while some people leave the moment they are told there is no Guinness.
Other pubs say they also have Suffering from Guinness shortage But after a day or two we managed to restore the supply.
At Irish bar chain Katie O’Brien’s Durham and Leicester locations, supplies of the drink ran out for two days this week, says operations manager Shaun Jenkinson.
He has not yet seen a widespread impact on sales, but previously said its locations struggled to order barrels in the daily timeframe last weekend.
Kate Davidson, landlady of Old Ivy House in Clerkenwell, central London, has resorted to issuing customers with ration cards – meaning they can only get a Guinness if they buy two other drinks first.
“It’s become a bit of a talking point,” she says.
She says she usually gets eight kilograms of Guinness a week, but this was cut down to four, leaving her with only one barrel by Friday morning – containing 88 pints.
He expects to finish his work this weekend and his next delivery won’t be until Wednesday.
“Honestly, I don’t think it’ll have too much of an impact on us,” she said, remaining optimistic that customers will buy other drinks instead.
The Marquis pub in Covent Garden, central London, said it had temporarily run out of Guinness for one night last weekend.
It is understood that Diageo is managing its allocation limit on Guinness on a weekly basis and trying to avoid panic buying ahead of the festive period.
“We have maxed out supplies and are actively working with our customers to manage distribution as efficiently as possible,” the company said in a statement.
Guinness sales have been bucking market trends recently, according to data from food and beverage industry research firm CGA.
While overall beer drinking declined slightly between July and October, the amount of Guinness consumed from kegs was up by more than a fifth.
Some have pointed to so-called “ginfluencers” on social media as helping to increase black stout’s popularity among women and youth.
Beer shortages in the UK are rare but usually linked to supply chain issues.
In 2021 the Wetherspoon pub chain said some of its branches had run out of Heineken, Carling and Coors due to a shortage of HGV drivers.
