To a Guinness afficionado, perhaps the only thing worse than a hangover after St. Patrick’s Day is finding out there’s no more Guinness left at the pub the next day. Read More
Occasional shortages also reported elsewhere in Canada and worldwide
Occasional shortages also reported elsewhere in Canada and worldwide
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To a Guinness afficionado, perhaps the only thing worse than a hangover after St. Patrick’s Day is finding out there’s no more Guinness left at the pub the next day.
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Such was the case at St. James Corner, an Irish pub in Victoria Park, known for its official certification from Guinness for a proper pour.
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“A lot more Guinness sold than expected,” Jeff Beddoes, managing partner of the pub. And the establishment ran out of the beer the day after St. Patrick’s Day.
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Normally Beddoes places an order on Fridays but this time, there seemed to be no stock available, he said. Contacting his representative, he was told the stock was there, but hadn’t been properly processed through customs and stored for purchase.
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“It wasn’t just us having difficulties (ordering),” he added.
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“Because (other) people had experienced this, this had sort of cascaded,” he added, with other customers attempting to phone in and ensuring that they didn’t run out of stock. “It was all scooped up.”
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The pub was without its iconic pour for two days, he said, earning some jokes from customers.
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“There were a lot of people making fun of us,” he said, “but if it’s out of stock at the supplier, there’s not much you can do about it.”
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Unable to order direct from his supplier, Beddoes had to go through third-party vendors for a time but after a couple of weeks, all’s well and normal and the pub is back to its usual stocks of its iconic pour for the moment.
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Pubs in Calgary weren’t the only ones affected by supply issues. An Irish pub in Montreal said it had also temporarily run out of Guinness beer twice so far this year.
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Then taps at Hurley’s Irish Pub ran dry after St. Patrick’s Day and things appeared to be back to normal until two weeks ago, when manager Rod Applebee was again informed the Guinness was gone.
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“We’re told the next shipment arrives April 22 — after Easter, on the Tuesday,” he said.
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Meanwhile, British newspaper The Guardian reported a shortage of Guinness over the Christmas season in the U.K. due to a 20 per cent year-over-year increase in sales in the weeks leading up to November.
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The Guinness world has been in a tizzy for the past year, with the viral TikTok buzz around the “Split the G” craze — a drinking game where you take a big first sip (gulp?) of your Guinness and try to stop with the line of the beer falling exactly in the middle of gap in the letter “G” on the branded Guinness glass.
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The other factor has been the huge success of the new alcohol-free Guinness 0. “When I talk to people I know in Ireland, basically a big factor is production,” Applebee said. “Guinness didn’t know the 0 was going to take off the way it did. It’s a huge process: the beer is brewed as a (regular) Guinness and the alcohol is removed from it. That’s why it tastes very good. A lot of production has been allotted to the 0. Then the fad of Split the G came into effect.”
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A spokesperson for Diageo, the company that owns Guinness, attributed the hiccups to third-party logistics challenges, according to a CBC report.
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Postmedia Calgary has reached out to Guinness for comment and is waiting to hear back.
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— With files from The Montreal Gazette
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