The Decline of Guinness

Posted on 23 November 2007 under Beer, Food In The News

The BBC News is reporting this morning that sales of Guinness are down by 30% since 2001 in their home turf of Ireland alone. From the article:

Guinness is, however, continuing to perform well in some markets, particularly Nigeria and America … In the UK and Ireland, a growing taste for lighter, blander, more refreshing drinks and a long term shift to entertaining at home, have taken their toll on Guinness’s sales … (I)t is lager, not Guinness they go for … The preference for “refreshing” drinks is a trend that has seen lager brands grow their market share from just 7% of all beer sales in 1970 to more than 70% today … More recently, it is reflected in the “cider over ice” phenomenon, started by Magners and Bulmers, which has added more than £200m to cider sales … Amongst the wines, it is rose that has been the winner, with sales increasing 188% since 2005.

Even though my first attempt at drinking Guinness found us killing the drink with popcorn, it has since become my beer-of-choice. In fact, I ended up educating the waitresses at the Chateau Louise that the Guinness Draught should be drank from the bottle, not poured into a glass. (Fer cryin’ out loud, it says so right on the bottle itself!) It would be a sad day indeed if such a historical beer would decline right out of existence in favor of “refreshing” drinks.

Read Comments

  1. 24 November 2007 @ 12:18 am Posted by Robin Dec

    ‘Cuz apparently I’m having a spit-up themed week, you’re giving me flashbacks to earlier in the month when I had to serve as the Beer Girl for a Beer Tasting event (part of a Washtenaw County Bar Ass’n fundraiser). I was on Breakfast Beer (dark beer with sausage, eggs and coffee in or or some such vileness) and something called the Big O. Still don’t know what was in THAT. I also had to offer a giant mug for the patrons to spit in. Biggest trick…don’t confuse the “spit mug” with the actual beer for tasting!! Cute little venue though if you’re ever in the Ypsi area.

    http://neotech.net/ABC/?site=cornerbrewery

    Good times.

  2. 24 November 2007 @ 5:34 am Posted by LunaPierCook

    Robin, looks as the “The Big O” is simply an organic beer from the 5 Seasons Brewing Co. Still, I’ll bet it sounds a little odd if’n yer a couple notches above schnockered though! Were you aware blogsmonroe.com has a craft beer/Michigan beer blog called Michigan Beer Buzz? They’ve already gotten a pretty decent readership themselves, and are a knowledgable bunch.

  3. 2 December 2007 @ 11:20 am Posted by The Great Guinness Heist | Michigan Beer Buzz

    […] guess Luna Pier Cook was right (check out his post on The Decline of Guinness) Looks like the beer tastes of the Irish are changing. Even for […]

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