A cleaner- tasting Guinness
The makers of Ireland’s famous black stout hope new brews will revive sales of the flagging ale
Joe Sheehy, a master brewer at Guinness, smiles as he sips Brew 39, a new version of the black stout that’s taken him 10 months to develop. “Guinness has a burnt, chocolatey, slightly harsh quality,” Mr. Sheehy said at the St. James Gate headquarters of Guinness, near the River Liffey in Dublin. “ We have given Brew 39 a smoother, clean taste.”
London-based
Diageo PLC, the world’s largest liquor company, is trying to revive flagging demand for its Guinness brand, the legendary black drink praised by James Joyce as “the frothy freshener.” Some pub owners say Brew 39, the first of 10 new versions of the stout to be sold by 2010, won’t lure new drinkers and may alienate fans of the traditional drink.
“ At best, it’s going to eat into their own sales,” said James O’Sullivan, a barman at Anseo, a pub in central Dublin. “People are going out later, and you don’t tend to drink Guinness late at night. It’s hard to imagine something so similar to Guinness changing that.”
Irish sales of Guinness fell 3% in the year ended in June, after dropping 6% in the previous 12 months. A smoking ban introduced in March, 2004, deterred people from visiting pubs, and the popularity of wine and lager grew, analysts say. Guinness accounted for 9% of Diageo’s sales volume in the year ended June 30, trailing Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff.
As part of its plan to reduce expenses, Diageo in June closed its Park Royal brewery in northwest London and shifted production of Guinness for the U.K. market back to Dublin after 68 years in the British capital. Diageo, whose revenue last year was £9.04-billion ( US$15.9-billion), doesn’t provide figures for the brand’s income.
In an effort to halt the decline in Guinness sales, the beer will arrive in 300 bars around Dublin on Oct. 19, and will be withdrawn six months later and replaced by a second version in what the company calls the Guinness Brewhouse Series. It will be sold alongside regular Guinness at the same price, around ¤4 ( US$4.80).
“ There’s a variety of reasons,” for the decline in Guinness consumption, Jean Doyle, a Dublin-based Guinness spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview. “People are travelling more, developing a preference for wine. There’s more competition out there and the smoking ban hurt us, of course.”
Guinness, created by Arthur Guinness in 1759, still sells one million pints of the stout a day in Ireland and five million around the world, according to the company.
The Irish economy is expanding at the fastest pace in the 12-nation euro region. Irish bar sales, which slumped as much as 7% after the smoking ban, rose 4.6% in July, indicating pub drinking is gaining popularity again.
Guinness’s history is littered with examples of failed innovations. The company has previously introduced Guinness XXX Extra Strong Stout, Guinness Gold and Breo White Beer.
Guinness two years ago abandoned the “fastpour” experiment, designed to slash the settling period to about 30 seconds from two minutes. In a nod to the old-fashioned two-step pouring process, Diageo has featured an ad campaign saying it takes 119.5 seconds to pour the perfect pint.
In 1979, the company attempted to fight the popularity of lager beer with Guinness Light. A normal pint of Guinness contains 4.2% alcohol and 192 calories; a pint of Guinness Light had 3.8% alcohol and 170 calories. The company sold its light version with the slogan, “ They said it couldn’t be done.” The product was withdrawn two years later.
“ The answer isn’t to mess about with the product, but rather invest in marketing the traditional heritage of the product,” said Gerard Rijk, a beverage analyst at ING Financial Markets in Amsterdam, who has a “buy” rating on Diageo. “Versions with cherries aren’t the answer.”
Mr. Sheehy, 40, and his colleagues cooked up new versions of the stout by varying the mix of basic raw materials of water, barley, hops and yeast and altering the brewing process.
Brew 39 will be a special edition of Guinness that has the same dark colour, topped by a creamy head.
Mr. Sheehy still fills the pint glass about three-quarters full and then leaves the Brew 39 to settle for two minutes before topping it off, just like a pint of regular Guinness.
The new stout uses less roast unmalted barley, which gives Guinness its bitter taste and dry palette. Also, hops are added at the end of the process, which also reduces bitterness on the tongue, Mr. Sheehy said.
“Brew 39 is aimed at the occasional Guinness drinker,” Mr. Sheehy said. “Someone who maybe drinks Guinness on St. Patrick’s Day or Christmas.”
Ms. Doyle of Guinness says the company won’t be deterred by past failures. “Innovation is notoriously difficult, we know that,” she said. “We are just trying to offer our customers more choice.”
Some diehard Guinness drinkers say they’ll give the new version a chance.
“I’d try it,” said Brian McGovern, a lawyer working in Dublin’s Financial Services Center. “I’m not saying I’d like it or abandon the traditional product. Guinness is very good as it is, but I would be curious to taste the new versions.”