Don’t blame missing widgets on Guinness 0.0
GUINNESS has insisted that the launch of its new non-alcoholic stout is not the cause of the shortage of the widgets that has annoyed die-hard fans.
Last week, Guinness fans lost the head altogether when it emerged the brewer was running out of the floating plastic spheres it places in each can to simulate the pint head as it would be served in a pub.
This, the brewer said, was down to the coronavirus shutdown of pubs causing people to drink at home instead. Some Guinness cans won’t have the floating widget back until 2021. In the meantime it is being replaced by what some consider a less effective fixed widget in a 470ml can – 30ml smaller than the usual 500ml, adding insult to injury.
New non-alcoholic Guinness 0.0, which brewer Diageo launched the same week as the widget shortage emerged – comes in a 500ml can complete with the floating widget.
While some Flann O’Brien aficionados may feel that a pint of zero-alcohol plain is not, in fact, their only man, the guilt-free drink has met with a largely positive reception, with Cormac Delaney from our sister paper the Irish Daily Mail commenting: ‘It looks like the real thing, pouring and settling into a satisfyinglooking pint. And as for the taste… it’s surprisingly good.’
A spokesperson for Guinness insisted to the Irish Mail on Sunday that the shortage had nothing to do with the widget’s inclusion in cans of Guinness 0.0.
They said that only cans of Guinness Draught sold in a 24pack were affected, with 500ml cans of the stout still available with the floating widget in other quantities such as eight-packs.
The Liveline switchboard lit up in RTÉ Radio 1 this week, with callers telling Joe Duffy their lives had been altered utterly.
A man called Peter, who has been drinking Guinness for 45 years, felt short-changed when he sampled a can recently.
‘I noticed the difference in size and there was no widget inside,’ he said.
Dave said he brought some of the smaller cans home without realising. ‘They poured very badly, with a kind of small Ian Paisley collar, a tiny collar.’