jswordy
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2012
- Messages
- 10,681
- Reaction score
- 40,311
Guinness, once synonymous with old Irish pubs and old Irish men, is increasingly winning over younger, beer-bent Americans like Mr. Quinn. “It’s having a moment,” he said.
You can spot Guinness in some unexpected places across New York City, including Mexican restaurants, diners and natural wine bars. It is the fastest-growing imported beer in the country based on bar, restaurant and brewery sales over the last year, according to Nielsen. The Dublin-based brewer has been making up for ground lost in the United States since the pandemic.
But it’s more than post-pandemic revenge spending. A motley of factors — an Irish pop cultural renaissance, viral drinking challenges and of course, marketing dollars — has helped endear one of the beer industry’s most misunderstood products to skeptics.
Pub owners said Guinness is shedding its reputation as a “meal in a glass,” thanks in part to marketing campaigns aimed at dispelling the notion that the beer is heavy. The stout is 4.2 percent alcohol by volume — about the strength of Bud Light — and 125 calories per 12 ounces, lighter than Modelo Especial.
That appeals to Americans wearied by craft beer’s dominance, said Mike O’Sullivan, an owner of the New York pubs Hartley’s and Grace’s.
“Everyone is drinking Guinness,” he said. That was not the case in 2015, when he opened Hartley’s in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Guinness outsells the rest of the menu at Hartley’s by a six-to-one margin, roughly double the bar’s opening numbers in 2015.Credit...Colin Clark for The New York Times
Guinness sales were strong from the start — the stout outsold the rest of the menu three-to-one — but it was mostly ordered by Irish men. “Americans preferred craft beers,” he said. That changed during the pandemic. “You would look up and down the bar and everyone was drinking Guinness,” he said. “Men, women, young and old.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/03/dining/drinks/guinness.html
You can spot Guinness in some unexpected places across New York City, including Mexican restaurants, diners and natural wine bars. It is the fastest-growing imported beer in the country based on bar, restaurant and brewery sales over the last year, according to Nielsen. The Dublin-based brewer has been making up for ground lost in the United States since the pandemic.
But it’s more than post-pandemic revenge spending. A motley of factors — an Irish pop cultural renaissance, viral drinking challenges and of course, marketing dollars — has helped endear one of the beer industry’s most misunderstood products to skeptics.
Pub owners said Guinness is shedding its reputation as a “meal in a glass,” thanks in part to marketing campaigns aimed at dispelling the notion that the beer is heavy. The stout is 4.2 percent alcohol by volume — about the strength of Bud Light — and 125 calories per 12 ounces, lighter than Modelo Especial.
That appeals to Americans wearied by craft beer’s dominance, said Mike O’Sullivan, an owner of the New York pubs Hartley’s and Grace’s.
“Everyone is drinking Guinness,” he said. That was not the case in 2015, when he opened Hartley’s in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Guinness outsells the rest of the menu at Hartley’s by a six-to-one margin, roughly double the bar’s opening numbers in 2015.Credit...Colin Clark for The New York Times
Guinness sales were strong from the start — the stout outsold the rest of the menu three-to-one — but it was mostly ordered by Irish men. “Americans preferred craft beers,” he said. That changed during the pandemic. “You would look up and down the bar and everyone was drinking Guinness,” he said. “Men, women, young and old.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/03/dining/drinks/guinness.html
