Will this one fly?
Aimed at a younger clientele, the black lager will come in 330 ml bottles and will go on sale at selected pubs and off-licences, priced similarly to other premium lagers.
Parent company Diageo will be anxious the drink – called Guinness Black Lager – doesn’t suffer the same fate as other “innovations” such as Breo and Guinness Light that struggled in the shadow of the black stuff’s coveted brand image.
In 2005 the company sold Brew 39 in bars in Dublin and before that it introduced Guinness XXX Extra Strong, Guinness Gold and Breo White Beer.
On this occasion, media in the UK gleefully reminded their readers that in 1979, Guinness tried to fight the popularity of lager with the introduction of a light version of their eponymous stout. While a regular pint of Guinness contained 4.2 percent ABV and 192 calories, Guinness Light had 3.8 percent ABV and 170 calories. The company sold its light version with the slogan "They said it couldn’t be done." Two years later, the product was withdrawn.
Guinness is planning to test the 4.5 percent ABV beer in the Northern Ireland market over a period of five to nine months.
An increasingly difficult trading environment has seen off-licence and pub sales fall significantly in recent years and thousands have lost their jobs in the sector as a result.
A report published in March this year found that Ireland’s per capita alcohol consumption fell by 9.6 percent in 2009 and is now 21 percent below an all-time peak in 2001.
Some 15,000 jobs have been lost in the industry in the last year alone and the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland, an industry body, has warned of a further 5 percent fall in volume sales this year, with a knock-on effect on jobs.
