Unfair Play? Or Solid Business Sense From The Macros?

Before I start this rant, I should say that this is hearsay and rumour. It's the word of some people on message boards or in passing who were talking to bar men or even just some lad down the pub. It's not fact so don't take it as such. It does however sound like the sort of thing I expect.

Here is something that is fact though, so gives credence to these claims. On Arthur's day just gone, and for those not familiar with Arthur's day, it's now a yearly celebration to celebrate Arthur Guinness and his legacy. There's a sort of festival atmosphere with free or cheap pints of Guinness and entertainment all around the country. In other words, it's a way for Diageo to promote their products.
What they did last year, and possibly even previous years was in a number of pubs around the country, they demanded that non Diageo taps be covered up and there's a real feeling that it was mainly the craft beers that were targeted. The reason they could demand that is simple. They were providing the pubs with free stuff, be that free kegs of beer or free entertainment so it's reasonably fair enough for Diageo to make that request I suppose. In case there is doubt, here's an official source from the Belfast Telegraph.

There was also the crap they pulled at the BII awards last year where they threatened to pull sponsorship if Brewdog were given the award. This was at the last minute. Brewdog already knew they won, the trophy had their name on it so when someone else was called... well you can imagine the result. This got plenty of press so there's no need to expand on it here.

The new claims that I've heard go a lot further though. If true, this is a targeted and malicious attack on the small independent breweries of Ireland that have little to no marketing budget and certainly none to fight back such media giants. To me, and this is a gross exaggeration obviously, but to me, this targeted campaign is not far off something that happened in Germany to a certain population in the 1940s.
What I've heard is that Diageo are offering pubs significant sums of money of they take out their craft beer taps. It might not even be all of them, it might just be on a certain side of the bar, perhaps where the Guinness tap is. but they are still making the offer. One such pub apparently refused the offer. If this is indeed true, then it's very worrying.

I have also heard that Molson Coors have replaced genuine craft beer in some pubs with their own "Craft Collection". Now, it may very well be that the craft beer was not selling well and it was simply replaced by the pub rather than Molson Coors muscling in. I still have quite a high opinion of Molson Coors as a company.

If anyone from Diageo or indeed the other large breweries are reading this, I implore you to stop bullying pubs into getting rid of the small independent breweries products and instead concentrate on the quality of your own product. Take a leaf from Molson Coors perhaps and bring out your own craft range. Re-introduce Guinness on cask using the original recipes from 250 years ago. Produce limited batches in your pilot brewery if needs be. Increase your market share by making quality products that people want to drink. You already do that for the majority of stout drinkers in this country so why you see the need to bully the little breweries is beyond me. If Guinness was available on cask, I might drink it. If it's good, I would continue to drink it. And don't just stick your normal stuff in a cask. Brew it properly with a variety of malted barley and not just pale malt with extract to darken it. Use an old recipe from before the introduction of the nitro keg. There will be too much flavour for the modern Guinness drinker but for those of us that like a good hearty stout, we will probably love it.

I know Guinness released their recipe variations years ago, the brewhouse series. I for one enjoyed trying them all. It would be nice if a small batch of old original recipe Guinness was released and was only available in Ireland. Guinness is already a great tourist attraction for Ireland so the draw of a special batch of original recipe Guinness would boost our tourist industry somewhat.
I think the main reason the brewhouse series failed was firstly, the Irish people were not ready for it. The craft beer revolution only started after North Star disappeared.
Secondly, it was still a nitro stout so many of the variations in flavour were lost.

I'm going to finish here, I doubt anyone from Diageo reads this and if they do it will likely be ignored but just please.... stop with the bully boy tactics. You do yourselves absolutely no favours and worse, you do the pubs no favours. Irish people (some) are starting to vote with their feet when it comes to choice of beer. If you "encourage" a pub to only stock your products and take away the independent beers, that pub could lose customers who will nip down the road and get the drink they want to drink elsewhere. And if this latest rumour is just that, then please don't start doing it.