British Drinkers of Guinness Say They'd Rather Take It Slow

By DEBORAH BALL
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

LONDON -- Beer traditionalists have had their say: Guinness is worth the wait.

British drinkers have rejected a new tap that pours a pint (half a liter) of Guinness in just 25 seconds, an effort by the brand's owner, London-based Diageo PLC, to rejuvenate the iconic Irish stout. Traditionally, it has taken 119.5 seconds to "pull" the perfect pint of Guinness, a ritual whereby the bartender holds the glass at a 45-degree angle, fills it three-quarters full, lets it settle and tops it off with its signature creamy head.

While the slow pour has long been key to Guinness's appeal to locals as well as travelers, it has made it tough to rejuvenate a brand whose core drinkers are aging in some markets. Younger drinkers can't be bothered to wait nearly two minutes for a drink and often opt for a premixed bottled drink such as Smirnoff Ice or Bacardi Breezer or a paler beer. Furthermore, a two-minute pour can seem an eternity to bar staff on a busy Saturday night and also makes Guinness hard to serve at busy venues such as rock concerts. The result is that sales of Guinness, which is Diageo's main beer brand and earns 15% of group operating profit, have been stagnant for several years.

So last year, Diageo came out with FastPour, an ultrasound technology that dispenses the dark brew in just 25 seconds, figuring bars in the U.K., Guinness's second-largest market after Ireland, would welcome the development. But after a three-month trial, Guinness has scrapped FastPour after finding that it didn't appeal to Guinness drinkers.

Guinness drinkers have spoken: They want a slow pour.

"We found that consumers think that the slow pour reflects the spirit of the brand," says Ailish Hanley, spokeswoman for Guinness for the U.K. market. "Bar owners felt it creates some theater in the bar."

She said that Guinness had no current plans for other U.K. experiments with the pouring system.

Guinness had never planned on rolling out FastPour in the U.S., where the beer already enjoys a cachet among younger drinkers as a premium imported beer and where most of the product is sold in bottles, not on tap.

While Diageo is sticking with the slow pour in the U.K., it hasn't stopped tinkering with it elsewhere. Guinness is in the midst of a three-month trial in Tokyo of a new system dubbed Guinness Surger. The system aims at expanding the brand in bars that are too small to accommodate the brand's bulky keg system. With Guinness Surger, a bartender pours a pint from the bottle and places the glass on a special plate, where it is zapped with ultrasound waves that generate the characteristic head.