This London pub is introducing ‘Guinness Ration Cards’

It’s happening. Just in time for Christmas, the Guinness shortage we were warned about is actually here. All those people mentioning Guinness on their Hinge profiles are going to have to find something else to base their personalities on now. 

We don’t want to alarm you, but we are running out of the black stuff. Brits are drinking so much of the stout that Diageo, which distils the drink, has announced that it will be imposing limits on British pubs and restaurants over the Christmas period to ensure that there’s enough for everyone to have their fair share. This won’t affect Irish retailers, so you only need to be concerned if you’re in the UK.

And one London pub decided to take matters into its own hands and introduce a Guinness ration card. It’s giving World War II. 

The Old Ivy House in Clerkenwell has issued cards to customers which limits them to one pint of Guinness per person, but only after they have bought two different drinks first.

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The landlady Katie Davidson told Time Out: ‘The idea of the Guinness Ration cards was a bit of fun really, and never meant as a hard and fast rule. It just made things a bit more interesting than saying “WE’VE RUN OUT”, like every other pub. It was intended to be a talking point amongst customers and it was generally taken with the lightheartedness that it was intended.’

The big booze bosses at Diageo partly blamed the viral ‘splitting the G’ trend on the shortage, as the drink’s popularity has skyrocketed over the past couple of years thanks to the game where people try to land the head of the pint exactly in the centre of the ‘G’ on the glass.

Other London pub owners claimed that some establishments had been ‘stockpiling’ Guinness kegs. Patrick Fitzsimons who runs the Faltering Fullback told the Independent: ‘It’s been very difficult. We’re a very high-volume customer. We normally do 35 to 50 kegs a week and we’re down to 12. It’s not going to be enough to meet demand. Lots of suppliers have nothing in their yards anymore.

‘There’s been lots of people stockpiling which has been drying up supply as well. That inflates the price obviously. If I was to go to the wholesaler I’d be losing 20-30 pence a pint.’

A spokesperson for Diageo said: ‘Over the past month we have seen exceptional consumer demand for Guinness in GB. We have maximised supply and we are working proactively with our customers to manage the distribution to trade as efficiently as possible.’

UPDATE: The Old Ivy House has informed us they now have Guinness back on tap. Cheers to that!

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