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[title]The UK is in the grip of a Guinness renaissance. Previously known as an old-man’s drink, the black stuff started to appear in the hands of hipsters in east London beer gardens a few years ago. It wasn’t long before normies got involved, then celebs like Olivia Rodrigo and even Kim Kardashian wanted a pint, too. Soon, Guinness was everywhere: on Hinge profiles and on Instagram stories of happy drinkers ‘splitting the G’ or tagging @shitlondonguinness. Even fashion brands like JW Anderson and Carhartt jumped in on the hype with clothing collabs. In 2024 there was no hiding from it: it was cool to be drinking, wearing and being part of Guinness.
Then, in December, a crisis hit. Rumours of a Guinness shortage started to swirl – much to our horror. Diageo’s breweries allegedly couldn’t keep up with the demand. Guinness taps were running dry, pubs were plastered with signs saying ‘none left’ and The Old Ivy House in London’s Clerkenwell was even handing out ration cards to punters. What were the Guinness fanatics going to do?
But, just when we thought the cult of stout was over for good, another lesser-known Irish import arrived to save the day. Enter Murphy’s. The stout, owned by Heineken and founded in Cork in the mid-19th century, came in fighting with a promotional campaign poking fun at the Guinness slogan and shortage: ‘Good things come to those waiting,’ it read. Heineken even unveiled a handy interactive map with every pub in the UK that was stocking Murphy’s.
It worked: according to Heineken, sales of Murphy’s increased by a whopping 632 percent across the UK in December. And with a spokesperson from Diageo telling Food Ingredients First that demand for Guinness ‘remains at unprecedented levels’ while they struggled to replenish stock in time for the Guinness Six Nations, it looks like we might be in the market for a new – dare I say it, more reliable – stout to stick around. But can Murphy’s actually challenge for the capital’s stout crown, once and for all?
‘People think that Guinness is the most ubiquitous of the Irish stouts, and it is, but it is not homogeneous,’ says Melissa Cole, a beer expert and writer of The Ultimate Book of Craft Beer. ‘Certainly in the Cork area, Murphy’s is more popular’. The battle between Guinness and Murphy’s dates back centuries, and, according to The Daily Telegraph, Murphy’s even won gold at the 1892 Brewers and Allied Trades Exhibition in Dublin, Guinness’ home territory. Fans of Murphy’s swear that it is the smoother and creamier pint but its popularity never quite made it across the water to the UK. Murphy’s remained niche, while Guinness reigned superior.
Sales of Murphy’s increased by 632 percent in December
That was, until recently. Even before the Guinness shortage, Murphy’s had started to slowly pop up on taps across London pubs – over 2024 it saw an overall increase of 176 percent in UK sales, and in November, The Irish Examiner announced that ‘the stout battle between Guinness and Murphy’s’ had moved to the UK. But, why, when Guinness was already the UK’s official favourite pint, were pubs even bothering to look for another stout? Guinness had us in a chokehold.
‘Diageo raised its prices [of Guinness] and then fell into a short fall,’ explains Cole. And for many pub owners already dealing with higher energy bills and increasing costs of food and other drinks, it was certainly a big thing; between February 2023 and 2024, the average price of a pint of Guinness went up by eight percent in the UK. Patrick Fitzsimons, boss at the Faltering Fullback in London’s Finsbury Park, started stocking Murphy’s last April after the rate of Guinness ‘went through the roof’. ‘Diageo seemed to just name their price, and everyone just took it,’ he says. ‘We wanted to show that there were other beers out there’.
At the Faltering Fullback, Fitzsimons prices a pint of Murphy’s at £5.20, £1 less than Guinness. ‘We placed them on the bar side by side… it is a hell of a lot cheaper,’ he says. Since the shortage, Fitzsimons has been pointing his customers towards Murphy’s when Guinness is not on tap. ‘Now Murphy’s is up to 25 percent of our stout sales,’ he says. ‘It is a very, very good product’.
Stocking Murphy’s offers punters an alternative. ‘Murphy’s has all the theatre of Guinness; the two-part pour and it has a lot of history behind it,’ says Séamus O’Neill, who grew up in West Cork and owns the Dog and Bell in Deptford. And with the arrival of the Six Nations, which Guinness sponsors, as well as St Patrick’s Day fast approaching, pubs are having to think hard and fast about Guinness substitutes. When I first speak to O’Neill in mid-January, his Guinness taps are dry — and this is when people are traditionally drinking less. ‘We’re only getting about 60 percent of what we need,’ he says. ‘The unreliability of Guinness is very disappointing… people are starting to get pissed off’.
Murphy’s does everything that Guinness does, but makes you feel like you’re on holiday
Some pubs in the capital are even choosing to favour Murphy’s over Guinness completely. The Lord Nelson in Southwark refuses to sell Guinness and only stocks Murphy’s. While Cafe Mondo, the recently opened and much-hyped sandwich shop in Peckham, opted for Murphy’s, rather than Guinness as one of their two beer taps. ‘Everyone loves an underdog, Guinness has got a bit big for its boots, frankly,’ says Viggo Blegvad, co-owner. ‘Murphy’s does everything that Guinness does, but it makes you feel like you’re on holiday'.
The reception to Murphy’s at Cafe Mondo has been overwhelmingly positive. ‘We’ve heard people say ‘‘Oh my god, they have Murphy’s’’,’ Blegvad says. But what do drinkers actually think? ‘I first tried it when I was in Ireland a few years ago,’ says Joe Ryan, 25, from Peckham. ‘When I saw it on tap here, I ordered it straight away… I think it is slightly sweeter than Guiness’.
When I visited the Dog and Bell last weekend, heaving with young, creative types, I saw many of them with a Murphy’s in hand. ‘It is just as good, maybe even better than a Guinness,’ one man with a mullet says. ‘It’s easier to drink and is a bit different’. O’Neill was always a Murphy’s drinker himself. ‘I prefer a pint of Murphy’s, absolutely,’ he says. And he’s sure that his customers have started to follow his lead. ‘We’ve got a lot of regular drinkers now, even when we do have Guinness back in stock, that will opt for Murphy’s instead,’ says O’Neill. ‘I hope it takes over. I’ll always support a Cork brand’.
There are certainly pros to stocking Murphy’s. ‘The benefit Murphy’s has is that it is part of the Heineken portfolio,’ explains Cole. This means it can be offered to pubs in packages with other products, which may make it more financially viable. Heineken also owns 2,400 pubs of its own across the UK, where Murphy’s could be the only stout on tap. With this backing, ‘[Murphy’s] could look to potentially usurp Guinness,’ Cole says.
I’ve never met a more blindly loyal bunch than Guinness drinkers
But how likely is it, really? Despite the shortage, Guinness remains many people’s go-to drink. ‘I’ve never met a more blindly loyal bunch of drinkers than Guinness drinkers,’ Cole says. ‘It would take something very drastic for Murphy’s to completely take over,’ adds Fitzsimons. But, if there was ever a time for Murphy’s to do it, it is now.
‘Murphy’s are going to take a run at it, at least,’ says Cole, because right now it is only growing in popularity. ‘It’s an Irish heritage brand… it is not in any way an inferior product,’ says O’Neill. What’s more, O’Neill reckons that the Guinness situation ‘is rumoured in the industry to be getting worse’. ‘Our main supplier today has informed us we are being rationed to three kegs of Guinness a week for the foreseeable,’ he says.
So, who knows, in a year from now, could we be living in the age of something different? The Murphy’s aesthetic, where a different (black) liquid gold will be flowing. Maybe, we’ll all be ‘splitting the M’?
Read more: Why are Londoners suddenly obsessed with Guinness?
Plus: The best stouts and porters you can buy in London (that aren’t Guinness)