The Six Nations and Cheltenham Festival have been specially ring-fenced from running out of Guinness after claims of a nationwide shortage of the popular stout.
Twickenham and the racecourse in Gloucestershire are understood to be among venues assured their taps will not run dry despite surging demand.
Guinness is synonymous with both events and sponsors both the men’s and women’s Six Nations tournaments. More than 250,000 pints of the brand are drunk every year at Cheltenham as Irish spectators arrive in their droves.
Cheltenham and its popular Guinness Village drinking area will open on March 11, while the Six Nations kicks off on Friday. All on-site drinking venues, including Twickenham’s Guinness Surge Bar, have been told there is no risk of running dry, Telegraph Sport understands.
Reports first emerged of shortages in pubs before Christmas, with Irish bars in Britain complaining they had run dry in the busy festive period. Guinness’s owner Diageo then announced it was limiting how much pubs can buy because of “exceptional consumer demand”.
Sceptics on social media have suggested it could be a marketing ploy – something Diageo has denied. However, surging sales of rival stout Murphy’s reflect the broader revival of a pint that gripped Britain in 2024.
Darker beers have enjoyed an explosion of demand, with supermarket sales of stouts soaring by 13 per cent in December, according to recent NIQ data. The strong increase came despite total sales of beer, wine and spirits falling by 1.6 per cent over the same period.
Heineken, which owns Murphy’s, said sales of its 169 year-old stout had enjoyed a 632 per cent rise in British pubs and bars in December compared with a year earlier.
Any suggestion of shortages would be disastrous at Cheltenham, which has frozen ticket prices after attendances dropped on three out of four days last year.
Accommodation rates, beer prices in town and waterlogged car parks were blamed by spectators after crowd numbers fell marginally for consecutive years.
