Diageo adds bottled beer to Guinness

By Arabella Mileham

Published: 23 March, 2015

Diageo is further extending its Guinness brand with a new premium bottled ale.

Guinness Golden Ale, which will rolls out inApril, is the third bottled beer to join the line-up after the drinks giant launched a stout and porter, Guinness West Indies and Guinness Dublin Porters, in September. The new 4.5% ABV ale has been developed as part of The Brewers Project, a Diageo initiative in which six brewers within St. James's Gate in Dublin, research and "reinterpret" the company's historic beers.

The company said the ale had a "subtle biscuit flavours" from the malted barley with a "pleasing bitterness", delicate hop aroma and clean finish. The launch of Guinness Golden Ale is being supported by a £4.5M advertising campaign across PR, out-of-home, cinema, digital and in store.

The company is keen to tap into the growing craft and bottled beer sector, and previously estimated Guinness' bottled beers could add around £58m of sales to the category, across the on- and off-trade. However it reported poor beer sales in its first half results in January. Beer sales across Europe were down 4% on a reported basis on flat volumes, and Guinness sales down 4%, on volumes down 2%, which the company said had been impacted in the UK by weakness in the on-trade.

Next month Diageo is rolling out a new strawberry and mint variant Pimms, which is based on Pimm's No.1 Cup, and has a 20% ABV. Available in 70cl and 1L bottles, as well as in a premix can, it was developed following the success of Pimms Blackberry and Elderflower, which the brand claims has recruited 40% more new shoppers to the Pimm's brand.

Earlier this week the drinks giant announced it was to provide on-pack nutrition and calorie information per typical serving across its entire beer wines and spirits portfolio

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