In the days leading up to Christmas, stout-lovers were left reeling from a nationwide shortage of Guinness so severe that some pubs were forced to ration pints of the “black stuff” as taps began to run dry.
Supermarkets remain at risk of running out due to customers’ stockpiling, according to reports, while the maker of the popular stout, Diageo, has even sent for back-up Guinness reserves from Ireland.
Now it can be revealed that criminals appear to have gone to even greater lengths to beat the drought, with a heist that exacerbated the nationwide shortage.
A truck carrying 400 50-litre kegs of the Irish stout – equivalent to 35,200 pints – disappeared from a depot in the Midlands in mid-December, the Guardian can reveal.
It is understood the truck, whose contents were destined for pubs desperate for kegs of Guinness during the festive peak, was stolen from a logistics hub near Daventry, in Northamptonshire.
Diageo, which owns Guinness, declined to comment on the alleged theft.
But sources familiar with the incident confirmed that a subcontractor working for a company in the Diageo supply chain had reported the theft to the police.
The Guardian has approached Northamptonshire police for comment but the whereabouts of the purloined Guinness is understood to remain a mystery.
The Guinness shortage has been fuelled by its newfound popularity with gen Z, many of whom like to pose, pint in hand, on social media. Diageo, which brews the stout at its St James’s Gate brewery in Dublin, has intensified its marketing efforts and worked with influencers over the past few years to raise Guinness’s profile.
The apparent theft continues a spate of recent crimes in which edible delicacies have been pilfered.
In December, a Michelin-starred chef issued a public appeal to thieves who stole his van containing 2,500 pies to “do the right thing” and give them to people in need.
Two months earlier, detectives investigating the theft of 22 tonnes of cheese from Neal’s Yard Dairy arrested a 63-year-old man on suspicion of fraud by false representation and handling stolen goods.
The London cheese specialist had delivered 950 wheels of cheddar – reported to be worth up to £300,000 – to an alleged fraudster posing as a wholesale distributor for a big French retailer.
Nor is the Great Guinness Heist of 2024 the first time that thieves have taken advantage of the busy Christmas period to scarper with thousands of pints of the ebony nectar.
In 2007, a van drove into the St James’s Gate brewery, where Guinness is made, and escaped with 180 kegs of Guinness, 180 kegs of Budweiser and 90 kegs of Carlsberg, the equivalent of 40,000 pints, also in the run-up to Christmas.
• This article was amended on 31 December 2024. The original version said 400 kegs contained about 20,000 pints. The true figure (for 50-litre kegs) is 35,200 pints.
