Guinness has said it has no plans to stop selling Hop House 13 in Ireland after the brand was last week discontinued in Britain.
Hop House 13 was developed as part of a bid to cash in on the growing demand for craft beer. The beer was created as part of Diageo’s “brewers’ project” at St James’s Gate in Dublin and took an almost immediate 3 per cent share of the market locally. It also performed well initially in Britain and became one of the top-selling beer brands there.
However, sales in Britain have nosedived during the coronavirus pandemic, declining 8.7 per cent in the year to the end of September last to £26.7 million (€30.6 million), according to Nielsen.
Beer innovations
Diageo last week confirmed the brand is to disappear from pubs, supermarkets and off-licences in Britain in the coming weeks. But a spokesman said there were no plans to discontinue the brand in the Republic.
“Hop House 13 is a much-loved beer and one of the most successful beer innovations in Ireland of the past six years from the brewers of Guinness,” he said. “Customers can be reassured that it will continue to be available across take-home trade outlets in Ireland” when pubs reopen.
