An independent craft brewery making a nitro porter to rival Guinness has revealed sales of the brew are up by 110% year on year as interest in dark beer surges.
Like Diageo, Anspach & Hobday said it was struggling to keep up with demand, and had subsequently introduced a waiting list for new stockists of its London Black beer.
“The list will allow us to regulate the speed of expansion and support existing customers,” said co-founder Jack Hobday. “Whilst we ramp up production, we will also be working with our wholesalers directly, to help them manage demand and encourage similar lists.”
The Croydon-based brewer only introduced London Black to its lineup in 2021, but “buoyed by a wave of national interest in dark beers”, the 4.4% tipple had quickly become its bestseller, Hobday said. The brewer expects to make almost half a million litres of London Black this year.
“London Black continues to make up over 70% of our production, and 73% of all packaged goods in the last three months,” Hobday said. “Keeping up with such growth in volumes has been a great challenge for our team.
“In what can only be ascribed to some fantastic brewing and supply chain management, we have managed to keep the taps pouring across London, the nation and abroad,” he added. “This is despite a near shortage of London Black since August, when a bumper July depleted our stocks.”
Predominantly, London Black is served in the on-trade in pubs and bars, but Anspach & Hobday added a canned version of the beer this year after requests from off-trade outlets, Hobday said.
Moving into 2025, the brewer would continue to increase small-pack production of London Black, he revealed. “When supply allows, we believe that we can continue to make inroads into markets previously denied to smaller brewers.
“You won’t see London Black in 400 Tescos around the country, but there’s definitely an appetite from smaller, local retailers and convenience stores that want to stock an independent alternative to Diageo’s Guinness.
“Our challenge now is to up supply as London Black’s reputation continues to grow.”
Diageo this week moved to reassure drinkers stocks of Guinness would not run dry over Christmas after reporting “exceptional consumer demand” over the past month.
The London-based drinks giant has rationed supplies to both the on- and off-trade in order to prevent shortages.
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