Many Halifax pubs running low on Guinness

Some Halifax-area pubs have been out of Guinness for a week.

One of the last few pints of Guinness was poured at the Old Triangle Irish Alehouse in Halifax Wednesday afternoon.

“There is a little shortage of kegs of Guinness in the province. I don’t think there are many places, I don’t think there are any places that have, presently have stocks of Guinness,” says owner Brian Doherty.

Following word of a pre-Christmas shortage in the U.K., Doherty wasn’t taking any chances and ordered extra for his pub.

Now he’s down to his last two kegs and he doesn’t expect them to last long. Doherty figures he gets about 90 pints of Guinness per keg.

“We’re very proud of the fact that since we opened the Triangle, we’ve probably sold over one million pints of Guinness and all the years we’ve been open and this is our 25th year,” he says.

Up the road at Durty Nelly’s, Joe McGuinness has been out of Guinness since last Wednesday

“Our guests are disappointed, we’re disappointed that we can’t serve an iconic Irish beer at an iconic Irish bar. Guinness is extremely popular here, this is by far our number one selling beer in this bar,” he says. “We’ve run out before for maybe three or four days but never for a couple of weeks.”

One place that still has lots of Guinness on hand is the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission.

“We haven’t had any issues in providing Guinness and making it available for our shoppers,” NSLC spokesperson Terah McKinnon says.

Doherty says that’s because lovers of the Irish stout would never crack open a can of Guinness.

“Our general manager here comes from Dublin and he would think it was sacrilegious to serve a can of Guinness in place of a pint coming out of a keg,” he says.

Doherty has heard the next shipment is due to arrive by ship in on Monday so Guinness lovers looking for a pint this weekend might need the luck of the Irish to find one.

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