Island's edge opinions

irish_goat

Murphys is what is on tap in any Heineken venues up north e.g. The Odyssey Arena, Brandywell Stadium.

Weepsie

Well they've been quietly removing it from places and putting Murphy's back in. Olympia a few weeks ago and bord gais. Seemingly any venue that has a deal with Heineken's group. 3arena should switch too you'd think

Beamish is a lovely pint. Murphy's is decent. Islands edge is and always was dreadful

antimatterx

I've never been so happy to see a pint fail. All they had to do was push Beamish and Murphys further. I've never seen Murphys in Dublin

fmul9798

It does strike as some marketing guff that convinced some up-and-coming MBA, who in turn didn’t bother to get back to basics and actually do some research. They had two stouts in their portfolio, and they dumped money in to another. The marketing geniuses knew that the real reason those didn’t increase share was because they just didn’t know what the cool kids social media crew did. Perhaps their next will be a Heineken competitor.

waterwelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121316660#Comment_121316660

It's like Diageo. They still have Harp on keg, but it must be 20 years since they pushed it.

But instead of targeting the Under 40's market with a product that already has some presence / penetration, they come up with Hophouse 13 and Rockshore.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121317965#Comment_121317965

Diageo have been pushing Harp since last summer. Huge increase in the number of pubs with it in Dublin.

I suspect they realised there were Islands Edges lines coming out, as well as trying to recover the remaining Budweiser lines since it went to C&C. It has died a death in Dublin; most lines seem to have become Rockshore/Rockshore Light or now Harp. I'd drink all three in preference to Budweiser but it did have fans.

When HH13 came out (nearly a decade ago), Harp was more commonly remembered as a crap product; that had died out. Its not even that crap. Probably has more Sally O'Brien memories than assumptions about quality now.

waterwelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121317973#Comment_121317973

The brewing process is much the same for all Diageo lagers, so Harp is not brewed by any sort of "crap" process, it's just a legacy perception that it cuts the throat off you.

I've not seen any advertising of Harp yet anywhere, but it seems to be growing anyway.

Again, shows how "smart" all these marketing dudes are developing products while ignoring what's in front of them.

Budweiser was huge in Ireland once. Falling away to nothing now.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318020#Comment_121318020

C&C don't have the might to push to keep Budweiser on taps, plus I suspect all but its biggest fans have grown tired of its, erm, unique taste.

Changing Irish producer/distributor doesn't always work out well. Carlsberg is probably unique in bucking that - moved from Bachelors Beans (bottling import) -> Beamish (brewing) -> Guinness (brewing) and got bigger each time.

waterwelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318045#Comment_121318045

I'm sure I heard Budweiser is even brewed in the UK now for the Irish market.

Carlsberg has at least some international profile, champions league etc.

Budweiser Irish Derby anyone?

thesandeman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318087#Comment_121318087

???

ciaran76

Would have loved to be in the room when they pitched Islands Edge. Love to know what they actually thought they could achieve market wise.

BeerNut

It was all there in the launch PR bumf:

“We wanted to expand the category, to rejuvenate it and offer the consumer a new style of stout.” Paula Conlon, marketing manager for stout at Heineken told me. “The market had no innovation and was really quite stagnant. We wanted to offer something different to consumers, to appeal to people who hadn’t considered stout before.” The branding is light and colourful and should stand apart from the traditional black and white of other stouts.

“We asked ourselves ‘what is it about stout that people find difficult’?” Tierney told me. “The feedback we got was they can drink one pint but not a second one, or they don’t like the bitter aftertaste, or it’s an acquired taste, or that they felt full afterwards.”

“We also found that people found stout heavy, so the third thing we did was bring up the body of Island’s Edge to make it very smooth and creamy.” It has the same acidity and alcohol as a regular stout.

The Irish Times, 9th July 2021.

Personally I blame the public for feeding the Heineken people a load of absolute nonsense at the focus groups, and then when they developed the product to those specs, decided they didn't want it.

"They felt full afterwards". FFS. I am 100% convinced that the perception of modern dry stout being a heavy beer comes down to the connotation of the word "stout" and nothing else. If it was called "toasted beer" or the like, this wouldn't happen.

Beanstalk

The whole black tea thing was weird.

I'm just amazed in general at the monopoly Guinness has. Its pretty impressive. Almost the whole world associates Ireland with it and it would be impossible to compete with.

I'd love to get pints of Beamish in the North-West

waterwelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318594#Comment_121318594

Guinness is similar to Coca Cola in that it's something the whole world associates and very few competitors are making an impact.

odyssey06

Cute Hoor was another Heineken offering seemed to have died a similar death as Islands Edge, red ale offering instead of Smithwicks.

irish_goat

"The branding is light and colourful and should stand apart from the traditional black and white of other stouts."

Have they not seen their own branding?

waterwelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318626#Comment_121318626

How long did Applemans cider last?

It's hard to compete with Bulmers, they already had Orchard Thieves, then launched another.

Sound familiar?

Blisterman

Cute Hoor was a Pale Ale when it launched. Then they rebranded it to an IPA, despite it not actually being anything like an IPA. It's sole purpose seems to have been to convince pub owners that they already have an IPA on tap. So don't need to get any others.

BeerNut

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318609#Comment_121318609

The trick is to get your product established in the 19th century, when honest hard-working enterprises were unencumbered by annoying things like competition law. If you can attach yourself to a voracious globe-spanning imperial power structure, all the better. They don't teach that at Harvard Business School.

irish_goat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318594#Comment_121318594

The Anchor Bar in Derry has it now. £4 a pint too, which isn't bad for the city centre.

El Gato De Negocios

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318579#Comment_121318579

Ya I dont get this. Ive been a Guinness drinker for nearly 20 years and have never felt "full" on it. Quite the contrary in fact, if I was to drink lager in a pub, 4 or 5 pints would have me bloated as a bullfrog but I could throw back 10 pints of Guinness easily. I genuinely think its because people didnt want to say they simply didnt like the taste of Guinness so this notion of it being like a dinner was born.

Grumpypants

I had 10 pints of Guinness on Sunday and still had room for a snack box.

techman1

Carlsberg has at least some international profile, champions league etc.

Budweiser Irish Derby anyone?

Carlsberg is a huge drink internationally, it has fallen behind here because Heineken grabbed the "lager" association and then pushed Carlsberg out of alot of pubs if they only sold the Heineken beers .

Carlsberg brewed by Guinness here is far superior to the Carlsberg you get in the UK, its a pity can't get the dublin Carlsberg up north to avoid the MUP rip off here, Carlsberg up north seems to be the Northampton brewed stuff 3.8% alcohol

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318419#Comment_121318419

Let's have design a stout for a demographic that doesn't drink anyway.

beardo81

I am in the extreme minority but I really enjoyed drinking Islands Edge - my local bar served it. However, I was pretty much the only one drinking it.

I usually drink Guinness but it is still definitely hit and miss in some bars, consistency remains an issue. Wherever I had IE it always seemed consistent, however they did it.

They have replaced the tap with Murphys already, I will have a few pints of that in future but nothing is breaking that Guinness monopoly. They are so iconic there is unlimited free advertising for them all over social media channels.

Islands Edge marketing was absolutely awful and the off license cans had a crap widget or whatever it is that gives the head. I will miss the pub pint but no sympathy for Heineken losing their bollix after fluffing the launch and subsequent ongoing promotion of it. Awful name too.

the beer revolu

I think it's the nitro serving style that has people thinking Irish stout is "heavy". It's because it feels thicker like cream that puts it in people's minds. That and the colour and it's relative opacity gives a "rich" perception.

Blisterman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318755#Comment_121318755

I my student days, when challenged to a pint downing race, (Aww those were the days) I always picked Guinness to the astonishment of the opposition who assumed it was a thick heavy drink, whereas it's actually much easier to down without all the fizziness of lagers.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318869#Comment_121318869

And less drink as the head removes volume.

Smart.

BeerNut

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318755#Comment_121318755

If so, Heineken decided to address the problem by producing another nitrogenated stout. Well done, lads. Didn't see that coming.

I know nitro red is barely a thing any more, but it doesn't have the same perception. As regards the colour, do these people think a slice of toast is more calorific than raw bread? What are they teaching them?

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318626#Comment_121318626

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121317922#Comment_121317922

Cute Hoor and Islands Edge are both attempts to make fake craft beer to fool more casual beer drinkers.

Happy to see both fail. Big giant fekwits like Heineken can't just be happy with their huge brands and have to try take every little bit of the market.