'Beer Hunter' lifts 40,000 pints of Guinness

Guinness's St James's Gate brewery in Dublin has been hit by an audacious raid in which an evidently thirsty man dubbed "the Beer Hunter" made off with 40,000 pints of the famous stout. According to the Times, the perp simply drove into the brewery yard in his own HGV, hitched it to a "well-provisioned" trailer and drove out …

[Matt Taylor]

Mmmmm, beeeeeeeeeeeeeer

Someone's going to have a wicked Christmas party this year.

[Telic]

Carbonated Conundrum

Perhaps the suds were stolen by misguided environmentalists.

A story in New Scientist magazine warns of dangerous greenhouse gas emissions by household beverage refrigerators, particularly from beer-loving Canadians...

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12975-beer-fridges-present-a-gassy-problem.html

[Rob]

I agree...

... what could they possibly want with all that beer, crazy fools.

By the way having a big huge party at the weekend, everyone's invited and the drink is free, so arrive early before it all runs out.

(Cloakroom's closed, where do I get my jacket from?)

[moylan]

personal use, honestly

it's christmas and somebody is just getting the beer in.

[Alex Wright]

Its the metal, stupid!

The kegs will be made of valuable aluminum. I suspect the beer will be poured down the drain.

[Paul Williams]

Hmmmm

So 40k pints have a value of 46k?

So why is it that in my local a pint of Guinness is £2.90?

Reckless profiteering? Surely not!

[Anonymous Coward]

@Paul Williams

Its the duty which which makes it £2.90 a pint - government probably makes more money off a pint than than the brewery

[Ash]

@Telic

Guinnes is fed by Nitrogen; cabonating Guinness would be terrible!

If you want to see why, ask your local to pour you a Guinnes shandy.

[Steven]

Marked Up

I suspect the 46k is purely the 'cost' to Guinness of the lost beer kegs as they would sell 90 kegs for a hell of a lost more than 46 grand!!

Either way you've got to give the perps the thumbs up!

[Ross]

Suspect

The driver is of a stout build...i hear.

[Alex Rose]

@Steven

Diageo are not including the cost of the kegs. It's 450 kegs (360 Guinness plus 90 Carlsberg) and a pub would pay around £100 per 11 gallon keg depending on who they were (with a big buying group or a small independent) and how much they bought.

Before anyone goes on about reckless profiteering they should bear in mind the other costs a pub or bar incurs that have to be paid out of the profits. If you don't like £2.90 for a pint why not drink at home? Restaurants too expensive? Eat at home. Clothes too expensive? Make your own.

Economics 101 anybody?

[Alex Rose]

@Ash

It's actually a 70%/30% mix of nitrogen and carbon dioxide.

I clearly need to get a life!

[Anonymous Coward]

The black market will be rife

Also Guinness and Coke is supposedly quite nice. What happens?

[jim]

@ Refund

How much refund will they get for returning the empty kegs?

[Lloyd]

Am I the only who thought it?

"360 kegs of Guinness and Budweiser and 90 kegs of Carlsberg"

Nice, they even got something for the ladies, no self respecting man would drink Carlsberg.

[Anonymous Coward]

They're out to

drink some damn beer it might not be enough.Whoever thinks it's for the metal isn't considering the weight of a keg around 160 lbs each full you can steal empties a lot easier than you can full ones. Not only that but most kegs have been made from (mostly) steel since people started stealing them it makes them even heavier. I doubt this beer is going anywhere but where beer normally goes at perhaps a small discount.

[Stuart McGuinness]

pedantry

The correct characterisation of Guinness is to described it as "pushed" by nitrogen (actually compressed air I think) and not C02 which is the means by which your lagers etc reach your glass.

Dissolved C02 produces carbonic acid which is the taste of fizz we Guinness drinkers choose to avoid by waiting patiently for the much smaller microbubbles of air, not C02 to settle into the perfect creamy head with its artistic shamrock lovingly inscribed by a raven haired beauty whose perfect figure ...etc

[Stratman]

If you've got the front to pull it off....

Many years ago (10-12 or so) I was working at the Open Golf for a world-famous national broadcasting corporation. After it was all over and the huge derig was under way a large flatbed lorry with crane arrived and started lifting the temporary aluminium roadway segments from our compound. Each piece was worth about £900. After he had finished and left, a man with a large flatbed lorry with crane arrived and asked "Where's all my trackway"?

[Jason Irwin]

Beer?

Budweiser is not beer! It's near tasteless, fizzy yellow water. Ick.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ They're out to

I think you're missing the point - if they're out to steal the kegs, then yes it's true that emptier ones are lighter; however, when the trailer is hooked up to an HGV (as opposed to hauled away by hand) then the weight difference evidently doesn't matter much. In which case, the huge quantity of good beer and Carlsberg is merely a welcome bonus to celebrate a successful beer heist!

[Dave Bullions]

Carlsberg

Carlsberg don't do brewery raids, but if they did...........

[Anonymous Coward]

@Lloyd

No self respecting man or woman drinks Budweiser either.

[Michael]

Reminds me of this story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6469489.stm

No yoke ....sorry ,joke!

[Rob]

@Dave Bullions

Carlsberg don't do brewery raids, but if they did........... the men would be clad in black commando gear and would take over the brewery which was being defended by stunning scantily clad female security guards who didn't put up much of a fight but explosions and drama would still ensue....

[Daniel]

its a sing a long

40,000 pints of Guinness sitting on a wall, 40,000 pints of Guinness sitting on a wall,

And if one pint of Guinness should accidently fall

There will be 39,999 pints of Guinness sitting on a wall...

39,999 pints of Guinness sitting on a wall, 39,999 pints of Guinness sitting on a wall,

And if one pint of Guinness should accidently fall

There will be 39,998 pints of Guinness sitting on a wall...

...28 days later...

1 pint of Guinness sitting on a wall, 1 pint of Guinness sitting on a wall,

And if one pint of Guinness should accidently fall

There will be 90 pints of Carlsberg sitting on a wall...

..boom boom

[Anonymous Coward]

£2.90 a pint?!

How come in the small Banana Republic I live in, a bottle (355 ml) of Guinness costs the equivalet of £1,45? that makes a pint less than £2!

... you should come over here and have a drink with us!

[Simon Round]

@ Lloyd

"Nice, they even got something for the ladies"

Surely it's a glass of wine for the Ladies! according to the Pub Landlord.

[Bob C]

Self-respect?

Perhaps no self-respecting man would drink Budweiser or Carlsberg, but I'm sure the plan is drink the Guinness first, then you'll be sloshed enough that self-respect doesn't matter. On to the Bud ...

[Tony]

I read the article on the beeb site

A couple of comments from the beeb that made me smile:

"Police found the abandoned vehicle. It was empty"

"the biggest carry-out this Christmas"

I also note that the criminals waited until all the police were tied up dealing with the anti drink/driving campaign before pulling the heist. Clearly very public spirited as they are trying to remove temptation.

[Stuart McGuinness]

worst beer in the world

has to be coors lite - bleeugh

like makin out in a canoe 'king close to water

[Rick Brasche]

"Budweiser"?

what the hell was one of our local "coyote piss" so-called brews doing on the same truck? I guarantee you that swill's going down the drain, and contributing to pollution too. Ugh.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dumb driver

Why would anyone steal Guinness let alone drink it?!

Its like the own store cheap and crappy brand of lager to other Quality stouts!

Now if he wanted a Good Christmas He should have gone to Murphys brewery in Cork, but then those dubs are as thick as 2 short planks!

UbuntuCork.

[4.1.3_U1]

@£2.90 a pint?!

"a bottle (355 ml) of Guinness costs the equivalet of £1,45? that makes a pint less than £2!"

I think you'll find that a pint is around 565ml, and 1.45*565/355 = £2.31

[heystoopid]

Hero

My hero , think of all the punters he or she saved from drinking all that tasteless yankee ersatz lolly water or Iraqi camels piss they call a brewed beer over at A-B !

[Vladimir Plouzhnikov]

To set the record straight

There is Budweiser and Budweiser

One is a licenced American crap, tasting and smelling of puke.

The other is the original Czech recipe, which is one of the best pilsners in the world.

I don't know which one was stollen. The American imitation is what's called Bud. The Czech one is always Budweiser.

[Chris]

Similar tricks

Landlord of a pub near me lost his fruity when some guys (wearing Hi-Vis Jackets, steels and holding a clip-board with a form on it) came in with a hand truck and told the landlord that his fruit machine was up for replacement. They got him to sign to sign the form, wheeled his out, calmly loaded thier truck and f***ed off with out replacing it. One phone call later and he ascertained he'd just been shafted.

[John Winters]

To straighten the record further...

...neither of them is stollen - they're both beers (sort of).

[Steve Medway]

Probably the best lager heist in the world

It was 'probably the best lager heist in the world'.....

I'll get my coat

[IDK]

If tehy had friends os...

... maybe they were planning a party, with the food coming from here Downunder?

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/bacon-bandits-ham-it-up-for-christmas/2007/12/03/1196530510392.html

[Mr Larrington]

Budweiser?

Why?

Assuming it's the Leftpondian wee-wee, it's the only stuff I've ever drunk[1] which gets you from "sober" to "hung-over" without an intermediate phase of "pissed". Will no-one put a stop to this madness?

1 - small-town Leftpondia after Saturday night closing time, and someone else had bought the filthy muck

[Steve]

@Vladimir Plouzhnikov

Guinness in Dublin makes the US Bud under licence. AFAIK the real Budweiser Budvar is only made in České Budějovice.

Where's the "mine's a pint" icon?

[Bob Gateaux]

@Anonymous Coward

"Its the duty which which makes it £2.90 a pint - government probably makes more money off a pint than than the brewery"

That's simply not true - although the breweries and most landlords would love you to believe it.

The duty in the UK in 2006 (sorry I don't have the 2007 figures to hand) on a 5% pint of beer was just 38p per pint (there's VAT too but that applies to most things).

The breweries and landlords use any minor budgetary increase to smack a load more on top to increase their margins. It has become standard practice in the UK to increase the price of a pint of beer by at least 5, and quite often 10 pence whenever the chancellor puts a penny on a pint. That's where the real rip-off is going on.

[Sweep]

@Vladimir Plouzhnikov

The Czech one is usually referred to as Budvar.

The American version is usually referred to as rat's piss.

[Anonymous Coward]

Budweiser makes me ashamed to say I'm American.

More so than the war, our dyslectic ideologue of a president, or even Microsoft's crappy excuse for an OS, nothing makes me more ashamed of being American that what most American’s call beer. To make matters worse, we have three equally bad national brands: Bud, Miller, and Coors.

[Aubry Thonon]

@4.1.3_U1

A pint is 473.18ml, which make a pint ~£1.93

(reposting as my link seem to go down just as I posted my first comment)

[Anonymous Coward]

yuck

budweiser...... filtered through the clydesdales...

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually you're both right

1 US Pint = 473.18ml

1 UK (Imperial) Pint = 568ml

[tony trolle]

bud or rats piss

Stuck in SoCal and British I would Like to let it be Known Bud is the secound best rats piss the best being Miller Genuine Draft. MGD is not too bad out of a can either. If I was back in Briton I would hardly drink larger and IMHA Murphys is better than Guinness. BTW What happened to hedgehog flavo(u)r crisps (chips) the best ones were made with Murphys.

The beer from Samuel Addams is good IF the damm stuff has not been cooked to death on transportation. Best if you can find a microbrewery.