T in the Dark

By Gordon Davidson

This month sees the on-trade launch of Tennent’s Stout, the latest product from Wellpark Brewery’s newly active innovation pipeline.

Hot on the heels of Tennent’s Bavarian Pilsner and Tennent’s Tops, which are both now permanent features of the brand portfolio, Tennent’s Stout may prove to be Wellpark’s most consequential new development yet.

When SLTN met with Tennent’s senior brand manager Hazel Alexander and beer innovation manager Cameron Johnston to see and sample the new beer, there was no disguising their pride in the product.

In consumer taste tests, it has reportedly been scoring ‘incredibly well’, even exceeding its creators’ own expectations, and as SLTN went to press for October, literally hundreds of taps were going up on bars all over Scotland, following an equally enthusiastic reception from operators.

Both Alexander and Johnston were keen to stress that, despite Wellpark’s iconic status as the home of Scotland’s favourite lager, this diversion into producing stout is not at all unprecedented.

“Tennent’s have been brewing stout here since the 1700s, since before the Jacobites, before Rabbie Burns,” said Hazel.

“Looking back before Tennent’s arrived here, there’s been a tradition of brewing ale on this spot since the times of Michelangelo,” added Cameron.

“If you look at the history, the site has done lager for less time than it has done everything else.”

There has, of course, been an Export Stout coming out of Wellpark for years, the bulk of which goes to Ukraine, where it’s very popular. But the only place Scots could taste that brew was in the Wellpark visitors bar, eliciting the common refrain ‘why don’t you get this into the pubs?’.

Cameron stressed that Tennent’s Stout, while drawing on that dark beer export expertise, is an ‘all-new’ recipe, brewed to be more accessible. 

“It’s also got some wheat in it, which makes it creamier than the export,” he adds.

But why pick this moment to officially put the big red ‘T’ into ‘stout’?

“There’s been a real swell of interest around stout,” said Hazel.

“It’s become a big part of the culture, with people talking about where you can get the perfect pint etc.

“Even consumers who don’t drink stout are aware of that cultural moment, that social media focus, which in turn makes them more open to trying it.

“So we know that there’s this new stout-curious drinker out there, who is open to exploring the category, and trying new stouts, and maybe finding their own entry point.

“That consumer dynamic, paired with our brewing expertise, and the fact that we knew we had a good recipe in the locker, that made it the perfect time to go for this, not just as a brand opportunity, but as an opportunity for the category itself to develop,” she said.

Cameron added: “The interest in stout has attracted a lot more drinkers to the category and with that comes the opportunity for more brands to enter.

“We’ve gone from a position where there was really just Guinness as the mainstream choice to a place where more brands are starting to offer options. 

“This is a really exciting place that we wanted to be part of.

“Like lager, there’s no reason why stout can’t be a category offering consumers the choice from several mainstream brands.”

But Tennent’s wasn’t about to put its powerhouse brand to work in this newly competitive category unless it was 100% happy with the quality of the actual beer. 

Having really done the hard miles in that innovation lab, the team are clearly delighted to be promoting a liquid that is now ‘doing most of the work for us’.

“It has had an amazing reaction,” said Hazel.

Cameron agreed: “We did consumer tests up against the two other leading stout brands, and it scored incredibly well, probably beyond our own expectations.”

Hazel added: “That was across all metrics as well – appearance, flavour – there wasn’t any element of it that didn’t work for people.”

Cameron concluded: “When we asked consumers to rank the three stouts in order of preference, in a blind tasting, more than half the room put the Tennent’s Stout at number one over the other brands on the table.” 

Brewed to 4.0% ABV, the tasting notes for Tennent’s Stout promise a ‘rich roasted character with hints of chocolate, liquorice, treacle and coffee’.  

With moderate bitterness and a smooth, creamy finish, it’s described as a sessionable serve that can be poured in one or two parts.  

The launch will be supported with a big advertising campaign, unleashing the proven skills of the Tennent’s marketing team in ways yet to be revealed.

“Right now we are building distribution, getting the product out there and into the hands of publicans, and the public, and then we’ll launch the consumer advertising,” said Cameron.

“As soon as that campaign goes out, we want people to have the ability to go to their local and actually drink it.”