Guinness opens brand experience in China where you can pair oysters with stout

Diageo-owned beer brand Guinness has opened its first brand experience in Shanghai, which allows visitors to pour their own pints and pair them with oysters.

The Guinness Gatehouse, which launched today (19 December), will introduce locals and visitors to a diverse range of Guinness brews and merchandise, as well as a range of beer and food pairings in an onsite restaurant.

The new experience includes five different areas: the Brewing Vat, a 280º installation showcasing Guinness’s brand history and identity; the Surge & Settle bar, where consumers can purchase pints of Guinness, as well as other beers in the brewer’s portfolio such as Foreign Extra Stout, Citra IPA, and Hop House 13, and cocktails. Tapping into the current experiential trend, guests will also be able to pour their own pint and print a “Stoutie” on the top of their own beers.

The restaurant offers a change to try Diageo’s beer range paired with food, and includes a “Guinness & Oysters bar”, and the “Back bar” – a private-dining room surrounded by murals designed by artist Ken Wong, whose work was recently exhibited as part of the Asian Illustration Festival at shanghai’s Powerlong Museum.

Diageo first signed an exclusive five-year deal with beer producer AB InBev to distribute Guinness in mainland China in 2017.

The launch comes on the back of a steady rise in Chinese tourists visiting the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin over the past 10 years.

China is now the 8th largest market for Guinness Storehouse. Last year, the Storehouse welcomed around 82,000 visitors from across Asia, well over half of which were from China.

Mark Sandys, Diageo’s global head of beer, said the bar, shop and restaurant “offers the people of Shanghai and beyond the opportunity to discover Guinness, to get familiar with its unrivalled taste, its unique heritage and the sense of communion which goes with every Guinness moment.

“This is an important milestone for the development of Guinness in Asia. With our partner, Loxy Group, we share an ambition to make Guinness Gatehouse one of the most exciting and lively destinations in Shanghai for both locals and visitors.”