MILWAUKEE – The makers of Guinness are touting a new stout beer in the U.S., a maltier, fizzier version of its older, creamier sibling, the world’s best-selling stout.

“This is more about refreshment and zing,” said Guinness master brewer Fergal Murray, who created the new carbonated brew.

The limited-edition Guinness 250 Anniversary Stout celebrates Arthur Guinness’ signing of a 9,000-year lease in 1759 at St. James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin, still the company’s flagship brewery.

When it arrives in U.S. bars and stores April 24, the anniversary brew will be the first new stout Guinness has exported to the U.S. since it brought over Guinness Draught in the mid 1960s.

Guinness Draught, first brewed after Arthur Guinness decided to stop making ales and start making porters in 1779, became synonymous with Ireland over the centuries. More than 1.8 billion pints are consumed in 150 countries each year.

The anniversary stout will be available only in the U.S., Australia and Singapore, according to Diageo PLC, owner of Guinness and the world’s largest liquor producer. The company’s other brands include Johnnie Walker and Baileys.

The beer is expected to be available for about six months, said Patrick Hughes, brand director for Diageo Guinness USA. A big marketing campaign, complete with advertisements and promotions at bars, launches late this month.

“The brand is one of sort of strength, staying power and authenticity,” Hughes said. “We think consumers are really going for brands with that strength and trusted authenticity.”

They also want something new to taste, which this new beer delivers with carbonation, two types of malt and triple hops, Murray said.

Drinkers like to sit back and enjoy the flavor of Guinness Draught, he said, while the anniversary stout uses carbonation, rather than a combination of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, which is used by Guinness Draught. The result? More zing.

The taste is different, too, although it retains the rich flavor of Guinness Draught. Guinness 250 Anniversary Stout also has more alcohol, at about 5 percent by volume, compared with 4.2 percent for Guinness Draught.

Pouring will be simpler, too. This anniversary stout is poured only one way, at an angle, in contrast to Guinness Draught’s famous two-part process, which involves filling the glass about three-fourths of the way at an angle, letting the surge of foam settle, then pouring the rest.

The anniversary comes in a rocky year for Diageo. As the global recession deepens and consumer confidence remains low, the London-based company has been cutting costs and shedding jobs to protect its profits.

In January, it said it may change or abandon $1.1 billion plans to reform production in Ireland and open a new state-of-the-art brewery.

Guinness accounts for about 70 percent of stout volume in the U.S., dominating a category that makes up less than 1 percent of total U.S. beer volume, according to research firm Nielsen Co.

Guinness sales volume slipped about 3.9 percent in the U.S. in the 52-week period that ended March 7, according to Nielsen, while dollar sales fell 1.7 percent to $127.2 million in food, drug, liquor and convenience stores.

Nick Lake, vice president of beverage alcohol for Nielsen, said the introduction of the new beer “has the making of a very successful initiative,” citing the brand’s heritage and a trend of U.S. consumers increasingly wanting fuller, tastier beers like stouts. Lake also said consumers want more variety, and brewers are providing more seasonal and limited-release beers in response. The category was up 27.6 percent in sales volume in the latest 52-week period.

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NEW STOUT

Here’s a look at Guinness’ new brew, Guinness 250 Anniversary Draught, and its elder sibling, Guinness Draught:

Guinness 250 Anniversary Draught

• Alcohol: 5 percent by volume

• Calories: 136.3 per 11.2 ounces

• Brewing: Made with a double brew stream that combines two types of malts, ale and stout. Carbonated. Uses Guinness yeast, triple hops and roasted barley.

• Pour: A one-part pour, at an angle.

• Date: Launches in the U.S. April 24, in Australia and Singapore later.

Guinness Draught

• Alcohol: 4.2 percent by volume

• Calories: 126 per 12 ounces

• Brewing: Roasted, malted barley, hops, yeast and water. The beer is nitrogenated, meaning that nitrogen and carbon dioxide combine to give it a thick, white head.

• Pour: Two parts, where three-quarters of glass is filled at an angle, the pourer lets the surge of foam settle, then glass is topped off.

• Date: First made some time after 1799, when Arthur Guinness decided to stop making ales and start making porters. Came to the U.S. in the mid-1960s.

MILWAUKEE — Even the brewing industry is starting to go flat in the worldwide economic slump.

SABMiller PLC, the London-based brewer of Grolsch, Miller Genuine Draft and Peroni Nastro Azzurro lagers, said on Thursday its beer shipments fell unexpectedly in the third quarter as consumers pulled back on their demand.

Carlsberg A/S, the Copenhagen-based maker of Carlsberg beer, said it was cutting 274 jobs to save on costs due to a future “where we face more uncertainties and risks,” the company said in a statement.

Beer usually holds up better than other categories during tough economic times, said Benj Steinman, editor of trade publication Beer Marketer’s Insights, and that trend had been holding true during this recession for some segments of the industry. But the latest figures show the market is trending downward, perhaps accelerating as global economies continue to sputter, and relief seems uncertain.

Beer is “recession-resistant, not recession-proof,” Steinman said.

SABMiller said lager volumes fell 1 percent in the three-month period that ended Dec. 31, compared with the same period a year earlier, because of the economy.

“Consumer demand has been affected by the current global economic slowdown, and has continued to weaken in many of the group’s markets,” the company said in releasing its quarterly trading update, which does not provide financials.

The company said, however, that its financial performance remained in line with expectations “notwithstanding the relative strength of the U.S. dollar against the group’s major currencies.”

The rise in the U.S. dollar also has hurt businesses with overseas interests.

SABMiller is the world’s second-largest brewer by volume after losing the top spot to Anheuser-Busch Inbev NV after InBev’s $52 billion acquisition of Anheuser-Busch last year. In November, SABMiller said it was scaling back investment in the face of continued cost pressures and slowing demand for beer worldwide.

With the latest numbers, it appears demand has been hit hardest in the U.S. and Europe.

In the U.S., SABMiller and rival Molson Coors Brewing Co. saved costs last summer with a domestic joint venture called MillerCoors.

But MillerCoors sales are falling too. Domestic sales to retailers fell 2.3 percent over the third quarter, with flagship Miller Lite’s sales falling 7.5 percent. Coors Light continued its momentum, posting a 1 percent sales increase, according to the company. But that was slower than in previous quarters, Steinman noted.

He said the Miller Lite number should be cause for concern about the brand. The fact that Coors Light’s 1 percent growth was slower than in previous quarters could signal that the overall beer market is getting weaker, he said.

The U.S. beer market typically grows about 1 percent a year, over a ten-year average. In the past few years it had been growing ahead of that. But in 2008 sales rose about half a percentage point, he said.

MillerCoors said its premium light brand volumes were down 2.4 percent, with particular softness in restaurants and bars, where consumers are cutting back as they try to stretch their budgets. But MGD 64, a 64-calorie version of Miller Genuine Draft, kept growing after its launch last year, SABMiller said, and craft and imports rose 1.6 percent, led by a double-digit performance from Blue Moon.

In Europe, where consumers are also hurting, lager volume fell 1 percent, including a 22 percent drop in Russia. But MillerCoors volume grew 2 percent in Poland, where the company gained market share. In Romania, the volume growth rate slowed to 11 percent, while the Czech Republic’s domestic volumes dropped 1 percent.

SABMiller also said volume in developing countries, which produce around 80 percent of its profits, is slowing as the credit crunch deepens.

Third-quarter shipments rose 2 percent in Latin America, stymied by a 6 percent decline in Colombia, the company’s biggest market in the region. In Africa and Asia, organic lager volumes increased 2 percent, with growth in China flat.

Carlsberg, citing an uncertain future, said in its news release Thursday that it was accelerating its restructuring plan to improve on efficiencies. In Denmark, the company said it was starting Thursday to negotiate with unions to cut 150 jobs.

Carlsberg Baltic started restructuring its business in late 2008 and will now accelerate that by cutting 124 jobs, in addition to the 80 layoffs announced in November.

Workers collect red grapes in the vineyards of the famed Chateau Haut Brion, a Premier Grand Cru de Graves, during the grape harvest in Pessac-Leognan, near Bordeaux, southwestern France. Global wine consumption, on the rise in past years, is continuing to grow, with the U.S. overtaking Italy as the world's biggest consumer by 2012, according to a report by the London-based International Wine and Spirit Record.

PARIS – The world just can’t get enough wine.

Global wine consumption, on the rise in past years, is forecast to continue to grow in the coming ones, with the United States overtaking Italy as the world’s biggest consumer by 2012, according to a new report released Tuesday by the International Wine and Spirit Record.

The thirst for wine is set to deepen in emerging economies such as China and Russia, whose consumption levels are soon expected to overtake that of Spain, another nation historically associated with wine, the report said.

It predicted that the financial and economic crisis affecting many wine-consuming countries worldwide would only have “limited” consequences for the growth of the wine sector. The report forecast growth for the coming four years roughly in line with pre-crisis trends.

Global production and consumption are both expected to rise, the report said, with production expected to grow by 3.83 percent from 2008-2012 to slightly over 3 billion 2.4-gallon (9-liter) cases.

World consumption is to grow at an even quicker pace — 6 percent — over 2008-2012, reaching 2.8 billion cases, the report said.

The report, commissioned by the Bordeaux, France-based Vinexpo wine body and presented at a news conference in Paris on Tuesday, predicted the United States would dethrone Italy to become the world’s biggest consumer of non-sparkling wines by 2012.

In 2007, Italy overtook France, its wine-producing neighbor, to claim the title, buying 299 million cases, the report said. Based on past and current trends, it forecast that U.S. consumers would buy a total of 313 million cases in 2012.

Americans are already spending more on wine than any other nation. In 2007, the U.S. invested nearly $22 billion in wine purchases, the report by the London-based wine market research company said.

Surprisingly, Britons — traditionally more associated with beers and ales — have outspent the French on wine since 2005, the report said. In Russia, expenditures on wine nearly doubled between 2003-2007 and are expected to reach nearly $6.5 billion by 2012.

Europe’s three main wine producers, France, Spain and Italy, among them make up half of global production. The three have been hit hard in recent years by increasing competition from New World vintners in the United States, South America and Africa.

The report was commissioned by Vinexpo, which puts on a major wine exhibition every year, to prepare producers for coming trends.

BEAR, Del. – When times are good, people drink. When times are bad, people drink.

It’s a cliche that liquor store owners are trotting out often these days, to make a point. Even though most sectors of the economy are suffering, store sales of wine, beer and spirits are holding up, larger retailers and industry officials say.

And that’s a good thing for the industry, because it is making up for lost sales at restaurants, hotels and resorts, which have found business swooning as customers cut back on discretionary spending.

Industry officials say people are changing what, how and where they drink.

As fewer people go out to eat or patronize taverns, they’re reluctant to give up that end-of-the-day drink, or glass with dinner, said Bob Kreston, owner of Delaware’s Kreston Wine & Sprits in Wilmington and Middletown.

“I don’t see people necessarily drinking more or less, but they’re just drinking in different places,” Kreston said.

Jeff Becker, president of The Beer Institute, said recently that he expected profit margins to remain about 1 percent nationally through the end of 2008. That’s not bad, even for good times, he said.

Recessions during the last 50 years haven’t had much of an impact on sales, he said. The biggest slowdown in sales came in 1991, when the beer tax was doubled.

“Beer is a big, mature, slow-growth industry,” said Benj Steinman, editor of the trade publication Beer Marketer’s Insights.

Gladys Horiuchi, of the Wine Institute of California, said the national wine industry is holding up fine. During the last quarter of 2008, dollar sales and volume were up over the previous-year period.

“People still consider wine an affordable luxury,” Horiuchi said.

The one sector that hasn’t been holding up as well has been distilled spirits. Restaurant and tavern business has been off since late 2007, as the recession began to take hold, said David Ozgo, chief economist for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. A pickup in the package store business hasn’t been enough to make up for those losses, he said.

Alcoholic beverage sales have varied from state to state depending on the economic conditions, said John Bodnovich, director of communications for American Beverage Licensees. He expects sales to hold up, but thinks retailers could be harmed by new or higher “sin” taxes, as governments seek to raise revenue to balance budgets.

As in the retail field generally, bargain brands and top-shelf luxury labels are doing the best.

Mark Harrison, operations manager at ABC Liquors in Bear, said he’s seeing people “trade down,” with the person who used to spend $17.99 on a case of Budweiser now spending three or four dollars less for Miller High Life, Busch or Milwaukee’s Best.

Harrison said his store has cut profit margins on some products to make sure they sell, despite recent price increases by the manufacturer. Anheuser Busch, Miller and Coors all raised their prices in recent months, he said.

Nevertheless, his profits are “on the plus side from last year,” Harrison said. Being a large retailer helps, as he can sell larger volumes, he said.

Wine still brings people joy, and even if they’re not going out as much, they’re still having dinner parties at home, said Frank Pagliaro, owner of Frank’s Union Wine Mart in Wilmington. He said he hasn’t seen much of a change in people’s buying habits in recent weeks, but he has seen a drop-off in corporate sales, as some companies canceled their holiday parties.

Tom Durnan, 81, of Bear, said he’s always enjoyed a glass of wine before supper. He was at ABC Liquors recently, buying two 5-liter boxes of Franzia Cabernet Sauvignon.

The price has increased by a dollar in the last month, “but Social Security hasn’t,” Durnan said. He’s cut other expenses, like travel, but is reluctant to cut what he called “a small luxury” as well as a “bad habit.”

Mike Orr, of Cranberry Township, Pa., competes during the World Series of Beer Pong IV in Las Vegas on Sunday. With a $50,000 prize on the line, more than 400 teams flocked to the Flamingo hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip for a chance to bring their skills out of the bar and into the big time.

LAS VEGAS – Don’t let the smell of beer and the rock music fool you: Beer pong is a serious game. Some dare say a sport.

Granted, they tend to be grinning and drinking when they say it.

There was plenty of both going on this weekend at the World Series of Beer Pong IV, a loud and sloshy annual tournament that elevates a college fraternity house staple that includes ping pong balls and beer to an (almost) serious competition.

With a $50,000 prize on the line, more than 400 teams flocked to the Flamingo hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip for a chance to bring their skills out of the bar and into the big time. They wore matching uniforms and talked about focus and strategy.

Some also wore matching hot pants and talked about drinking more Pabst Blue Ribbon, the official beer of the tournament.

But the winner, Ron Hamilton, 25, of Brentwood, N.Y., preferred liquor to beer, and said he got ready for Sunday’s play by drinking a bottle of Jack Daniels.

“The key today was me getting real drunk and my partner not missing, and us coming out and proving we’re the best,” Hamilton said shortly after winning the top prize with Michael Popielarski, 25, of Massapequa, N.Y.

Hamilton said he and his partner — who form the team Smashing Time — met three years ago at a bar in Long Island.

“We’ve been unstoppable ever since,” he said. Hamilton said he planned to eliminate his personal debt and pay part of his mother’s mortgage with the winnings.

The game is played with cups of beer lined up like bowling pins on two ends of a 14-foot table. Team members alternate trying to toss a ping pong ball into the cups. The team that lands all the cups wins, the losers drink.

While one team is tossing, the other is free to create any sort of distraction, hence the skimpy hot pants. “The skill is the psyche out,” said competitor 23-year-old Ryan Young.

Beer pong came to prominence largely in East Coast college campuses in the late 1990s. It has recently left the campus for the mainstream.

More bars are setting up tables and weekly tournaments. A new documentary, “Last Cup: Road to the World Series of Beer Pong,” captures the growing pong culture. “Beer Pong” the video game was designed for Nintendo Co.’s popular Wii game system, but JV Games Inc. changed the name to “Pong Toss” amid complaints about appropriateness for teenagers. The World Series of Beer Pong has seen its ranks swell five fold since its first tournament in 2006.

Devotees say the game is a hit because it requires just enough skill and concentration that you can improve with practice, but not so much that you can’t also have a few while playing.

This World Series of Beer Pong is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Billy Gaines, Duncan Carroll and Ben “Skinny” Solnik. The trio met as students and beer pong aficionados at Carnegie Mellon University.

After graduation, they set out in their spare time to turn the game they loved into a moneymaker. Their site, bpong.com, sells tables, T-shirts, balls and other gear. The company organizes satellite tournaments and is a clearinghouse for detailed and occasionally heated conversation about the game’s rules. This one made it into the world series official rule book: “No player may take offense to anything said or done during a game, even if it involves their mother.”

But the world series’ rules don’t require the losers to drink, a deviation from original game, and a concession, perhaps, to critics. Beer pong and other drinking games have been targeted by those trying to curb binge drinking. Some college campuses have banned the game.

Gaines said beer pong is misunderstood.

“I know the media will say this is a chugging contest,” he said. “This is about a sport, it’s about a competition. They aren’t here to drink. Yeah, they’re drinking, but that’s not why they’re here.”

Associated Press writer Oskar Garcia contributed to this report.

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ON THE WEB

World Series of Beer Pong: www.bpong.com

NEW YORK — There will be little celebration for champagne makers this year.

After last year’s strong 4 percent sales gain, the biggest since the buying frenzy in 1999 to ring in the new millennium, champagne makers are feeling the impact of the sour economy from $5 sparkling wines to $100 bottles of champagne.

“I don’t have a bright outlook for champagne this year,” says Frank Walters, research director for Impact, which expects the category to be down between 1 percent to 4 percent, from about 900 million glasses sold in 2007. “Luxury items are getting hurt, people are looking for value, restaurants are getting clobbered and with unemployment rising, people are watching their shekels.”

Other factors stealing the fizz:

— Consumer spending. Scaled back spending hurts champagne hard. The segment racks up 60 percent of sales from late October to January.

— Shorter season. An early Thanksgiving gave champagne makers five fewer days than last year to get products into stores.

— Bad PR. An advertising campaign “Unmask the truth,” put out by trade group Champagne, USA, calls attention to products that are not officially champagnes. Many domestic sparkling wines are called champagnes even though the grapes don’t originate from the Champagne region of France.

Still, champagne and wine makers and retailers are trying to spur buying.

“Grocery stores are lowering prices almost to cost to get people in to buy,” says Gary Heck, president, Korbel Champagne Cellars. “Most stuff is down by $2 to $3 across the board.”

Marketers for Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante, which sells for $10 to $13 a bottle, are focusing on store shelves. “We want to make sure our brand is there for consumers to see when they shop,” says Celio Romanach, Martini & Rossi’s brand managing director.

Luxury brands are trying to reach the still-rich with super expensive products. Moet & Hennessy bundled its bubbly with high-end gift boxes and packages including a Dom Perignon Power Trio, a boxed set of three Dom Perignon vintages with a price tag of $1,500.

For its Piper-Heidsieck Rare, Remy Cointreau USA introduced a collectible bottle designed by a high-end French jewelry maker, says spokeswoman Marie Christina Batich. “Our consumers understand the value of our product.”

Remy will also deploy an old standby: free samples.

TransFair USA, the Oakland-based group that has certified everything from coffee and tea to bananas and flowers as being ethically produced, now is putting its seal on wines from Chile, Argentina and South Africa.

The wines – which are available nationwide this month at grocers and liquor stores nationwide, including Whole Foods Market and Sam’s Club – are a first for U.S. consumers.

“You’re getting award-winning wine that has just fantastic quality that also has an incredibly uplifting effect on the lives of literally thousands of farmers and farm workers,” says Paul Rice, president and CEO of TransFair USA. “It’s a great product that also represents tremendous hope and pride.”

The fair trade movement has been established in Europe for decades – fair trade wines have been available there for five years – but is gaining momentum in the United States.

Last year, sales of fair trade products, passed $1 billion for the first time, according to TransFair and the Fairtrade Labelling Organization.

A Fair Trade Certified product means TransFair has determined that farmers got fair prices, workers got decent wages and the product was produced in an environmentally responsible manner.

Importers and retailers pay a premium – the wine premium is 10 cents per bottle – that is earmarked for community improvement, such as a new water system or educational scholarships.

Charles Redfield, senior vice president of fresh food for Sam’s Club, says fair trade products offer high quality and are popular with customers. Company buyers, meanwhile, see the benefits of the system firsthand.

“Once you go out and experience it as an individual, it changes your whole lens of sustainability,” he says.

New wines include:

• Live-A-Little (Stellar Organics in South Africa): at stores around the country, including Whole Foods Market; suggested retail $9.99.

• Wandering Grape (Argentina and South Africa): At Target; about $11.99.

• Neu Direction (Argentina): At Sam’s Clubs; about $10.

DUBLIN, Ireland – Dutch brewing giant Heineken NV announced Thursday it is closing one of Ireland’s oldest breweries, Beamish & Crawford in the city of Cork, just weeks after taking control of the operation.

Heineken said the brewery — best known for making Beamish, one of Ireland’s three brands of dark-brown stout — would close in March with the loss of 120 jobs, about three-fifths of the work force.

The rest would transfer to the Cork brewery that Heineken has owned since 1983 — and where it already makes Cork’s rival stout, Murphy’s.

Gerrit van Loo, managing director of Heineken Ireland, called it “the most difficult decision we have ever had to make.” He pledged that the Beamish brand would survive and be produced alongside Murphy’s, which can be a bit creamier and sweeter than the sharper-edged Beamish.

“Retaining two breweries is not sustainable and the loss of so many jobs remains a sad but unavoidable outcome,” he said.

Heineken gained control of the Beamish brewery only in October after a six-month investigation by Ireland’s Competition Authority ruled — to the disgust and disbelief of many Irishmen — that it wouldn’t be a conflict of interest for Heineken to produce both stouts.

Business and political leaders warned that the takeover would mean the death-knell of the 210-year-old brewery. Few expected the announcement so soon.

“It is vital that investment in the Beamish brands, particularly Beamish stout, continues and that the brand is developed to its full potential,” said Cork lawmaker Ciaran Lynch. “The worst possible outcome would be the loss not just of jobs, but of an internationally renowned brand which is of significant value to the economy.”

Another legislator, Deirdre Clune, called it “a dreadful day” for the brewery workers as well as Ireland’s heritage. She called on Heineken to spell out what it will do to the brewery, a Cork landmark beside the city’s medieval South Gate.

Both Cork brands have long struggled for market share against Ireland’s Goliath of stouts, Dublin-based Guinness, which is owned by British drinks company Diageo. Together the Cork stouts account for fewer than one in 10 pints of “the black stuff” sold in Ireland.

But the brewing industry in Ireland as a whole is feeling pressure from increased competition in Eastern Europe and Asia, and stout in particular is shunned by Ireland’s trendy young drinkers, who tend to favor lighter lagers and vodka-based drinks. Earlier this year Diageo announced it will close two of its four breweries and cut back operations at its 249-year-old Guinness brewery in Dublin, in favor of a future state-of-the-art brewery to be built on the capital’s outskirts.

Heineken won ownership of Beamish’s brands and brewery as part of a much larger joint takeover, with Danish brewers Carlsberg, of British brewers Scottish & Newcastle.

MILWAUKEE – Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday, hurt like other meat producers by volatile feed prices and slumping demand but also hobbled by an unmanageable debt load.

The Pittsburg, Texas-based company, the nation’s largest chicken producer, sought protection in a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, saying that as of Sept. 27 it had $3.75 billion in assets and $2.72 billion in debts.

Pilgrim’s Pride, which controls about 23 percent of the U.S. chicken market, will continue operating during the reorganization and will not liquidate its assets, spokesman Ray Atkinson said.

“We really believe this will help us come out a lot stronger and we expect it to be business as usual,” Atkinson said.

The chicken producer has been saddled by the debt from its $1.3 billion acquisition of rival Gold Kist Inc. in 2007 – what analysts cite as the primary cause of its large debt load.

MILWAUKEE – MillerCoors LLC says goodbye to Zima.

The joint venture between SABMiller’s U.S. unit and Molson Coors Brewing Co. told distributors in a letter Monday that production of the malt liquor beverage was discontinued as of Oct. 10.

Chief Marketing Officer Andy England says the decision was due to weakness in the “malternative” segment and declining consumer interest.

He says distributors can get remaining Zima inventories most likely through December.

Distributors are being asked to put products from caffeinated alcoholic beverage Sparks on retail store shelves to make up for Zima’s absence.

The brand came to the joint venture from Molson Coors, maker of Coors Light and Keystone.