The Samuel Adams Boston Taproom Thought It Had Enough Beer — Then Scottish Soccer Fans Arrived
With three floors and 15,000 square feet, the Samuel Adams Boston Taproom is accustomed to catering to large crowds. Still, the wave of Scottish soccer fans that descended upon Boston for the World Cup proved more than its Boston Lager supply could handle. Following Scotland's first qualification for the World Cup in 28 years, the city welcomed an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 soccer fans. After Scotland's 1-0 victory over Haiti on June 14, the "Tartan Army," as Scottish soccer fans are colloquially known, celebrated the victory by completely draining the Boston Taproom of Samuel Adams Boston Lager.
From Thursday through Sunday, fans drank four times as much of the beer as the bar would usually sell during a typical four-day holiday weekend. As a result, the Boston Taproom was forced to schedule an emergency delivery of Samuel Adams Boston Lager to keep up with the unexpected demand. The Scottish fans' preference for Samuel Adams is perhaps unsurprising, given that Scotland's most popular beer, Tennent's (which earned the bottom spot in our ranking of the UK's most popular beer brands), is also a lager.
The Tartan Army's demand for beer is being felt across Boston
Like the Boston Taproom, many other local establishments have been impacted by Scotland's celebrations. According to the Boston Beer Company, Samuel Adams' flagship brewery, Boston bars received an additional 100,000 pints of beer during the week — approximately 30% more than usual — to keep up with the surge in demand from Scottish fans. Per the Boston Globe, Hennessy's, an Irish pub in downtown Boston, tripled its St. Patrick's Day sales and sold out of beer entirely on Sunday night, with the pub's Chief Operating Officer Noelle Somers commenting: "We've never seen anything like it."
Drinking Boston bars dry is not the only extraordinary feat Scotland fans have undertaken during their World Cup excursion. On June 13, ahead of Scotland's match against Haiti, hundreds of Scotland fans assembled on a specially hired party boat in Rowes Wharf and managed to consume a reported 2,000 beers. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey commented on the Tartan Army's presence in the city, telling BBC News: "I think I'm going to have to call Canada and call the governors in Maine and Vermont to put out an SOS for more alcohol." Should any Bostonians wish to return the favor and visit Scotland for a drink, they can avail themselves of our guide on how to drink Scotch the Scottish way with just one extra ingredient.