St Patrick's Day weekend to break all-time Guinness record while painting town green

St Patrick's weekend is set to be a record breaker as Brits help join in on the festivities by bringing out their green attire and most obviously, downing several pint of Guinness

Brits are downing 100 million pints as St Patrick's weekend sees all-time record Guinness sales as revellers paint the town green in a four-day party.

Thousands of extra kegs are being rushed to bars as the black stuff boom sees 12 million pints of Guinness alone drunk in boozers between Friday and Ireland's national day on Monday, consumption trends show.

Pubs' biggest weekend of the year so far will see five times more Guinness sold than average.

But there are fears taps will be drunk dry by the record rush - even bigger than at Christmas when many bars ran out as stout sales leapt 20%.

Nationwide boozing triggered by Cheltenham this week and rugby's Six Nations has left pubs' stocks even lower.

Bars braced for an invasion of fancy dress partygoers ordering Guinness, UK pubs' bestselling draft beer.

Barman Paul Sheils of Shenanigans, Southampton, said: “We've got 50 Guinness kegs delivered compared to the usual 20, but fingers crossed its enough as the demand for it is unprecedented.”

Wetherspoon's, cutting prices of Guinness in its 800 pubs tomorrow (Mon) to £3.15 in England and £2.99 in Scotland, said: “We're reducing the price to mark St Patrick’s Day.”

A spokesperson for Guinness brewer Diageo said: “Demand for Guinness continues to grow. We have made progress in replenishing stock levels, so consumers can enjoy pints during spring and summer.”

A bumper 45m pints in pubs plus 55m pints at home are being drunk from Friday to Monday, British Beer and Pub Association beer consumption data trends show.