If Guinness Mid-Strength is the best that the marketing boffins at St James's Gate could come up with, one shudders to think what names were rejected.

There is a much more obvious name for the new version but the phrase Guinness Light is as welcome at James's Gate as the word Macbeth is backstage at the Abbey.

The new stout is a loweralcohol version of Guinness with an ABV of 2.8% rather than the traditional 4.2%.

Guinness Light had an ABV of 3.8%, which means Guinness Light was actually Guinness Mid-Strength, while the new Guinness Mid-Strength is more of a Guinness Light. And if this is Guinness Mid-Strength, where is Guinness low strength . . . for there to be a middle does not there not have to be a beginning and an end?

Guinness Mid-Strength will be tested in 80 pubs in Limerick over the next six months, and if successful it will eventually be available throughout the country.

Only time will tell whether Mid-Strength will appeal to drinkers but the name will never be a winner.