Scottish fans poured through downtown Boston this past weekend and left bars and liquor stores scrambling to keep up before trekking to the World Cup match in Foxborough. By Sunday night, Hennessy’s Bar had sold out of beer.

The surge was broad enough to hit more than one corner of the city. Federal Wine & Spirits in Boston’s Financial District sold out of Budweiser and Corona on Saturday, while The Dubliner kept pouring as many Scots worked through Guinness, Michelob Ultra, Corona and Tennent’s. Noelle Somers said the bar had been there for over 30 years and still had never seen anything like the crowd. She said, “We’ve been here for over 30 years, and we’ve never seen anything like it.”

Hennessy’s had to order a delivery to re-up on Monday and another one scheduled for Thursday, just in time for the next weekend of soccer matches. At Federal Wine & Spirits, a refrigerator broke because the front door was opening so often, a small sign of how fast the beer disappeared. The Dubliner did not sell out, but it was already planning to bring in more staff for large crowds of foreign tourists who tended to linger for hours longer than other patrons.

The weekend rush also carried a contradiction. McBride’s Irish Pub in Providence was short-staffed on Friday, yet still grossed $2,000 more than average. Peter Zettel said the crowd was “raucous and fun,” adding, “It was quiet for maybe a minute.” Hans Hoffens said, “Here, they’re not chugging down beer,” but the businesses that stocked up anyway still found the demand larger than expected. Jennifer Monastesse put it more bluntly: “They’re drinking everything.”

For Boston bars and liquor stores, the lesson was not subtle. The Scottish fans arrived in enough numbers to triple a St. Patrick’s Day crowd, keep the taps moving and force extra staffing, extra refrigeration and extra beer orders before the next wave lands.