The brewer said that Guinness 0.0 “boasts the same beautifully smooth taste, perfectly balanced flavour and unique dark colour of Guinness, without the alcohol”.
Brewers at St James’s Gate follow the usual process and work with the same water, barley, hops and year, before gently removing the alcohol through a cold filtration method.
The idea is to avoid “thermal stress” to the famous stout, thus protecting the taste. The brewers then “carefully blend and balance the flavours to ensure the distinctive flavour profile and taste characteristics of Guinness”.
Gráinne Wafer, global brand director for Guinness, said: “This is an exceptional day for Guinness, as we finally reveal Guinness 0.0.
“The launch of Guinness 0.0 highlights our long-held commitment to innovation, experimentation, and bravery in brewing, harnessing the power of our brewers and our ingredients, to create an alcohol-free beer that is 100% Guinness but 0% alcohol.
“We know people want to be able to enjoy a Guinness when they choose not to drink alcohol without compromising on taste, and with Guinness 0.0 we believe they will be able to do exactly that.”
Aisling Ryan, innovation brewer at St James’s Gate, added: “Guinness has always had an unwavering commitment to quality and our entire brewing team is hugely proud of the care and effort that has been put into the four year development process for Guinness 0.0. We have created a taste experience that we believe is truly unrivalled in the world of non-alcoholic beer and we can’t wait for people to finally be able to try it.”
Guinness 0.0 has just 16 calories per 100ml, meaning that a standard 44cl can of alcohol-free Guinness 0.0 contains just 70 calories.
The brand will launch across the UK off-trade from Monday, with initial listings at Waitrose and Morrisons. It will be launched in the UK and Irish on-trade in the spring of 2021, and then rolled out across international markets later in 2021.
