Last week, Guinness announced the launch of Guinness 0.0. The iconic brand describes the new product as “Guinness with everything, except alcohol”.
The non-alcoholic beverage market is one that has been growing as consumers in recent times and Guinness is the latest brand to tap into the market.
The non-alcoholic beer from the brewers at St James’s Gate was four years in the making and will hit supermarkets and off-licenses in November and pubs across the UK and Ireland in spring 2021.
The same ingredients are used to brew the low-calorie Guinness 0.0 – water, barley, hops and yeast. The alcohol is then removed through a cold filtration method.
According to Guinness: “The cold filtration process allows the alcohol to be filtered out without presenting thermal stress to the beer, protecting the integrity of its taste and character.
The brewers then carefully blend and balance the flavours to ensure the distinctive flavour profile and taste characteristics of Guinness.
Speaking on the launch of the product, Gráinne Wafer, who is the global brand director for Guinness, said: “This is an exceptional day for Guinness, as we finally reveal Guinness 0.0.
Image source: Guinness
“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, said: “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.”
As the non-alcoholic beer market expands it is important to note that the ingredients are remaining the same and barley is still a key ingredient in the process.
In 2019, Diageo purchased approximately 140,000t of Irish barley.