Guinness has a new non-alcoholic beer – and we’ve put the taste to the test
The brewers of the black stuff have hailed their new non-alcoholic lager as the saviour of rural pubs
THE brewers of the black stuff are trialling a new beer that has none of the befuddling stuff in it.
Guinness chiefs have hailed their new non-alcoholic lager as the saviour of rural pubs.
And they claimed that seven out of ten drinkers couldn’t tell that Pure Brew contained no alcohol in blind tests with normal beers.
The new brew will be rolled out to 250 pubs in this month, before going nationwide from March, selling at €3.50 a bottle (£3). Sadly, its only available in Ireland at the moment.
Lead brewer John Casey told how his team at Open Gate — the experiments wing of the drinks giant’s famous St James’s Gate HQ — had to rip up the recipe book on cold-sober booze to produce the new tipple.
He said: “Many non-alcoholic beers are made by taking a conventional beer and boiling away the alcohol, which can impact the taste.
“We were determined to brew a non-alcoholic beer with the same process that we’ve perfected over the last 259 years.
“It’s taken two years of experimentation, but we’ve come up with a way to brew beer using a special yeast strain that only produces a very limited amount of alcohol.”
The result — boasting an ABV of just 0.5 per cent — could prove a timely lifeline for Ireland’s pub trade.
The crackdown on drink-driving has been blamed, in part, for forcing more than 1,500 boozers to call time over the past decade.
And vintner groups have warned that new proposals could be the death knell for members in rural areas, where punters have no option but to travel by car.
The new Road Traffic Bill proposes an automatic three-month ban on drivers with 51mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood — equivalent of drinking less than a pint.
Transport Minister Shane Ross has also said he wants the legal limit to be “very close to zero” in a bid to save lives.
Diageo’s global head of beer, Mark Sandys, explained research showed current non-alcoholic beers don’t offer non-drinkers “a reason to go into the pub”.
He said: “People do think it’s a compromise if they’re drinking water all night, or sugary soft drinks, therefore we wanted them to have something which still looked like it was part of the beer experience.”
Open Gate’s light relief for purists
MY first encounter with Open Gate Pure Brew was at a preview tasting, writes Aran Brazil, the Irish Sun's Beer Columnist.
We were told only that it was “a lager”, and the nose wasn’t unlike Hop House 13, one of Guinness’s more successful recent launches.
It took just a sip to realise this was a non-alcoholic beer, albeit a rather good one.
Naturally brewed with Australian and American hops to 0.5 per cent ABV (the maximum for non-alcoholic drinks under EU law) it is light-bodied with soft citrus notes and melon-ish sweetness, medium fizz and a dry finish.
Thankfully, it avoids the overpowering cereal sweetness of many NA beers.
I ended up drinking about three of my own accord after the panel test, and think it will make a welcome addition to the bar fridge for non-imbibers on a night out.