Brew took your time..
Guinness launches alcohol- free stout after 4 years of development
GUINNESS has launched a new alcohol- free version after a fouryear endeavour to replicate the taste of the original black stuff.
It s ay s Guinn e s s 0 . 0 i s r e s p o n s e t o a g r o w i n g c onsumer app e t i t e f or non- a l c o holi c , l o wer - calorie beverages.
Th e p r o d u c t wa s developed by an innovation team based at Guinness’s brewery at St James’s Gate in Dublin.
Aisling Ryan, one of the team’s l ead brewers, said “hundreds and hundreds” of versions were tried until they finally landed on one they were happy with.
She added: “It’s been a long time in the making. We’ve been working on this for
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SOMETIN GOOD New drink will be available in the New Year over four years now, so it’s really exciting to get to this stage and finally get it outside the gates.”
The early st ages of th e brewing pro c ess mirror t hose of st andard Guinness, with the same main i ngredi ents used – water, barley, hops and yeast.
The key dif ference i s the addition of a cold f i ltration stage at the e n d t o r e move t h e alcohol from the brew.
Ms Ryan said finding a way to take it out in a “gentle way ” without using heat was crucial in mai n t a i n i n g t h e s p e c i a l Guinness taste.
She added: “Removing alcohol can be quite harsh and a lot of non- alcohol beers out there compromise on f lavour.
It’s not easy when you take away the alcohol to be left with a beer that has the quality we deem essential at Guinness.
“We knew from the start we didn’t want to put the beer under any thermal stress or to heat treat the beer to remove the alcohol.
“We l ooked at a l ot of d i f f e r e n t t e c h n o l o g y solutions to be able to do that and we’re really happy with the one that we landed o n b e c a u s e t h e r e’s n o compromise on the quality at the end.”
Gui n n e s s i n s i s t s t h e feedback from independent tast e t ests has exceeded expectations.
Five years ago, the company trialled a n a l c o ho l - f re e malt- based dr i nk i n I ndon e s i a i n re s p o ns e t o t h e introduction of stricter drink laws in the countr y. Guinness 0.0, which i s destin ed f or a worldwide market, i s a different product created with a different recipe and process.
It will initially be rolled out in off- sales in Ireland and the UK, with draught Guinness 0.0 due t o be available in pubs from the New Year.
A global l aunch of the product is pencilled in for next summer.
Guinness’s global brand dire ctor Grainn e Wafer s ai d t h e c ompany was responding to growth in the non- alcohol beer market of around 25% per annum on the island of Ireland and 30% in Great Britain.
It’s really exciting to finally get it outside the gates AISLING RYAN YESTERDAY