Guinness To Finally Debut 0.0 Stout After A Few (Alcohol-Free) Hiccups
Image via Diageo
Soon, there’ll be no need to wait until the end of the day to hit the bar and reward yourself with a stout. Day-drinking with an intense, seemingly boozy beverage will be made possible with Guinness 0.0, which briefly appeared on UK shelves last year and vanished unexpectedly.
The alcohol-free stout—a low-calorie, less heady version of the famous Guinness Draught—was four years in development. With the classic’s distinctly roasted, bitter yet sweet notes, and iconic creamy head, the brand didn’t want to mess this one up. It had to feature “the same dark, ruby red liquid and creamy head, hints of chocolate and coffee, smoothly balanced with bitter, sweet and roasted notes” sans the alcohol.
To uphold the “Guinness taste and character,” the brew is created with the same ingredients of water, barley, hops, and yeast as the standard Guinness. What sets it apart is the cold filtration process, which gently extracts the alcohol from the concoction. The 250-year-old brand went so far as to describe the drink its “biggest innovation in decades.”
Despite all this, Guinness 0.0 only enjoyed short-lived attention in stores.
Image via Guinness
When it eventually hit shelves late last year, Guinness parent company Diageo had to immediately recall the alcohol-free stout as the Food Standards Agency declared that the “product may contain mold,” thus making some cans unsafe to consume. In Diageo’s investigations, it discovered a “microbiological contamination” caused by production issues.
Almost a year later, Guinness 0.0 wil finally relaunch—hopefully to a prolonged success—at Morrisons and the Co-op in the UK this week, before reaching other retailers later this month. A new massive campaign has been planned for the drink’s second lease of life, The Grocer reports.
This time around, the company will enforce “additional quality assurance measures” to keep its 0.0 stout free from alcohol and unpleasantries, says Guinness Great Britain head Neil Shah. The drink will retail in 440ml four-packs.
Image via The Diageo Bar Academy
[via The Grocer, images via various sources]
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