Alcohol-free Guinness will shortly launch in the UK, which is described as the company’s biggest innovation in many years.

The drink was pulled shortly after its release earlier this year, due to fears the product contained mould. The cans were recalled and refunds give, – however, there were no reports of illness from consumption. However, Guinness’ parent company Diageo is now ready for its release.

Guinness 0.0 boasts the same smooth taste, perfectly balanced flavour and unique dark colour of Guinness, without the alcohol.

The journey to launching Guinness 0.0 has drawn on Guinness’s proud 261-year history of innovation and brewing brilliance dating from 1759. A commitment to retaining the distinct character and taste of Guinness was central to the four-year process led by the technical and innovation teams at St. James’s Gate, the Home of Guinness.

To create Guinness 0.0 the St James’s Gate brewers start by brewing Guinness exactly as they always have, using the same natural ingredients; water, barley, hops and yeast; before gently removing the alcohol through a cold filtration method. 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.

The resulting product is unmistakably Guinness, just without the alcohol, featuring the same dark, ruby red liquid and creamy head, hints of chocolate and coffee, smoothly balanced with bitter, sweet and roasted notes. In taste tests by an independent panel, they found that Guinness 0.0 ‘exceeded expectations’ with its taste lauded as ‘outstanding’.