Guinness plans to introduce its first ever non-alcoholic craft beer, Pure Brew, to 250 pubs in Dublin this month before making it available across the country from March.
According to The Irish Times, Guinness hopes to capitalise upon the increasing consumer trend for cutting back on alcohol intake or giving it up altogether.
Global head of beer for Diageo Mark Sandys commented, "It is difficult to put a figure on sales as we’re just starting off, but we can definitely see more consumers choosing to moderate their consumption. That is obviously something that happens a lot during dry January, but also increasingly at other times too and we want to give consumers a wider choice for those moments."
Speaking about Pure Brew's production, Sandys said, "The greatest challenge for a brewer is to produce a great-tasting beer that doesn’t have any alcohol because most of the non-alcoholic beers on the market are a compromise in terms of taste because of the way they are made. We’ve gone about things differently and the result is a great-tasting lager that stands shoulder to shoulder with our other beers."
Meanwhile, lead brewer John Casey asserted, "Consumers shouldn’t have to compromise on flavour just because they want to moderate. With Pure Brew we wanted to give people a taste experience comparable to regular beer."
