Diageo triples production of alcohol-free Guinness

Guinness is aiming to triple production of its zero-alcohol brand in response to a growing consumer taste for non-alcoholic drinks.

Owner Diageo – which has recently appointed its first female boss Debra Crew  – has invested £21million in a facility at its St James’s Gate brewery in Dublin to meet a surge in demand for alcohol-free stout.

The production facility includes six processing vessels with a total capacity of 500,000 hectolitres – almost 90m pints – and a two-storey building where the alcohol is removed through a cold filtration system to create Guinness 0.0. 

The drink was launched in 2021 and the firm forecasts it is on course to account for 10 per cent of all Guinness sales on the island of Ireland in the coming years.

The main export markets for the zero-alcohol stout include Britain, Europe, the United States, Canada, the Middle East and South Korea.

Publican Oliver Barden, from O’Donoghue’s in Dublin, said zero-alcohol stout is very popular.

‘It’s a great tasting alternative for those who want to experience the atmosphere and craic in the pub without any alcohol,’ he said.