The biggest beer brands in the US are all launching non-alcoholic alternatives to its brews, including Sam Adams’s Just the Haze IPA and Budweiser’s Zero. In her guide to the best non-alcoholic beers, craft beer expert Beth Demmon named one booze-free riff the “best mainstream” pick: Guinness’s iconic Irish stout.
“If 100 people were blindfolded and taste-tested the original Guinness next to Guinness 0, the majority of them wouldn’t be able to tell the difference,” she wrote.
While we didn’t manage to recruit 100 people (and didn’t make our testers wear blindfolds), wedid convince a few of our colleagues at the Guardian to participate in a blind taste test to see if she was right. On a recent afternoon in New York, we gathered a small crowd to sip beers labelled A and B. They scored each beer on a scale of one (lowest) through five (highest), ranking the flavor, aftertaste and overall quality.
And they guessed which was which. “The real deal,” one participant confidently declared about … Guinness 0.
In the end, only about half were able to tell the boozy from booze-free. Read on to discover the full results and which they preferred – and whether one very confident colleague with Irish roots guessed right.
Read the story: The 12 best nonalcoholic beers in the US
Guinness Original
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Overall score: 3.4
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Flavor score: 3.6
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Aftertaste: 3.5
First brewed in Dublin, Ireland, in 1821, Guinness remains one of the most popular stouts in the world. So popular, in fact, that we recently recommended a few lesser-known Irish alternatives to help you expand your palate.
Unlike other beers that only use C02, Guinness adds nitrogen, resulting in smaller bubbles that produce its iconic, creamy head. Its ingredients are simple – water, hops, yeast, barley, malted barley and roasted barley, which gives it its signature dark color. The original has a dry finish, with notes of chocolate and coffee.
The verdicts: “Creamy cocoa with a bitter aftertaste.” “Pretty good fake.” “A full taste.” “The heaviness would make chugging a bit more challenging, but I’m up for a challenge.” “This is 100% the real Guinness. The foam sticks around more than the other one.”
“Watery.” “Not my cup of tea.” “It had more of that slightly gross alcoholic kick at the end. That nice, nasty alcoholic taste.” (Editor’s note: thismay not be a negative, depending on your preference.)
Guinness 0
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Overall score: 2.9
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Flavor score: 2.8
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Aftertaste: 3.4
The original’s non-alcoholic younger sibling was released in 2020. Also brewed in Dublin, the drink’s ingredient list – water, barley, hops, and yeast – is nearly identical to the original. Guinness removes the alcohol using a cold filtration method, which it says preserves the beer’s flavor.
The verdicts: “Deep, chocolate, hoppy.” “Creamy, delicious, foamy.” “The real deal.” “I would chug this beer but I couldn’t find the G to split on the side of the test cup.”
“Mild, mellow, chill. It lacked a certain aggression.” “Coffee-forward, but feels less effervescent than what I’d expect from Guinness.” “[Not as] fragrant as I would think for a Guinness.” “The Diet Coke of beers.” “Flat, lacking weight, a bit stale.” (Editor’s note: In its defense, it wassitting out forabout 10 minutes before our test began.)
The final verdict
“I do think there’s a bit of a difference. I have no idea which one’s which, though,” said one of our colleagues during the testing process.
Guinness 0 left almost half of our participants stumped. Six of the 10 participants that we surveyed afterward correctly identified the imposter.
“It’s a testament to the strength of the non-alcoholic version that I wasn’t able to tell without a side-by-side taste test,” wrote a survey respondent. Correct guessers told us Guinness 0 tasted noticeably less “bready”, though they were split on whether they preferred that.
As for our resident Irishman? “I was so wrong and I feel dumb,” he wrote. We hope his ancestors can forgive him.
Other pieces you might enjoy from the Filter, the Guardian’s guide to buying fewer, better things:
The Guardian wp:paragraph
هلدینگ کاسپین استانبول | خرید ملک در ترکیه | صرافی معتبر ایرانی در ترکیه | خرید و فروش طلا در ترکیه | مهاجرت به ترکیه | واردات و صادرات در ترکیه | نیازمندیهای ترکیه | اخبار ترکیه | اخبار جهانی | توریست ایران | خدمات توریستی در ایران | تورهای گردشگری ایران | هلدینگ اول | خدمات کاریابی و فریلنسری و شغل | مرجع اطلاعات ایران (همه چیز در ایران) | کیف پول و خدمات مالی و پرداخت یار | اخبار ایران | تابلو زنده قیمت ارز در ترکیه و استانبول | صرافی آنلاین ترکیه | قیمت طلا و نقره در ترکیه | سرمایه گذاری در ترکیه | جواهرات در ترکیه | نرخ لحظه ای ارزها در استانبول | قیمت دلار امروز در ترکیه | قیمت دلار استانبول امروز | قیمت لحظه ای دلار | اخبار روز ترکیه استانبول | اپلیکیشن ISTEX | اپلیکیشن قیمت لحظه ای دلار و یورو و لیر و ارزها در ترکیه
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