Today, 17th of January 2018, the Brewers at St. James’s Gate introduced the new Open Gate Pure Brew, a non-alcoholic lager that offers full-flavours and is in tune with consumers’ changing habits, offering a grown-up alternative to those wishing to enjoy a great tasting Irish beer even when not consuming alcohol.
The new beer was introduced to the media this morning at Dublin 8’s Open Gate Brewery and during the event, lead Brewer, John Casey said: “We’re extremely proud of this beer. It’s hoppy with lots of fruity aromas and a nice hint of citrus flavour, along with a smooth, malty finish. The overall taste is deliciously refreshing.”
The team was proud to point out that Open Gate Pure Brew, which has an ABV of 0.5 per cent, is the happy realisation of an idea they’ve had for over two years. They pointed out that in independent taste tests, over 70 per cent of people were surprised to discover that they were trying a non-alcoholic beer after tasting it. The test was conducted by MMR Research in December 2017 among 130 lager drinkers aged between 25 to 40 years old.
“Whether you’re seeking alcohol or not, we think great-tasting beer is the goal”, said Cassey. He added that “many non-alcoholic beers are made by taking a conventional beer and boiling away the alcohol which can impact the taste”, however, this new beer is produced with a different method that preserves all the flavours.
From the start, we were determined to brew a non-alcoholic beer with the same process we’ve perfected over the last 259 years. It has taken two years of experimentation, but we’ve come up with a way to fully brew beer using a special yeast strain that only produces a very limited amount of alcohol.”
Mark Sandys, Global Head of Beer, Diageo said: “Consumers shouldn’t have to compromise on taste on occasions when choosing not to drink or to moderate their alcohol intake, so we are excited to be offering more choice with our latest innovation from the Open Gate Brewery.”
“With Pure Brew, our brewers have developed a great tasting, fully brewed and fully fermented non-alcoholic lager that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with our other great beers. We’re proud to offer beer-drinkers and publicans more choice and we cannot wait for consumers to taste it.”
With an ABV of 0.5% ‘Open Gate Pure Brew’ is available in 330ml bottles and will be initially rolled out to 250 pubs in Dublin from January 2018 with wider distribution nationally in Ireland from March.
More information: guinnessopengate.com