The Lemon Fool

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/o ... nd-ireland

Sounds interesting! Morrisons and Waitrose from monday.

Hope I'm not disappointed

--kiloran

I'll definitely be up for some of that. Thanks for the heads-up. (Come to think of it, a Guinness with the head down would be a different sort of drink entirely?)

BJ

Travesty

I've been trying the AF beers since Kaliber back in the 80s, mostly they are disappointing when comparing to real beer - I clearly miss the alcohol. The trick I think is accepting them as an alternative to other non alcoholic drinks and mostly I like water, occasionally squash and tea. I'll try the Guinness with that in mind but as I like Guinness I'm already managing my own expectations. Within the Guinness stable I like the draught from the pubs the bottled export stuff Guinness West Indies Porter and I'm less keen on the Original bottled or cans.

AleisterCrowley wrote:Travesty

Colin Dexter through John Thaw as Inspector Morse when visiting Australia said "And lite beer is the invention of the Prince of Darkness."

I'm 'on the wagon' at the moment, and just drink orange squash and tea.
I do have a can of Heineken Zero in the fridge, as it's unlikely to taste worse than normal Heineken. How could it?

AleisterCrowley wrote:I'm 'on the wagon' at the moment, and just drink orange squash and tea.
I do have a can of Heineken Zero in the fridge, as it's unlikely to taste worse than normal Heineken. How could it?

Me too, Sober October or whatever. I did February dry too where I got ther taste for Bavaria. This month I've had Brewdog Nanny State and Punk AF but prefer thew flavour in Bavaria or Cobra Zero. Actually abstinence is my preferred method of removing alcohol; the not-beer just isn't beer.

I'm just having a fortnight off as was getting a bit of lockdown flab. I may well fall off the wagon tonight

AleisterCrowley wrote:I'm just having a fortnight off as was getting a bit of lockdown flab. I may well fall off the wagon tonight

I've done a work back on my own lockdown flab and I will need a year on the four wheeled antiseptic vehicle just to get my boxers back on

AiY

I think we've said this before on this forum, but there isn't any low or zero beer that tastes like proper beer - you just need to find one that tastes close enough to meet your slightly lowered expectations.

I find that Bavaria and Cobra taste similar enough to a continental lager to convince my taste buds that I'm really drinking a proper beer. (The Bavaria is cheaper, which seems to be the only difference between them.) So although it hits enough of the spot, I'm still not kidding myself that it's the real thing. And I think that's a reasonable sort of level to aim for?

I tried the Punk AF once but I could only manage half a can, it was so vile. Becks Blue has an elusive flavour which I eventually identified as WD40. But I have this feeling that the particular qualities of Irish Guinness can probably be replicated if the malting is right and they've found something to give it the warmth that the alcohol normally provides. Time will tell. See you next week....

BJ

AleisterCrowley wrote:Travesty

That's my fear. Guinness is a fabulous drink and my mindset is that I'll be disappointed.
I'm sure it'll be nothing like the real thing, but hopefully got more body and better taste than the other alcohol-free beers.

--kiloran

bungeejumper wrote:I think we've said this before on this forum, but there isn't any low or zero beer that tastes like proper beer - you just need to find one that tastes close enough to meet your slightly lowered expectations.

I find that Bavaria and Cobra taste similar enough to a continental lager to convince my taste buds that I'm really drinking a proper beer. (The Bavaria is cheaper, which seems to be the only difference between them.) So although it hits enough of the spot, I'm still not kidding myself that it's the real thing. And I think that's a reasonable sort of level to aim for?

I tried the Punk AF once but I could only manage half a can, it was so vile. Becks Blue has an elusive flavour which I eventually identified as WD40. But I have this feeling that the particular qualities of Irish Guinness can probably be replicated if the malting is right and they've found something to give it the warmth that the alcohol normally provides. Time will tell. See you next week....

BJ

BJ quite right about finding one that's a good enough drink, I don't kid myself that Bavaria is anything other than an acceptable soft drink in the style of a beer. Beck Blue I found a bit ashtray-ey. See you next week for a review on Guinness I'm near a Waitrose and Morrison's on Monday.

More brewing details at https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2020/ ... -guinness/ . The sales stats toward the end of the article are a little outdated - they refer only to the first few weeks of Covid lockdown! - but as a trend indication they're quite striking. Personally, I slightly doubt that a 70% weekly sales growth for Pistonheads Flat Tire could prove sustainable.

BJ

I haven't yet managed to find any at my local Morrisons or Waitrose, but this sounds encouraging: https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/11/gu ... eal-thing/

--kiloran

None in my Morrisons last I looked, I've just logged on and it is on their online order page as in stock for collection tomorrow, I'll see if it's in there on Friday then.

kempiejon wrote:None in my Morrisons last I looked, I've just logged on and it is on their online order page as in stock for collection tomorrow, I'll see if it's in there on Friday then.

I just looked at the Morrisons web page. Couldn't find Guinness 0.0 so I used the search and finally found it. Morrisons class Guinness 0.0 as........ lager!!!

--kiloran

My son in law is a guinness drinker and I mentioned the alcohol free type to him - he went quite pale and disappeared into the distance muttering something about satan's brew.

R6

Just curious about alcohol free beer, as I make homebrew beer. I wonder if it would be possible to boil an ordinary beer to remove the alcohol, cool it back down, then re-fizz it with a sodastream. I wonder if it would retain the proper flavours more.

Pipsmum wrote:Just curious about alcohol free beer, as I make homebrew beer. I wonder if it would be possible to boil an ordinary beer to remove the alcohol, cool it back down, then re-fizz it with a sodastream. I wonder if it would retain the proper flavours more.

Have you tried Fermentis Safale LA-01 yeast? It is designed to produce beers < 0.5 ABV

kiloran wrote:

kempiejon wrote:None in my Morrisons last I looked, I've just logged on and it is on their online order page as in stock for collection tomorrow, I'll see if it's in there on Friday then.

I just looked at the Morrisons web page. Couldn't find Guinness 0.0 so I used the search and finally found it. Morrisons class Guinness 0.0 as........ lager!!!

--kiloran

Couldn't find it in the store. Might try a click and collect, or Waitrose next week.