Some pubs are blending traditional Guinness with its zero-alcohol version. Photo / Getty Images
Some pubs are blending traditional Guinness with its zero-alcohol version. Photo / Getty Images
For generations, Guinness drinkers have argued over the perfect pour. Now a new battleground has opened – a pint that is neither fully stout nor fully sober.
Pubs have sparked controversy after introducing a “60/40” pint that blends Guinness 0.0 with the original stout to create a lower-alcohol pour.
Thenew blend lowers a pint from 4.2% ABV to about 1.7% and will appeal to younger Britons who are increasingly drinking less alcohol.
Palmerstown House Pub, on Old Lucan Rd, Dublin, is among the first to offer the hybrid pint.
Posting on social media, the official pub account said: “Try our new ‘60/40’ in the Palmerstown House. All of the Guinness character, just a little lighter!
Daragh Curran, known to his 165,000 social media followers as The Guinness Guru for his content on the stout, told The Telegraph: “The quick reaction from people will always be this is absolutely sacrilegious, this should be illegal.
“Is it ruining the classic pint of Guinness? Maybe it is, but just don’t order it.
“It is an original idea. I don’t think it would be for me. I think most people’s opinion will be it’s all or nothing, it’s either 100% or zero.”
He puts the creation of the 60/40 down to a marketing strategy, adding: “This is obviously done to go viral and fair play because it obviously works.
“I know if I make a video about it, it will get clicks and views so I’ll probably go and make a video trying it, so fair play to them in that sense.
“If you want to go out and have 10 pints and only feel like you’ve had four, fair play.”
Critics have suggested the new pour is "gimmicky". Photo / Palmerstown House Pub
The new pint comes after a shift in the way Britain drinks, driven by a rise in moderation among Gen Z and a growing focus on health and wellbeing among drinkers of all ages.
Nearly half of all young adults are now choosing “no and low” alcohol drinks, nearly double the level since 2018.
The most popular of these is Guinness 0.0 which has rapidly become Britain’s No 1 alcohol-free choice. Figures released over this year’s northern hemisphere summer showed the alcohol-free brand is worth almost £50 million ($116.5m).
‘Trying to regurgitate the same products’
However, publicans in Britain are also sceptical about the new 60/40 blend. Claire Alexander, owner of the Killingworth Castle pub in Wootton, Oxfordshire, called the new brew “another gimmick”.
She told The Telegraph: “It sounds like another gimmick. I think they are constantly trying to regurgitate the same products and I think Guinness drinkers are quite loyal to the brand and will be wondering why they have done it.
“It muddies the water with ABV and how much you can drink and drive and I think it’s probably safer to have the normal Guinness or the no-alcohol Guinness, which is actually quite popular. It’s one of the non-alcoholic drinks that people actually like.
“So it’s just confusing things with alcohol consumption and it’s gimmicky.”
She doubts the concoction will catch on. “I think if you’re a Guinness drinker you either drink the real thing or, if you’re driving, you go for the zero alcohol. I don’t think there’s a need for it.
“Why muck up something that’s been so successful for so long?”
The new brew is not being rolled out by Guinness itself, with individual pubs choosing to introduce the hybrid brew.
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