The Devonshire in Soho, London, became the second site in the UK to stock Guinness 0.0 on draught last week, after the George in Fitzrovia, London, and Diageo has since announced plans to expand the trial.
Owner Oisin Rogers told The MA having a no and low range that is comparable in “flavour, taste, texture and look” to popular full-strength serves is “very important”.
The venue has six standard Guinness lines and sells between 15,000 and 20,000 pints a week, priced at £6.90 each and sold more than 100 pints of the alcohol-free alternative on the first day, priced at £6.35 each.
“With the huge volume of Guinness we already sell and the fact the zero product actually tastes really great, I thought it would be good to put a 0% option into the range on draught and that Guinness was the best one to do it with.
“People do ask what they can enjoy when they're not drinking and there's a lot of people who do need to have something that feels and looks right for the pub. It makes them feel good to hold a decent pint that looks the same as the real thing and tastes almost as good”, Rogers added.
In addition, adding a low or no alcohol draught beer line to the bar could help double sales within the segment for pubs, Greene King senior category manager Andrew Carpenter said earlier this year.
Full social experience
Carpenter made the statement while he was a guest on a panel hosted by KAM strategy & insights director Blake Gladman at the 2024 Low and No: Drinking Differently report event in Angel, north London, this summer.
He said: “It wasn’t that long ago when there was only a bit of alcohol-free knocking around in a few fridges in our pubs.
“The journey for us is certainly focused on beer and the draught part of it. That’s very much the opportunity in a pub because that’s where the money is.
“It’s not an easy one to crack based on some of the other dilemmas such as how you actually create the space because there’s so much competition for being on that front bar.”
For the second year in a row, Heineken 0.0 was the most popular no and low-alcohol beer brand in the on-trade last year, according to the Drinks List 2024.
"We'll continue to see innovation in the low and no beer space as we've seen in alcoholic beers”
It was followed by Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0, Beck LA Alcohol Free (Blue), Lucky Saint and San Miguel 0%.
In July, Lucky Saint on-trade director Aaron Duffett urged operators not to “underestimate the power of the non-drinker”.
Speaking to The MA, Duffett explained those opting to not drink alcohol still want to be part of the “full social experience” in pubs, adding 60% of visits to the on-trade now involve alcohol-free drinks.
This, he continued, has fuelled a growing demand for a wider range of no & low beers and pushed brewers within the segment to become more innovative.
Growing demand
“The industry has seen the growing demand for alcohol free and as such brewers are capitalising on that, which creates competition and more innovation; there’s better quality coming out of that.
“The reason we launched our lager is because that was the most popular beer style in the UK, but as we are seeing more people enter the alcohol-free space, the desire for a similar range of options as alcoholic beverages [has grown].
“People are looking for a mix of styles. Guinness 0.0, [for example], has done a fantastic job at offering consumers a really good quality stout and I think we'll continue to see innovation in the low and no beer space as we've seen in alcoholic beers”, the on-trade director said.
One in three visits to the pub were also found to now be alcohol-free with a quarter of drinkers alternating between full-strength alcohol and AF when visiting the on-trade, according to research conducted KAM and Lucky Saint, termed Zebra Striping.
Duffett continued: “[We need to make customers aware] if they had tried the category maybe 10 or 20 years ago and didn’t have a good experience, that actually it has really moved forward now and is something they can engage with.”
Would you install an alcohol-free beer line at your pub or have you already done so? Have your say in our poll here.
