Alcohol-Free Stout

Q: Is Guinness 0.0 the same as regular Guinness?

It's brewed to closely match the flavour profile of Guinness Draught (4.1% in Britain); Diageo says the alcohol is removed at the end by cold filtration. In our tasting it gets close but doesn't quite match — slightly thinner body, slightly less roast bite. The difference is much smaller than the AF-vs-full-strength gap in most other styles.

Q: What's the difference between a stout and a porter?

Historically, porter was the original style and stout was just a stronger version ("stout porter" — "stout" meaning strong). Over time the names diverged and now overlap heavily. Modern dry stouts (Guinness) and modern porters often differ in only minor ways: stouts tend to use roasted barley as a primary specialty grain, porters tend to use chocolate or black malt. The distinction is more brewer convention than meaningful style boundary.

Q: Are alcohol-free stouts higher in calories?

Often, yes. The alcohol-free stouts we list run from 17 to 32 kcal per 100ml, which puts many of them at the higher end of AF beer, alongside wheat beers. The full-bodied, malt-driven character that defines stout means more residual sugars and dextrins, and the sweeter, richer ones climb highest: Big Drop Galactic Milk Stout is 31 kcal per 100ml. At the other end, Guinness 0.0 is 17 kcal per 100ml. Compare specific beers in our calorie calculator .

Q: Are alcohol-free stouts gluten-free?

Most aren't — they're brewed from barley and contain gluten. A few are labelled gluten-free, including Drop Bear’s Bonfire Stout and Jump Ship’s Stoker’s Stout. Always check the label.

Q: Why is alcohol-free stout sometimes called "black lager"?

It usually isn't — these are different things. A stout is a top-fermented ale; a black lager (schwarzbier) is bottom-fermented. They look similar (both very dark) but the flavour profile differs: stouts tend toward coffee and chocolate roast; schwarzbier tends to be cleaner, less roast-forward, more like a dark lager. A few AF beers blur the line, but the styles are technically distinct.

Rich, roasted and surprisingly complex. Dark beer done brilliantly, at 0.5% or less.

26 beers reviewed and ranked

Stout is the alcohol-free category that surprises people most. It's also the one that has improved fastest. The roasted-malt, low-bitterness, creamy-mouthfeel profile of a good stout doesn't lean as heavily on alcohol as a hop-bitter style does — and Guinness 0.0, on sale in Britain since 2020 (it was recalled, then relaunched in 2021), normalised the idea of an AF stout in a way nothing else has. Craft AF stouts (Northern Monk Alcohol-Free Heaven, Big Drop Galactic Milk) push much further.

What is a stout?

A stout is a dark, top-fermented beer style built around roasted malts — most importantly roasted barley, which gives stouts their characteristic dry, coffee-and-cocoa bitterness. The name derives from "stout porter", originally just a stronger version of the porter style; over time "stout" became its own category. Modern stouts range from dry Irish stouts (Guinness, Murphy's) at 4–5% ABV, through milk stouts and oatmeal stouts that emphasise creamy sweetness, to imperial stouts at 8–12%+ ABV.

In alcohol-free, the sub-styles you'll commonly see:

Dry Irish stout

The Guinness template — moderate body, dry roasted finish, low residual sweetness. Guinness 0.0 is the best-known AF version, though in Britain draught 0.0 has so far been limited to pub trials.

Milk stout / sweet stout

Brewed with lactose (which is unfermentable by beer yeast), giving a rounder, sweeter, fuller-bodied profile. Big Drop Galactic Milk Stout is the AF benchmark.

Oatmeal stout

Includes oats in the grist for added body and silkiness. Particularly suited to alcohol-free because the oat-derived body compensates for missing alcohol mouthfeel.

Imperial / pastry stouts

High-strength, often dessert-like stouts with adjuncts (chocolate, vanilla, coffee, maple). Northern Monk Alcohol-Free Heaven (8.9/10 community score, the highest-rated beer on Unhopped) is an AF interpretation of the pastry-stout style.

Stout, explained. Where the style came from and every type, from Irish to imperial: what is a stout? What really separates the two dark beers: stout vs porter. And the seven alcohol-free stouts we rank, priced at three shops: the best alcohol-free stouts.

Why stouts work in alcohol-free

Three structural reasons. First, stouts get most of their character from roast and malt rather than hops or alcohol — strip the alcohol out and the dominant flavour signature survives. Second, lactose (in milk stouts) and oats (in oatmeal stouts) are unfermentable, so they contribute body whether the beer ends up at 5% ABV or 0.5%. Third, the perceived bitterness of dark, roasted malts is balanced by their inherent sweetness, which means a slightly sweeter AF stout still tastes like a stout — whereas a slightly sweeter AF lager tastes off.

For drinkers new to AF beer, stout is often the easiest category to find a beer they genuinely enjoy. Guinness 0.0 in pubs; Northern Monk Alcohol-Free Heaven or Big Drop Galactic Milk at home.

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