Scottish brewery launches 0.0% ABV dark ale

Independent brewery Harviestoun has launched an alcohol-free dark beer, bottled at 0.0% ABV.

Called Wheesht, the new brew was made by master brewer Stuart Cail.

It took some persistence to convince Cail to brew an alcohol-free beer, as he felt like it was asking him to “make a sports car with square wheels.”

“I had tasted a lot of other low and no alcohol beers,” Cail said.

“On one day I tasted 18 of them back-to-back and then tasted ours. My thinking was: ‘well, it’s better than any of them’, so after a few tweaks we went straight to bottle. And very proud of Wheesht we are!”

Managing director Stuart Cook said he hopes the Wheesht, which has an RRP of £1.15 per 33cl bottle, will become “the nation’s favourite zero-alcohol ale.”

“Wheesht is the latest addition to our portfolio and we really believe that we haven’t sacrificed flavour in our search for an alcohol-free beer.”

It is named after a Scottish slang word ‘Wheesht,’ essentially a way of saying “pipe down”.

The beer itself has aromas of “chocolate, biscuit and dried fruit,” according to the brewer, which said these characters “carry to the palate with roasted, chocolate and sweet malt all shining through.”