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Comment by 52-6F-62 | Hacker News Reader

I’d be interested in a non alcoholic stout that rivalled Guinness. Bonus points if it’s not a calorie bomb so I can drink a few. Highly improbable, I know— but I’d love it.

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As a German, I feel like I need to recommend "Malzbier" [0], which is a quite sweet malt beverage, but its varies by brand. I can't tell you if the English language Wikipedia article [1] represents a broader class of drinks, though.

[0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malzbier [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta_(soft_drink)

Looks like there’s a variety sold here in Canada. I’ll keep my eyes open around the city to see if I can give it a try.

Sounds like it’s sweeter and maybe closer to an English malt beer than an Irish stout, but it sounds like it might be close

Inferial Stout from the Norwegian brewery Nøgne Ø is the only non-alcoholic stout I've tried. It's not Guinness, but certainly not bad for a non-alcoholic beer.

Otherwise I'm generally of the opinion that Mikkeller make the best (or at least most interesting) non-alcoholic beers

It's hard enough to find a good non-alcoholic beer without limiting it to stouts, so I'd try blending your favorite non-alcoholic beer with an infusion of roasted barley. Guinness is fairly light as stouts go, so I think this might work.

There was a non-alcoholic drink made in Nigeria, Maltina, that was made at a brewery as a non-alcoholic stout. I have not tried it, but it was quite popular and it looks like it has some distribution in Canada and the US.

Italy has a roasted barley drink called "Orzo". It tastes very strongly of barley, and is delicious iced with milk and sugar (or hot).

Tastes nothing like beer, but if you are just in it for the barley taste, it has a very powerful and delicious flavor.

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