He adds: "You would certainly expect that we would (launch a non-alcoholic Guinness). But it needs to be a no-compromise proposition." At this point, Ward reaffirmed the difficulties of achieving a perfect balance between brand quality and the requirements of making a no, or low-alcoholic product. In terms of Guinness, Diageo has traditionally exercised caution when it comes to rolling out non-alcoholic brands. In January 2018, Diageo Ireland launched ‘Open Gate Pure Brew,' a non-alcoholic lager from the Guinness Open Gate Brewery. However, the drink was only made available to 250 Dublin pubs initially. At the time of its launch, Lead Brewer John Casey said: "Many non-alcoholic beers are made by taking a conventional beer and boiling away the alcohol which can impact the taste. From the start we were determined to brew a non-alcoholic beer with the same process we’ve perfected over the last 259 years. It has taken two years of experimentation but we’ve come up with a way to fully brew beer using a special yeast strain that only produces a very limited amount of alcohol.”