Guinness 0.0 is the default. Someone at the pub orders an AF beer, that's what arrives. It's in every supermarket. Every off-licence. Half the pubs in the country. It's the safe choice.

IMPOSSIBREW is the opposite of the safe choice. Small brand. Mostly online. Puts ashwagandha and L-theanine in their beer and claims it actually helps you relax. Sounds like marketing. I thought so too.

I've been through a lot of both. Enough to have proper opinions. Here's where they actually stand.

What these beers are trying to do

Guinness 0.0 is trying to be Guinness without the alcohol. That's it. Same roasted barley flavour, same creamy head, same black pour. They want you to feel like you're drinking a Guinness. The taste is the entire product.

IMPOSSIBREW is trying to replace the feeling of having a drink, not just the taste. They've got a range - Triple Hopped IPA, Brut IPA, Enhanced Pale Ale, Enhanced Lager, and a Cask Reserve Amber. Each one has what they call their Social Blend - L-theanine (the calming thing in green tea) and ashwagandha (adaptogen that's been used for stress for thousands of years).

So right away you're comparing different things. Guinness is selling you a taste experience. IMPOSSIBREW is selling you a feeling. Whether you think that's clever or just marketing depends on whether you've tried it.

Taste

Guinness 0.0 is good. I'm not going to lie about that. It's got that roasted, slightly bitter, creamy thing going on. Pour it into a proper glass and it looks right. Smells right. First sip is convincing.

But it's not perfect. There's a slight thinness that regular Guinness doesn't have. And it finishes sweet in a way that bugs me after the second can. Most people won't notice on the first one. By the third, you will.

IMPOSSIBREW's Triple Hopped IPA is a completely different style. Hoppy, bitter, proper craft beer taste. If you like IPAs, this is one of the best AF versions I've tried. The Brut IPA is lighter and drier - good for summer. The Enhanced Pale Ale is a solid everyday drinker. The Lager is decent but not the standout.

You can't directly compare a stout-style beer with an IPA. That's like comparing coffee and orange juice. What I can say is both are good at what they're trying to be.

If you're a Guinness person, Guinness 0.0 will scratch that itch. If you're an IPA or pale ale person, IMPOSSIBREW's range has you covered.

The Friday night test

This is the bit that matters to me. I didn't stop drinking because I didn't like the taste of beer. I stopped because of what comes after. The bad sleep. The fuzzy Saturday. The three-day anxiety spiral from four pints.

So I care about whether an AF beer can fill that gap. Not just the taste gap. The decompression gap. The "work is done, week is over, breathe out" gap.

Guinness 0.0 on a Friday night: tastes great. But I might as well be drinking a fancy Coke. There's no shift. No settling. The ritual is there - crack the can, pour it, sit down. But the thing that's supposed to happen next doesn't happen. I'm holding a nice drink but I'm still wound up from the week.

IMPOSSIBREW on a Friday night: different story. About 30 minutes in, something shifts. Not drunk. Nothing like that. But the edge comes off. My wife noticed it before I said anything - "you seem more relaxed tonight." I wasn't sure if it was placebo at first. After a few weeks going back and forth between the two, I'm convinced it's not.

That's the thing that got me reordering IMPOSSIBREW - the IPA actually does something. Referral link there if you want a tenner off your first order.

The L-theanine and ashwagandha aren't just label decoration. L-theanine promotes alpha brain waves - the same state you get into during meditation. Ashwagandha has been studied for cortisol reduction. Together they create something that feels like the first beer of the evening used to feel. Not impaired. Just... less tightly wound.

Availability

This isn't even close. Guinness 0.0 wins by a mile.

Tesco. Sainsbury's. Asda. Morrisons. M&S. Waitrose. Aldi. Lidl. Corner shops. Pubs. Restaurants. Airports. It's everywhere. If you want an AF beer right now, Guinness 0.0 is probably within walking distance.

IMPOSSIBREW is mostly online. You order from their website and it arrives in a couple of days. They're growing into retail but they're not in your local Tesco yet. If you want one tonight, you're out of luck.

For the "always have some in the fridge" approach - ordering a 10-pack online is easy enough. But Guinness wins the convenience game hands down.

Price

Beer	Price per can/bottle	Where
Guinness 0.0	~£1.20-£1.60	Supermarkets
IMPOSSIBREW IPA (10-pack)	~£1.89	Direct from site

Guinness is cheaper. No getting around that. Especially when it goes on offer - you can sometimes grab a 4-pack for under a fiver.

IMPOSSIBREW costs more, but you're getting ingredients that Guinness doesn't include. Whether that's worth the premium depends on what you're after. If you just want beer taste, save the money. If you want the relaxation effect, the extra 30-50p per can is probably the cheapest way to unwind that doesn't involve alcohol.

What they get wrong

Guinness 0.0: That sweetness. It creeps in after two cans and it's not in normal Guinness. Also the nitro widget doesn't quite work the same as in the alcoholic version. The surge and settle is close but not perfect. Minor complaints, but they're there.

IMPOSSIBREW: Availability is the obvious one. Also the branding leans a bit heavy on the "functional" angle, which puts some people off before they've tried it. The beer is better than the marketing suggests. If they just said "it's an IPA with stuff that chills you out" more people would try it.

When to choose which

Go Guinness 0.0 when:

• You're at the pub and it's on tap
• You want something right now from the shop
• You're a stout person and want that dark, roasted flavour
• You're buying for someone else who's sceptical about AF beer

Go IMPOSSIBREW when:

• It's Friday night and you actually want to decompress
• You miss the feeling of drinking, not just the taste
• You like IPAs or pale ales
• You're happy to order online and plan ahead
• You want to try something different from the supermarket standard

The verdict

Guinness 0.0 is a very good AF beer. I've got nothing bad to say about it for what it is. If you want a dark, creamy, available-everywhere AF beer that tastes like Guinness, it does exactly that.

But it doesn't do anything beyond taste. And after a while, that gap starts to matter. Especially on the evenings where taste isn't what you're missing.

IMPOSSIBREW costs more and is harder to get. But it's the only AF beer I've tried where I felt different after drinking it. Not impaired. Not buzzed. Just... calmer. And for me, that's the whole point of switching to AF in the first place.

I keep both around. Guinness 0.0 for pub nights and quick grabs from the shop. IMPOSSIBREW's Triple Hopped IPA for the evenings at home where I used to reach for something proper.

Different beers. Different jobs. Both good at theirs.

I've been buying IMPOSSIBREW's Triple Hopped IPA regularly now - 10-pack for £18.90. This link gets you £10 off your first order if you want to see what the fuss is about.

Related: Lucky Saint vs IMPOSSIBREW | I Tried 6 AF Beers So You Don't Have To | I Tried the Ashwagandha Beer for a Month | Best AF Beer for Midweek Evenings