Guinness 0 Vs Athletic's Nitro Emerald Cliffs: A Real David And Goliath Battle

Guinness is the OG nitro beer, so it should be no surprise that the brand also began offering a non-alcoholic nitro in 2020. Guinness 0 hit the market and threw down a major gauntlet in the NA sector. And it seems that Athletic Brewing decided to pick that gauntlet up, dropping an NA Irish nitro brew in February 2026, right in time for St. Patrick's Day.

I wanted to get these two together to see how they matched up in a head-to-head challenge. In one corner, you have a brand with over 250 years of brewing experience and market mindfulness behind it. In the other corner, there's Athletic Brewing, which created quite a portfolio of brews and honors since its 2017 foundation. With just under a decade of experience, it has become the leading producer of non-alcoholic craft brews in the U.S. 

With pint glasses in hand and nitros thoroughly chilled, I readied myself for the tasting of the year (at least thus far). I poured these two out and went in search of the best body, creamiest taste, densest head, most entertaining pour, and most importantly, the winning flavor. It was a close fight.

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

Guinness is widely available almost everywhere, whether it be at your local bar or in the cold section of your neighborhood grocery store. It's sold in over 150 countries and brewed in 50 of them. So I had no problem picking up some Guinness 0 at my local Kroger, where it comes in a four-pack of 14.9-ounce cans for $9.99. The zero of the name is slightly misleading, as the brew does have an allowable less than 0.5% ABV for an NA beverage. And I have found that there are people who do care about that small percentage. The zero should literally mean zero. So, there's something to note.

On the other side of availability is Athletic, which only sells its Nitro Emerald Cliffs on the company site. The price for a six-pack ranges from $10.99 to $14.99, depending on whether or not you're an Athletic Member. The brew is an NA with the same, less than 0.5% ABV. But for that specific brew, I had to have the company send me a six-pack. Insiders say that this Nitro is going fast! And when it's gone, it's gone — at least for now. Personally, I think if it gets enough love, it could end up in my usual rotation. But if you want to have it for your holiday this year, you might want to put in an order today.

Athletic's nitro beer is fairly new as of February 2026 and is only available while supplies last, which could be due to the time that the initial batch took. Executing the Athletic Nitro required attention from research and development for almost 18 months and a retrofit of the Connecticut brewery so it could support nitro infusion. But Athletic put in the time, believing that with the perfect balance of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, it could give the consumer the fun pour, thick foam, and silky mouthfeel of a regular nitrogen-infused brew.

In addition to the nitrogen, Emerald Cliffs is also meant to have notes of roasted barley, coffee, chocolate, and a gentle kick of bitterness. And since Athletic is about skipping the widget to activate the nitrogen. So you get to give the stout a little shake before you pour it, fast, at a 180-degree angle, straight into your pint glass. (It's called the hard pour.) It's a pretty groundbreaking notion for the non-alcoholic sector. One I feel can only be fairly judged against an opponent that spent just as much care in crafting its own canned nitrogen-infused brew.

Guinness started introducing its nitrogen-infused beer in the late '50s. We can thank the nitrogen and a mathematician named Michael Ash for the teeny bubbles, dense foam, and a creaminess that is not found in your regular draft beer. Guinness 0 is created by cold filtering out the alcohol from classic Guinness. The process is meant to keep the integrity of the taste by placing thermal stress on the brew. This allows for the roasted notes and hints of chocolate and coffee to come through. But getting to that original Irish stout that Guinness 0 is now created from was quite the journey.

When first introduced to the public, Guinness had to be made by hand from two casks. In 1959, the draught was introduced with the invention of a specialized tap that utilized a gas-powered system. Experiments to infuse nitrogen into cans and bottles began around 1968. The widget was first introduced in 1988 with a small nitrogen disk being affixed to the bottom of the can. It worked great when the beer was cold, but sometimes exploded if it got hot. However, it still won the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement a few years later. But it wasn't until 1997 that the floating widget you know today was introduced. So, it took from 1759 to 2020 to bring us Guinness 0.

The pour from the Nitro Emerald Cliffs was entertaining and at first offered quite a robust head. It produced a fireworks display between the black of the brew and the lightness of the foam, swirling, melding, settling around the pint glass. But it took only a few minutes for everything to settle, leaving a permanent ¼ inch of foam. The aromatics were subtle, slightly woodsy with a definite cocoa scent. The first taste held an undeniable bitterness that I didn't feel was as gentle as had been promised. But upon taking the subsequent drink, the initial harshness of that bitterness mellowed considerably as my palate adjusted.

I could definitely taste the coffee and placed the blame for the bitterness on it. There was a hoppy flavor to the brew that I hadn't anticipated and am generally not a big fan of, but it rounded out the flavor and helped make it more robust. On the aftertaste, the cocoa seemed to blossom, and the bitterness lingered on the outskirts of my tongue. It created a unique, sharp, contrasting balance. Texturally on the palate, I could taste and feel what Athletic was attempting to do, but the nitro felt a bit thin to me. It did not bring the weight I expected from this type of beer.

It had been some time since I had tasted the Guinness 0, but it ranked the best among other big brand NA brews. And I feel, for those who have experienced the brand, you know what your expectations are going in. As far as the pour, it was delightfully Guinness, with showers of foam falling down into the dark liquid that had settled at the bottom of the pint glass. For the Guinness pour, I chose the 45-degree angle pour instead of the hard pour. Even after several minutes, the foam stayed quite hefty and more dense than the Athletic. It made the zero look very authentic to the original.

I took an initial taste and found that the first flavor that came across my tongue was one of a sharp sweetness with a black coffee sidecar. On second taste, I was still a bit bewildered at how much sweeter the Guinness was when compared with the Athletic, which was more bitter forward. Both had taken polar opposite choices on extreme heights of flavor, but in the end, I found the Guinness less surprising. It had more robust notes of chocolate and a smoother coffee flavor. As far as weight on my palate, I expected the Guinness to feel thicker than the Athletic. But honestly, I could say they were both pretty close in that regard, which really ended up swinging my vote.

I poured both brews into the same style of pint glass, following the varying instructions. Then they were tasted side-by-side for four rounds, cleansing my palate between beers each time. I made sure to take my time with each drink, dissecting their flavor and density, all the while comparing and contrasting. My final decision shocked even me. If the body of the Guinness were thicker than the Athletic, I would be making a different choice.

The Athletic Nitro Emerald Cliffs is an experience unlike any that I have had before in a dark beer. And I appreciated the newness of flavors and the delivery to the senses. It's hard to say that one is considerably better than the other. As far as the pour — how much fun is it to pour a nitro beer? It's a big part of the appeal. They both created the same mouthfeel and lacked the same amount of weight that I wanted. Both brews had strong flavors but were different.

The Emerald Cliffs brought a taste I hadn't experienced before, from the moment it touched my lips to the minutes it lingered, still teasing my taste buds. It kept me interested and invested. It's the kind of brew I want to sit with and sip in silence so I can pay attention to it. I generally only grab an NA brew when I'm at an occasion where others are drinking. But I can see myself having the Athletic Nitro for no reason other than I want a nice dark brew.