Non-Alcoholic (ABV < 0.5%) Beers (2023)

Well said! Those sentiments are my feelings too.

 

Lagunitas IPNA - very good, one of the better NA IPAs I have had thus far.

 

I finally got round to Wellbeing's IPA, definitely met the high many standards from last year's thread. I'd imagine worth a try if you come across it.

 

One of the best NA IPA's I think is out there....just had today - contract brewed by Barrel Bros in Windsor CA - RationAle Brewing WCIPA

 

Well dry January is over for me. I was able to try quite a few NA beers, but since I was also trying to watch calories/carbs, I didn't end up trying some of the highest rated ones, such as Untitled Arts or Southern Grist. The ones that I ended up liking the most were both made by Guiness -Kalibur and Guiness 0.

 

8 People Leading the Craft Non-Alcoholic Beer Movement

My two favorite head-scratchin' comments that had me thinking "Damn, this sure is a strange segment..."

Wow - a brewery that owns brewing equipment!

So, wait - were their craft brewers (as the term has come to be defined) in the pre-Prohibition era, in Maine or anywhere else?

Not sure what the point is - there were still a lot more licensed US brewers in 1983 than 12 (well over 50) and, according to the TTB:

 

I decided to do dry-February because it had fewer days. Then I realized that it would be a great opportunity to explore NA, so I've been buying up all the NA singles I can find here.

I just had a Guinness Non Alcoholic Nitro 0 Draught. I'm not a NA fan, nor a Guinness fan, but I like this for some reason. To me, this tastes like regular Draught, minus the alcohol. The other NAs I've had taste like they're missing more than the alcohol. I rated it 4.28, by far the best NA I've had, though only my sixth.

Funny thing happens when you try to include "<5% ABV" in your review. I left that then noted it was counted as a rating, and not a review. I checked and my review had been truncated after the"<". So I pasted it back in from my WBAYDN post, and it did it again. I finally pulled out the "<", and all is fine. That must be an escape character in reviews.

 

That's one of the two NA beers that I've settled on for my rotation. If you see Clausthaler Dry Hopped, get it next. Then you'll have a light colored NA beer and a dark one. That's all you need.

 

The article seemed very superficial and boring. It must have also been boring for the posters in the 'Discussion' section at the bottom. They launched right into the New Belgium Fat Tire remake, NA beers be damned..

 

I want to try the Clausthaler. But the one at my local is on a warm shelf and six months old.

 

I'd try another store. That one seems to be easy to find for me, and always less than three months old, but six months may be okay too.

 

Next I'll have to find some non-alcohol bourbon flavoring so I can have BBA NA Stouts...well not barrel-aged, but Bourbon...

 

Google is your friend; those NA 'spirits' are out there.

 

Well, isn't "boring" appropriate - given the topic of non-alcoholic beer?

I thought it was, at least, not the "same old" breweries and brewers discussed (like Athletic and Keith Villa).

 

I've only had three now, but I agree that the Guinness is the best of the three (Athletic's All Out and Cerveza Atletica, and Guinness 0) by a wide margin. I know this is a bit presumptuous coming from someone who has only had 3 NA beers, but here are some factors that I think are making the Guinness so much better:

• The nitro helps to provide more body and smoothness, avoiding the thinness that some NA beers exhibit. I even find that Cerveza Atletica is better than All Out in part from its carbonation, which seems much finer (maybe it's naturally carbonated?) and gives it more a feel of an actual beer, instead of a beer-flavored soda.
• Reverse osmosis. From what I understand, this equipment is hugely expensive but gives a much better result because you aren't heating the beer at all or arresting the fermentation.
• Whatever the "natural flavors" are that they are adding in seem to do a good job of bringing the flavor back up close to the original. While I agree with the TTB that this makes it no longer a beer (and usually I'm a grump about brewers adding crap to their beer), in this case I appreciate that they've done so in a way to bring the flavor profile back to where it needs to be.

I was exciting to try this one after so many on this thread recommended it, and it really delivered. I'll definitely be adding it as a regular in my NA stable.

For reference, see https://www.guinness.com/en-us/beers/guinness-zero:

 

Good point on the 'boring' factor. Even the few NA beers that I 'like' I'm just tolerating them. They are boring.

I also noticed that the breweries that were featured in that article were ones that don't even come close to having much of a market share. I've heard of 3-4 of them, and have had beers from two, but I'd guess that the 8 breweries combined don't have 25% of the market. So how can they be considered as leaders?

 

I think NA beers are exciting!

 

Yeah, the article's title should have been something like "8 Randomly Selected NA Beer Brand Owners".

Did your forget to type in a decimal point there? 2.5% would be even more accurate, I'd guess. Last stats I saw was that NA was still only 0.8% (dollar sales) of the beer market, with Heineken 0.0 #1 accounting for over one-quarter of the segment.

 

Being dry hopped the shelf warm factor made me decide not to try it.

It was a Wegmans, so a local might be better.

Where does it say reverse osmosis? And do you mean they use RO water? The blurb just mentions cold filtration.

Thanks for this info though, I also dig the Guinness and think it's by FAR the best of the bunch (I've had quite a few).