Non-Alcoholic (ABV < 0.5%) Beers (2021)

I would like try some athletic brews. They seem to be highly rated.

 

My store carries the ipa. The DIPA a “copper” and a “golden” they do not sell well but that’s assuming because they are N/A

 

In 2019 (Before Times) my wife and I did a tour of many Connecticut breweries picking up donated beer for her charity event. Of course we had to have beer everywhere we went.
One stop was Athletic. I was leery. I remember sips of old school NA beers (remember Buckler?, as a friend used to say "they named it that because it makes you buckle over").
I was pleasantly surprised, Athletic does excellent beers. Fast forward and I heard they purchased an old Ballast Point facility in CA and have greatly increased their production. A relative of my wife's had a big health scare. He was craft brew fan #1. Now he only drinks Athletic and is really happy with it and his life.
A footnote.... When I was at the bar at Athletic enjoying their IPA I could see into the office through a door that was ajar. There on a desk sat two Hill Farmstead bombers.

 

I was pleased with the Lagunitas IPNA, body was thin as expected but the aroma and aftertaste were on point.

 

I am a huge fan of Athletic. If you are a subscriber, you can get access to some of their rarer Pilot brews. These tend to be really interesting and tasty one off beers. I drink a great deal of their beer and will continue to do so at least till I get back into better shape. Their brewery in Stratford is very relaxing.

Weihenstephaner makes an excellent non alcoholic beer that tastes similar to their hefe.

Brew Dog also has a large spot in my fridge. They are more hit and miss than Athletic but I really enjoy their coffee beer and Elvis AF.

Good luck to anyone else also doing Dry January.

 

I agree 100%. I enjoyed this a lot. I definitely got light west coast ipa.

 

Zero Gravity just launched Rescue Club IPA. I haven’t had it but will seek it out. Conehead is my fridge beer, so excited to try their NA offering.

 

I was at a tasting "before times" and tried the Athletic stuff. Obviously I was a bit leery from previous experiences with NA beer, but I was leasantly surprised. It's no Tree House or Trillium, but the IPA had a good hop presence, the others I tried were good as well. ||Not on the level of the highest rated breweries, but definitely solid.

 

Bauhaus Brew Labs in Minneapolis have an excellent helles and amber lager that they sell in six-packs. And because they're NA beers, selling six-pack 12-ounce cans to-go out of their tap room apparently doesn't run a foul of Minnesota's arcane alcohol laws.

 

Glad for this thread. Looking forward to learning new and maybe sharing. My "dry January" has lasted three years and is here to stay! Right now I'm in the mood of trying all somewhat easily available NA beers, that is several hundreds, have rated 165.

 

Ha....was going to start just such a thread myself, and saw this one....cool!
I did my first "dry January" last year and it went well - lost 16 lbs and kept it off all year....doing it again this year.....I too have been stocking up on the (almost) NA brews, as I do like the taste of beer, but not all the carbs and calories and abv%

So far, I have the Athletic Run Wild IPA, (solid), Clausthaler original (also very good pils), the Weihenstephaner hefe (excellent), and BrewDog Wake Up Call coffee stout (bit thin, but still good)....I loved the Bitburger NA pils I had last January and will pick up a six of that most likely - also ordered the ABC Cerveza and Coffee stout online today (free shipping on 2 six packs)...I tried several other BrewDog NA beers last Jan and will probably pick up another one again.....looking forward to a healthier start to 2021!
Cheers!

 

I've been curious to try this, but apprehensive as I've never cared for regular Lagunitas IPA. Though I have enjoyed other hoppy offerings from them, Hop Stoopid, Sucks, Born Yesterday, etc. Does the flavor and aroma profile of IPNA mirror their flagship IPA?

 

I am not usually a list type of guy, but I find this one to be a good jumping off point for someone wanting a variety of non alcoholic beers for a dry January. It came to my inbox the other day and while I might disagree with some of the beers chosen, the list does have several of the better brewers in this style.

https://www.eatthis.com/best-non-alcoholic-beers/

 

I’ve not had a Lagunitas IPA in a long time to compare. The hop bill for IPNA is Citra, Mosaic, and CTZ. I think the IPA recipe predates Mosaic’s availability (maybe Citra too?), so it’s a good bet IPA and IPNA have different profiles.

 

I really enjoyed Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher. Super fragrant nose and nice taste. Not really a beer, but a good option to keep around.

 

I wanted to share this article of a tasting of all Athletic Brewing's beers, but specifically this excerpt underlines by me):

"There’s a “wortiness” to the malt profile that becomes something of a consistent presence in all of these beers—to those who aren’t homebrewers, “wort” is the sugary liquid you have after steeping your grains, before the beer has been fermented. I can see this being a somewhat divisive flavor to drinkers, but if you can acclimate to it here it’s fairly pleasant."

I highlight this because if someone reading this is new to NA beers and curious to try some, they should be ready to grapple with the worty flavor. It is a unique flavor that sets NA and low-ABV beers apart from other standard styles. It can be challenging at least initially, but no more challenging than flavors like bitter hops, lacto or spontaneous sour, brett, smoked malts, etc. that we accept in beer. How the brewer incorporates this worty flavor into the whole is the interesting part.

Also, I personally don't think the IPA translates well to NA beer, and I would encourage people to try other NA beer styles before passing judgment on all NA beer. American obsession with IPAs won't serve them well here, IMO.


Athletic Brewing is getting lots of attention here, which understandable, but I think Ceria Brewing deserves some attention too. https://ceriabrewing.com/ Their Grainwave is a really tasty Belgian wit inspired NA beer.

 

With my wife pregnant, I've been buying a variety of NA beers to keep around the house. Here are some of my recollections:

Athletic - we've tried the golden ale, IPA, and stout. Unfortunately we've found them disgusting. Maybe we're just having a hard time adjusting to the wort flavor a poster mentioned above, but neither of us has been able to get through an entire can of any of their beers. Each has a really off-putting sweetness that dominates the flavor profile.

Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher - excellent. More like a hoppy seltzer than a beer, but a great option for a carbonated, tasty, non-alcoholic beverage that's not loaded with sugar.

Heineken NA - surprisingly decent. We're not fans of regular Heineken, but their NA version is crisp and refreshing without any of the nasty flavors we get from the Athletic beers.

Weihenstephaner NA - the best of the bunch. Nice flavor and surprisingly good body for an NA beer.

Overall, though, our assessment has been that NA beers just aren't worth it. It's hard to just enjoy the beers for what they are, instead of thinking about what they're not. My wife would rather have a soda or a mocktail. She's very much looking forward to an Allagash White or two after our baby is born, and she'd rather hold out for that than drink these poor substitutes.

For NYE we tried a NA sparkling wine called Fre. It was actually pretty good. It was much closer in flavor to a (low end, for sure) real wine than any of the NA beers are to a real beer.