Reviewing my first NA beer here on BA. Not dry January or anything, just got a can and here we are. This is Athletic Brewing Upside Dawn. 0.5% beer , golden ale. received in a trade from @zdraco . Sort of funny as it could have been brewed down the street from me in Milford, CT. onto my review: Well Im finally reviewing an N/A beer after quite a while. Ive drank a few in the past but tonight I have a cellar temp 12 oz can of this beer with drink by 6/05/2026 on the date stamp. At least I think that is what it says. a little blurry. Pouring the beer into my pils class, cause Its what I grabbed. The beer pours a bright clear golden color and a fizzy bleached white head foams up about 0.5cm. Foam fades to a frothy surface covering that is fed by several active streams of carbonation. Aroma is some grapefruit and citrusy hops with hints of crackery malt in the background. Nose is robust if not complex, its appealing. First sip reveals a very light body with smooth texture and very fine tingly carbonation. Physical traits make for an easy drinking beer. Flavor is similar to the nose advertisements with some citrusy rind and lemon hop notes dominating hints of crackery malt inthe background and the finish is dry and has just a bit of astringency. Burps are hop forward as well. Its a decent enough beer with good flavor, and not much complexity. Not bad for NA beer with some content, just light on body and flavor. Still very drinkable and seems a good option if you need a break from the alcohol in beers. 3.81 in the BA DB
It was pretty decent - not my fav dark NA beer by any stretch, like the NA Black Butte, Guinness 0, and NA Speedway Stout much better....glad I only got a single of this one.....would rate it a 3.5 or so I guess it is supposed to be like Modelo Negro etc....cheers!
Ya know I thought that at first too. I've decided NA sours on average compared to other NA beers tend to be good. Like the worst ones tend to still be pretty solid. HOWEVER, I've yet to find any that I thought were like legit really good. Ones that I want to keep buying over and over. Would love that to change though cuz I love a sour in the summer.
I finally got my hands on a 6-pack of this first NA beer from Founders. It's not yet in town here but I had occasion to be in the Detroit area yesterday and found it at a Meijer store. Here are my notes in my rating (3.90) and review: Pours a golden color (what else, given its name and maybe the reason for the name) with a white head that disappeared quickly and had none by the time I finished the beer. Aroma was light malt. Taste was not as a Golden Ale, hence the reason I think the beer is named for its color. It has the dryness of a lager, so it's similar to a pale lager, just to equate it to a specific style. The important thing to me is that there was no taste of raw wort. I typically like beers with a bit more flavor, but this one has enough good qualities that I'm going to put it in my purchase rotation of NA beers.
This is my first time trying a non-alcoholic beer, the 0.5% Clausthaler Original (from Frankfurt, Germany). Didn't know what to expect, but it certainly didn't work for me. I still have another one to try...the Pale Ale from Toronto's Partake Brewing--this Saturday. Cheers...from The Responsible Beer Drinking Club! =)
I don't recall whether Clausthaler dates their beers, but be careful on NA beers, they need to be fairly fresh. I don't buy them older than 4 months if you can decipher the dating, especially for pale lager styles. Also, don't try to compare NA beers to your taste experience with standard beers in the same style. Compare NA beers to each other over time to determine which ones are acceptable to you. Keep at it and you'll get it.
Quiet here….sshhhhh…..my first crack at this one and I had high hopes, but……still not the mythical excellent IPA I’ve hoped for. About on par with RunWild from Athletic and very, very similar.
One of these days I’m going to find a AAL-adjacent NA that doesn’t have that underfermented worty character… but today’s not that day.
