Let's talk non-alcoholic beer (and other N.A. beverages)

Cafe Society
1

In a thread about the connoisseur culture surrounding wine, @pulykamell has made some posts about non-alcoholic beer, such as this one:

I didn’t want to hijack that thread, but I am interested in a fuller discusseion regarding non-alcoholic beer (and other N.A. beverages).

I have never been an alcohol consumer, although I occasionally have a sip of beverages that people around me are having, just to know what they’re like.

I have occasionally ordered a non-alcoholic beer when it show up on a menu, and I’ve noticed that these are becoming more and more available. The very first one I tried was Kaliber (by Guinness) and it’s still my favorite, although it seems to be harder and harder to find.

Other ones I have liked, so some extent:

Buckler
St. Pauli Girl NA
Clausthaler
Heineken 0.0

Ones I have tried and did not like:

O’Douls

So I’m interested in hearing from other folk who are into NA beer—what do you like and why. What is easy to find? How do you compare? Whatever, discuss.

2

Athletic Brewery Company has blown me away with what NA’s can be and is the gold standard by which I measure all others.

Guinness NA is amazing too.

Those others you mentioned are OK and somewhat easier to find, but not amazing.

3

I looked into this for a friend, but he doesn’t want to subscribe to a “Beer Of The Month” club. Can this beer be acquired in some other manner?
Edited to add: NM, I found their store locator.

4

My favorite is Clausthaler Dry Hopped, which is carried at the local Trader Joe’s. You can buy individual bottles at that TJ’s, so you can easily sample their entire NA beer stock. I don’t care for regular Clausthaler, but they have another brand which is drinkable — pretty sure it’s German, but the name escapes me.

I’ll happily take a Calibre when I can get one. And while ordinary O’Douls isn’t worth drinking, the Amber Bock version often is.

My memory is getting weak so while I think I’ve tried Beck’s and St. Pauli, I’m just not sure. I believe Beck’s was surprisingly good. And here in the Midwest, every bottle of St. Pauli Girl that I’ve had has been very skunky, so I was interested in their NA version. It came in a darker bottle than normal St. Pauli. My memory says it tasted skunky.

5

For ABC you can place a one time order as well, no monthly subscription required. But there are many stores that carry it now as well as it appears you have found.

6

Yes, Athletic for me is a good baseline. I’ve liked pretty much everything I’ve tried from them, plus they are super low calorie. The Run Wild is 65 calories; The Upside Down is only 45. You can knock back a whole six pack of those and not feel guilty. They have a Gose, if you like sours, called Downwinder that I really enjoyed the one time I found it.

Guinness NA, as you say, is shockingly good. I bought a 4-pack two nights ago and am down to my last one. It froths up like a Guinness, it is 90% of the way (if not more) of the flavor of Guinness. The mouthfeel is slightly thinner, but if you handed me one of these in a bar and didn’t tell me it was NA, I would honestly not have noticed. I don’t know what voodoo they do with that beer, but I was so happy when they came out with it in my area St. Patrick’s Day 2021, as Guinness was one of my favorite session sippers.

The Lagunitas NIPA is a solid expression of the style. I do find that IPAs tend to translate better than average into NA styles. Pure lagers and pilsners generally fall flat for me, but the Heineken 0.0, when served very cold, is pretty close to its alcoholic brother. Whether that’s a good thing or bad thing is up to you, but it seems to be the most commonly found NA here at bars after O’Douls (and sometimes Sharps, but I don’t see that around much.)

Big Drop Brewing has some very interesting craft-beer offerings. Their Galactic Extra Dark is a milk stout, so it has lactose in it and a fairly heavy mouthfeel and noticeable sweetness. There’s oats in their, too, for some of the grainy oatmeal stout-like dryness, as well as cacao nibs for, well, chocolate flavor. Lots of flavor in this one at about a hundred calories a 12 oz serving. I believe they are from England, but they are brewed here in Chicago. They have a number of offerings, all worth trying, but that one stands out for me.

Clausthaler Dry Hopped is reasonable. The regular one I would pass on.

Brooklyn Brewing has a selection of four NAs. Their Special Effects IPA is a solid NA IPA. Like I said, the IPAs all translate pretty well. If you’re lucky, you can sometimes find a 12-pack sampler of 4 of their NA beers. It contains a Pils, an Amber, an IPA, and a Hazy IPA. The Pils (unsurprisingly) is my least favorite, but the Amber and IPA are my favorites.

Sam Adams Just the Haze also ranks up there with my favorites.

7

I took that to a buddy’s annual beer tasting. Blind judging and every single one of us called it the worst thing they’d put in their mouths in a very long time. Absolute yak piss.

Tastes obviously vary.

8

I like Just The Haze better by Sam Adams, but I don’t have any issue obviously with IPNA. It’s a little on the thin side, but I found the flavor fine.

9

I think that is the problem with most of them. They lack the mouthfeel of real beer and are just as thin and pissy as most sodas. They do have the advantage, even the lesser ones, of at least tasting like an adult drink.

10

Once, when a friend of mine planned a trip with her kids, and then the oldest one had a band thing come up, and wanted to stay in town, he stayed with me for five days, I didn’t have kids yet, but was married, and wanted to make it kind of a fun time for him, so we went out to eat, and went to play pool one night, and did some other things that were cool for a 14-yr-old.

At one restaurant, they let us get him a non-alcoholic “beer,” but when we went back to the same place a few nights later, they wouldn’t serve it to him again. Apparently it was the server’s discretion whether they felt comfortable serving non-alcoholic drinks to a minor. I don’t know if that means we couldn’t have gotten him a Shirley Temple either.

The first night, neither DH not I ordered alcoholic drinks, and the second night, DH ordered a regular beer. Weeks later it occurred to us that they could have been concerned that the “real” beer could be switched for the non-alcoholic one.

11

Yeah, it’s weird. Not quite the same, but in Illinois, and now I’m here in Arizona and it’s the same, if I go to the grocery and get NA beer, I have to show my ID. Even with absolutely 0.0 beers (and not just the <=0.5% NA beers). So I’m a little surprised they even served the NA beer, even if you didn’t order alcoholic drinks. Then there’s places like Wisconsin, where as long as mom or dad (or a legal guardian) say it’s okay, it’s fine (at the discretion of the licensee).

12

I will not Blaspheme!

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That’s the one I’ve had most recently, and it was pretty decent for that style of beer, non-alcoholic or not.

I would imagine that the styles that would translate best to non-alcoholic versions would be ones that have significant flavors from the hops and/or specialty grains. So something like a very hop-forward IPA or a porter/stout like say… Guinness would do well, as the roasted malts & other specialty malts are responsible for the bulk of the flavor.

Something like a light lager wouldn’t be my first choice, as there’s nowhere to hide flavor-wise. It’s a tiny amount of hops, and relatively small amount of specialty grains, which leaves just whatever base grains and adjuncts to add flavor. Take the alcohol out, and in the process lose some of the aromatics, and you’re likely removing a large proportion of the aroma and flavor compounds.

I’m kind of torn; generally speaking I’m not terribly interested in non-alcoholic versions of alcoholic beverages, as I don’t have any addiction or heatlh reasons to avoid them. But I am curious about them, especially the newer non-alcoholic “spirits” that are being made.

14

Thanks to this thread and an odd search result (while looking for a substitute for coffee for affrogato), I discovered there’s an outfit, apparently based in Chicago, that makes 100% non-alcohol (as in there’s actually no alcohol, not even 0.05%) wiskey, rum, and tequila. Have any of you tried Ritual Zero Proof?

15

Oh, cool. I have not tried it, but when I get back to Chicago, I may have a look for it. I did try one non-alcoholic whiskey about two years ago and it tasted like it was made by someone who has only read descriptions of it put through Google translate several times and never actually tasted a wee dram in their life. Just abysmal. Can’t remember the brand, though.

I would be most interested in trying a non-alcoholic gin to flavor seltzer or tonic water (of course.) That seems like the kind of drink that would work well in a non-alcoholic format, but it’s really hard to extract the flavor of botanicals in a non-alcoholic medium. I’ve tried non-alcoholic vanilla extract by accident and it is just missing a lot. So I’ll still buy alcoholic vanilla extract to use. Same with alcoholic wine for cooking.

16

Article from NPR about the changing NA marketplace:

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Here’s one from the Washington Post:

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Agreed.

If you wish to try different tastes/styles, there are plenty of options. But if you just want one solid go-to, IMO this is a fine option.

Regular O’Douls is pretty bad, but Amber is almost palatable.

DISCLAIMER, sober some 18 years and mostly drink water. Maybe 6x/year when I’m with my BIL he’ll have NA for me. For me, beer has limited appeal if lacking the ETOH.

19

Explain?

20

Ethanol.