Nowadays we are spoilt by some low-alcohol beers that actually taste a bit like beer! I’ve had several nice bottles recently, here’s tonight’s offering:
And it was very nice too, one of the better LA bitters I’ve had.
Any recommendations? (Just like the other thread, photos welcome!).
Now where is the whisky?!
2 from Adnams that are passable are Ghost Ship 0.5 and Sole Star
They are not like real beer but better than the low alcohol beers of the past.
Try the small beer brewery as well, they have more booze in them but only 2% or so, they taste like real beer though.
Last edited by Sinnlover; 11th January 2021 at 20:21.
Thanks OP. I'll enjoy reading this as it gets post as one week in four I work a site On-call rota and have to have a week without a beer (imagine that!).
I like the Ghost Ship 0% and Shipyard Low Tide.
Tried some low alcohol wine a few months back, it was terrible (can't recall what it was). Maybe there are some things that only work when they have alcohol.
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Originally Posted by sish101
This is correct, the main one being . . . beer. ;-)
F.T.F.A.
And wine :-)
B
And sherry trifle!
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They really are so variable eh. I bought some BrewDog Nanny State on the basis of recommendations in a previous thread and couldn't believe how awful it was. I have broad tastes in beer, from lager to stout, but I thought it was like some sort of chemical cleaner, undrinkable.
The Heineken 0% is the best of the lagers I've tried. I'd avoid the newish Peroni one: I tried it on the basis of decent Ocado reviews but again it was like a chemically lemonade - straight down the sink. Ocado also stock a 'Small Beer Lager' at 2.1%, which is pretty nice.
^^^
I had some Brew Dog Nanny State and it was really nice. But then I bought some a few months later and it was disgusting, all 6 bottles went out. I haven't risked buying any since. Weird.
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I tried St Peters Zero, not nice at all and I really like some of their others, had a "wrong" mouthfeel, like a sherbet fountain! Tried a Ghost Ship .5, better mouthfeel but all I could taste was malt. Recommended a Boston Lager (0%) wasn't bad but I'm not that keen on Lagers. Recently tried Nethergate Venture Point Five, tastes like beer! (albeit like the Landlord has "watered" the beer a bit, remember that!) so best one so far, most drinkableCheers, John B4
Kirk giving his liver a rest from the gtg’s
Beck Blue works for me, not too bad at all.
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Last edited by TheGent; 9th December 2020 at 18:45.
You know me, I like to drink responsibly 🙃Kirk giving his liver a rest from the gtg’s
I’ve a keg of 0.0 Heineken on the blade at the moment. It’s a bit “wheaty”, but good to give the liver a rest.
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Big Drop make some lovely alcohol free (0.5%) beers, and this one is my favourite...
Edit: the beer looks strange in this photo as a spotlight in the kitchen just failed!
Was going to try this but think I'll give it a miss now. The Heineken isn't bad but I prefer Bud Zero.
Brewdog punk AF is pretty good, as is Brooklyn special effects. Leffe blonde 0% is ok too.
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When I had a period of enforced sobriety thrust upon me a year or so back thanks to a bout of chemo, I tried a lot of alcohol free/0.5% stuff and came to the conclusion that if you like beer most of it isn't worth drinking. An honourable mention, however, has to be made for Bitburger Drive, which although I wouldn't swap for the real thing is almost good enough to suffice and as the name suggests, perfectly acceptable if you've got to drive. Difficult to find in this country, though.
Cheers,
Plug
0.0 alc by volume (abv) with some beer taste is hard to achieve, as it requires stuff like reverse osmosis technology to remove the alcohol after fermentation, thus only the big guys can really "brew" 0.0 due to the expensive equipment.
To just brew a malt beverage and not add yeast will result in a soft drink and cannot convince beer lovers.
Yeast type, fermentation, alcohol level as well as the right pH are a great contribution to the great taste of beer and if you leave them out, well we are often saying: rubbish
< 0.5 alc by volumne is considered non alcoholic beer by most standards, as it is safe to drink and stay operational in terms of driving or operating machinery. Local laws, your religion, your AA councellor may say different.
Top fermented ale or wheat beer yeasts impart more flavour than lager yeast, thus for exampe non alcoholic wheat beers like Erdinger tend to taste more flavourful than non alcoholic lager beers.
The non alcoholic beers have improved lately and there is more choice because the yeast producers (manufacurers) propagated yeast strains that do not produce much alcohol, yet develop enough fermentation esther so that there is more flavour.
For the TZ beer geeks, here is the link to one of the new yeasts: https://www.fermentis.com/wp-content...fAle-LA-01.pdf
That is the reason why innovative craft brewers do come out with beautiful low alcohol beers now. They have usually better/more expensive hop additions too, which of course contribute to "beer" flavor and cover up the hay like flavor of underfermented malt beverages.
IMHO a real sweet beer flavour spot is around the 2.5% alc by volumne content, these mid strength beers can nowadays be brewed, so that you are led to believe you are drinking full strength 4.9% alc. by volumne, rather than havinng to mix a shandy. You guys in Britain have figured that out much earlier than for example the Germans, where mid strength beers were not common (and still struggle). Its either <0.5 or 5% and if you want something in between, put Sprite/7Up or lemonade in it, arggghhh.
Cheers
Last edited by bmwrover; 10th December 2020 at 18:58. Reason: spelling, grammer, meaning, the whole lot ;-)
These two plus Erdinger and Clausthaler Unfiltered Dry Hopped Lager are probably the ones I like most. And by like, I mean I finish one can or bottle. I never want a second. With most low alcohol beers I don't even want a second mouthful.
etc
Very informative post thank you. It explains some things I think I'd noticed - e.g. that the 0.0s often taste dramatically worse than the 0.5s, or that the wheat beers are more tolerable than the lagers.
Having tried quite a few low alcohol beers (and wines) I agree the Adnams Ghost Ship 0.5% is quite palatable.
Last edited by Pretzel; 10th December 2020 at 18:08.
When I moved to England and started drinking bitter, the standard beers in the pubs were mostly in the range of 2.8% to 3.5% ABV. There were a very few at around 4.5%, but they were reserved for weekend drinking or winter specials. We now seem to have moved to a point where 5% is regarded as standard, 6.5% is strongish, and Roaster Coaster (which I'm rather fond of) is 9%.
I think I need to explore more of these 0% and 0.5% beers, especially as our local Tesco has a decent range of them.
Absolutely right, and going further back historically beer was weaker than that, and often drunk because it was safer than the water supply. (I remember reading an article on a drinking contest in late-Victorian Suffolk, won by a labourer who drank 85 pints. Before rowing himself home. The bladder was as important as the liver, you suspect.)
I do think it's a shame that there aren't more c3% 'session' draught beers.
This is a nice drop...
I’ve just found a crate of that I forgot I bought! Adnams sell it.
I really need to replace the failed lightbulb in this room!
When did you move to England? I'm 63 and around Durham/Newcastle back in the 70s we drank S&N Exhibition/Brown Ale, Draught Bass, Cameron's Strongarm, Castle Eden Ale, Vaux etc, all 4.2%-4.7%.
Mid 1980's. I was living in Ipswich (Tolly Cobbold was the local brewery, now no more, having been absorbed by, I think, Greene King) and most session bitter was around 3%, give or take. (It was an acquired taste for me. I had been used to drinking Guinness in winter and Heineken or Carlsberg - both much tastier than the UK versions - in summer).
^^^^ I remember in my youth, Hartlepool Cameron's Brewery had a relaunch of their Crown Ale. It was 5.2% (so not a session beer) but being a callow youth, I didn't appreciate that.
My father in law who was in the licensed trade got myself and pals some tickets to one of the events where the beer was free. I remember up to 9.00pm but then nothing until the following lunchtime.
Put me off drinking for quite a few days!
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I must say Bitburger Drive is not a bad drop, and is helping with dry January. I need to recharge my AF beer stash....any recommendations for online suppliers?
Working my way through these, some are quite good.
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I have been on the low/non alc beer for a year now. The best to my taste was a Czech
brew now longer sold by Sainsbury's. Main problem I find is the poor selection in the three supermarkets that I visit. Often end up with Heineken as the only one I recognise.
This ain't bad........Snap OP.
I would recommend Infinite Session Pale, one of the best I’ve tried. My understanding is that many are brewed and then the alcohol is removed rather than brewed to say 0.5 such as this.
https://infinitesession.com/
I got quite into them when I was recovering from my stroke . I still drink them a bit to keep my alcohol intake down, Big Drop did a stout that was not bad too.
Thanks all...I’ve decided to give the ‘Infinite Session’ mixed case a go.
edit: and just got a trial mixed case from ‘Dry Drinker’
Last edited by Kirk280; 11th January 2021 at 00:17.
I have just tried Brewdog Punk AF. I am actually rather impressed. If I had not seen the can I would be hard pressed to tell it was booze free. It still lacks a bit of depth compared to real beer but it’s best 0% (actually 0.5%) I have tasted.
Erm I’m not sure 4.6% counts as alcohol free
wrong thread..........................Erm I’m not sure 4.6% counts as alcohol free
Erm I’m not sure 4.6% counts as alcohol free
That's man-maths at its finest.
Agree this is my current drink of choice for lockdown
Found the brew dogs quite variable as well
This is a nice drop...
Kirk where did you get the Big drop from.Big Drop make some lovely alcohol free (0.5%) beers, and this one is my favourite...
Edit: the beer looks strange in this photo as a spotlight in the kitchen just failed!
12 days in I am hanging on by a thread. If is Curry or other spicy food it’s Brewdog Nanny State, need something different to try, looking on here for inspiration.
Last edited by hilly10; 12th January 2021 at 21:12.
Here you go mate:
https://shop.bigdropbrew.com/
Note that beer was a summer special edition.
These Infinite Session beers are lovely:
And this IPA in particular is a belter:
I just wish the cans were bigger! 330ml! What’s that about?
This is nice, if a little sweet:
The first of my ‘Dry Drinker’ mixed case.
Whatever you try, do not go anywhere near 'St Peters Without 0%' it is the only bottle of beer ever that I have had to pour down the sink, it was so disgusting. Reminded me of the days when I used to do homebrew. If you taste the homebrew concentrated malt extract straight out of the tin, that's exactly what it tastes like. 'Gopping' as we used to say back in the day.
Heineken 0.0 is OK but very watery tasting (as may be the real thing...), but at least is available everywhere.
Unfortunately, the only one that was remotely decent was a Czech Pilsner lager that Sainsbury's used to do. That was quite nice but poorly stocked (and I don't shop there anymore). With all these drinks, check the amount of sugar in them. I used to drink a 0.5% cider that Sainsbury's and Morrisons do. Lovely and refreshing drink but it had 25g of sugar in it I recall (5 teaspoons), so I stopped buying it.
Last edited by Gruntfuttock; 13th January 2021 at 21:32.
The thing that gets me about non / low booze beer is the strange mouth feel and lack of depth of flavour.
I think the mouth feel is down to the size of the bubbles, the bubbles are always a lot larger in the non / low beers and this leaves a strange feel in the mouth. (Is it just me)?
The depth of flavour is down to the brewing technique I guess.
Punk AF is the best I have tried to date, in contrast to nanny state by the same brewery which is minging.
Last edited by Sinnlover; 13th January 2021 at 23:16.
The Erdinger is pretty decent, I often drink one with a spicy pizza because the chilli masks the flavour of proper Weissbier.
I had a nice M&S Pale Ale last night, good flavour and not too much after taste.
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Another nice IPA....dry January isn’t too bad!
Not too grizzly...
This was nice too...
This one was very special:
I’ve never drank so much beer in dry January!
Certainly the best I’ve tried, and had a couple of IPA myself tonight. I’ve also discovered this one that I need to try and they are bigger cans https://northernmonkshop.com/collect...ale-ale-6-pack I also fancy the 2.8% striding edge, too many beers these days have crept up to a silly abv. I’ll order some and report back once I’ve tried them.These Infinite Session beers are lovely:
And this IPA in particular is a belter:
I just wish the cans were bigger! 330ml! What’s that about?
I must try that new big drop too.
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