Rosemary Jest
Wrong and Unstable
Still better than drinking Brewdog though. I'd rather have a lemonade after reading this thread.
BrewDog: yet another hip company using 'rebel' language to sell its stuff
- Thread starter treelover
- Start date
Still better than drinking Brewdog though. I'd rather have a lemonade after reading this thread.
skyscraper101
0891 50 50 50
Whatever happened to Shandy Bass? I'd rather drink that. Used to love it as a kid.
Its still around if you find the right tab shop.
skyscraper101
0891 50 50 50
Independent convenience store that sells booze, crisps, soft drinks etc. Just the sort of shop that is everywhere. The tab bit comes from slang for fags.
Well, I had a can recently which makes me want to check the use by date next time.
ETA: Its still going strong, is google broken at your end of something?
https://www.bestwaywholesale.co.uk/product/358808-1
Rosemary Jest
Wrong and Unstable
Yeah, what Teaboy said. I even think some supermarkets might still sell it. Sainsbury's used to anyway, in big 2 litre bottles. Ideal for a shandy sesh.
discobastard
Well-Known Member
Been meaning to post about alcohol free beers on another thread (which I will). I have tried a lot of them recently. In summary:
Heineken 00 is actually pretty good because it tastes like Heineken (I just don't like lager). Becks Blue is nowhere near as good.
Nanny State I think is really not great, very bland flat taste with no bite. Brewdog Raspberry Blitz is an alcohol free sour, which is actually quite decent if you like that kind of thing.
I thought Erdinger was dreadful.
NIrvana Brewery do AF only - they have a number of pale ales of which 'Sutra' is by really good - not immediately obvious it has no (or v little) alcohol in it. After a bottle of this I had a bottle of Thornbridge Big Easy which had a great aroma but fell flat on taste in comparison (a bit like Nanny State - no bite or aftertaste).
Buy Nirvana Beers Online | Nirvana Brewery
Big Drop brewery are also AF only. Their Brown Ale and Winter Ales are really good (the Sour less so). They also have a Pale Ale and Citra Four Hop IPA. The former is pretty good but the Citra Four Hop IPA is excellent and by far the best AF I've tasted. The first time I had it, it wasn't immediately obvious it was AF. You can buy it online at drydrinker for £1.79 a bottle. So that and Nirvana Sutra are probably the best bets if you like pale ale. Just hard to find.
To drink. Not to be drunk. | Big Drop Brewing Co
As I said, I'm not really a lager drinking but I did have a couple of cans of Pistonhead Flat Tyre AF and that was pretty decent.
I haven't tried Adnam's Ghost Ship AF yet but am keen to do so, just not seen it on sale anywhere. I also want to try Infinity Session Pale.
Totally agree that the pubs (even the specialist craft beer places) aren't making much effort to stock this stuff. They need to up their game.
The same goes for some of the supermarkets/retailers.
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FridgeMagnet
Administrator
Didn't like the Heineken - there is still a load of it my fridge which I use to make beer batter with (it's fine for that).
teuchter
je suis teuchter
Maybe people would get less worked up about it if it just had a different name.
discobastard
Well-Known Member
Have you ever considered the fact that there may be people with different experiences to yours? People that may have found themselves with an alcohol problem (for example) that may choose to (or need to) stop drinking. Or others that simply don't want to get drunk? Should they therefore be only allowed to drink diet Coke or J2O in pubs when socialising with friends?
You might not see the point but perhaps you can see how that might come across as quite an arrogant or ignorant point of view to some others.
Oh, and 'don't you dare try telling me that it doesn't contribute to the overall flavour of a beer'. I don't think anybody has said that have they? Have you bothered to read any of the posts here?
Do you understand how the supply of and demand for goods works? It's a fairly basic principle.I was in a craft beer bar recently and asked if they had any non alcoholic beers. They said they had Becks Blue (which is disappointing in itself for the kind of bar I was in). I said go on then I'll have one of those. They said, oh, we've run out sorry (bet they never run out of the other bottles). And the guy stood next to me at the bar said 'well, non-alcoholic beer is a shit idea anyway ahahaha'. What a great guy eh? *He* knows what is and isn't good for me. He was a fucking prick.
It's not all about you is it. Interested to hear what you think about that.
ETA: It's interesting to see quite a few people liking the quoted post - be keen to hear why others think there is 'no point' to non-alcoholic beers, which tends to suggest that those who choose not to drink should have their choices suppressed - but maybe I've misinterpreted that? Happy to be proved wrong.
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discobastard
Well-Known Member
Are people worked up about it? Apart from NoXion that is...
And it's still beer. Most of the 'non-alcoholic' beers are still 0.5%. You can either remove the alcohol post brew (by boiling it off which also boils off a lot of the flavour) or there are other methods (vacuum and osmosis) which keep more of the flavour.
Some of the newer techniques can be expensive which is why there are few decent ones around, but that will change over the next few years, believe me.
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discobastard
Well-Known Member
According to whom though? *I* think it's beer. Who doesn't think it's beer? It's just a construct. It's not fixed. Those that want to argue otherwise have the same kind of mindset that say 'Dr Who is a man, and a female shouldn't have been cast because a being that can change it's appearance shouldn't change *that* part of their appearance because 'male' is my conception of the Dr'.
I get peoples' need and/or wish to drink non-alcoholic beer (or low-alcohol), and I think discobastard 's review above of current choices was really informative 
As a professional real ale researcher in pubs and festivals, I cant say I'm all that tempted (or at all tempted
) to test the nought-percenters myself, except for comparative purposes 
.... or perhaps on their own in some blind-test to see if I could really tell that there was no alcohol present. Challenge!
But fair enough generally!
As a professional real ale researcher in pubs and festivals, I cant say I'm all that tempted (or at all tempted
) to test the nought-percenters myself, except for comparative purposes .... or perhaps on their own in some blind-test to see if I could really tell that there was no alcohol present. Challenge!But fair enough generally!
discobastard
Well-Known Member
I get peoples' need and/or wish to drink non-alcoholic beer (or low-alcohol), and I think discobastard 's review above of current choices was really informative
As a professional real ale researcher in pubs and festivals, I cant say I'm all that tempted (or at all tempted
But fair enough generally!
That's a sensible and thoughtful answer. Not long ago I was somebody who (albeit not professionally) used to review real ales (and I'm from Yorkshire where the ale is *really* real!) But my view on alcohol has changed in the past year or so.
See what happened with smoking/vaping. Not quite the same thing, but habits/trends change significantly over a 2-3 year period.
And having had a conversation in the London Beer Factory a couple of hours ago, there's no real difference between sitting in a craft beer bar and (with apologies to Stewart Lee) drinking a few pints of 8% Gandalf's Memory Stick @ £6 a pop, and sitting on a park bench drinking four cans of Special Brew. Except Special Brew is a third of the price (I'm guessing - I have no idea what Special Brew cost in a tab shop these days).
discobastard : Thanks for that. I'm not that 'professional' to be fair, the above was a semi-joke and I should have added 
( )
But we do help organise Swansea's beerfest in August, festivaldeb was once the chairwoman, I wonder what could possibly have attracted me?
That's the second biggest in Wales, and we contribute a lot to picking good choices, by means of checking them out in various trips to other beerfests (Gloucester BF on Saturday
), as well as just going to pubs ....
If I ever needed/wanted to go no or low, I'd really want alc-free options that tasted good rather than shite. Hence my attempt to be understanding about your post and where you were coming from.
By the way, Brew is far from cheap in shops these days!
( )But we do help organise Swansea's beerfest in August, festivaldeb was once the chairwoman, I wonder what could possibly have attracted me?
That's the second biggest in Wales, and we contribute a lot to picking good choices, by means of checking them out in various trips to other beerfests (Gloucester BF on Saturday
), as well as just going to pubs ....If I ever needed/wanted to go no or low, I'd really want alc-free options that tasted good rather than shite. Hence my attempt to be understanding about your post and where you were coming from.
By the way, Brew is far from cheap in shops these days!
teuchter
je suis teuchter
If you help organise a beerfest - then I'm going to suggest it's your duty to test some non or zero alcohol beers, and include the best ones in your festival.discobastard : Thanks for that. I'm not that 'professional' to be fair, the above was a semi-joke and I should have added
But we do help organise Swansea's beerfest in August, festivaldeb was once the chairwoman, I wonder what could possibly have attracted me?
That's the second biggest in Wales, and we contribute a lot to picking good choices, by means of checking them out in various trips to other beerfests (Gloucester BF on Saturday
If I ever needed/wanted to go no or low, I'd really want alc-free options that tasted good rather than shite. Hence my attempt to be understanding about your post and where you were coming from.
By the way, Brew is far from cheap in shops these days!
skyscraper101
0891 50 50 50
They're fucking around with loads of soft drinks these days because of the sugar tax, so possibly this has also been affected.
Just seen this. In previous festivals (I've been involved since 2009, festivaldeb for longer) our lowest % beer to date has been approx 3.2% or so, we have small number around that kind of strength (milds/light ales etc.). I will chat with my friend who's in charge this year of organising the list/sourcing the beers ... but I have a sneaking suspicion (him being a brewer by trade!) that he might not be too receptive to 0% to 2% beers. As might not our informal committee and wider membership!
I think for now all +I+ might do is test one or two non-alcs, like you suggest.
Beer festivals should give more consideration for the non-drinking attendees - people come long distances for them which means there's often a driver, who then has to spend the day drinking flat coke while their partners wank on about hops. Even if you don't have any interest in non-alcoholic options yourself, it's only good manners to make sure your non-drinking attendees aren't totally bored to death.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
It does feel pretty absurd to talk about what is a "proper beer" generally, outside of jokes, when the concept changes by the decade, and looking back further even the ingredients and methods have regularly been radically different.
I may not like Brewdog's "punk" marketing at all but they do at least run a successful chain that provides just plain weird shit for sale. There are some good real ale pubs not too far from me in West London but none of them have the deliberately experimental range of the Brewdog.
I may not like Brewdog's "punk" marketing at all but they do at least run a successful chain that provides just plain weird shit for sale. There are some good real ale pubs not too far from me in West London but none of them have the deliberately experimental range of the Brewdog.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
It would be interesting to ask them - as a serious question - why are they not receptive?
Because surely anyone who's seriously interested in beer (rather than getting drunk) shouldn't be using the alcohol content as a way of automatically discounting options.
There's certainly a lot of pretty dull alcohol-free beer out there - but the same applies to 'real' beer. Why not give some encouragement to the brewers who are working hard to make decent low- or no- alcohol beer. The brewer who can make a tasty 0.5% or even 1.5% beer is quite possibly a more skillful brewer than the one who can make 7% concoction the impact of which largely relies on the alcohol hit.
(By the way, having moved in the past few years to seldom drinking anything more than about 4% if I can help it, much of the 5% or 6% stuff that I previously liked now just tastes a bit 'chemical' like I'm drinking meths or something)
discobastard
Well-Known Member
This is spot on. The ‘variety’ we now have, with wonderful names like ‘Californishire’ and ‘Relax, it’s just a hazy IPA’ (actual beer names) with funky coloured labels convinces us they are legit artisan tastes. But many of them taste either ‘bad’ or just like loads of other pale ales. If they brew em they have to sell em otherwise it’s just money down the drain. Don’t get me wrong there are some great brews out there but at least 50% of them are shite, even if they’re called ‘Vectron Apocalypta’ (that one is made up. As far as I know [emoji16])
It’s a great con. You’re basically drinking Special Brew still.
And ABV has rocketed over the years. A session ale in the 80s/90s was something around 3.5%, but now session IPAs are being sold at 4.6 and above.
The worst part of it all is that if you choose to drink AF then you can get rinsed. We went to a craft beer bar(Art and Craft) in Croydon recently and they told us they no AF beers. So we went to the Green Dragon. All they had was bottles of Nanny State. So we had two of those..........
£5.05 a bottle. Fucking daylight robbery, given that duty is higher on high ABV (and it’s shit). They sell Nanny State bottles in the Co-op for £1.40 (£1.99 for Punk IPA), and they must be still making a profit on that.
If you want to drink AF beers, nobody gives a shit or wants your custom.
Interesting to see that nobody (inc NoXion) has come back to comment on any of this.
discobastard
Well-Known Member
Seriously?! What else have you tried AF?
8ball
AV REFUGEES WELCOME
Everything I know of. Any suggestions?
Rosemary Jest
Wrong and Unstable
I tried a non alcoholic beer from Barcelona this week that you can get in Morrison's, it's quite nice, even smells like beer, even if the taste isn't 100%. Sorry, can't remember what it's called, comes in blue stubby cans.
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