It's beer first, alcohol-free second
By Phil Mellows
Mindful drinking organisation Club Soda’s new shop in London’s Drury Lane is a sign of a growing confidence in low and no-alcohol drinks, not least in beers.
For a few years, it’s been clear that the current AF wave is not going to follow previous attempts to launch the category, crashing on the beach only to fizzle out, leaving one or two washed-up brands to satisfy what sales and marketing people call the ‘distress purchase’.
The mere fact that the Club Soda shop is also a tasting room suggests there are enough products worth tasting, and that people are going to like at least some of them, rather than suffer disappointment back home without being able to do anything about it apart from vow never to buy that again.
Among beers in particular, the past 12 months have delivered a proliferation of AFs (defined, for these purposes, as up to 0.5% abv) from start-ups specialising in low alcohol, alongside established brewers who feel the need to add one or two options to their range.
The Independent Taproom and Beer Shop across the road from me in Brighton has expanded its range massively (pictured) and, according to owner Matt Russell, it’s attracting diverse customers who, for whatever reason, aren’t drinking, taking a break or cutting down on the alcohol by alternating AFs with full-strength beers.
“People are thinking more about their drinking, and there’s no doubt that the quality has improved, especially over the past year, and that’s driving interest, too,” he says.
Thanks to innovative brewing techniques that either strip out the alcohol with minimal damage to the beer or ferments it to a very low strength, the stigma and embarrassment of making that ‘distress purchase’ is lifting. People feel comfortable about ordering what they can credibly call a ‘proper’ beer that has all the flavour that goes with the craft experience.
These beers are looking sexy, too. As much care is going into the branding and can design as making the beer. Brulo is inspired by 1960s Japanese posters, Jump Ship by semaphore. Only With Love’s cans are splashed with Day-Glo cartoons, Lowtide’s etched with witty drawings. Good Karma evokes the hippy trail to the East, Mash Gang the macabre. (My co-writer Kate bought a Lowtide Neipa, The Cosmic Turtle, at Club Soda’s new shop this week and says that its depth of flavour makes it the best low-alcohol beer she’s tried so far.) They all catch the eye and make you think you’d like to try what’s inside.
And what’s inside can be just as creative. Like their full-strength counterparts, these brewers are constantly innovating and collaborating with others to come up with something new. It’s another thing that’s makes them a part of the craft beer scene, rather than the low-alcohol scene. They are beers first.