I’ve gone on medication that makes drinking kind of problematic, but I really love beer of all kinds, IPAs, sours, etc. I like flavorful and varied beers. I’d like to try some interesting non-alcoholic options. What is your favorite non-alcoholic beer?
Athletic brewing company has a a stout…that if they billed as an ESB would be amazingly convincing.
I swear to you, I am (or I guess used to be) a BJCP certified beer judge. (former) Cicerone ii
Athletic is the best out there for NA, that I’ve seen. And that stout… I was intrigued to see how you could make beery. And you can’t. But… an ESBs flavor profile is, for all intents and purposes, a watered down (Still spritzy) dry stout.
I’ll bet there are better for hopheads. Hell, I prefer lagunitas’s NIPA offering more than athletics pale ale. So… yeah.
ESB means “extra special bitter,” which is a beer style
One that BJCP judges need to know. They also need to know a variety of stouts. BJCP stands for beer judge certification program.
And cicerone is like sommelier.
Sommelier is like wine expert but certified.
Idk about wine, but cicerone has three levels.
Level 1 is trivial and about glassware and cleanliness and beer style general knowledge.
Level 2 is a bit more intense (identifying specific problems with a slightly imperfect beer)
Level 3, to me, is wizardry. It’s like mouth-brain-beer turning completeness. Basically.
Guinness has the best NA stout because it tastes just like regular Guinness. When I had to stop drinking, I really missed this and none of the other NA stouts scratched the itch. Once this came out, I was really happy. Other than that, anything from Athletic Brewing Company is awesome. They have some good IPAs, their sour and gose options are really good, there’s a cerveza that tastes similar to negra modelo and a bunch of their seasonal offerings are really good. A big problem with a lot of NA beers is that they don’t get the carbonation right (brew dog has some good tasting ones, but their carbonation is no good). Athletic nails it. After that I’d say Brooklyn Brewing and Partake both have a few really solid ones; just pick whatever looks interesting from them and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
I love Athletic Brewing Company. Their Oktoberfest is very good, and their Blueberry Lemon Mango sour is my favorite NA beer on the market. I also really like Best Day, especially their Kolsch.
I’ve never had a NA beer, so this is kind of a joke answer, but I actually wonder it technically counts.
Root Beer?
Agree with everyone on Athletic I like their upside dawn golden. I also like Black Butte Port which is a NA I’ve only seen at BiMart of all places. I go through a lot of the Claushaller dry hopped.
