Tasting Notes: Nøgne Ø: Svant /Hvit Alkoholfri Melkestout

Nøgne Ø: Svant /Hvit Alkoholfri Melkestout (Norway: Low Alcohol: 0% ABV)

Visual: Very dark brown to black. Thin charcoal touched off white to brown dash of a head.

Nose: Milky to cream. Treacle. Rich chocolate cake and coffee cake with icing cream. Brown bread dough.

Body: Bitter cocoa. Lactose. Moderate thickness body. Crushed bourbon biscuits. Light chalk. Brown bread. Light charcoal dust.

Finish: Light chalk. Chocolate drink powder. Brown bread. Treacle. Peppery.

Conclusion: One of the hardest things to get right with a low alcohol beer is the mouthfeel and that goes doubly so for the darker beers where you would expect them to be malt led with the accompanying bigger body.

This does fantastically at that, not super thick but well within the range you would expect from the moderate abv of a milk stout.

This is made even better by the fantastic aroma – thick, creamy and treacly – it really pushes the milk stout style from the offset. Simple. But really effective.

Probably thankfully for long term drinkability, the body of the beer doesn’t lean as heavy into the treacle. Instead it mixes bitter cocoa dust and sweeter crushed bourbon biscuit notes. There is a slight chalkiness, which feels like an off note and a low abv flaw, but apart from that this is amazingly solid.

The finish returns to a touch of treacle but drier here and underlined with a peppery character. For all the sweet milk stout flavours this beer isn’t afraid to push the more bitter or spice led underlying notes.

Not perfect but would be recognised as a good standard abv milk stout. As an alcohol free one in the dark beer, malt led style as it is it does great with a hard to do well alcohol free style.

Background: Third and final of the Nøgne Ø alcohol free beers I had picked up from Independent Spirit. Been having a lot of whisky and big abv beers recently so I have been massively raiding their low abv selection and thankfully they have had a whole bunch of new stuff in to try and do notes on. The other two beers had gone well, so I had high hopes for this, but darker, maltier beers often have a harder time of it in the low alcohol arena. Went for some big brash music to back this – Strapping Young Lad: City. That is some big banging tunes.

Tasting Notes: Nøgne Ø: Himla Humla

Nøgne Ø: Himla Humla (Norway: Low Alcohol: 0% ABV)

Visual: Hazy lemon juice colour body. A good inch or so of white mounded head that leaves lace. Some small bubbled carbonation.

Nose: Lemon curd. Grapefruit. Creamy. Greenery. Light peppermint.

Body: Moderate bitterness. Shortbread. Iced tea. Vanilla toffee. Slight ice cream syrup.

Finish: Greenery. Iced tea. Vanilla extract. Nice hop character. Peach syrup. Growing growling bitterness. Grapes.

Conclusion:This is … interesting. It is definitely not the standard IPA, even in this day and age of NEIPA which have been, erm, expanding what that means. However that does not mean this is bad.

This is pretty sweet and creamy, with lots of lemon curd, vanilla and cream. In fact if you had told me this was a low alcohol take on a milkshake IPA I would have believed you. Also I would like it more than 90% of the shit that is the milkshake IPA style. Not a fan of most of those.

There are some grapes and grapefruit notes in there giving some sweet and fresh hop flavours, and that hop character shows itself presently and with some bitterness as well. Not in a traditional IPA style but they are there – especially in the finish where it lies with a nice growling bitterness.

There is also a LOT of that iced tea style that seemed to be the bane of a lot of the alcohol free drinks. Here it is not the worst, it mostly works with the beer, but it is very obvious.

It all results in an interesting, unusual, alcohol free beer. Not the best, not bad, just weird.

Does the job but in the oddest way possible.

Background: Another of the three Nøgne Ø zero alcohol beers I found at Independent Spirit, which I am using to make my dry drinking days more enjoyable. First one went well, so had high hopes for this. I checked the beer bottle while drinking as I was certain this had either oats or wheat used to make it and found out both were, in fact, used – a common trick with low alcohol beer to add some more mouthfeel and such. Music wise I continued my old punk bands kick with Vice Squad: Stand Strong, Stand Proud. I really should listen to other music styles as well at some point.

Tasting Notes: Nøgne Ø: Julefri

Nøgne Ø: Julefri (Norway: Low Alcohol: 0% ABV)

Visual: Very dark brown to black. Thin brown dash of a head.

Nose: Very gingerbread. Some greenery. Cinnamon.

Body: Light liquorice. Malt loaf. Ginger to gingerbread. Light chalk. Brown bread. Lightly bitter. Greenery. Cinnamon.

Finish: Gingerbread. White sugar. Light charring. Mild malt loaf and butter. Greenery. Light mint.

Conclusion: Holy poop, how gingerbready is this in the nose?! Asked and answered, it is super gingerbready. Initially that super strong character pushes away everything else, and it is still persistently a strong element even after other notes start coming out.

The body is still super gingerbread led but more balanced than that aroma. There are malt loaf like notes, which when mixed with the liquorice and light charring notes actually gives a very good impression of a dark ale hidden away under the massive Christmas spice, mulled drink imagery. It has surprising weight for a zero alcohol beer – not super dense but around what I would image for a 3.8% abv dark cask ale, which is an impressive job, especially to show around all that spice.

It does use the spice a lot, really leans into as as a showing of its Christmas nature, but doesn’t lose the base beer, which is often a failure in full abv beers, let alone alcohol free ones, so, good job.

It can occasionally be a bit chalky which is the weakest point, but not too often or too heavily. I’m never the biggest spice beer fan, but you know what? This works. So, it turns out an alcohol free spice beer is one of my preferred spice beer examples. Who would have thought it?

Not bad at all, an occasional beer for me rather than a frequent one to return to due to the style, but very well done for that.

Background: After the wealth of whisky tastings it was time for low alcohol fun, and just in time Independent Spirit got in three new zero alcohol Nøgne Ø beers. Not seen much Nøgne Ø for a while, generally have enjoyed their beers, so was interested to see how the handled the alcohol free side of things. This is their Christmas beer spiced with ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and coriander seeds. Beers from Norway tend to be pretty expensive, but these were not too badly priced, I’m guessing due to their alcohol free status. For backing music went with the Disco Elysium OST as I darn love that game and it seemed good backing music.

Tasting Notes: Mash Gang: Vault City: Only In Dreams

Mash Gang: Vault City: Only In Dreams (England: Low Alcohol: 0.5% ABV)

Visual: Hazy dark strawberry colour opaque body. Large reddened white tight bubbled head.

Nose: Strawberry. Kiwi. Lemon curd. Light greenery.

Body: Sour. Malt vinegar. Squeezed lime. Strawberry. Kiwi. Apples. Bitty mouthfeel.

Finish: Sour. Malt vinegar. Strawberry. Light chilli seed. Chipotle like smoke. Lemon curd.

Conclusion: I’m not super into this, but I am more into it than I was when I first poured it. So it is now clearing a low bar!

When I first poured I will admit this looked utterly lovely on the eye. On the nose it was pretty fruity, then when I got to sipping it had more a watered down malt vinegar presence which made up the main experience which was … not my kind of thing. There are a few fruit hints, but it felt very flat and empty. Not a good start, especially considering how fruity the aroma was – in the aroma there was such a range of fruit notes, including ones I knew where not used in making it, so the flat body was such a let down.

Over time it does get more fruity, with kind of kiwi coming from somewhere somehow, apple kind of fresh notes and of course, finally, we get that promised the lime and strawberry.

Like this it feels like a nice mixed fruit juice, with lots of bits you can feel in it, giving it a mouthfeel that really emphasises that. At this point only that watered down vinegar touch is there to hint at the call to a sour beer, with none of the complexity, attenuated character or other lovely characteristics that a sour beer can normally bring.

So, it feels kind of like a sub optimal and expensive fruit juicer mix, the only oddity is a bit of spiciness to it, but you could get that by just adding a drop of tobacco to your fruit juice. Not really worth the money – it has nothing there that just a good quality fruit juice could not do better and cheaper.

Background: So, Vault City tend to be pretty darn good with unusual sours, and Mash Gang , while more mixed, have a pretty good record with low abv beers. So a mash up between them to make a low abv odd sour is at least worth looking at I figured. I have to admit the shiny metallic can helped as well, it is pretty, if not the easiest to take pictures of so may not look as good in the pics here. Looking at the ingredients this is made with Strawberry, Lime, Chill and Vinegar. That last one I presume trying to get some of the sour wild yeast taste without the accompanied alcohol. According to the can this is the first in a six part collaboration series. Apparently this is trying to emulate a Strawberry and Jalapeno Margarita pickleback. I had to google pickleback, apparently this is when you chase the drink with a shot of pickle brine. Why they do not say. Self loathing? Then again I’m the one drinking this, so they got me on that one. Anyway, went back to the 90s with Space: Spiders as backing music for this. A bit of quirky 90s pop to go with a quirky low alcohol beer. This was another beer grabbed from Independent Spirit.

Tasting Notes: Mash Gang: RAD

Mash Gang: RAD (England: Low Alcohol: 0.5% ABV)

Visual: Cloudy apricot coloured body with a mounded white bubbled head that leaves suds.

Nose: Apricot. Guava. Moderate hop character with low bitterness.

Body: Dry. Good bitterness. Crusty white bread. Dry apricot skin. Tart pineapple.

Finish: Dry apricot skin. Slight rocky notes. Quite harsh bitterness. Dry overall. Mild tart grapefruit.

Conclusion: Ok, first up, this isn’t grabbing me as much as their low abv west coast IPA, but I have to admit I think that is at least in part because APA has never really been the style for me. There have been a few, done very well that stand out, but generally its not been one I consider a go to. What I can say is this is as solid a take on an American Pale Ale as Stay Gold was as a low abv west coast IPA.

This is also a beer that feels very dry, but in this case with a slightly more gritty, intense bitterness. On an intellectual level I am impressed how – despite them both having a malt load to bring a 0.5% ABV, they make this one feel like it has less malt for the hops to work against compared to the same 0.5% abv they used in the West Coast. It is impressive, just not my preferred style of beer, I prefer the more balanced take that the (illusion of) a higher malt load brings.

The flavours behind that is a simple mix of apricot skin and tarter grapefruit to freshen it up a bit. From how cloudy this was on the eye I was worried it would end up very NEIPA leaning, but this is balanced fruitiness, dry character and rising intense bitter – far different from that style

So, it is impressive, but, once again not my favourite style, but a very accurate low abv impression of the style. Ok for me, probably great for you if you are into the more dry end of the APA market.

Background: Mash Gang seem to have been doing well for themselves recently in the tasting notes, so decided to grab another one of theirs. This one is a 90s themed can and name, which is, sure, fine. No complaints really, but as someone who live through the 90s I am finding it hard to get excited about this version of it. Anyway not much to add, another one grabbed from independent spirit. With this being 90s themed I decided some retro music was in order, so went to the 80s for M.D.C – Millions Of Dead Cops. Just found them recently and darn that is some epic punk.

Tasting Notes: Big Drop: Reef Point

Big Drop: Reef Point (England: Low Alcohol: 0.5% ABV)

Visual: Pale yellow to grain, small bubbled carbonation. Thin dash of a head that leaves quickly.

Nose: Cake sponge. Lime cordial. Some hop character and bitterness.

Body: Wet cardboard. Soft lime. Chalk. Mild gherkin touch. Clinging hop bitterness. Cake sponge.

Finish: Clinging hop bitterness. Popcorn. Chalk. Soft lime. Soft honey. Fatty butter.

Conclusion: So, Big Drop are pretty good generally, and they are experts in low abv beers, that is their entire thing, but until now lagers have been a chink in their armour, they seem to have great difficulties with the style. Is this going to be the beer that patches over that flaw?

Nope!

They still do not have it. Frankly by now I feel like Charlie Brown taking a run up to kick the football every time I try a Big Drop lager.

Again this feels chalky, an element that can be fine in a bigger beer, but always seems too rough and out of place in low alcohol beers, especially lagers. In fact, looking at my old notes this seems amazing similar to the notes I did on their standard lager. Same description of just about existing soft lime, some chalk, same curse of kind of cardboard like notes.

There does seem to be a more evident hop character which is a plus for me, and some just about noticeable honey notes as it warms which gives some backing.

Probably just about better than the standard lager then, but still bland, still a touch rough and generally not good.

Ah well, maybe next time the football won’t be pulled away at last minute. I live in hope.

Background: Big Drop, in general I am a big fan. They are one of the first real alcohol free pioneers I can remember, doing not just an alcohol free beer here or there, but doing just alcohol free beers. Not every beer was great, but they have attempted a great range and with some real bangers. Their lagers have not been their strong point though, but when I saw this in independent spirit I thought I’d give it a go and see if they have improved on that, it is always nice when you find a new alcohol free beer that rocks that you can slot into your non drinking days. Not much to add, was feeling nostalgic so put on Garbage’s first, self titled album as backing music.

Tasting Notes: Mash Gang: Stay Gold

Mash Gang: Stay Gold (England: Low Alcohol: 0.5% ABV)

Visual: Browned caramel coloured body. Moderate sized off white head. No visible carbonation in the body.

Nose: Pineapple. Grapefruit. Toffee. Clean hop character and good bitterness. Ovaltine.

Body: Bitter. Bready hop character. Soft cake sponge. Pineapple. More bitterness as time goes on.

Finish: Pineapple. Good hop bitterness and general hop character. Lightly dry. Soft lemon cakes.

Conclusion: I’ve always been unsure of how well low abv beers can handle west coast IPA style. Despite the fact the lower malt use tends to mean that the malt is out of the way in a traditional west coast way, the lower malt also has often resulted in low abv attempts being over gritty and harsh as they seem to have more trouble controlling the influence of the hop usage.

This manages very well, a lightly dry character with that mentioned out of the way malt? Yep, check. Good bitterness that you can really feel without it getting harsh? Yep, check. It even carried well used citrus, which a lot of full abv beers manage to mess up. It uses tart grapefruit, soft lemon and fresh pineapple notes which work over time to keep the bitterness in check and balanced.

It it was a full abv west coast IPA I would find it solidly middle of the range – nothing too showy, nothing unusual for the style or pushing its limits, no fancy extra features. However as a low alcohol 0.5% ABV beer this is a belter.

One i’m happily slipping into my alcohol free day lineup.

Background: Mash Gang have been hit and miss for me, the hits have been amazing and the misses rough as heck, but the high level of the hits makes it worth giving a new one a try. So I see this, their low abv take on a west coast IPA in Independent Spirit and I think “What the heck, I need more alcohol free nights at the mo” and grab a can. Not much else to add, had recently seen Benzo Queen warm up for Mclusky at a recent gig, and they impressed me with their energy – setting up in the middle of the room instead of on the stage and we all just surrounded them as they made wonderful noise – so I went with their “You Never Take Me Anywhere Nice” for backing music. The album is very short so I had it on repeat.

Tasting Notes: Chouffe: Sans Alcool

Chouffe: Sans Alcool (Belgium: low Alcohol: 0.4% ABV)

Visual: Lightly hazy yellow gold body. Thin white dust of a head. Very small amounts of small bubbled carbonation.

Nose: Lightly bready. Coriander. Grated carrot. Mild hop character and bitterness. Mineral water.

Body: Mineral water. Light hop character and bitterness. Light chalk. Soft lemon. Bready.

Finish: Light chalk. Light lemon. Light orange. Coriander. Carrot.

Conclusion: This reminds me of the more mineral water tasting, lower abv, Trappist beers. The ones they make at a lower abv so the monks can actually drink them during the day. Those Trappist beers can be good, but oft suffer with the lower abv so can be hit or miss. This has an abv of 0.4% so has all the difficulty those masters of brewing have and then some.

A hint right at the front, do not chill this down more than the slightest touch – with the low abv it seems it does not have the body to react well to this so ends up super thin with the mineral water like elements utterly dominating.

Warmer it gains a breadier malt body to give some weight to it, and some soft lemon and orange notes – until that point the beer was really riding on the carrot and coriander notes which erm, well are nice as part of a beer when used right but should never be the main stay.

Even with the boost from a bit of heat this feels very lacking. Chouffe has always been very led by sweetness from the malt in my experience so it is not much of a surprise that it struggles with this low abv version. I guess they need more practise and experience to make this low abv version get its own style rather than rely on that malt.

For now though it is not very good.

Background: I’m generally a fan of Le Chouffe’s beers – not all have hit the spot, it isn’t one where I have to try every new release, but generally I enjoy my time with them. So I was intrigued to see this alcohol free version turn up in Independent Spirit. Post Japan I’m having a few low alcohol days as I had a bit more than usual then, so this fitted perfectly into that slot as one to try. Music wise I went back to Le Tigre – Feminist Sweepstakes. Still on a bit of a buzz with their music from seeing them just before the Japan holiday.

Tasting Notes: Mash Gang: Alpha Delta: High Definition

Mash Gang: Alpha Delta: High Definition (England: Low Alcohol: 0.5% ABV)

Visual: Cloudy pale lemon juice coloured body. Thin white loose bubbled head.

Nose: Lemon juice and grapefruit. Lightly tart. Light flour like hop feel and light bitterness. Grapes. Light peach.

Body: Flour feeling. High hop bitterness. Light charring. Greenery. Sour lemon juice backing. Light menthol. Grapefruit.

Finish: Lemon juice. Flour. Gunpowder tea. Grapes. Menthol. Grapefruit.

Conclusion: This is odd in many ways, but mainly that is is a low abv beer that manages to come across as very, well, beer like, and yet not in a style that a see much in the normal beer world. Maybe, I have encountered a beer or two in the vague ballpark as this, but in general it feels like a low abv beer that is happy to experiment and be itself rather that trying to ape the style of a higher abv beer.

Well, that or my finger really isn’t on the pulse of beer styles any more and beers like this are turning up everywhere. Which is possible.

It is actually a really good style I would like to see more of. It reminds me of an XPA (which is itself an odd style) with heavy bitterness and an out of the way dry malt base, but lightly soured in a way that takes away what can be an overly harsh feel to the XPA style.

I mean, it is still harshly bitter, with a flour like, clingy hope feel into gunpowder tea and charring at the end, it is just the light tartness makes it all much more manageable.

Flavour-wise it has gentle tart lemon juice and grapefruit notes as the main job, generally tart fruit juice like notes that work well with the bitterness.

It isn’t perfect. The harsher notes can become too present but it is a really good beer with the deliberately out of the way malt character of the style meaning that those elements don’t feel like a tell of low alcohol like they normally would, instead feeling like a natural part of the beer style.

Drunk blind I would not have guess the actual abv of this, and would have still very much have enjoyed it. A very impressive, very experimental beer and a great one at the low abv.

Background: Took me a while to work out the name for this – initially misread the symbols on the front of this as ADHD, and did a double take before realising it was a Delta symbol in the middle. Anyway HD stands for High Definition, the name which is only actually visible on the side of the beer. Nothing like making it hard for me to work out what your beer is called. This was grabbed from Beercraft which tends to have an interesting low alcohol selection. This being a collaboration with Alpha Delta who I haven’t encountered before, and described as being inspired by a New York State Sour Pale Ale, it definitely caught my attention. Looking online it uses El Dorado Incognito, Citra Spectrum, Talus and Mandarina Bavaria for the hops and has Orange oil, Madagascan bourbon vanilla, malic acid, yerba mate, and green coffee bean in it. I had to look up what some of those were! Also they describe the malt bill as including “rye, spelt, wheat and oats and features multiple grain size of the same variant “ – So, well they went full on in on making this an odd one. For appropriate background music I went for Polyphia – New Levels, New Devils. The odd math rock stylee seemed appropriate.

Tasting Notes: Ridgeway: Good Elf

Ridgeway: Good Elf (England: Low Alcohol: 0.5% ABV)

Visual: Pale clear yellow gold. Some small bubbled carbonation in the body. A centimetre of tight bubbled white head.

Nose: Kiwi to lime. Slightly crusty bread hop character. Light vanilla. Light bitterness. Fresh bread dough.

Body: Soft lime. Vanilla. Hop prickle. Thin custard. Sweet grapes. Slight sulphur feel.

Finish: Sour dough. Prickly into fluffy hops. Lime and grapes. Vanilla. Icing sugar dusting.

Conclusion: This is the opposite of what you tend to expect from a Christmas beer. It is light in colour, low in abv, golden ale like in hop use with a fresh hop prickle and green fruit flavours. I don’t think it goes the traditional Christmas route at even a single point.

I mean I’m not saying it isn’t nice, it is just unexpected.

The body is crisp and clean at the base, but with a slight real ale like sulphur touch that gives it a bit more weight and grip than you would expect. While not a heavy beer it definitely doesn’t have any watery elements that shout low abv, and that bit more grip means that it can give a nice solid prickle of hop bitterness without having to resort to an all out assault of hops to overcome the drawbacks of a thinner beer.

The fruitiness is sweet green grapes, with brighter lime takes and heavier kiwi touches under. It isn’t anything super fancy but matches the golden ale style well and gives some sweet release from the impressively but not overpoweringly bitter hops.

Overall it is a really good low abv beer that feels like it should be around all year rather than hidden away fro Christmas.

Background: So, we are into February, time for me to start doing Christmas beer notes. In my defence I didn’t do much at all around Christmas, sorry for that. Will try and get things going again. This is a low alcohol beer grabbed from Independent Spirit. Ridgeway also do a Bad Elf beer, which is higher abv but also seems not much like a traditional Christmas ale in style. This is its low abv cousin. Went with The Royal They: Foreign Being as backing music.