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: 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: 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: Mash Gang: Northern Monk: Spiritual Journey

Mash Gang: Northern Monk: Spiritual Journey (England: Low Alcohol: 0.5% ABV)

Visual: Pale, cloudy lemon juice body that leaves lace. Massive white, loose bubbled head.

Nose: Bitter hops. Cheese puff crisps yeast funk. Lemon on pancakes. Wheaty.

Body: Dry. Very bitter. Black pepper. Charred. Oats. Slightly funky, fluffy mouthfeel. Mild vanilla. Fluffy pastry.

Finish: Milky oats. Mildly oily noble hops. Very bitter. Pepper. Charring. Dried passion-fruit.

Conclusion: Ok, I love the west coast style, stripped down malt backbone, dry and bitter as heck IPAs. My recent notes on USA beers has well established that. So, you would think I would like the very dry, very bitter low alcohol IPAs and pales that exist. That would make sense.

Yet somehow I rarely do, they fit in the same space as most session IPAs where often the lack of malt just makes the high bitterness feel rough.

There are so many hop types in here, some of which I adore in general, but the lack of malt used to make the body and dry character seems to mean that you really have to dig past that dry, charred, peppery bitterness to even try and find their fruitier influence.

It’s most interesting character is a fluffy, oat filled and slightly funky mouthfeel. It is a weird element there as it feels like the beer has little grip for subtle flavours, but the body itself is gripping and sticky, just using that mainly for peppery and slightly harsh bitterness.

If you really dig down, there is stuff under that – kind of crumbly pastry notes, some passion fruit, all still very dry. However it feels like too much effort for too little flavour.

I’m starting to think that less is more with low alcohol beers as every time I see a beer with a huge hop list it ends up just feeling rough, while ones with select choice of hops seem to show a lot more.

This just feels one note. It does the bitterness super bitter, but with none of the more rounded hop character around it and with that I cannot recommend it.

Background: This had quite a pretty can design, caught my eye, is brewed at Northern Monk, who do great beers, and is low abv, which is what I was looking for at the time. So an easy buy then. This was found at Beercraft who continue to be both generally expensive but also well stocked in their low alcohol range. It has quite a varied hop bill, listing Kviek, Magnum, Citra Cryo, Amarillo, Mosaic and Idaho 7 as the included hop types for the double dry hopped pale. Went with Garbage: Not Your Kind Of People as backing music, been on a Garbage kick since their new album dropped.