Athletic Brewing All Out Stout 0.5%
The colour and general appearance are good, the head has a good body to it without being foam and not too pale.
The nose was good, some spice, sweetness, chocolate, hops and malt. Out of the tin, lots of promise.
Oh how it disappointed.
Mouth feel was thin and watery, no body, no richness, I imagine this is what week old diet Coke feels like.
The flavour had none of the depth or strength of the nose, it was like playing olfactory hide and seek for the stout. You know its there, every so often you catch a glimpse, get excited then it disappears again.
What flavour there is it's good but overall it's just a memory of what stout tastes like.
A thoroughly disappointed 3/10. I had to wait after drinking it yesterday to give it a fair score as I was actually cross that something which had excited me when I poured it could be so drab when drunk.
Samuel Smiths Brown Ale 0.5%
So full disclosure, I have a bit of a soft spot for Sam's, mainly off the back of three awesome stingo, but generally their bottled beers I do enjoy.
In the pour it's got a darker colour than some browns, head is pale but not white so far so normal.
Nose is reminiscent of a good best bitter.
Mouth feel isn't bad, you'd never confuse it for real beer but it's not flavoured Easter either.
Taste is much stronger than I expected for an AF, reminded me of a winter dark beer. Rich and spicy with notes of clove and all spice. Very good if you like that sort of thing.
In all not something of drink a lot of but not bad for that, just not entirely my taste in beer.
7/10
days larger - a bit unimpressed tbh not tried the pale ale yet. But the large was expensive for what it is and no better than an equivalent bud or peroni
Ah yes, that is very drinkable
^^^ Came here to post about that Brooklyn Special Effects Hoppy Lager after having my first one last night. Lovely stuff and up there with Adnams Ghost Ship 0.5% for me. It just tasted like a nice lagery beer without too strong citrus or artificial tastes.
Moretti Zero I though tasted much better than other 'common' beers/lagers usually available in normal drinking establishments. Better than the likes of Peroni, etc.
Bavaria 0% though - horrific. Smell alone was bad enough but the taste was awful. Immediately poured down the sink: sweet, sickly, just rank. The worst I've tried.
My tastes are on the lager rather than beer end of the spectrum and still looking for more options.
Got a sample can of Lucky Saint with the Gousto box this week. It was pretty good.
Special Effects is one of the best.
There's an offer on the Vocation (not Vocation) one at the moment... 98p a can...
Tonight Im trying a Big Drop Brewing Co Paradise citra IPA... No quite no alcohol, but cirtainly low at 0.5%
First impressions are it's very heavy on the citrus.....almost unpleasantly so.
Just recently started experimenting with alcohol free too- in principle I should be getting gluten free AF but there's not many of those, and lagers tend to be vanishingly low gluten anyway so...
First was San Miguel 0.0%. I like a standard san miguel, this doesn't really taste like that- much sharper and more chemically, but not horrible. I think if it had its own name rather than just being san miguel 0.0% I'd have enjoyed it more since I wouldn't have had that dissonance thing. But it's not brilliant, won't be getting it again.
Next I got some Big Drop Uptime craft lager, because it was good value and their brewer is a genius. And their AF/GF options are impressive. And it's absolutely amazing stuff- pours like lager, looks like lager, even has the perfect mouthfeel of a good lager. Tastes like camelbak water. There's barely even a hint of lager taste and what there is, is a bit like when you water down whisky so much that the tiny remaining whiskyishness tastes completely wrong and unpleasant because it's so diluted. Properly shite. But I'll try some of their other ones I think.
Funnily, my dad swore by the Bavaria. I kept getting him different AF options and he always went back to that.
I haven't met a Big Drop beer I haven't liked. Their Galactic Milk Stout is one of my favourites, their Tailwind IPA was excellent.
My wife gave me a subscription to Sobersauce, which has provided a monthly supply of interesting AF / 0.5% beers - occasionally some are horribly weird or weirdly horrible, but there are usually significantly more good beers than odd ones.
Funnily, my dad swore by the Bavaria.
Bavaria is good, shame my local tesco dont sell it in bigger packs then 4 bottles! I now pick up the Becks larger packs as it has 12 bottles.
Big Drop is ok. Pine Trail and the Galactic Milk Stout are good. Not so keen on the Paradise Citrus though.
There’s another Vocation one (1%) worth a try… we’ve got through 12 of them…
This is ace as well…
https://indiibrewco.com/products/reishi-citra-beer-abv-0-5-330ml
Got myself a mixer box of Big Drop, to give them a second try. The Galactic Milk Stout is going down just lovely, couldn't be a more different thing from the rubbish craft lager. But is it me or does it smell slightly of the london underground?
This is ace as well…
I would hope it is incredible at £3.50 per 330ml! Ghost Ship 0.5 is about a quid for 500ml so the Reishi had better be around 5x better 😉
It's at least twice as good, in my opinion 😋. But diminishing returns for sure, it's just the same with cheap/expensive full alcohol beers. I've also posted beers for less than a quid in this thread.
Currently holidaying in France and enjoying Leffe blonde 0.0% and Leffe Ruby 0.0%!
