‘No alcohol’ is the boom category at the moment, and New Zealand craft breweries make some of the best non-alcoholic beverages in the world.
You’re reading a mountain biking magazine. You love being fit and getting the most out of your body and being in the outdoors.
That makes you a target audience for “lifestyle” beers — which means low and no alcohol, low carb and gluten-free options.
These are sometimes called “better for you” options. And the good news is that “better for you” also means better tasting these days.
Let’s go through some recommendations in all these categories.
THE HEROES OF ZEROES
‘No alcohol’ is the boom category at the moment. I can put my hand on my heart and tell you that New Zealand craft breweries make some of the best non-alcoholic beverages in the world. Believe me, I’ve tried everything on offer.
It’s fair to say imported beers never taste as good as they would if you bought them in the country of origin. “Beer should be drunk in the shadow of the brewery”, is a phrase that still holds true because travel of any kind takes the edge off even the best beer. That’s even more so for non-alcoholic beverages because alcohol is a preservative and therefore, a zero-alcohol beer is not going to travel anywhere near as well as something with alcohol in it, so I’d avoid imported beers in this category.
It’s worth nothing that the legal definition on non-alcoholic in New Zealand is less than 1.15 per cent ABV, which seems high by world standards. While that’s the legal benchmark, most breweries work to the accepted guideline of less than 0.5 per cent ABV.
Bach All Day Hazy IPA
Bach created the breakthrough non-alc craft beer with their All Day IPA and this hazy version is a step up from that. Stick with the original if you like clear beer, but this hazy has heaps more flavour.
Garage Project Tiny
Almost a cult beer now because it’s from Garage Project. Lightly lemony hoppy.
Brothers Beer Fill Yer Boots
Another hazy (and as a rule hazies work really well in this category because of the fatter mouthfeel). This has a nice tang of grassy bitterness.
Good George Virtual Reality
A superb offering from Good George. Up there with Garage Project and Bach.
Sawmill Bare Beer
The one non-alc pale ale in this line-up and the only one in a bottle. This has a bite more bitterness than the hazies.
LOW CARB ULTRA TRENDY
While non-alcoholic beers are trending, there’s nothing growing as fast as low-carb beers.
There are many reasons to choose a low carb beer — it could be that you’re on a ketogenic diet, or just trying to reduce the carbohydrate you consume. Or it could be for more important reasons, such as having Type 1 diabetes.
Beers labelled “low carb” have been tested and should come with nutritional panel telling you how many carbs per 100ml they contain. A good guideline is that a low carb beer should have 1-2g of carbohydrate per 100ml.
It’s important to note that low carb does not equal low calorie, though in the case of the beers listed here, some are definitely lower in calories as well. A beer’s ABV (alcohol by volume) will play a big part in the total calories as alcohol sits somewhere between carbohydrate and fat in its calorie density. So, if cutting calories is your thing, do check the labels.
The best thing about modern low carb beers is that they are super- flavoursome. Brewers use a special enzyme, naturally found in malt, to help ferment out any residual sugars.
That has a number of effects on the beer. First, the lack of residual sugar means the beer doesn’t feel as heavy in your mouth. In fact, low carb beers are often very light-bodied and quaffable. Second, low carb beers finish very dry compared with normal beers, which many drinkers prefer anyway.
Low carb pale ales and IPAs are a great place to start if you’re after flavoursome low carb beers. That because the extra hop additions add both mouthfeel, through hop oils, and added flavour. Plus fruity varieties of hops can add a perception of sweetness that covers up the lack of sugar.
Epic Blue Pale Ale
4.8%, Carbs 1g/100ml As you’d expect from Epic, it has great hop flavour — juicy and citrusy — that’s well integrated into the light body. It’s so good for a low carb beer that it made it into the New World Beer & Cider Awards Top-30 on its merits as a pale ale, that’s how tasty it is.
Deep Creek LoCal IPA
3.5% ABV, Carbs 2g/100ml A super low ABV beer compared to others in the range, but you’d struggle to pick it. Brilliantly executed in terms of balance and flavour. A gold medal winner at the 2022 Australian International Beer Awards. Very low calorie count to boot.
Urbanaut Miami Brut Lager
5%, Carbs 1.5g/100ml Packed to the seams with sweet passionfruit and lime hop flavours. A sparkling carbonation and punchy hops on a light and airy body. You won’t pick it as low carb. Urbanaut’s Copacabana IPA is also officially low carb now and is one of the best beers on the market, full-stop.
Emerson’s Super Quench
Pacific Pilsner 4%, Carbs 1.9g/100ml Super pretty beer to look at and, frankly, delicious. Hoppy, refreshing and spritzy light without any soda water notes.
Bach Brut Ultra IPA
4.4%, Carbs 1.7g/100ml Super-fruity with aroma and hop flavour rolling out of the glass thanks to a massive dry-hop bill that features all your favourites: Citra, Mosaic, Riwaka, and Rakau.
LIGHT BEERS ON THE RISE
We don’t use the term “light” the way Americans do to reference their very pale lagers. Here, light means low alcohol — generally regarded as anything below 2.5 percent.
The range of beers in this category is more expansive than in the zero and low carb range, as that little bit of ABV helps create a canvas for flavour.
North End Petit Luna
A clever little beer. Hibiscus brings some fruity character and a lovely pink colour. Kaffir lime coupled with spicy Belgian yeast does some heavy lifting when it comes to flavour. Slightly tart and spritzy.
Sunshine Light Pilsner
Smells like the real deal and tastes great too. The body, naturally, is a little shallow, but shallow can be good: like standing knee deep in the ocean and having the waves splash around your legs. A hoppy aftertaste, with a broad bitterness.
Croucher Low Rider Small IPA
Probably New Zealand’s most celebrated low-alcohol beer. In many ways, it’s almost become the flagship beer for Rotorua’s Croucher Brewing — a remarkable feat for such a low ABV product. It’s changed and evolved over the years into an almost perfect distillation of all the best aromas and flavours of an IPA.
Townshend Half Mast
Typically, of Townshend beers, this is all about balance and the fruity expressive hops are perfectly restrained to match the 2.2 percent base. A wee gem.
8 Wired Lo-Fi
This hoppy sour is sharp as a tack with pinging citrus and light acidity it packs way more flavour that should be feasible at 2 percent ABV.
GLUTEN FREE
It used to be that gluten free was a dirty word in beer (in short they tasted foul) but Upper Hutt’s Kereru Brewing have changed the game dramatically. They are unrivalled when it comes to gluten free beer.
Their Hazee, a gluten-free hazy pale ale, has to be tried to be believed. It’s as good as a normal hazy pale and you don’t even notice the gluten-free aspect. They have a standard gluten-free APA, nice and hoppy, and a clever raspberry-infused version of their original Auro, a golden ale. And they’ve just released a gluten-free Mocha Porter. You can order a mixed box of the gluten-free beers from their website.
Words: Michael Donaldson
Photography: Henry Jaine.