Decades ago I wouldnt be surprised if the company just emptied out their toilet tank and called it NA beer. The newer stuff is dramatically better.
I’d say…roughly speaking, there is overlap between regular beer and NA beer. Like, the top 25% of non-alcoholic craft beer is better than the bottom 25% of US regular craft beer.
Being 100% serious - if it’s been decades since you’ve tried NA beer…unless you’re against NA beer on philosophical grounds…go out and get a 6 pack of one of the NA beers recommended here; you’ll be stunned.
FWIW last summer I bought a six pack of Athletic Brewing’s Run Wild IPA (I think it was that one), we sampled and nobody was impressed. Left them at my brother-in-laws and the next time I visited he asked me to take them home!
I do like the Athletic Brewing IPA. The local store doesn’t carry it all the time, sold out I guess.
I’m trying to remember now what that watered down swill was. Freudian mind block? I remember trying Ultra, and was really not seeing its popularity, but it’s not NA, is it? Just ‘low calorie’. Again, what’s the point of drinking ‘beer’ if it doesn’t have any flavor. Might as well be drinking toilet water. Actually ‘used’ toilet water would taste better than almost all America standard shelf ‘beer’.
Agreed. But genuinely, Athletic is SIGNIFICANTLY more tasty than say miller or bud, or Ultra, etc. as @WindWarrior mentioned above, is it the best IPA out there? No. But it’s tasty, and tastes like a decent ipa. Just maybe not a great one. It’s 65 calories, no alcohol, and tastes like real beer.
When you step out of your habit, your safe zone, you might be surprised what is out there.
Sure, to a small extent, you might have to ‘fill in the blanks’, but from watered down piss to something that really tastes damn good, that’s pretty awesome…
I had a bit too much caffeine during yesterday’s ride, so during my afternoon errands, I dipped into a local spot and had a Burgeon Juice Press Hazy IPA to take the edge off. The beer was good but the choice of glassware made me chuckle.
I had what was sold as a ‘lemonade ipa’, and I never caught the brewery name. It was actually really rather good. Very lemonade and yet the undertone of hops, which surprised me given the propensity for lemon to yell pretty loudly. Oh well, I’m sure we’ll meet again.
When I traveled through Europe, lemonade mixed with beer was quite popular, especially in Austria on warm afternoons. However, the beer they used was typically a light pilsner or blonde ale. I’m a fan of the citrussy IPAs, so a lemonade IPA sounds quite good. Before the current trend of Hazies and fruit-forward IPAs, I would occasionally mix a hoppy IPA with a hard cider.
There was a brewery in Vermont called ‘Magic Hat’, and apparently they are POOF.
They had a concoction called ‘Electric Peel’, and it was as close to a perfect ‘fruity’ IPA in my opinion. Lots of citrus, but a really good balance of the less acidic ones. Most ‘fruity’ IPA’s, to me, seem way too ‘grapefruit forward’. One I bought a 12 of turned out to be grapefruit juice with a slight beer flavor. So ‘fruity’ to them meant big time grapefruit POWER. Wow. Gave the rest away.
Sad that Magic Hat seems to be gone. I enjoyed their #9 too. Got a tour and picked up some swag while on a Trek Trip. Jerseys and stuff. Made lots of memories on that trip.
When it is mixed with lemonade or lemon flavored beverages, it is called a “shandy” while a radler can use any citrus-based beverage (grapefruit is very common, for example)
But like most styles of beer, diffrent breweries can play a little loose with what they call “shandys” or “radlers”…a lot of it can geographic. WI almost exclusively refers to them as “shandys” for example.
Your Coors bit sounds like Spam in Hawaii. Sure, I had heard that they seem to be fixated on it ‘a lot’, but never expected the degree of reverence that some hold that little can. Like people do some really crazy things to try to make it taste better. To me, it’s salty, greasy, sometimes fatty, and something a little off from ‘pork shoulder and ham’. But I had a delicacy preparation of Spam, and have to say it wasn’t all bad. (Have I had any since? Nope. Need a chef to dress it up I guess)
I have witnessed people using Coors as a mixer with other liquids. I think I consumed Coors and orange juice once. It worked. I mean, whatever makes people happy, you know… I knew someone who loved Old Milwaukee, and wouldn’t drink much else. (I was partial to Olympia in my pre-21-year-old youth. Sad that it seems to have gone away too)
