At veloccino we are a long way from being 100% alcohol free, but over the last few years the arrival of good non-alcoholic beers has allowed us to adopt a slightly more healthy lifestyle and help us getting faster on the bike. Below is a random selection of non-alcoholic beers with our personal favourites picked out. If you have any suggestions, get in contact and let us know!!
Beer of the week:
This week’s beer of the week is Brewdog Nanny State!
Mike’s review: Drinking non-alcoholic beer is rarely “Plan A” but if, like me, you’re not much of a larger drinker, then the options are pretty slim. Nanny State is a good tasting ale/beer which is best served cold and works pretty well as a “Plan B”. One tip is to make sure you don’t switch to this beer after drinking regular beer as the difference in taste might be noticeable.
Becks Blue
Just like Niels, this beer is from Germany and almost completely alcohol free! This beer has been on the market for a few years now and gives a good crisp taste, ideal for a post-ride beer when you have to drive home.
Peroni Libera
Just like sizing for Italian cycling gear, this beer has great style but isn’t for everyone (although it does come in a bottle that isn’t 3 sizes smaller than you expected). This should only be for people with a sweet tooth and you have to drink it cold, other wise it tastes … erm … let’s say a bit hard to get used to. It’s very rare for us to leave a beer…but neither of us could finish this.
Estrella – Free Damm
This is a good larger non-alcoholic beer which tastes great and will remind many people of sitting watching the sun go down on a Spanish beach. This won our taste test in episode 7 with artist Spencer Wilson despite the cans only being in the fridge for about 5 minutes.
Real Kombucha
This is tough stuff to describe. Their own website describes it as “Builds on the delicacy of our teas with complex floral and fruity flavours” but it tastes better than that. Rather than pretending to be a beer, Kombucha seems to be a more sophisticated drink of its own category, not quite wine and not quite beer. Brought along by Kieren in episode 4 we got to try 3 different flavours which were all good, but these are like pedals…you really need to try them out yourself to see if you get on with them.