Posted on 06/01/22
Oli Meade
In January, beer guzzlers tend to do one of two things –
We either set out on a reluctant, dubious and destined-to-fail quest to ditch alcohol for the whole month. Or…
We go completely nuts and stuff our faces with every beer we see, excusing our abhorrent behaviour by labelling it ‘Tryanuary’.
Either way, over Christmas, I’ve been gathering up some great craft beers to cover both bases.
In this post, we cover 7 of the best – so let’s begin!
Yep, non-alcoholic beers are usually a bit naff. But recently, craft brewers have been changing that.
How?
Well, the macro boys tend to brew their beer then remove the alcohol (along with the few scraps of ‘flavour’ they manage to muster up). Craft specialists, meanwhile, tend to just make sure alcohol levels remain low throughout.
The result is low-alc beers that are actually lovely, and one recent sexy effort is Lowtide’s The Cosmic Turtle NEIPA. Lowtide have jam-packed this bad-boy with citra, with mosaic, with el dorado and amarillo for a fruity juicy, punch that’s even got creaminess going on.
Lowtide’s Brune-DMC is also a sterling low-alc effort.
You don’t see many dark low-alcs on the market cause they’re so hard to pull off, but this take on a traditional Belgian Abbey is all caramel and currants and it ain’t thin at all. Get in!
Brauerei Kaiserdom’s Pink Grapefruit Weissbier is a final cheeky hat-tip this week for those cutting back.
Here, the brewery combine a non-alcoholic wheat beer with pink grapefruit fizz for a perfect balance of sour and sweet. Get involved!
On the Tryanuary front, I’ve got to start with a brewery I haven’t mentioned for a while but who I def have a soft spot for in Brew York, and who I’ll continue to have a soft spot for so long as they keep sending me stuff like Champale Supernova Pale Ale.
If you’re after fruit, this has it in spades – it’s pineappley, it’s tropical and it’s got some nice pine going on thanks to a bucketload of Simcoe.
A good carbonation ensures the beer lives up to its name, plus when you open a can Noel Gallagher comes flying out. Win.
If anyone knows hoppy brewing, its Polly’s, and their latest IPA showcases their prowess in this particular arena.
In Hold Fast Drifting IPA, Polly’s have taken one of their favourite hops – Idaho 7, a hop known for giving beers a hint of pineapple juice – and squeezed everything out of it they can. T90 and Cryo Idaho-7 hops combine for, as you’d expect, an IPA drenched in pineapple, but the two hop varietals come together to form much more than the sum of their parts – so yes, this is pineapple forward, but you’re also treated to a mango-papaya medley for the kind of full-flung tropical juiciness beer drinkers love to love.
You already know how good Polly’s are. This beer just underlines it – an epic effort.
Finally, another brewery you might not have tried yet but surely should is Queer Brewing, which is why I’ve just hoovered up a couple more of their formidable cores!
Existence As A Radical Act Pale is an easy-drinking, mango, passionfruit, and tangerine-tinged pale, while Burst Into Bright IPA has a bit more citrus and a bit more bite. But why choose?! It’s Tryanuary – try both, try the DIPA too, and try any of the other 491 beers in stock while you’re at it!
Although we don’t run sales often (I just like to sell beer at the best price I can all year round )there are currently some bargains to be had over in our first ever January Sale!
Think Amundsen’s Dessert In A Can: Tonka & Caramel Swirl Ice Cream.
Or Nerdbrewing’s When Fluffernutter Imperial Milk Stout.
There’s one can of Overtone’s 11% Dark Banter Imperial Stout left at the time of writing.
Greece’s Seven Island Brewery’s 13% Hazelnut Moctezuma Imperial Stout is a steal.
Get involved & try something you otherwise wouldn’t – I don’t plan on running another sale any time soon!
Happy drinking!
Oli, Olly & Charlie
(The three people behind Craft Metropolis)
Step 1
We trawl the globe tasting great beer
