Posted on 05/01/23
A few of you will be cutting back on the booze right now – and some of you will be attacking Tryanuary with gusto. So this week, I’ve got all bases covered!
Whether you’re now exclusively no/low or hunting the loco… here are the best new beers to get stuck into this week!
Funky Fluid’s insane combos of fruit, flavour and innovation excite me every time, so their new brews without booze caught my attention.
Free Gelato: Pina Colada Ice Cream Sour is the first I’m currently waxing lyrical about – it’s slightly cleaner than Fluid’s usual smoothie offerings yet packed with pineapple, coconut & lime – tasty all round.
Over in the hoppy corner Free Crazy Hazy IPA is dry hopped with Sabro, Cascade and Mosaic to retain all the tropical juicy loveliness you’d expect from a hazy, but again under the 0.5% mark.
And it’s a hat-trick from FF this week – they even have the dark stuff covered.
Hype Cold Brew Stout is your clean and fresh coffee stout for all those into the dark arts. Get involved!
Away from the Funky’s there’s still plenty to go at – Lucky Saint are one of the pioneers of the low-alc scene and their lager is pretty much my original go-to boozeless beer.
Lager fans, lap it up.
That said Wiper & True have stepped up with Tomorrow Lager to challenge Lucky Saint’s lager crown.
You’re gonna need to forgive the lack of science, but from what I can make out W&T, like Lucky Saint and the German no-alc juggernauts, extract rather than boil off the booze from this bad boy.
This innovative (and I expect expensive) brewing method is worth every penny – it keeps all the true flavours of beer in place rather than smashing them to smithereens in high temps. The result is a cracking lager with insane head retention and a smooth finish.
Immense.
North’s Flat Moon Society Peach Pale is my final low-alc hat-tip this month.
This beer is quirky as heck with the favour of peach right there but the sweetness mainly stripped out to stop it being just peach juice.
Intriguing and moorish. Get in!
If you’re in search of some of the best new beers in ’23 then where better to start than Beak? Their new trio of beers shows 100% what they’re all about and why we love them so much.
Garlands IPA is a silky-smooth New England IPA showcasing three very pineapple-y hop varieties: Idaho 7, Bru 1 and Vic Secret.
Think Piña Colada on the nose followed by flavours of mango and orange peel and juicy fruits for days!
Nonic DIPA is another step up again – if that’s even possible – and is one of the best Beak DIPAs to date in a long line of insane beers.
It’s a Southern Hemisphere packed bomb of hops and is as soft as a pillow made of clouds with apricot, peach and candyfloss notes.
Buy on sight!
Lastly the Lewes brewery bring us the new Coconut Porter Heroes. Here you have a classy and uncomplicated dark beer with vanilla and coconut running through it giving it plenty of flavour but keeping things fresh enough to make it an easy drinker at the same time.
All in all cracking stuff to kick off 2023.
Cheers & happy drinking!
Oli, Olly & Charlie
(The three people behind Craft Metropolis)
Step 1
We trawl the globe tasting great beer
