January Craft Beer Club

Sober Curious?

Alright Dry January, we can’t beat you, so I guess we’ll join you (figuratively at least).

Since the end of the Covid restrictions there has been a tidal wave of non-alcoholic beverages flooding the market. This isn’t a coincidence of producers just deciding to make N/A drinks because they feel like it, this is about a meteoric rising interest across society of cutting back or cutting out alcohol.

Back in day sure there was O’Douls and the like, but they were never regarded much beyond “I guess it’s close enough in a pinch”. Today something is happening.

Non-Alcoholic drinks are getting good.  Like really good.  You no longer have to sacrifice flavour or the support of local craft brewers to enjoy a near beer.

This month we’re featuring four of the best non-alcoholic beers that have come to market in the past couple years and providing you with the opportunity to experience enjoying a beer or two with a unique feeling knowing that they come without intoxication.  We’ve all come to expect the feeling of relaxation from having a pint or two, but with these you enjoy a different peace of mind that can only come from sobriety - like being able to drive home at the end of the night or knowing the next morning won’t have you reaching for the Advil.  Zero alcohol, zero drawbacks.  Give it a shot.

The beer club releases on the third Saturday every month. There is no sign up for our beer club, just drop by the store any timewere open and pick up a pack!  The price will be between $20-$24

Guinness Zero

We’ll kick things off with a beer that should be familiar to all seasoned drinkers, Guinness.   Guinness Zero has been available to the Canadian market in the fall of 2023.  We picked it up almost as soon as we could, and it has been a fast mover for us since.  After hearing constant praise, I had to try it myself, and I came to the same conclusion that I had read and heard about many times before: the flavour is nearly exactly the same as regular Guinness.  But flavour isn’t everything.  One of the biggest difficulties with non-alcoholic beverages is that alcohol gives beer, wine, and spirits much of the feeling of “body”.  Without alcohol the drinks are often left feeling “watery”.  Producers of non-alcoholic beverages have clued into this and are now seeking clever tricks to provide “body” to their drinks.  The work-around for Guinness was actually quite straightforward, Nitrogen!  Guinness has been using Nitrogen for its canning and draught pours since 1959, for the purpose of pouring a smoother, creamier pint with very fine bubbles.  When you open this can you’ll hear that widget burble just like a regular Guinness, and it pours (and drinks) the same too!

Non-Alcoholic Jelly King

Bellwoods Brewery

When coming up with the idea for this club I primarily wanted to feature non-alc beers that we already carry, allowing those of you who may be familiar with one or two of these to try others that maybe you didn’t want to commit to a four pack of.  That said, when I learned that Bellwoods had made a N/A Jelly King I had to have it.  Jelly King is something of a legend of sour beers; 98 points on RateBeer, and 4.3 on Untapped with 27K reviews.  The non-alc version isn’t reaching quite as high in the ratings as the standard but it still packs the intense peach and tangerine notes of the original.  Structurally, sour beers tend to be quite light in body, so pulling the alcohol from this makes for less of a stark difference than from something like a brown ale.  I opened one of these up the other night and it immediately stood out as one of the best N/A beers I’ve ever had.  It easily stands beside, or maybe even above the others in this pack and we will absolutely keep this on the shelf for the foreseeable future.

Phantom Buzz

S.Y.C. Brewery

Having released in June of ‘21, this is the oldest beer on the list, preceding the “non-alcoholic beer revolution” of the past couple years.  In the world of craft beers it is often rare for anything to stick around as long as this one has, with the exception of “core” beers.  What this means then is that even without alcohol Phantom Buzz has built staying power.  While most pale ales aim to strike a balance between hoppiness and malt, I would say this one leans a little heavier into a cereal like malt, so more European style than American.  For hops, this beer is pretty mellow, with a faint floral and grapefruit whiff on the nose.  As for body this beer has a pleasant richness to it likely from the 13 grams of sugar present.  While this may sound high, it does not present itself as sweet.

Zero People Skills

Tool Shed Brewery

Last entry I mentioned the “non-alcholic beer revolution”, and with this final entry we’ve got the beer that I think really lead the forefront of that movement in Alberta.  It was October 2022, and people were not only bemoaning the return to in office work, but also coming to the realization that two years of drinking daily perhaps isn’t the healthiest lifestyle.  So after your long day back in the cubicle you really want to put your feet up and have a beer, but it can’t be one of those 8% DIPA monsters.  Zero People Skills, a N/A version on Tool Sheds’ wildly popular cream/patio ale comes to the rescue.  When we first brought this into the Co-op I worked at in Calgary we literally couldn’t keep the shelf stocked for longer than a week.  Production has increased since then so now that’s no longer an issue.  What really stood out though was that people were buying it, who wouldn’t ordinarily buy non-alcoholic beers, and then they bought another pack the next week and the next.  Once I was settled into my place here at UnWined I ordered it in and similarly it has been one of the most consistently moving beers for us, non-alc, or not.  If that isn’t enough to convince you to try it out, this beer also wears gold medals from the 2024 Canadian Brewing Awards and Alberta Beer Awards.