Athletic Brewing Company
Non-Alcoholic craft beer. Is this real life? Yes it is, and it actually tastes pretty good.
Located in an industrial park that’s kind of a sleepy place on the weekend, Athletic Brewing is pumping out some premier non-alcoholic craft beers. They have a nice variety of styles and a brewing technique that doesn’t turn perfectly fine beer into undrinkable swill, rather a non-alcoholic beer worthy of sipping.
I actually first heard of this place from the guys on the Full Pours Podcast. They interviewed the brewers and they talked about some details of brewing technique that peaked my interest, so when I was near by the brewery I had to stop by.
I visited the taproom on a beautiful early spring day and my son and I had a good time hanging, while I tried a couple of beers to decide which styles I would take home. I enjoyed the Golden Ale and the IPA. The stout wasn’t my favorite but I could imagine other people enjoying it.
I left with a few six packs for a future experiment and was really impressed with the clean friendly atmosphere as well as the quality tasting beer. My only experience with NA beer is really only a perception thing. I’ve never drank one on purpose or by mistake, but I have heard lots of bad things about how NA beer is terrible swill that is better suited for watering plants than drinking. My experience was far and away more positive than that.
Non-alcohol beer is definitely different than most other craft beers, but not bad at all. For me, it is just something that fits in between the big high calorie craft beers that I love and the really not good domestic LITE beers of the Miller Coors family.
The non alcoholic beer industry is super interesting to me. On the other side of the pond NA beer is much more common place. Just check out this sweet read from the New York Times, “German Olympians Drink a Lot of (Nonalcoholic) Beer, and Win a Lot of Gold Medals”. This is something that Athletic brewing knows and understands well, starting with their name and logos, and continuing with their presence at many 5K runs around the state.
In China, in 2016 almost one in three of all new beers were non alcoholic. That seems a staggering statistic to me. I’m not sure the NA beer scene in the states will ever be that big, but its cool to think about how things may be different and our preferences can change.
Over at Runners World, a website devoted to all things running and healthy, put the Run Wild IPA in their list of The Best Non-Alcoholic beers. I can totally understand why, Run Wild was my favorite beer from Athletic brewing. It has many of the tasting characteristics that one looks for in an IPA but it has a very light easy going finish. A very low IBU beer but with lots of hop aroma, a small malt profile, and an interesting light feeling mouthfeel. I want to describe the finish as watery, but that seems more negative than I intend. I think that all of the Athletic brewing NA beers I drank had a light refreshing kind of finish. One way or an other its nice to know that as we all get smarter about consuming alcohol and its impact on ourselves we have a quality non-alcoholic option.
Oh, and another cool thing about NA beer is you can buy it online and have it delivered. Stay tuned for a fun NA blind taste test.
