While I’m not doing Dry January and I dont support its underlying temperance principles either (although I do respect them and their history) I am perpetually curious about everything (rather like my cat but with more of a health & safety emphasis) so I have tried some low and no alcohol beers during January.
Earlier in the month I stopped by Brewdog AF at Old St. My brief report is here:
A visit to Brewdog Alcohol Free: turning rebellion into money?
Ive also written a much longer piece on temperance and the left which you can find at the Culture Matters website (@culturesmatter)
I’m trying a bottle of Adnams Ghost Ship 0.5% as I write this.
I’ve been a fan of Adnams for a very long time and more recently how they’ve kept pace with the beer times as a traditional regional brewer.
Anyway the Ghost Ship experience was much the same as that I found in Brewdog.
The taste was fine, citra hops, as I drank it cold from the fridge. As it got slightly less cold the taste was less great and less beer like. Not unpleasant and not undrinkable but not something that made me think, hmm, I think another one.
Rather I think I’ll have an actual beer next.
There is a much wider issue btw around low alcohol drinks and particularly bars that focus on them. Just as some bars can contain a lot of boring tedious drunks so these places historically have often been labelled as rather glum places even by those who actually dont particularly want a beer. Some of that of course was brewers propaganda (and less heard now brewers themselves look to profit from low alcohol drinks). But somewhere in there is a genuine discussion about why the ‘pub is the hub’ or should be of community life
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