I recently spent a prolonged period in hospital (now recovering at home). When you are nil by mouth water tastes great. On discharge due to medication I couldnt drink alcohol for a few days. I was however keen to become reaquainted with the world of malt and hops.
No/Lo alcohol beer is a big and growing market globally and Big Beer sees profit. Of the four beers I tried (criteria- ease of buying them) one the Guinness was Big Beer (Diageo). The others werent.
The Lucky Saint was a Pilsner style lager and both drinkable and recognisable as what it said it was.
Big Drop, Citra IPA certainly had a good Citra Hop taste but tomy taste lacked a little body on the finish
Adnams Ghost Ship 0.5%, a Citra pale was both hoppy but with a malt balance drinking more or less as a 4.5% beer does. Certainly my favourite
Guinness AF I liked although it tasted to me like a good dark mild rather than Guinness. Again it depends on taste and palate.
Overall though compared to even a couple of years ago there are some good,drinkable no/lo beers out there, and they can be found easily in shops(and sometimes bars). If you need to or want to giving them a try will be worthwhile
Ghost Ship in its original guise is a rather lovely beer (and freely available, in canned form, in the Co-Op even in these islands).
I have a low alcohol oatmeal stout currently midway through fermentation – though, at 2 per cent, it may be pretending to be a bit more of a mild than a low alcohol beer. I’ve played around a bit with the yeast, too (fermenting with a Belgian ale yeast), so the results may not be worth speaking about. A further report may be issued.