Kmflett's Blog

Dry January & ‘Craft’ Low Alcohol Beer

We’re half-way through Dry January, which once again I’m not participating in.

In fact the publicity around it seems a little less noisy but it’s against a backdrop of both media coverage and actual sales of alcohol.

The CEO of Heineken Dolf van den Brink has stepped down (no need for a collection) citing likely sales in 2026 worse than 2025. Sales of low and no alcohol products have increased as sales of Heineken’s flagship brands have decreased.

Wetherspoons January Sale had a range of low and no alcohol drinks in it (ends 15^th January) which one senses was no accident.

Of course there are established low alcohol brands like Lucky Saint and Big Drop, and Big Beer has long been in the territory, Diaego with Guinness for example.

Craft or to use the 2026 term Indy Beer has been less in the market but not absent. The low alcohol version of Track’s Sonoma is an example.

In general though the same issues seem to arise that I recall when Beavertown tried to produce low alcohol beers before Heineken took over. I write from direct experience as I was a regular at the Tottenham tap room. The beer looked great (i.e murky) it tasted good but it was thin, lacking body.

I was intrigued then when Verdant, arguably the UK’s premier brewers of murky beer, at least for the moment, produced an 0.5% beer for Dry January, Peripheral Visions. It appears to have required a considerable number of iterations to get a what Verdant felt was a decent beer.

I ordered a few cans and tried one.

Of course the taste, mouth feel, was good but initially I still had the feeling that it lacked body. However as I drank a glass that was less of the case. In fact if it didn’t say 0.5% on the can I would have thought I was drinking a 4%+ session IPA.

It underlines that there is plenty of room for development in brewing techniques in 2026 and its good news for those who are doing Dry January, or can’t drink for a range of reasons but still like the taste of a decent indy beer.

Btw Peripheral Visions is sold out on the Verdant site but you’ll find some in your local bottle shop and what better time to visit than January?