[Fiend]

Tried Adnam's Ghost Ship 0.5% recently. Really quite pleasant.

[tomtom]

Tried Adnam's Ghost Ship 0.5% recently. Really quite pleasant.

😱 I thought that was total 💩

[Fiend]

Well I think that Nanny State tastes like brake fluid diluted with goat piss and I'd rather drink the sweat from a sumo wrestler's arse crack, so there.

[tomtom]

I'm not a fan of Nanny state either...

I have tasted brake fluid (it doesnt taste like bad alcohol free beer) but not goats piss or sumo sweat...

[Fiend]

Well anyway.

Just cracked open a Lucky Saint 0.5% and it is really very nice, light and crisp and not overly bitter at all.

[tomtom]

Well anyway.

Just cracked open a Lucky Saint 0.5% and it is really very nice, light and crisp and not overly bitter at all.

Indeed its one of the best. I have one open now.

[gme]

I’ve been drinking a fair few alcohol free beers this winter to stem the craving to drink every single night and have fond a lot of them pleasant but Am I alone in thinking that even the most average can of BBQ larger is a better tipple.

[Wood FT]

Well anyway.

Just cracked open a Lucky Saint 0.5% and it is really very nice, light and crisp and not overly bitter at all.

That's been the best of the bunch for me.

[Coops_13]

Just ordered a 24-pack bundle from Brewdog of AF beers. Partly as they don’t deliver the alcohol versions in Colorado and partly because I’m not light atm.

4X Nanny State
4X Punk AF
4X Elvis AF
4X Hazy AF
4X Wake up Call
4X Ghost Walker

Will report back in due course

Have had all but the stout, all in all disappointed though not sure what I was expecting. Definitely inferior to a normal beer... However the other day (yesterday) after a big day at work, felt the need for a de-stress beer and one of these actually did the job fairly well!

Nanny State - absolutely disgusting
Punk AF - best one of the bunch I reckon
Elvis AF - Tastes like Grapefruit sparkling water, not bad
Hazy AF - Not as good as Punk AF but not bad
Ghost Walker - Grim but not as bad as Nanny State...

[Fiend]

Nanny State - absolutely disgusting

quoted for truth. I found a can of Punk AF cooling in the river below Moat Buttress, nabbed it, pretty pleasant, then failed on my redpoint cos I was full of beer and gas.

[Ru]

Not read the whole thread so apologies if I'm repeating anything, but the AF Bavarian wheat beers are pretty good from what I remember. I think you can order most of them in the UK.

[Alex-the-Alex]

Ive been sleeping shit lately so thought id cut evening/cooking beers to start off with. Spurred on by this thread i thought id try Punk AF. Terrible. It tastes like the beer equivalent of schloer. Just doesnt do it... Im tempted by Nanny State just to see what sumos crack tastes like. And Ive just ordered the taster pack of these: https://daysbrewing.com/ . The website all looks a bit shiny, but ill report back on how they taste 

[Duma]

In my experience, there's only 2 ways to go with this: lucky saint, or the 0.5% bavarian stuff. Everything else I've tried has been awful.
Otherwise you're much better off with fewer 3-4% "session" beers than the other options imo.

The brewery at the end of my street does a great 2.7% pale, but that's prob not that useful to the non Bristol resident

[Fiend]

Yeah the wheat beers are good because the prominent wheaty taste carries them and masks the soulless despair of lack of alcohol...

[teestub]

Otherwise you're much better off with fewer 3-4% "session" beers than the other options imo.

The brewery at the end of my street does a great 2.7% pale, but that's prob not that useful to the non Bristol resident

I this has been discussed on here previously, but you definitely open up a relative world of flavour, even if you just go up to 3%, but I guess a lot of people are looking for zero alcohol.

[Coops_13]

you also miss out on all the health benefits if you go too heavy!

https://steadydrinker.com/articles/health-benefits-alcohol-free-beer/

[Ru]

Recently been drinking Ambar 0.0 which is a pils type thing - it's got a weird slightly citrus taste, a bit like a weak wheat beer, to which I've been adding a few of drops of lime juice, which complements it well. The resulting drink, to paraphrase Douglas Adams, is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike beer. But quite nice.

[tomtom]

Its mentioned somewhere in this thread - but AFAIK there are two processes for making AF beer (technically <0.5%). First is brew normally then 'extract' the alcohol, second is to brew to a low percentage (0.5%). Apparently the latter (0,5%) gives a much better taste and doesnt taste as artificial or sickly as the 0% ones.

That said, I had a couple of bottles of 0% Moretti with a meal tonight - and that tasted pretty decent.

Infinity Sessions IPA, and Big Drop Stout are still my favourites - but not stocked in my local supermarket any more

[tommytwotone]

Think the good thing overall is that generally compared to (say) 5 or even 3 years ago the AF market has drastically expanded, so at least you're not just limited to Becks Blue (think I'd literally just prefer sparkling water) or Nanny State.

Echo the above - the Brewdog Punk AF (I actually don't mind Nanny State either), the Aldi versions, definitely Lucky Saint, the Big Drop stable generally, and recently the Harbour Brewing AF IPA are all very passable / drinkable.

[lorentz]

Freedamm is a passable driving AF lager. 6 blue stubby cans for £5 works for me pretty well. I look at it as ticking the same boxes as a refreshing Fosters on a Hot day in a pub beer garden (remember those?) No hops or fancy citrus notes (not dissing, love a Crafty AF too.) Just cheap booze free lager hits... The McDonald's of the AF family.

[Rocksteady]

Freedamm is a passable driving AF lager. 6 blue stubby cans for £5 works for me pretty well. I look at it as ticking the same boxes as a refreshing Fosters on a Hot day in a pub beer garden (remember those?) No hops or fancy citrus notes (not dissing, love a Crafty AF too.) Just cheap booze free lager hits... The McDonald's of the AF family.

Agree with this, I've enjoyed this much more than the other AF beers. Unfortunately can't get it from my local Sainsbury's any more for some reason. Also quite like the Birra Moretti AF lager in the same vein of uncomplicated lagerish refreshment.

[lorentz]

Sometimes only a lagery substitute  will do. Sorry to hear about your local stock issues. I can't get the Pistonhead  Flat Tire AF round here for love nor money. Also a  big favourite. Been known to buy it 24 cans at a time when I've found it on forays into out of town Tescos.

Good shout about the Moretti. Will give it a go as it always hit the spot back in my semi-regular drinking days. (The net effect of the current crop of decent AF beer is that I seem to have accidentally given up drinking. No bad thing as a healthier bank balance, a clearer head and better sleep seem to be the side effects.)

Cheers!

[Alex-the-Alex]

Ah I forget to report back. The Days beers were really nice. Better than expected. Il do a shit job of describing them but at £9 delivered for a 4 bottle taster pack it's worth a try. Hasn't fixed sleep patterns.

[Duncan campbell]

Never really considered myself an AF beer drinker but in recent times have started enjoying beer maybe a little too much. Decided after Sunday’s match and my session on supercool to not drink in the week.

This evening went to a BBQ and bought the beaver town lazer crush AF IPA. Usually think AF beers a bit shit and feel that I’d rather not even bother if I’m not going to drink. Really really enjoyed a couple of cans of that though. Highly recommended

[Nigel]

I'll confess that this thread had previously had held absolutely no interest - I like beer. For one reason and another I'm having a couple of months off the grog so have been flirting with alcohol-free. I've only read the latest couple of pages but as a relative novice would echo some of what has been said:

Generally I find zero alcohol is disgusting. Always when compared with actual beer, and quite often on its own terms. I tried one organic one in particular that in my opinion was not fit for human consumption. 0.5% is definitely slightly better but still tastes weird and is variable. Low alcohol (been having small amounts as a "treat") definitely tastes better again. In no instance yet have I come across one that I would prefer to even an average tin of lager. Like I say I like beer. Obviously my taste may change over time but that is the current position!

Also agree with Ru that low alcohol wheat beers tend to be better in general than others for some reason. I say that as someone not usually that psyched on them.

Anyway, I give the above background for any readers who are in a similar position just in case they benefit from my favoured solution to the taste issue - shandy! Basically zero / low alcohol beer does not taste like beer (IMO). Zero / low shandy on the other hand does taste more like a real shandy. Not completely, but the distance is lessened if your see what I mean. Obviously this depends on your opinion of shandy / lemonade tops. Very refreshing in summer. My current go-to is Patronus what beer (Lidl, 79p for 500ml I think?) and lemonade in varying amounts.

If you can stretch to 2.5% then Shofferhofer Grapefruit is excellent for a similar sort of "alcopop" taste cover up, again very refreshing!