Well, it's safe to say it doesn't look like the passion for alcohol-free beers is going away any time soon. Adelaide's Little Bang Brewing have now made their pitch for sobriety with Spacer, and boy what a good job they've done. Thanks to generous late hop additions plus "some cutting edge extracts" and "so much technology", this sub-0.5er with a pretty deep copper colour serves up some juicy candy fruits on the nose and a body as full as any no-alc beer I can recall. There’s a quirkiness to the finishing bitterness akin to that I’ve found in many other beers of its ilk, but it sits safely in the background of what's one of the best crafty non-alcs to come our way yet.
Back in the world of beer-with-booze, although not too much in this case, is Perfect Pale. The name is one heck of a bold statement to make about a beer, even one the brewers have been refining for more than a year before release. It's based around Aussie Melba and Vic Secret hops and if your idea of a perfect pale is some juiced up hop bomb then you'll find it rather imperfect. That's because it's much more of the session Aussie pale / Pacific ale ilk: light golden in colour, delicate with its floral, citrusy, melony hops, and with its balancing sweet malts and soft bitterness.
Dry enough to be refreshing without quenching, light enough to have a few, if you imagine a perfect beer garden session pale, you’ll know where they’re coming from.
James Smith
Published November 20, 2021 2021-11-20 00:00:00