I’m not a brewer, beer expert or drinks industry professional. I’m simply someone who has always enjoyed exploring good drinks — and who became particularly interested in what happens when you take the alcohol out of the equation.
For quite a while, whisky was my drink of choice. I enjoyed tasting it, learning about the different styles and regions, and appreciating all the small details that can make one bottle quite different from another. I liked the ritual of it as much as the drink itself.
Then I became a driving instructor.
Being responsible for someone else’s safety, often for several hours a day, meant that drinking alcohol was no longer something that fitted particularly well with my life. So I stopped drinking.
That could have been the end of my interest in tasting and exploring drinks, but it wasn’t. I still enjoyed the process of discovering something new, comparing different products and trying to work out exactly what I liked about them.
And that’s where non-alcoholic beer came in.
I’ve been interested in alcohol-free and non-alcoholic beer since the category first started appearing. In those early days, the choice was fairly limited and, if I’m honest, some beers were better at reminding you what you were missing than convincing you that you weren’t missing anything at all.
Thankfully, things have changed dramatically.
Today there is an enormous and growing choice of alcohol-free lagers, IPAs, pale ales, stouts, wheat beers and everything in between. Specialist alcohol-free breweries, independent craft brewers and some of the biggest names in brewing are all pushing the category forward.
That’s what led me to create this site.
I enjoy exploring beer in much the same way I once explored whisky — looking at the appearance, aroma, flavour, mouthfeel and, perhaps most importantly, whether I actually enjoy drinking it. I like discovering what makes one beer different from another and finding those unexpected bottles that make you stop and think, that’s actually really good.
But I’m not pretending to be a professional beer judge.
I’m also fascinated by where the alcohol-free beer market is heading. The category has developed incredibly quickly, and I think we’re reaching an interesting point where alcohol-free beer is becoming less about being a substitute for alcoholic beer and increasingly about being good beer in its own right.
So this site is really a record of my journey through that world: the beers I’ve tried, the ones I’ve enjoyed, the ones that haven’t quite worked for me, and the things I’ve learned along the way.
If you’re already a fan of alcohol-free beer, I hope you’ll discover something new. If you’re just starting to explore it, I hope I can help you navigate an increasingly crowded choice.
And if you disagree with my tasting notes?
That’s OK.
You might be right.
Finally, if there’s a beer, available in the UK, that you recommend, I’d love to hear from you!