Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

Due to incoming baby I am unable to drink real beer so I've been sampling various non-alcoholic beers.  Here's a list, in order of preference, for those who find themselves wanting a brew but not being able to take the alcohol.  In general the carbonation of these beers are all fairly low.  They're made by vacuum extracting the alcohol so it's understandable.


Tier 1:

Clausthaler- Tastes the most like real beer of all I have sampled.  If it didn't read non-alcoholic on it I probably wouldn't have known until I went through a couple.  Has a nice hops flavor and tastes like your basic german pilsner.  Also the most expensive of the non alcoholics (as much as real beer) that I have tried but worth it.

Odoul's Amber- Actually my favorite of the non alcoholics but only because I prefer darker beers.  Tastes exactly like an acceptable (commercial made) amber that you'd have after a long day.

Beck's NA-  Not too bad.  My husband likes this one. I think it tastes pretty much like a beck's light beer.  Which is to say 'Not bad but if I had my choice I'd be reaching for a real one'.



Tier 2:  

Kaliber (from guiness)-  This is a hard one to review.  It doesn't really taste like a full fledged beer.  I read somewhere someone saying it tastes like a wort which I think is a pretty good description.  It's got a sweet flavor which my husband loathed but I found interesting.  At the end of the day, though, I'm still reaching for that O'Douls Amber.  It's worth trying one though just for the difference in flavor from the rest of them.  It's definitely the most interesting of the non-alcoholics I tried.


Tier 3:



St-Pauli's NA-  It's kind of like a St.Pauli's Light that's sat out for an hour.  Yawn.  It's "okay" but, again, if you have the choice I'd recommend Beck's or Clusthaler.

O'Douls-  I think this has a bitter/off taste.  I decided to just drinks some water instead.


In summary:  

German/Pilsner types--Go for clausthaler
Amber-  Go for Odouls Amber
In the mood for something interesting- Kaliber


I've heard of a clausthaler amber that I'd love to try since it's my prefered beer type.  Well I prefer a stout but that's not available in non alcoholic form.  Unfortunately I have to finish off the leftover Kaliber, Odouls amber and Clusthaler.  For some reason they just don't fly out of our fridge as fast as the real things do.

This is a very thorough review of non-alcoholic beers.

My wife has never liked beers, so it was never an issue for me and her during her pregnancy, but this is really good info for others and the rest of the world.

I love that you are able to use your time with child as an opportunity to try new things and check out beers that I would have never given a second thought to.

Very cool.

When my wife was pregnant, she would enjoy a Shandy Bass. They're actually made with Bass, but it's only like 0.5%. We used to be able to get them at a local Irish pub near us. I don't know where you'd find it around here.

When we were in Scotland, a very popular drink with pregnant women was a mixture of something called Sweetheart Stout http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/53/12573/and Tennents http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/53/161. We were having a long talk about social drinking responsibilities with a local bar keep when he made one for us. Sweetheart was in bottle and Tennents was on tap. It wasn't great, but it was better than nothing at all. The stout is like licking a bar of molasses without the bitterness and then dump about a pound of sugar in it. You NEED the Tennents to cut the sweet.