Non-alcoholic beer: the new revolution, or is Brett Myces getting soft?
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| Hell Raiser Dark Amber and Heavenly Body Golden Wheat |
This isn’t Brett Myces going off the deep end, or losing his mind, but as I’ve said many times before, Father Time remains undefeated. As we get older the headaches get longer and family, kids, and jobs require more responsibility, while being hungover just isn’t any fun. Despite the rise of social media, texting, and instant messaging, people still want to have face-to-face interaction, listen to live music, and socialize at bars. Only without the hangover part. Plus, there are plenty of service workers that can’t drink beer at certain times due to their jobs: healthcare workers, firefighters, police officers, etc. I haven’t even mentioned all the negative health effects of alcohol. Blame it on the damn millennials if you want, but there is a growing demand for non-alcoholic (NA) beer, and Brett Myces is hopping on the wagon.
NA beers have traditionally been brewed one of two ways. The first is by stopping the fermentation process before alcohol is formed. With this method you are essentially drinking wort. As any homebrewer or veteran of a brewery tour can tell you wort, is the “sugar water” that is created after soaking the grain with warm water. This is why most of your NA beers tend to taste like you are drinking syrup.
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| A perfect pour of the Hell Raiser |
This brings us to a new method used by WellBeing Brewing Company, based out of the great state of Missouri. We’ve got a foeder company and now a cutting edge NA brewery; Missouri is officially full of craft beer entrepreneurs. WellBeing vacuum distills their beer. Decreasing the air pressure in the beer (creating a vacuum) lowers the boiling point, allowing the alcohol to be boiled off at lower temperatures without scorching the beer. This is the reason it took you longer to cook your Easy Mac when you took your beer trip to Denver and got the munchies. Water boils at a lower temperature in the high altitude of Denver. I’m not going to get too sciencey on this so you can read more on the concept at physlink.com. WellBeing claims they are the first brewery in the United States using this method to make NA beer.
I have tried three of their beers, and they amazingly taste like real beer. So the next time you are out on the town and stuck being the sober driver, or have a pregnant wife, look up WellBeing. They get the Brett Myces stamp of approval.
For more reading on Wellbeing, check out the links below:
