Cheers! Non-alcoholic beer might be perfect post-workout beverage
Beer has always had a reasonable amount of nutrition in it. It was considered a major part of a balanced diet until a bunch of crazed Protestants took over the world a century back. For example, there was the Nutana Temperance colony, an early adherent to the movement. It was established back in the 1870s. It collapsed amid bickering and lawsuits, leaving one to wonder if a neighbourhood pub might have helped to hold everything together.
Temperance fanatics everywhere rejoice! Your time has come. Modern chemistry has figured out how to make alcoholfree beer that actually tastes good. This is a good thing on a number of fronts, including no longer being condemned to carbonated Kool-Aid when thirsty. But beer has nutritional value. Erdinger, the Bavarian brewery, is going so far as marketing its no-alk wheat beer and claiming it’s the perfect post-exercise drink.
They’re not crazy. Gatorade has some sodium, potassium and sugar. Gram for gram, Erdinger has about one-third more calories, about the same potassium, half the sodium, some calcium, phosphorus and magnesium AND a healthy chunk of your daily requirements of B vitamins and folate.
Driven by my introduction to Erdinger, I went in search of non-alk beer and stumbled into one of the fasted growing categories in brewing today. Here’s a quick overview of what one trip to the supermarket turned up.
To my surprise, Grolsch is now marketing a non-alk beer. What’s more, it is the one I will buy and stock repeatedly in my fridge. The head is a bit short-lived, but otherwise this tastes like a mild European beer. The palate is a bit sharper than a Canadian pale ale/lager flavour set. And the finish is quite light. This is the lowest calorie beer here, with a mere 90 cal./500 ml, well under Miller Lite (96/355 ml.) territory.
The contrast between the new Budweiser Prohibition product and the Grolsch couldn’t be any stronger. Bud was giving a can of the Prohibition away with a case of Bud, presumably to convert their fans. The bouquet is slightly flowery. The palate is a bit citrus and somewhat metallic. It is without a doubt aimed squarely at American beer drinkers. If you live for those road trips south and a taste of Genuine Bud on tap, this is a product you should check out.
Molson Excel is aimed at the calorie-counter supreme, with a mere 70 per can. (This works out to about three more than the Grolsch per 500 ml.) The head has good length; the bouquet is a bit starchy with some orange zest. The palate is creamy, absent the angularity of sharper hops. This is a brew for Canadian (very) pale ale fans.
Erdinger is a weissbier. The colour is paler and the head lacier, as you’d expect. It is also unfiltered, like all good weissbier. This means you’ll need to watch your inventory. I expect it will go skunky a bit faster than Budweiser Prohibition. The bouquet is more citrus and the hops a bit more pronounced, partly because that is the European style, and partly because the understated wheat emphasizes the hops.
(I should point out most of the brands have a tiny amount of alcohol in them. Erdinger, for example, has 0.4% ABV.)