Most of my most popular reviews in recent memory have all one common theme - non-alcoholic beer or beer that has a very minimal amount of alcohol to it (under 1%). I feel that a lot of people are wanting to cut out booze from their diet but still want to enjoy the taste of beers that they know and love, and it must be reasonable sized market if both Coors and Budweiser happen to have insane marketing budgets for their Coors Edge/Budweiser Prohibition to the point that most beer commercials are for non-alcoholic beer lately, especially during hockey games.
Partake Brewing is a brewery based out of Toronto that specializes in creating craft style non-alcoholic beers. They currently have a Blonde, Pale Ale and IPA. Like my buddies over at Farmery Estate Brewery, the folks over at Partake went on to CBC's Dragon's Den to secure funding to get the operation up and running. Partake's appearance on Dragon's Den will be on CBC on March 15, 2019.. so literally tomorrow if you're reading this as soon as I finished writing this review.
I don't see much information about the IPA but it's rated at 0.3% ABV, not quite 100% non-alcoholic but still within the threshold (0.5%) low enough that it's still considered non-alcoholic. The beer ingredients simply. list water, barley, hops and yeast. It would have been nice if they could have stated what kind of barley strain or hop variety.
Appearance: Pours honey-amber in colour with a moderate amount of carbonation in the body. The head starts off pretty thick from the beginning with a frothy, bubbly off-white beige head to it. It quite quickly diminishes, leaving behind a hint of a lacing (almost like a small sprinkle) here and there and a very light amount of head that's mostly near the rim of the glass.
Aroma: Definitely smells like hops right from the moment I popped open the can! The aroma is a bitter pine aroma, followed by a light sweet malt profile to it. There's something in there that just reminds me a bit too much of many of the gluten-free beers I've had in the past.. it has a bit of a (can't really describe) "woody" aroma to it that reminds me of Buckwheat malt, perhaps there's more to this beer than just the straight forward ingredients? I have no idea. Good amount of sweetness and even a bit of a spice profile.. I'm noticing something like cinnamon popping up, not something I'd expect out of an IPA.
Taste: The taste of the malt still tastes like it could be something other than barley.. it just reminds me a bit too much of buckwheat, which is a nice grain but I wasn't really expecting that taste profile. The hops are more subdued this time around but it still has a mild pine bitterness, as well as a light sweet caramel malt profile to it. The aftertaste is basically a bit of the hop presence lingering on the palate long after the beer is over, so I don't think this is an extract.
Overall Thoughts: ONLY 10 calories per 355mL serving, that's the biggest shock about this entire beer... Beat that Michelob Light/Molson 67! I find that it has a good amount of a bitter pine bitterness to it, which I honestly wasn't expecting at all, the malt seems a bit off, but it does have a bit of a caramel sweetness. I definitely recommend this to someone who's looking for a craft brewed non alcoholic beer. I can only see the trend of non-alcoholic beers only becoming more popular over time as more and more people are looking for alternatives to their favourite beverages. It will be interesting to see what else gets developed in coming years.
https://drinkpartake.com/product/ipa
1 comment:
Have you tried their "red" brew? It's not Rickard Red but it's not bad for a non-alcoholic beer, based on my limited experience with these products. Much better than Sober Carpenter Red, that was awful.
I really appreciated your Stout review for the Partake brand. I was going to give it a try but now, probably not. Cardboard beer, NOT!😕😕
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