March 2022
Beers of the Month: Say hello to low and no
You’d expect three new beers from two breweries with more than 1,000 years combined experience to be absolutely spot-on – they wouldn’t still be around otherwise.
So, when its latest expressions have been produced for the low- and no-alcohol market you would imagine them to be pretty well researched, brilliantly constructed and trialled, not to say damned good. And you’d be absolutely right to think so.
Speciality, craft and world beer importer Euroboozer has bolstered its non-alcoholic portfolio with the launch of three new beers from two of the world’s oldest breweries. Bohemia Regent from the Czech Republic has been brewing at the same premises in Trebon, without interruption, since 1379 and Austria’s Stiegl was first mentioned in records in 1492.
Martyn Railton, Euroboozer managing director, says: “The depth of the low/no alcohol beer category is incredible and demand continues grow year on year. I think standards continue to rise each year and these new offerings from two historic and iconic breweries are great examples of that.”
The new trio of beers are available to the on- and off-trade and include:
Stiegl Freibier 0.0%
Austrian Saphir hops from Stiegl’s homeland provide aromatics to the full-bodied, well-balanced flavour in this unfiltered lager.
Stiegl Zitrone 0.0%
Classic Lemon Radler but with zero alcohol. Straw-coloured with a natural cloudiness, the beer provides the ultimate refreshment and a rounded finish. Vegan and isotonic, too.
Bohemia Regent Renegat Nealko 0.5% ABV
Pours a dark golden colour offering up aromas of caramel and spicy hops. Beautifully balanced, it has a moreish bitterness with playful notes of caramel from the malt.
In addition to the Austrian beers, Euroboozer exclusively distributes Andechs, Blakstoc, Harpoon and Other Half, as well as ten exciting Czech craft breweries and a host of leading UK brewers.
More information at www.euroboozer.co.uk
Thirty years of wort
When Gateshead was chosen for the 1990 National Garden Festival it was one of a series of initiatives supposed to herald a new beginning for underdeveloped towns and cities that also included Liverpool and Glasgow. The idea never quite worked out as intended, but there’s not enough space here to explain Government failings and Margaret Thatcher’s disdain for ‘the little people’.
However, several benefits came out of the nationwide project – and three-plus decades later, Great North Eastern Brewing Co has produced Garden Festival Passion Fruit and Mango DDH Pale (5.0% abv) in celebration, a stonking beer brewed close to the 150-acre site that hosted such curiosities as the Dr Who Dome, the Barclays Bank Physic Garden and the Butterfly Brick Terraces.
The punchy, unfiltered double dry-hopped IPA is hopped with Equanot, Cashmere and Mosaic varieties and is simply glorious (writes someone who shies clear of anything more hoppy than Irn Bru).
