Alcohol-free brewer Big Drop has topped the table at the World Beer Awards, picking up a total of nine medals.
These included world’s best no and low IPA, which was awarded to its Poolside DDH IPA.
The haul of medals achieved for its range of 0.5% ABV beers is more than any other no and low brewer — or any UK brewer for that matter — has achieved at this year’s awards.
Furthermore, with a total of eights world’s best medals since first entering the World Beer Awards in 2017, Big Drop can claim to be the most successful of any UK-based brewer in the competition.
Established in the UK in 2016 as the world’s first brewer dedicated to alcohol-free beer, Big Drop has pioneered a process called reduced amylase brewing, which allows for a fully-fermented brewing cycle without ever rising above 0.5% ABV. This means that nothing has to be extracted from the beer, allowing it to retain the flavour and characteristics of its full-strength equivalents.
“All I wanted to do, some seven or eight years ago now, was make a great-tasting alcohol-free beer,” said Big Drop founder, Rob Fink.
“It was our brewer, Johnny Clayton, who said that wasn’t good enough: what we needed to aim for was to make a great tasting beer that happened to be alcohol-free.
“And I think we’ve proved now that Big Drop is not only one of the best alcohol-free brewers out there, but one of the best brewers, full-stop.”
There’s a new brew of Kick Start, Vibrant Forest’s 5.7% ABV oat and coffee stout. A strong and dark malt base is filled to the brim with oats and then steeped in freshly roasted Columbian coffee, courtesy of Red Garage Coffee.
After making its debut at the London Craft Beer Festival, Five Points Brewing Co’s latest Berry Sour (4.5% ABV) has gone out to trade. Dark pink and hazy, the beer, which has ad copious additions of blueberry and lingonberry, is a mouthwatering and refreshing kettle sour finished with lemon zest in the whirlpool for a final flourish of tartness.
