Beavertown Brewery is entering the alcohol-free market with the launch of Lazer Crush IPA
Clocking in at 0.3% abv, Lazer Crush IPA is Beavertown’s first venture into the no and low market.
The beer is made in Belgium in collaboration with partner brewery De Proef, using a Pilsner malt base and an innovative yeast strain, Chr. Hansen Neer.
‘It’s a bit of wizardry that we’ve been working on for the last 18 months with De Proef brewery, in Belgium,’ said Beavertown founder Logan Plant speaking to Imbibe.
The action of the Neer yeast is characterised by a very low ethanol conversion (which means that no alcohol needs to be removed at a later stage), and high esters and thiols production, which enhances fruit flavours.
‘With this yeast, you brew as you normally would,’ explained Plant, ‘then the yeast digests just a bit of the glucose creating a little bit of alcohol – hence the 0.3% abv... Basically, you just get a little bit of fermentation, so there’s none of the alcohol stripped out afterwards which would cause the beer to lose body.’
Plant explained that during the fermentation process the yeast digests the glucose rather than the maltose present in the wort: ‘This process leaves a lot of that mouthfeel that you would usually find in a normal alcoholic beer.’
The beer is then dry hopped with a blend of Azacca, Amarillo and Citra, a blend that Plant said is designed to complement the estery notes developed by the yeast.
£23.33/24x330ml cans, Beavertown Brewery, beavertownbrewery.co.uk
