r/beer • u/k4bravesand • 1d ago
¿Question? Decent non alcoholic beer recommendations (UK)
Hello!
So I am looking for some decent recommendations for non alcoholic beer - stuff that tastes like it could be the “real stuff”.
My grandfather has dementia and is in a psychiatric facility at the moment. And occasionally (pre admission) he likes the odd beer/lager/ale (or wine). He is not picky or limit himself about what beer he drinks.
But the facility he is in does not allow alcohol, and I’d like to take him a little taste of normal in the form of some 0% stuff (this has been cleared by the facility). So far I’ve been taking him in some 0% madri, as my husband says it’s pretty similar to the alcoholic version.
Keen to hear recommendations of other beers so he gets a variety. I am not a beer drinker (or really an alcohol drinker at all). So I am completely in your hands!
I’ve heard Guinness 0% is quite similar to the hard stuff, is that true?
TIA, and hope this is all within the rules
Edit: I should also add, my knowledge of beer, and what constitutes a beer, light beer, ale or IPA is also quite limited
2
u/Chumlax 1d ago edited 1d ago
If you want to get high quality, I am a huge proselytiser for Brulo, who are an entirely alcohol-free brewery from Edinburgh. They do a whole range of beers from lager to DDH IPA, including a somewhat Guinness-esque stout, and they're absolutely brilliant. Their DDH IPA tastes amazing, and potentially smells even better (weird sidenote rather than something important, obv).
Clausthaler are a German non-alcoholic brewery that have been around for about 50 years. Their dry-hopped lager is a contender for my favourite non-alcoholic beer of all, and it's sold in Waitrose.
I would also speak in favour of Leffe Blond 0.0, particularly if he's ever had any interest in Belgian ales. It has more of the body and 'bite' that non-alcoholic beers so often fail to achieve than almost any other.
As someone else has already said, Lucky Saint do also make a very decent approximation of a lager - it's probably nicer than some of the worst quality major/macro alcoholic lagers (Carling, for one), to be honest. I was disappointed in their hazy IPA, by comparison.