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When:
11 December 2021 @ 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm
2021-12-11T13:00:00+11:00
2021-12-11T15:30:00+11:00
Where:
South Yarra Community Baptist Church
12 Surrey Rd
South Yarra VIC 3141
Australia
12 Surrey Rd
South Yarra VIC 3141
Australia
Cost:
Free
Contact:
Nathan
0403 825 024
An opportunity to sample a selection of the new generation of non-alcoholic beers (see the backstory etc below). If you’re not a beer drinker, you are still welcome to come and enjoy a physically gathered catch-up with one another.
The beers will be supplied. I can’t vouch for them all – I’ve only tried two of them – but if we find a few that are genuinely enjoyable, then being a designated driver in the future will be much less of a sacrifice, right? If you want to drink something different, please BYO, and we can all bring snacks and/or picnic lunch foods.
This event will be open to all, regardless of vaccination status.
Backstory (from Nathan): As most of you know, I love my beer, especially interesting craft-brewed beers. Last week I stumbled across an article in the press that began as follows:
When was the last time you drank non-alcoholic beer? If it was more than 12 months ago, you need to give it a crack again. Things have changed, big time. Multiple non-alcoholic breweries have launched here, and new contenders are arriving from overseas. … Importantly, these guys are paying proper attention to body and mouthfeel, the biggest issues when it comes to most non-alcoholic beer.
Well, it had been at least two years since I’d last tried and been very disappointed by a non-alcoholic beer, so I figured I’d better update my knowledge. I read a bit more, including a few reviews, and then when Margie, Acacia and I went out for our first post-lockdown restaurant dinner on Saturday night, I found that the drinks list included one of the best-reviewed non-alcoholic beers, so it was time for a try. I was really surprised. It was a genuinely good beer. Sure, I’ve had better beers, but that’s because I have sought out and sampled some of the best beers in the world. That’s not a fair comparison. But put alongside readily available and affordable Aussie craft beers that I like, this beer held its own pretty well. So now there is a bunch more of them that I’d like to try, including several from an Aboriginal owned brewery who make beers which include some native Australian ingredients such as lemon aspen, pepperberry, and finger-lime. So, I see no reason to keep this exploration to myself. Come and join me for a big tasting session without the danger of being unable to safely drive home.
So if you’re interested in joining me for this little hangover-free beer adventure, please let me know, so that I can make sure we have enough beer on hand.
P.S. For the technically minded, these beers do contain tiny quantities of alcohol, as do most fruit juices and even most fresh fruit. Legally, it has to be less than 1% to carry the label “non-alcoholic”, and most of these beers are about 0.5% which is about the same as a ripe banana. At that level, most people would be physically incapable of drinking the quantity required fast enough to get any discernible alcoholic effect.