The Non Alcoholic Beer Market
BrewDog is based in Scotland and also has a headquarters in the United States in Columbus, Ohio that distributes BrewDog Punk AF. The non alcoholic beer market has grown rapidly in recent years with the introduction of non alcoholic beers that taste more like regular beer. Non alcoholic beers have several health advantages over regular beers, including fewer calories, sugar, carbs and of course, alcohol. Non alcoholic means less than 0.5% alcohol, so non alcoholic beers can still have traces of alcohol.
Athletic Brewing is the current market leader in non alcoholic beers with an approximate 19% market share. More and more traditional breweries like BrewDog are entering the market. Not a day goes by without some news story about the rise of non alcoholic beer and societal trends towards reducing alcohol intake.
BrewDog Brewery
BrewDog calls itself “a brewer, retailer and distributor of drinks as well as a pub and hotel operator.” They have breweries, taprooms and bars located in the UK, USA, Mainland Europe, Australia and Asia. BrewDog has a rooftop bar overlooking the Las Vegas strip that I have seen but not been to. The United States arm of BrewDog carries a large variety of alcoholic and non alcoholic beers. The four non alcoholic beers all have “AF” in the name.
BrewDog Punk AF
BrewDog describes Punk AF Hoppy Pale as “Non-alcoholic near beer just got punked up. Say hello to the punkest non-alcoholic near beer in town. Juicy tropical fruits mix it up with grassy and pine notes, all sitting on a solid malt baseline.” The UK site shows different packaging calling it an IPA and on some cans it says alcohol free. The US cans call it a Pale Ale and non alcoholic, which is not necessarily alcohol free. BrewDog Punk AF has 20 calories, 15 IBU, 2.3g carbs, 0g fat and 0g protein. It is dairy free and gluten reduced. It has an “Okay” rating on Beer Advocate.
Our Review of BrewDog Punk AF
If you read our post about ProofNoMore, I bought 35 single non alcoholic beers to try. I have had about 30 to date. If you add in some others I purchased elsewhere, I have now tried over 40 NA beers. Some have been very good and satisfied my desire to find drinks that taste like beer with little or no alcohol and reduced calories. However, many have not been good and a lot of those have had calorie and carb numbers close to a regular beer. Several of the ones I have tried recently have been weak, and I have found myself more and more craving regular old beers with alcohol. After purchasing two BrewDog NA beers, I read some comments from others alleging that the company’s history has been checkered with scandals. I was not excited to try BrewDog Punk AF.
The Tasting
The first thing I noticed about BrewDog Punk AF was the 20 calories and 2.3 carbs. This is in the ballpark of the Partake Brewing NA beers and Athletic Brewing Lite. It is also significantly below every other NA beer I tried. But it would it be any good?
It was. Not necessarily the best NA beer I have had, but at least it tasted like a pale ale. I can’t say that I tasted the “juicy tropical fruits” or “grassy and pine notes” but it did not taste watered down like so many others I have tried recently. In particular, it was a lot better than anything I had tried from Go Brewing and Collective Arts. I would drink it again.
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BrewDog Punk AF is available at Amazon at Punk AF.
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For more recommendations, try Athletic Brewing Cerveza Atletica, Athletic Brewing Lite, Best Day Brewing Kolsch, Athletic Brewing Lite, Partake Brewing Blonde, Partake Brewing Pale and FMB 101 Blonde.
For non alcoholic beer nutritional information for all NA beers we have reviewed and more, see NA Beer Nutritional Information.
