The Non Alcoholic Beer Market
Brooklyn Brewery Special Effects Hoppy Amber is brewed in Brooklyn and other New York locations. 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 estimated 19% market share, but more and more specialty non alcoholic breweries are entering the market, as well as traditional breweries like Brooklyn Brewery. Not a day goes by without some news story about the rise of non alcoholic beer and societal trends towards reducing alcohol intake.
Brooklyn Brewery
Brooklyn Brewery was founded in 1988 in Brooklyn. While they do have a brewery in Brooklyn, they have also contracted out much of their brewing to various locations in New York state. Their Brooklyn brewery has a taproom, tours and a merchandise store. Brooklyn Brewery has a large selection of beers, including Brooklyn Lager, Brooklyn Pilsner, IPAs, seasonal beers, limited edition beers and non alcoholic beers. Their flagship beer is Brooklyn Lager, an amber lager.
Brooklyn Brewery Special Effects Hoppy Amber
Brooklyn Lager brews three non alcoholic beers, Hoppy Amber, an IPA and a pilsner, all marketed as “Special Effects.” The brewery describes Special Effects Hoppy Amber as “a generous dry hopping resulting in lively hop notes and a clean finish…tasting notes…peeled grapefruit and fresh zesty hop aromas with a clean bitter edge.”
Brooklyn Brewery Special Effects Hoppy Amber has 95 calories, 17g carbs, 0g fat and 1.5g protein. There is no IBU information. It has a “Good” rating on Beer Advocate.
Our Review of Brooklyn Brewery Special Effect Pils
If you read our post about ProofNoMore, I bought 35 single non alcoholic beers to try. I started with non alcoholic beers from large well known breweries and followed that up with craft breweries. Then I moved on to non alcoholic breweries, starting with Athletic Brewing Lite, which was better than expected. Many of these were very good and barely discernable from beers with alcohol, but some were downright bad. I did not like the other Brooklyn Brewery non alcoholic beer I tried, the Special Effects Pils.
The Tasting
The only beer (with alcohol) that I previously had from Brooklyn Brewery is their Brooklyn Lager, which is excellent. When I used to travel to New York, I would stop at The Stage Deli to have a Brooklyn Lager on tap with a pastrami sandwich. I can’t imagine a better meal. But I was disappointed in the Special Effects Pils.
The Hoppy Amber was much better. I didn’t find it to be that hoppy but that is what I liked about it. It tasted like an amber lager with more flavor than their Pilsner. I agree with the clean finish but did not taste the grapefruit. I would buy this again.
AMAZON
Hoppy Amber is available at Amazon at Hoppy Amber.
As an Amazon Associate and a Proof No More affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
For more recommendations, try Wellbeing Hellraiser Dark Amber and Sober Carpenter Irish Red.
For non alcoholic beer nutritional information for all NA beers we have reviewed and more, see NA Beer Nutritional Information.
