The Non Alcoholic Beer Market
Sober Carpenter Brewery is based in Montreal, QB, Canada and brews Sober Carpenter Blonde Ale. 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 specialty non alcoholic breweries like Sober Carpenter are entering the market, as well as traditional breweries. Not a day goes by without some news story about the rise of non alcoholic beer and societal trends towards reducing alcohol intake.
Sober Carpenter Brewery
Sober Carpenter is a non-alcoholic craft beer brewery created by two brothers. Passionate about beer for many years, they began trying their hand at craft brewing in their parents’ basement: experimenting with recipes and perfecting their style. Years later, after having brewed and tasted a wide range of beers, their passion remained though their lifestyle had changed.
After starting their own families, they wanted to keep their social life active while reducing their alcohol consumption. It was only natural when they turned to non-alcoholic beer. Unfortunately, after several searches they realized that the current offerings were very limited and not to the standards they expected in taste and mouthfeel after years of consuming craft beers.
That’s when they decided to create Sober Carpenter, with a range of non alcoholic beers so good that you won’t have to compromise on taste if you also want a healthier lifestyle. So good that you’ll forget it’s non-alcoholic. Sober Carpenter has a broad range of non-alcoholic beers, from IPAs to ales as well as craft cider.
Sober Carpenter Blonde Ale
Sober Carpenter describes Blonde as “Sometimes you just want to kick back, relax, and enjoy an easy drinking beer with a little edge. With accents of malt and a light hop finish, our golden ale is crisp and refreshing.” It has Hallertau Tradition and Saaz hops and Cara and 2 Row malts. A 12 oz. serving has 45 calories, 20 IBU, 10g carbs, 0g fat and 0g protein. (We had a 16 oz. can.) It has no rating on Beer Advocate and 2.94 out of 5 on Untappd.
Our Review of Sober Carpenter Blonde Ale
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, Partake Brewing, which were exceptional considering the low calories and carbs, and Collective Arts, which were disappointing. The three from Bravus Brewing were generally Ok but nothing special. Sober Carpenter Irish Red was one of the first non alcoholic beers I tried and was very good. Their IPA tasted like an alcoholic IPA but was very hoppy. Next up is their Blonde Ale.
The Tasting
I was concerned that Sober Carpenter Blonde Ale wouldn’t have much taste and would be pretty bland. It did exceed expectations a bit and tasted like a plain old Pilsner, lager or other easy drinking beer. On the other hand, it was pretty bland and not that great. We have tried several non alcoholic blonde ales, pilsners and lagers and several of them have more taste. Some even have lower calories and carbs. We recommend those over Sober Carpenter Blonde Ale.
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Sober Carpenter Blonde Ale is available at Amazon at Blonde Ale.
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For better recommendations, try Athletic Brewing Cerveza Atletica, 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.
