The Session January 2025: Best in beer since 2018

I wasn’t cool enough to be a part of The Session back in 2018 or earlier. So I’m damned if I’m missing out now. Thanks to Boak and Bailey‘s post, I spotted that Alan McLeod is attempting to relaunch The Session. It’s an opportunity for bloggers to post something on a certain topic, all on the same day. Today, we’ve been tasked to answer the question: What’s the best thing to happen in beer since 2018?

It’s a helluva question to answer off the cuff. I’m sat on the train on my way to Crewe to brew with the Ladies of Darkness for International Women’s Day. So I’m tempted to talk about the improvements we’ve made to DEI across the industry over the last few years. But you just have to pay attention to what people like Ruvani de Silva are writing to know that it might still be a little premature for a celebration.

Best in beer

Instead, I’m going to draw on my experience last night. I was invited to hold a beer tasting for the ladies beer group that I attend in Wellington, Shropshire at the lovely Boot micropub. The tasting consisted of all low and no alcohol beers. And that’s what I think is the best thing to happen to beer since 2018. The rise in quality and availablility of alcohol free beer.

Look back through my posts and you’ll see that I was writing about alcohol free beer in 2018 and celebrating its quality, on the whole. I was enjoying Adnams Ghost Ship 0.5%, Brooklyn Special Effects (which we tasted again last night), Krombacher’s weizen. It felt like a new dawn.

Since then, more and more breweries have jumped on the bandwagon. We’ve seen new 100% alcohol free breweries establish themselves – like Mash Gang and Good Karma. We’ve seen existing breweries start to produce excellent alcohol free beers. And perhaps most excitingly, now it’s not that hard to find really good examples in almost any beer style that you prefer. I would not have predicted Wiper and True releasing four great alcohol free collaborations with Track, Elusive, Five Points and Northern Monk even 3 years ago. Yet that is exactly what they’ve done this month. (Try the grapefruit radler with Northern Monk, it’s excellent.)

Attitudes and the Future

We’re seeing a wider availability of alcohol free beers on draught, so you can still enjoy a quick pint, regardless of circumstances. And, I think, we are on the cusp of an attitudinal change that may well support the continued growth of this sector. People are more accepting of others choosing alcohol free drinks. There is less stigma – although quite a lot of people still can’t resist making a wise crack when someone talks about these products. So looking forward, that’s what I’m hoping for. A time where choosing an alcohol free beer is as normal as opting for a decaffeinated coffee.

If I think hard about this subject, there’s probably lots of things that have got better in beer than this. But I think that this is definitely a good thing, and a topic worth keeping our eyes on. Why not drop me a comment below the line, and let me know what you think?