In line with Capital Brewing Co.'s ethos of creating "good natured brews", the brewery is introducing its very first non-alcoholic beer.
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Alc-Less is a tropical pale ale, fresh, crisp and clean and the team has been working on it for close to two years in a special micro brewhouse set up specifically for research and development.
Founders and managing directors Tom Hertel and Laurence Kain said expanding into the non-alcoholic category was a natural next step for the brewery given the demand from consumers.
According to The Centre for Alcohol Policy Research at La Trobe University, the number of 18-24-year-old Australians who don't drink has doubled in the past 20 years.
The 2021 IWSR Drinks Market Analysis No- and Low-Alcohol Strategic Study showed volumes in Australia increased by 2.9 per cent in 2020. Overall, the no- and low-alcohol market outperformed regular alcohol, which registered a volume decline of 1.4 per cent over the year. IWSR is forecasting that the no- and low-alcohol volume in Australia will grow by 16 per cent 2020 to 2024.
"As more and more of our customers' lifestyles are changing to become more focused on health and wellbeing, they can't afford to be hungover but still want to kick back at the end of the day with a good tasting brew," Hertel said.
"We're excited to be adding an alcohol-free option to our range at a time when we, as founders are also becoming more health aware and find ourselves leaning ever more to the low/non-alcoholic options."
Kain said it was important to develop a recipe that held up against the perfectly balanced, delicious taste that Capital drinkers have come to expect while removing all the alcohol.
"Beyond perfecting the flavour, we encountered many challenges including the product freezing in the tank because there was no alcohol present so, although it tastes like one, Alc-Less behaves very differently to a normal beer in so many ways," Kain said.
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"The flavour, quality and consistency of the product was incredibly important to us. With that in mind, we invested in a miniature brewhouse with 350 litre tanks, replicating a scaled down version of our main 3000lt brewhouse specifically designed for research and development.
"Having the R&D brewhouse means we use the same steam heating and brewing process as all of our other beers, but allowed us to test and perfect our non-alcoholic recipe efficiently, whilst being considerate of potential wastage."
Alc-Less is already proving popular with strong pre-sell demand from both independent, major retail and on premises venues. The launch of Alc-Less marks Capital Brewing Co.'s largest pre-sell uptake to date, ahead of its official launch on July 1 where it will be available in all good bottle stores, online retailers and Capital Brewing Co.'s online store.
"As a team, we've spent a lot of time refining Alc-Less and, as one of our first products to come out of our R&D Brewhouse, we're are pretty proud of the end result," Kain said.
"We're hoping this new system will also help keep the creativity alive within the brewing team, and ensure that we're continuing to innovate with new recipes too."
More beer
BentSpoke Brewing Co. are featuring a truffle infused food and beer pairing menu in celebration of the start of the Canberra regions truffle season. The featured truffle festival beer includes local truffles, infused through what the staff at BentSpoke call the Hopinator. The Hopinator is a permanent fixture on the bar at the BrewPub that allows the brewers to include different ingredients into the beer while it chills.
Silverback is a truffle-infused beer and is a dark malty strong ale infused in the Hopinator with kumquats, star anise, cinnamon, nutmeg and truffles. All these flavours infused together provides a rich malty backbone with a nose of spice and citrus.
The food menu includes dishes that showcase BentSpoke's beers alongside truffles. We're heading in to try the Silverback battered potato scallops with truffle salt and truffle aioli.
There's a three-course set menu with a free Silverback. Or just choose one course and get a $7 Silverback.
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