Athletic Brewing Company

Why it matters

Every large brewer’s alcohol-free beer is a version of something else, which shapes what it can be: the recipe starts from a product that already exists. This brewery started from the constraint instead, brewing exclusively below the threshold, and it is the clearest case for the argument that the category improves faster when it is not a side project.

Details

Reference beers

• Athletic Run Wild IPA0.4–0.5% ABV

  The best-known American alcohol-free IPA, from a brewery that makes nothing else.

BeerHQ carries only the products that anchor something. This is not the brewery’s full range.

Styles it is associated with

• Alcohol-free IPA — An alcohol-free beer built around heavy dry hopping, since hop aroma is added after fermentation and survives the process intact.
• Alcohol-free pale lager — A pale lager produced at or near zero alcohol, now the largest and most refined part of the no-alcohol category.