Mash Gang: Stay Gold (England: Low Alcohol: 0.5% ABV)
Visual: Browned caramel coloured body. Moderate sized off white head. No visible carbonation in the body.
Nose: Pineapple. Grapefruit. Toffee. Clean hop character and good bitterness. Ovaltine.
Body: Bitter. Bready hop character. Soft cake sponge. Pineapple. More bitterness as time goes on.
Finish: Pineapple. Good hop bitterness and general hop character. Lightly dry. Soft lemon cakes.
Conclusion: I’ve always been unsure of how well low abv beers can handle west coast IPA style. Despite the fact the lower malt use tends to mean that the malt is out of the way in a traditional west coast way, the lower malt also has often resulted in low abv attempts being over gritty and harsh as they seem to have more trouble controlling the influence of the hop usage.
This manages very well, a lightly dry character with that mentioned out of the way malt? Yep, check. Good bitterness that you can really feel without it getting harsh? Yep, check. It even carried well used citrus, which a lot of full abv beers manage to mess up. It uses tart grapefruit, soft lemon and fresh pineapple notes which work over time to keep the bitterness in check and balanced.
It it was a full abv west coast IPA I would find it solidly middle of the range – nothing too showy, nothing unusual for the style or pushing its limits, no fancy extra features. However as a low alcohol 0.5% ABV beer this is a belter.
One i’m happily slipping into my alcohol free day lineup.
Background: Mash Gang have been hit and miss for me, the hits have been amazing and the misses rough as heck, but the high level of the hits makes it worth giving a new one a try. So I see this, their low abv take on a west coast IPA in Independent Spirit and I think “What the heck, I need more alcohol free nights at the mo” and grab a can. Not much else to add, had recently seen Benzo Queen warm up for Mclusky at a recent gig, and they impressed me with their energy – setting up in the middle of the room instead of on the stage and we all just surrounded them as they made wonderful noise – so I went with their “You Never Take Me Anywhere Nice” for backing music. The album is very short so I had it on repeat.
