Sharp’s (Molson Coors) : Doom Bar Zero (England: Low Alcohol: 0.0% ABV)
Visual: Reddened brown. Moderate beige head. Clear main body. No real evident carbonation on the eye.
Nose: Walnuts. Crushed peanuts. Lightly earthy.
Body: Chalky. Nutty. Walnuts. Charring. Subtle toffee. Dry treacle. Earthy. Prickling. Mild savoury cream core.
Finish: Chalk. Nutty. Charred touch. Dry treacle touch. Earthy. Fluffy hop feel. Moderate bitterness.
Conclusion: Is making a low abv take on a more traditional British bitter a thing now? I hope so. You don’t realize how much you wanted a beer style being done in a low abv way until a bunch land on your lap, like three buses arriving at once after a long wait.
Like the low abv Speckled Hen before it this has a pretty good mouthfeel. Though this has a less syrupy, Marstons like texture than The Speckled Hen did – aiming instead more towards a slightly drier and more prickly bitter feel, which I approve of.
The flavours are similarly towards a more traditional style – earthy in the bitterness, nutty in flavour, with a good hop fluffiness in the finish. Now, comparing it to my memories of the full abv version is going to be slightly vague, as it has been a while since I had one of those, but from memory, this seems to have less evident toffee sweetness – which makes sense given the lower abv. Also it seems less sulphurous. I am aware though that I used to mainly drink Doom Bar on cask, so this may be a bottle vs cask thing rather than a low vs normal abv thing.
It is a solid beer, earthy and dry enough to be very easy to drink. In fact if it was alcoholic I would call it dangerously so – but as it it slips down right.
Now it is nothing too out of the normal, but I am finding it better than all the similar low alcohol traditional bitters I have encountered so far. So, for now it fills the place in the line up nicely, and shows that there really is a place for more earthy alcohol free bitters.
Background: Yes I will do non low abv notes again one day. Blame covid. It is the reason for everything else bad so it might as well take this one on the chin as well. Anyway, saw this in Sainsbury’s and after my decent experience with low abv Speckled Hen thought I would give it a try. This is a surprising 0.0% abv beer, not even 0.5, so again I guess they probably brewed it then artificially removed the alcohol rather than brewed it as a low alcohol beer. Though that is just a guess. Doom Bar is a beer I am surprised I never did notes on the normal version. Short story of my experience. Initially found it very dull, but then one day boom – I had one that seemed so much more complex with sweet toffee under the sulfur. It was then I realised the importance of well kept casks and fast cask beer turnover. Most places I had it just were not treating it right as it was their token cask beer. Done well it was a satisfying pint. Went for SOPHIE: Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Sides again for music while drinking. Loving it.
