More non-alcoholic beer reviews! I recently received samples from Best Day Brewing, a new producer of NA beer based in Sausalito, California.

Best Day leans heavily into the “lifestyle” segment with its northern California image, billing these NA beers as “for doers everywhere” and those with active lifestyles. Quoting founder Tate Huffard’s statement on the website’s about page:

I really love good beer. A good beer has a unique ability to bring friends and family together in a way that few other things can. It can also be a perfect ending to a good day, to a bad day, to a run, to a day on the mountain, or a day at the beach. There’s no shortage of opportunities to crack open a beer in Northern California. But I also have come to realize that I don’t always want my beer to slow me down. Life is chockful of moments that deserve a great craft beer, but not the booze.

With this in mind, we started our pursuit of creating a great tasting genuine craft beer, that also happened to be non-alcoholic. After years of iterations, development, and investment in state-of-the-art technology we’ve created a lineup of truly great non-alcoholic beers we can hang our hat on.

Of course it’s marketing copy, but it gives the gist—this is a lifestyle brand that includes the calorie and carb counts on the cans (not all non-alcoholic beers do). Plus, look at the branding; it’s a throwback design that reminds me heavily of counterculture-era colors, fonts, and Baja Bugs, hearkening back to a California surfer-hippie vibe.

I rather like the branding, actually, though confusingly (for me) the Kölsch has the salmon pink label while the IPA is in the gold label and that seems counterintuitive; I grabbed a gold label can thinking it was the Kölsch initially.

On to the beers themselves. I’m always interested in the various non-alcoholic brewing processes so I reached out to the agency that sent the samples to find out how the Best Day beers were created. I noted that on the can, in addition to listing Sausalito as the company’s location, there is also text that indicates the beer are brewed “under special agreement Denver, CO.” The agency confirmed that “Best Day has partnered with a much larger brewery in Denver” but wasn’t able to provide any specifics.

On a hunch I visited the website of Sustainable Beverage Technologies, the company that developed and patented its “BrewVo®” process to craft NA beers. It’s the same company that Deschutes Brewery partners with for Black Butte Non-Alcoholic, as well as NA beer producer Grüvi. And sure enough, right on SBT’s homepage under “Industry Collaborations,” Best Day Brewing is listed.

What this means is that the Best Day beers start out as full recipe, fully fermented beers before going through the BrewVo process to remove the alcohol. Details on how that works are proprietary and closely guarded (the website has copy that says, “Sustainable Beverage Technologies (SBT) uses a unique and revolutionary BrewVo “nested fermentation” process to make best in class, great tasting NA beer” without real details).

That’s fine, it gives me a starting point to understand the Best Day beers. The company also offers a Hazy IPA which is sold out right now; that is expected to return along with the possibility of some new styles as well.

Let’s get to my notes.

Kölsch-Style

Lighter styles like this one can be hit or miss as NA beers, because there is less to hide behind when it comes to typical non-alcoholic off-flavors and aromas. According to the can (and website), this has only 55 calories and 11 grams of carbs per 12-ounce can. The description says:

The complement to the Hazy had to be easy-drinking, approachable, and low calorie, yet full of flavor and authenticity. We used a combination of Cologne and Pilsner malts and Hallertau Traditional hops to create a refreshingly complex, non-alcoholic Kolsch-style ale. Its sturdy caramel malt flavor is perfectly balanced by the citrusy hops, leaving a bright and crisp finish. The quintessential embodiment of “ALL DAY. EVERY DAY.”

Appearance: Nicely bright golden color, fairly clear, with a good white head.

Smell: Bready and crackery, with a nice snap of malt and raw wheat. Hops are super subtle and a touch floral. No aroma characteristic of a non-alcoholic beer at all.

Taste: Decent malts flavors with cracker-like grains and a slight nuttiness, with a hint of an overboiled hop harshness I’ve noticed in other non-alcoholic beers—but aside from that, and being a touch watery, it drinks like a standard light ale, possibly only missing some alcohol esters (but you’d only notice when they’re missing). I’d like some more hop flavors but nothing over the top.

Mouthfeel: Light-bodied with just a slight watered-down impression in the thin body; otherwise it’s crisp, clean, and finishes with a snap of malt.

Overall: It’s really impressive for a non-alcoholic brew that mostly hits the style marks. I do think it could use more hops as I’d expect in a crisp Kölsch.

West Coast IPA

Every NA brewer seems to have a non-alcoholic IPA (or have one in the works); it’s the best-selling craft style so naturally it’s a target. While Best Day’s initial offering is Hazy IPA, the West Coast IPA makes better sense to me from a branding standpoint given the company’s northern California “roots.” This NA beer has 68 calories and 11 grams of carbs per can. The description says:

Our non-alcoholic West Coast IPA is a tribute to our back yard and its rich history of making damn good beers. Its Cascade hops are an ode to the beers that started the IPA revolution. The rich malt backbone provides ample structure for the grapefruit Cascade notes to shine. Drink up, get out there.

Appearance: Deep copper to amber with a bit of haziness. It has a creamy and lacy off-white head.

Smell: Seems like there’s a lot of diacetyl here, with caramel notes going a bit buttery. (This is notable because I usually have a high tolerance for diacetyl and don’t typically detect it.) Underneath that I’m finding piney hops with some herbal character.

Taste: This one definitely contains the hops I didn’t find in the Kölsch, with a big, resinous, woody bitterness that’s bracing and tonic-like… but it’s frankly unbalanced against the non-alcoholic backdrop of this brew. I don’t really taste any butter(scotch) here but there is a slight slickness on the tongue in the caramel malts. But, like the other it doesn’t taste like a typical non-alcoholic beer.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light body with a slight slickness and a long lingering bitterness.

Overall: I’m honestly not sure if the diacetyl aromas I smell are actually diacetyl, or perhaps there is just a ton of crystal malts in the recipe (which when used in large quantities can mimic diacetyl). It’s decent but in general I’d tone down the hops and bitterness and see about cleaning up the possible diacetyl and it would shine for a NA beer.

Conclusions

These are strong initial showings for the new company. I’m a bit surprised that it went hard into old-school, caramel cakey-malty territory for the IPA, though I wonder how much of that is based on the stylings of whatever Denver-based brewery is (apparently) brewing the base beers.

One thing I’ve noted with almost every NA beer I’ve reviewed so far—balance is tricky (in other news, water is wet) but particularly when starting with a full-fledged brew that goes through the NA processing. Removing the alcohol also removes key elements that affect ester levels, mouthfeel, hop oil solubility, and more.

Having said all that, these non-alcoholic beers from Best Day Brewing are worth checking out when you’re looking for NA beer options.