Brew Dog Nanny State N/A beer

 

In my on-going quest to somewhat replace the pleasure I used to get from drinking beer, I have tried one of Brew Dog's N/A varieties: Nanny State. Nanny State purports to be a "hoppy-golden" ale that uses a nebulous variety of "West Coast hops." 

Whether or not these N/A brews are actually made with hops seems almost immaterial. You are, after all, drinking a non-alcoholic beer substitute. Let's call it what it is: fake beer. How they make it doesn't really matter to me as long as it a.) tastes like actual beer, and b.) doesn't have many calories. 

Nanny State by Brew Dog fits both bills. At 20 calories for a 12 oz. can, you almost can't afford not to be drinking this. 

Taste-wise... it is very hop-forward. Hp-heavy, you might say, but that's what you get with this particular N/A beer. There is a kind of hops that -- to me -- always tasted a bit like weed smoke and vegetable scraps. Thirsty yet? Well there is also a touch of nice, malty sweetness to balance the heavy hop flavor. 

Nanny State has that characteristic N/A beer "thinness," but you only fix that by adding sugar and -- at 20 calories -- Brew Dog has clearly spared nothing in making this brew as bare bones as possible. Again, being lower in calories is one of the chief benefits of N/A beer (one of the chief benefits of not drinking booze, in general), so the fact that Nanny State weighs in at 20 calories is a huge plus. 

I paired this beer with some dried amelie mangoes (completely by accident; I have no other food in the house) and the pairing worked out amazingly. Something about the sweet and tartness of the mangoes made the beer taste even more refreshing and brought out more of the flavor.