We Can Be Friends
Alcohol-free drinks have spent years trying to convince people they are fun. We Can Be Friends takes a more sensible approach and focuses on making drinks people actually want to drink.
The project centres around modern alcohol-free beer, built with the same attention to flavour, balance and brewing detail as many full-strength craft releases. Rather than treating alcohol-free beer as a compromise, the aim seems to be producing something that stands on its own merits.
Zeus, one of the better-known releases, is a 0.5% lager built around pilsner and Munich malts with Saaz and Riwaka hops. The result is crisp, refreshing and properly beer-like, with herbal hop character, citrus notes and enough body to avoid the thinness that still haunts a lot of alcohol-free lager.
The wider appeal comes from restraint. The beers are not overloaded with flavourings or trying desperately to imitate something else. They simply focus on balance, freshness and drinkability, which is usually a far better strategy.
Alcohol-free beer has improved dramatically over the last decade. Projects like We Can Be Friends are part of the reason many drinkers no longer see it as a last resort.
Sometimes having another pint and still remembering the end of the evening is not the worst idea in the world.
