Being impressed by Hoppiness editor Michael Donaldson’s Dry July crusade (Ed: thanks Mark!) our household decided to take on the challenge of an alcohol free August. Foodstuffs North Island recently added Bavaria alcohol free India Pale Ale to their range so I thought I’d give it a try. Alcohol is the thing that gives beer body so whenever it’s removed you should expect a drink on the thinner, lighter side. The Bavaria IPA is exactly that but surprisingly not as thin as I would have expected. A nice honey coloured liquid fills the glass and settles with a nice thick head. The aroma is surprisingly malty. I liken it to the sweet aromas you encounter when mashing in a beer. The flavour follows the same trajectory. it’s almost like they’ve mashed in and then filtered the crap out of the wort. The remaining liquid is then carbonated and bottled without a hint of fermentation thus leaving you with no alcohol. Maybe? The carbonation falls away pretty quickly so you can’t savour it for too long. Putting all my questions aside, it actually wasn’t a bad drink. I kind of enjoyed it. It lacked any evidence of hops or perhaps they’d been severely overruled by the strong malt characters of this “IPA”.