Big Drop’s two NEW beers will be available at our festival!
Big Drop founder, Rob Fink, explains what inspired him to start brewing 0.5% ABV beers and why launching two new additions to his range at the Mindful Drinking Festival is such an obvious choice.
If I say so myself, what a brilliant idea – great tasting beers brewed with high quality ingredients but offering an alternative to mainstream craft beers at just 0.5% ABV.
Sounds simple but, as with every brilliant idea, there’s always a story behind the headline not to mention a devoted team dedicated to getting everything absolutely spot on. And Big Drop is no different.
In April 2016, I looked around a bar one day and realised just how little choice there was in low or no alcohol beers. It didn’t feel as if much had changed over the last 40 years or so. Yes, new brands had emerged but there wasn’t much evidence of innovation. After a little more research I realised that there was a gap in the market for a craft brewery dedicated solely to production of excellent quality, full-flavoured low alcohol beers.
I joined forces with like-minded beer lover and design supremo, James Kindred, to establish Big Drop Brewing Co and it wasn’t long before we had found and signed up Johnny Clayton as our Brewmaster. Johnny had worked at Wild Beer and had proven himself to be one of the finest experimental brewers in the business so it was wonderful when he accepted the Big Drop challenge.
Johnny has tweaked the brewing process to avoid removing alcohol, a process which can be detrimental to the flavour and character of the beer, to ensure that our 0.5% ABV craft beers are still packed full of flavour.
With more and more people choosing not to drink alcohol for any number of reasons it’s been great to see a change in attitude and behaviours and Club Soda is instrumental in stimulating many discussions. Since we launched Big Drop a year ago, other brewers have started to experiment with their alcohol-free or low alcohol beers and there is now a genuinely credible choice on offer.
The Mindful Drinking Festival is an excellent opportunity for us to meet our customers and listen to their experiences – but also to share our beers with them and demonstrate that low alcohol doesn’t have to equal low taste. It’s the obvious place to launch two new beers – a lager and a spiced ale – because we all share the same desire to discover fantastic tasting new drinks. And that’s why we’re also sponsoring the craft beer yard, because there’s still a long way to go and we want to lead the innovation that’s been sadly lacking.