Welcome back to FTW's Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage (or food) that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.
I don't partake in Sober October. Between the waning days of readily available marzens and a proliferation of football, there are few worse months for me to give up beer.
But I appreciate the effort. And I fully understand the value in a reset period, whether that's a week, a month or a few years. Alcohol is inherently bad for you. Taking some time off from it is a common sense move that will undoubtedly make you feel better.
It will also leave you looking for something to replace the ritual. For me, off weeks have never left me craving booze but craving the process behind it. Pulling a cold can out of a designated garage fridge. Having something to nervously sip before a pivotal third down. Something to make golf a little more tolerable, etc.
That's led me to hop water, which I will happily admit does a great job of replicating that feeling (to an extent) with way fewer calories than your standard non-alcoholic beer. Fieldwork covers hop water as well as a wide range of NA options -- from booze-less beers in pounder cans to "supertonics" sipped from slim-fit silos like an upscale seltzer. So how do they taste?
Hop Water: B+
I've enjoyed my minimal experiences with hop water in the past, but most of those have been fruit flavored. This promises mosaic and Nelson hops and that's it. The smell off the top of the pour is undeniably pine-y and earthy. This guy's gonna be a little bitter, but if it's crisp and dry it'll be the beer drinker's La Croix.
Fortunately, that's right where it lands. While the un-malted hops leave a bit of the aftertaste you'd associate with a non-alcoholic beer, you get clean but not overwhelming pale ale bitterness. The finish hits that dry note toward the end, though it does bounce back unpleasantly through burps.
The selling point here is that it tastes like a light, sweet IPA without any of the alcohol or, vitally, calories. The downside is it's missing that little extra kick you'd get from an actual beer. The taste and texture of a little malt. The snappy bitterness of a great pale ale. But it's chuggable like a light beer, and refreshing in much the same way.
Ultimately, it's more pluses than minuses. This checks off a lot of boxes as a beer replacement. It'll hydrate without filling you up -- and you absolutely don't need to worry about calories here.
Cucumber Melon and Juniper Supertonic: B+
This smells great. The cucumber is the obvious headliner here, but an effervescent pour unleashes that melon sweetness to create a crisp-but-soft profile that's very inviting.
Whoa. This is much sweeter than I expected. Which is great up front as a cascade of bubbles carries it along. But then it gets slightly syrupy toward the end.
That holds true with the taste. You get lots of sweet cucumber and some light watermelon, which is a great combination (I feel like I'm getting a little honeydew as well, but the ingredients list doesn't back that up). They burst out of the gate before fizzling into that Sprite-without-the-citrus finish.
I'd like it if it were a bit crisper at the end. It feels like a rare case where a little more artificial sugar may have helped. But it's still a tasty drink and, well, whatever the adaptogens advertised on the can are doing for my brain is a plus (I imagine it's nothing, but still). Even so, that flavor up front is pretty great.
Passionfruit and Orange Bitters Supertonic: B+
I've made my feelings on passion fruit clear by now; it's too much and it tastes like stale rubber. You don't get that impression from the pour of this "supertonic," however. Instead, it's all bitters all the way, like you've got the early stages of a Wisconsin old fashioned ready to go and are about to add the brandy.
The first sip follows that impression. While the cucumber was a touch too sweet, this tonic treads toward the drier side of things. The passion fruit is the third ingredient on the can, but its impact is minimal, leaving the citrus and aromatic bitters to shoulder most of the flavor load. The lead ingredient shines a bit toward the end, creating an almost creamy balance to play against the carbonation within.
The lingering effect of those bitters makes it feel like a proper, sippable cocktail. And I'd imagine dropping a little bourbon or gin into this glass would be an easy win. But on its own, it does a great job recreating the feeling you're drinking something above and beyond a virgin beverage. It's a complex little ride through each sip, ending with that appealing dry aftertaste that will pull you back in for more. It's not a crushable bubble water like most of what you'd get in a slim can; you'll want to take your time with Fieldworks' Supertonic.
Day Money Grapefruit Blonde: B+
Fieldwork has done a great job of making cocktail/beer-esque drinks. Whether that will apply to a full fledged non-alcoholic beer is yet to be seen. The pour is a nice copper/yellow blend with a head that rises and dissipates down to an eighth-of-an-inch head with quickness. It smells like grapefruit and little else, though there's a certain dryness behind that.
It's light and a little bitter. The grapefruit is front and center, slightly grainy and reminding me of old chewable vitamins. Not the gummy kind -- the old pressed Flintstone type. It's different, both for a beer and an NA beer. It lacks the stale malt that defines even the best booze-free brews.
That means it takes a little time to get used to. But once you do, it's easy to drink and lacks the fatigue that comes with other NA drinks. It's a nice citrus change of pace on a warm day -- a little sweet, a little sour. There's plenty to like here, even if the first impression isn't ideal.
Headliner IPA: B+
Ah, so there's where the stale malt NA beer smell went. Cracking this pale ale open unleashes a wave of O'Doul's-smelling wheat. The pour drops a big, fluffy white head in my glass. This one dissipates much more slowly than the blonde.
The first sip unveils the hops you'd expect from an IPA. There's a lot of bitterness in each gulp, but Fieldwork wears it well. It's refreshing and crisp. While that NA malt lingers, it's not overpowering. There's minimal aftertaste, which is another benefit when you're dealing with boozeless beers.
You won't mistake it for a regular beer, but it works about as well as it can. It would fit in well with the Athletic Brewing stable, which is the large-scale standard for non-alcoholic beer right now. It also gets bonus points for coming in a pounder can. Nothing feels more like a beer than a tall boy silo.
Would I drink it instead of a Hamm's?
This is a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I'm drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That's the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm's. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink Fieldwork's non-alcoholic beverages over a cold can of Hamm's?
Look, Oktoberfest is over and my liver could use a break. These will get the call on a few football Saturdays for the time being.