Two Roads Non-Alcoholic Juicy IPA

For a jaded beer writer, it’s no small thing to be able to reasonably expect quality every time you crack open a new beer can. That ability to be optimistic is something I’ve often felt was missing in the American craft beer scene of the last five years, as too many styles have devolved and increasingly become defined by haphazardly made, poorly balanced “flavor of the week” releases. There have been few corners of the beer world where one can point, and say with confidence, “things here are trending in the right direction.”

Except for non-alcoholic craft beer, that is. Where styles such as modern hazy IPA have felt rooted in place, stuck in a mindset of “bigger” rather than “better,” the non-alcoholic side of the spectrum has been experiencing genuine, honest-to-god improvement that has radically changed the landscape (and thus the expectations we have for it) in only a few years’ time. As recently as 2018 or 2019, it felt as if there were only a few notable “craft” NA brands making waves in the marketplace. Now, in 2022, we’re absolutely inundated with them. That might be problematic for the viability of many of these brands in the long run, but in the short run we’re simply elated by how tasty and drinkable many of these beers are. Gone are the days when NA beers were rife with weird off flavors, and a low level of quality was simply accepted as a downside of the genre. Today, NA beers are being held to a far higher standard, and in the process they’ve become arguably the corner of the beer world that is seeing the most genuinely exciting growth. Each time I try a new NA beer brand, I’m going into the experience at least optimistic about the idea that the beer may be great—and I can’t really say that about regular IPA at this point.

The latest notable entry in this genre I’ve tasted comes from Connecticut’s Two Roads Brewing, as the state’s largest brewery (but still fairly modest, in a national sense) debuts a line of non-alcoholic beer to join its so-called “beyond beer” portfolio, which also includes hard seltzer and ready-to-drink (RTD) spirits-based cocktails. The NA beer line, meanwhile, will eventually include at least several brands, but there’s only one to start: Non Alcoholic Juicy IPA. A rather generic name, to be sure, but a reference to the company’s own Two Juicy Hazy IPA.

I’ve been tasting a lot of NA beer in general, and NA IPA in specific, in the last few years, so let’s see how Two Roads’ offering stacks up with an increasingly well executed crowd.