Big Drop Brewing Co, an alcohol-free beer specialist, can now lay claim to the world’s most awarded beer with their Galactic Milk Stout winning the World’s Best No & Low Alcohol beer at the World Beer Awards.
This year’s medal haul for Big Drop Brewing Co includes “World’s Best” for two of its 0.5 per cent ABV beers – Paradiso IPA and Galactic Milk Stout. Now with seven “World’s Best” titles under its belt, including Pine Trail Pale Ale winning World’s Best Pale Beer Low Strength in 2017 and 2020 – three of them for Galactic and two for Paradiso IPA – the brand tops the table of no and low alcohol brewers.
Galactic Milk Stout, described as rich, unctuous and an absolutely decadent treat of a beer, has won 20 of Big Drop Brewing Co’s 70 international beer awards since its launch in 2016.
Both of this year’s winners have also previously beaten full-strength rivals in blind tastings. Paradiso was the UK’s winner in the Specialty IPA category of last year’s World Beer Awards, nudging 6 per cent ABV entries into second and third place. Likewise, Galactic was out-performing regular stouts in the World Beer Awards before it had its own alcohol-free category.
“It has been a whirlwind 12 months since we began brewing in Australia and in that time the quality of no-low beer offerings has grown tremendously,” Big Drop Brewing Co country director Australia and New Zealand Darren West said.
“There are some fantastic brands now emerging, which stand shoulder to shoulder with full strength beer. It’s great for the category and it ensures we keep pushing ourselves to brew the best beer we possibly can.
“It’s wonderful to get two of our beers recognised as ‘World’s Best,’ but we certainly won’t rest and will continue to innovate and deliver the highest quality non-alcoholic beers that our consumers will love.”
The secret to Galactic’s success is its “brew-to-strength,” or Reduced Amylase Brewing technique, pioneered by Big Drop Brewing Co and seen as a game-changer for the category, often been considered a “distress purchase.”
This technique allows the beer to be fully fermented without the need to extract alcohol once it has been brewed. By remaining under the alcohol free threshold of 0.5 per cent ABV throughout the whole process, the brand can retain the flavours and texture that would have traditionally been stripped out by removing the alcohol.
Big Drop Brewing Co’s Galactic Milk Stout, brewed in Melbourne, can be found in most online no-alcohol and beer retailers and here.