As the non-alcoholic beer market continues to grow, Deschutes Brewery recently expanded its NA beer line with the release of Fresh Squeezed Non-Alcoholic IPA. As the alcohol-free version of its top-selling Fresh Squeezed IPA, it’s the first NA IPA from the brewery and joins Black Butte Non-Alcoholic as the near-beer adaptations of the company’s flagship brews.

Deschutes’ first foray into NA beer yielded Irish Style Dark, introduced in 2020 but which is no longer in production.

Black Butte NA was released in 2022 and has since earned a number of awards, including a silver medal at that year’s World Beer Cup.

In developing its non-alcoholic beers, Deschutes partnered with Colorado-based Sustainable Beverage Technologies , developer of a proprietary process named BrewVo, which removes the alcohol by a method that the company claims “gently manages alcohol content, while maintaining flavor and aroma.”

The details are intentionally vague, though SBT calls this a “nested fermentation”; in effect, it allows the development of a standard strength recipe that will still result in a beer with less than 0.5% alcohol by volume the legally defined limit to be considered non-alcoholic) after processing.

Created in Bend

Deschutes’ earlier NA beers were created in Colorado, but with the release of Fresh Squeezed NA, the brewery announced that it had installed the BrewVo technology (the news release noted that Deschutes was the first brewery of scale to do so). This allows the company to move production in-house here in Oregon, and Fresh Squeezed NA is in fact its first non-alcoholic beer to be brewed in Bend.

The brewery sent me samples of the new near beer recently, so I decided to conduct a taste test of it against the original Fresh Squeezed IPA. Both beers are brewed with the same ingredients and focus on the Citra and Mosaic hops that give Fresh Squeezed its signature tropical juice-like characteristics.

However, Fresh Squeezed NA has less than 0.5% ABV with 45 IBUs, while the original is 6.4% ABV with 60 IBUs.

Taste-off

The non-alcoholic version looks just like the original, pouring a bright copper-orange color into the glass. The aroma is hop-forward with an essence of hop tea, followed by grainy and fruity elements of dried papaya and mango and a sweetly malty note. It’s a contrast with the original Fresh Squeezed which has a hoppier nose highlighting the fruit character along with a spicy-minty impression.

There’s an herbal bitter hop character in the flavor followed by a mellow grain flavor with some bread dough sweetness. The hops highlight mango skin and fruit rind, with a touch of citrus.

The original is more piney with citrus pith, and a crisp and toasty malt rather than sweet. The body of Fresh Squeezed NA is on the lighter side, not thin but not as full as the original.

In general, however, these differences are to be expected. Considering Fresh Squeezed NA by itself, it drinks like a flavorful and fruity session IPA, with a moderate bitterness and a bready-sweet finish.

For those seeking out alcohol-free beers, particularly hoppy styles, Fresh Squeezed Non-Alcoholic is a good example of the category, balanced and drinkable.

Both it and Black Butte NA are available in cans at most retail locations that carry Deschutes.