Broken Bat Debuts N/A Brews For Dry January
Pineapple milkshake IPA and Bohemian light lager set to release Jan. 3.
New N/A beers at Broken Bat Brewing. Images courtesy of Tim Pauly.
Broken Bat Brewing is venturing into the world of non-alcoholic beer, and its first release with be a double play.
The brewery, 135 E. Pittsburgh Ave., is set to introduce dry versions of its flagship pineapple milkshake IPA, Beach Ball, and a bohemian light lager, On an Island, starting next week.
Owner Tim Pauly said the brews have been four years in the making, following the rise of non-alcoholic alternatives during and after the pandemic. Participatory trends such as “Sober October” and “Dry January” have only furthered the momentum.
“We just noticed that Dry January was becoming more prevalent, and people were really using that month after the New Year to kind of reset and back off of alcoholic beverages,” he said.
Initially, Broken Bat tapped larger brands like Lakefront Brewery and Athletic Brewing Company for N/A options. But brewing in-house was always the long-term goal.
“We decided last spring to take basically the following eight months and create two in-house brands that we were really excited about,” Pauly said, noting that the process required many rounds of trial and error. “ We went through about a dozen iterations of each beer to make sure that we got it right.”
Pauly said the new releases incorporate a type of yeast that is “very specific to non-alcoholic brewing,” negating the need for “million dollar pieces of equipment to extract alcohol.” Both of the brews come in at about 0.3% alcohol by volume, under the 0.5% requirement to be labeled N/A.
Importantly, they also taste good, according to Pauly.
“Our goal in this process was to get it as close as we could to the alcoholic version, because we want them to be more or less a tandem moving forward,” he said. “They’re not going to be identical by any stretch, but they are as close as food science is allowing us at the moment, and we’re very happy with that.”
And that will remain true in the future, as the brewery continues to expand its non-alcoholic offerings, which could happen as soon as next fall.
“The demand for N/A Products is growing,” Pauly said. “It’s not a fad, it’s not a phase, it’s definitely its own market segment. We’re just really proud to be able to put our name on these products.”
Broken Bat will host a release party Jan. 3, offering both brews for sale in cans, with the pineapple milkshake IPA also on tap.
Broken Bat is open Monday through Thursday from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from noon to 10 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 7 p.m.
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