Spirit-free cocktails are slowly making their way into the mainstream. But when it comes to non-alcoholic beer, local options are few and far between. Maryland’s largest brewery, Flying Dog, is looking to change that with the launch of a non-alcoholic IPA called Deepfake.
“Just like Tom Cruise’s TikTok rants, our NA beer would fool anyone,” says chief marketing officer Ben Savage via email. “Deepfakes are getting harder and harder to spot these days and we thought the name was a great fit for an NA beer that tricks the senses into thinking it is a full-flavored IPA.”
The beer, which does have trace amount of alcohol (less than .5-percent ABV), uses Mosaic, Simcoe and Citra hops to create a “smooth-drinking brew with an aroma and flavor profile dominated by hop notes of orange, grapefruit, mango and passionfruit.”
Savage says Flying Dog’s Frederick-based brewers “went back to their beer school notebooks and tweaked each and every part of the brewing process to ensure they were capturing the maximum flavor compounds every step of the way.” The recipe took more than a year to perfect.
Six-packs of the new product will begin shipping to distributors on July 2.
In Virginia, Charlottesville-based Three Notch’d Brewing also makes a non-alcoholic beer, though it is currently sold out. More competitors could be coming: DC Brau co-founder Brandon Skall recently told Washingtonian that the 10-year-old brewery is looking at producing some non-alcoholic beers or possibly a soda.
“What we’re seeing now is that there’s really no limitations to what consumers are going to want to buy and drink,” Skall says.
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
