I finally tackled the topic of non-alcoholic beer for The Bulletin in my latest article, which came out this week. Of course I’ve been covering NA beers here for the past year and a half, but with the availability of two local near beers from Deschutes Brewery and Crux Fermentation Project, I could make it relevant to the local audience.

Over the past several years, however, an increasing focus on health and lifestyle choices have brought NA beers to the forefront, and a number of craft breweries have been throwing their hats into the alcohol-free ring with a variety of styles.

Bend’s own Deschutes Brewery and Crux Fermentation Project are among them. Deschutes introduced its first nonalcoholic brew, Irish Style Dark, a year ago, while Crux formally released NØ MØ Nonalcoholic IPA last month.

Each brewery approached the problem of how to create an alcohol-free beer differently, and to better understand these methods, a bit of background is in order.

You’ll need to read the full article for the background and my capsule reviews of the two NA beers (as well as notes on how they are made). Although, for completeness I’ll also be posting my full review notes of both Irish Style Dark and NØ MØ soon.