Below Brew (FKA Lowtide) Brune Belgian Brown Ale

Description

In 2019 Rob & Dave felt they needed to start their own online shop bringing the best Alcohol Free Beers from around the world as they felt they couldn’t find a site for their needs. Often however they found themselves wanting more, they felt the world was being shortchanged; there wasn’t a brewery that emanated truly craft alcohol free beer, and there were so many beer types left unexplored. It was from this realisation that Lowtide Brewing Co was born with a simple goal: create unique beers with unique artwork and unrivalled flavour.

We asked the Founder a few Questions to get to know them better:

Who are the Founders and how did you meet?

Dave and I (Rob) are the founders and we’ve known each other all our lives…we are cousins. Although Dave grew up in the US and I in the UK, we used to see each other for long stretches in the summer until he moved over about 4 years ago or so.

When did you start and why did you decide to start your own brewery?

Back in the summer of 2019 we began our in-depth exploration of alcohol free craft beers. Struggling to find a single shop where we could get all of the AF beers we wanted, we decided to open our own. We took it upon ourselves to source all of the best alcohol free craft beers we could find from around the world and sell them to UK customers via a single website – what a novel idea!

While running that site – named Crafty AF at the time – our quest to find the perfect AF brew often left us wanting more. We felt the world was being shortchanged; there wasn’t a brewery that emanated truly craft alcohol free beer, and there were so many beer types left unexplored. It was from this realisation that Lowtide Brewing Co was born in Jan 2021, combining stellar can artwork, a sense of crafty defiance and deliciously different alcohol free beer, Lowtide Brewing Co seeks to bring true craft beer to the world of alcohol free.

At Lowtide, our goal is simple: create unique beers with unique artwork and unrivalled flavour.

We think it’s pretty simple, and we aim to keep it that way.

How did the name Lowtide come about and how do your quirky names come about?

We wanted to have a name that suggested a low alcohol ABV without being something cliche and obvious. At the time we were also looking at an ocean themed artwork alongside a pun on water for our first beer. We thought at the time that we could have all our releases ocean themed but this changed pretty quickly when trying to figure out puns of all the other beers styles to be ocean themed. We just try and come up with a pun that uses the beer style in its name, sometimes it doesn’t work though like our NEIPA which we’ve just released.

How many different attempts did you have before selecting your line up of brews?

I wouldn’t say we’ve had a lot of attempts, we started off at a sprint releasing the DIPA and then a bunch of collabs. We then got pretty excited and released a lot of other beers back to back. We’ve always wanted a core range, it’s only been these past three months or so that we’ve finally nailed our range which is our NEIPA, West Coast Pale, Keller Pils and Biere Brune. We wanted to have styles of beers that weren’t common in the AF world.

Was there a reason behind 440 ml Cans over Bottles?

Absolutely, we wanted to be a craft brewery that is incidentally an alcohol free brewery. For us that meant 440 cans and unique artwork. Cans are also far easier to ship with less breakages.

Is there a brew you would still like to perfect?

Perhaps our first release, we released a DIPA which is typically around the 8% range. It was great but I’m sure we can make it even better when we look to release this again at some point in the future.

A Final Note from Andy on Lowtide: I have to say that these guys have developed some great brews in such a short space of time, the Biere Brune is right up there in my top 5 and the guys behind Lowtide are really exciting in their quest to nail great brews for the Alcohol Free world