The award-winning Mornington Peninsula Brewery has launched its first non-alcoholic beer, Mornington Free, adding to its ever-growing portfolio.
It’s the brand’s first trip into the non-alcoholic sector after launching into the industry with a pale ale and now becoming one of the few alcohol-free pale ales on the Australian market.
Mornington Peninsula Brewery were acquired by Tribe Breweries in 2018, who are industry leaders in innovative, high-quality brewing.
“People’s drinking habits have changed so much in just 2020 alone, that there is a new demand for non-alcoholic alternatives to taste just as good as the real thing,” Tribe head of innovation Roland Thiemann says.
“The great thing about the way we created Mornington Free, is that it is brewed to be less than 0.5% alcohol, as opposed to mainstream non-alcoholic beer brands, who brew to higher strengths and then completely strip the alcohol out altogether. The beauty of our method, is that it helps the beer maintain its crisp flavour and is not a disappointment on the palette for beer lovers.”
Mornington Free Pale Ale is brewed using a unique recipe and fermented with a special yeast, where instead of producing regular alcohol it produces esters, which are extremely important in giving beer its distinctive taste and mouthfeel.
Unlike lagers, Pale Ales use aroma hops to give the beer a fruity flavour, which MPB believe makes it the perfect beer variant to transition to non-alcoholic. Due to the hops profile of citrus and passionfruit in Mornington Free, these bold flavours stand out and help minimise the taste (or lack thereof) of the alcohol.
The launch comes just in time for summer and following the recent trends of mindful drinking. Research by Nielsen in The rise of mindful drinking in Australia (2019) shows that 46% of Australian men are consuming less alcohol, predominantly for those aged over 40 and the reason being that 32% of drinkers saying they want to live a healthier lifestyle according to a similar Nielsen study.
In light of these increasing statistics, and the fact that many organisations are now gaining a lot of momentum in the space such as Dry July, The Mindful Drinking Festival and Flow Festival, the brewery is thrilled to introduce the new beers to their range, offering an alternative solution for those who are sober-curious yet still want the familiar taste of their favourite drinks.
