SOBAH PEPPERBERRY IPA
A day at the beach isn’t always a watercolour painting – sometimes we get burnt! The same can be said for life's journey. Fortunately, applied correctly (i.e. consumed over a conversation with a mate) this cold craft can be a soothing lotion, helping ease the pain.
Origin – Burleigh Heads, Queensland
ABV- 0.5%
Size- 330mL can
Style- Non-alcoholic IPA
A hard-earned thirst needs a big cold beer. And the best cold beer is … non-alcoholic? That's not quite the message from the famous anthem that has promoted one of Australia's best-known full-strength beers, Victoria Bitter, for half a century. Yet there are a growing number of drinkers that are opening a can filled with a non-alcoholic version of the amber nectar. And while everyone from Carlton to Heineken has quickly jumped on the bandwagon to cash in as Australia's no-alcohol beer market froths up, there are others have been on the journey for some time already.
Coopers, the country's largest independent brewer, has been selling Ultra Light, a 0.5% lager off the shelves at Coles since the 1970s. Though not in the game for quite that long, Clinton and Lozen Schultz, the husband and wife team behind Australia’s first non-alcoholic craft beer company, Sobah have also been at it for some years. The idea itself was formed in the hazy aftermath of overindulging in one or two too many. "After getting off the drink," Clinton says. "I got really frustrated with not being able to find a decent tasting non-alcoholic beer. The only thing I'd really get offered was a ginger beer, and you can only have a couple before you feel bloated and sugared out. I'd get pissed off having to pay five bucks for soda water with a piece of lime in it." Since launching via a crowdfunding campaign in December 2017, the pair has steadily been breaking down the stigma of socialising sober, for whatever reason at whatever time.
Yet not only has the concept been unique within the craft beer world, so has the product itself. Wanting to offer something with a little more flavour than what was found in a $7 a six-pack at the supermarket, Clinton, a proud Gamilaroi man turned to bush tucker, infusing his preservative and chemical-free brews with native Australian ingredients including lemon aspen, finger lime and Pepperberry in this cracking non-alcoholic IPA. Incredibly the natural kick that’s derived from the infusion of the fruit from the Australian Native Pepperberry tree turns out a bold brew with a distinctively hoppy and citrusy characteristic.
So whether you get it walkin’, you get it talkin’ or you get it working’ a plough …Sobah offers the opportunity to crush your thirst with a beer when you’re not having a beer - be it you’re off the sauce for a day, a week or indefinitely.