Big Drop Coba Maya Cerveza

This year has continued to be a good one for Big Drop Brewing, as it has for the non-alcoholic market as a whole. The brewer has picked up another slew of awards at the recent World Beer Awards 2021, including some bronze medals, silver medals and even some all-out winners in the nolo IPA and stout categories. They also had success with their ‘Big Explorer Pack’ box of beers. Launched in the summer exclusively with Waitrose supermarkets, the pack offered 8 alcohol-free beers from the Big Drop range for a very reasonable £12. It proved to be very popular, featuring their core range of beers such as Galactic Milk Stout and Pine Trail Pale Ale, but also offered a new brew, Coba Maya Cerveza.

After it’s debut in the Waitrose pack, Coba Maya was made available on it’s own in mid-May 2021. It’s marketed by Big Drop as a ‘lawn mower beer’. This is not a phrase I’d heard before, but my first thought was that this could mean it possibly had a grassy taste? A quick Google later and I was corrected – a lawnmower beer is a light beer you can drink on a sunny afternoon while doing work out in the yard. Ok, that makes sense. So we can expect a ‘crushable’ beer with probably a light flavour balance. Hersbrucker Hallertau is the only hop used in the beer, which should give the drink a bit of spice and fruitiness. It’s maybe not quite the time of year for a lawn mower beer over here in the UK, but it’s sunny somewhere in the world, so nothing stopping me from opening up a can of Big Drop’s newest lager.

The beer pours a light straw colour with crystal clarity, producing a pencil-moustache of a head. Giving the beer a sniff we get clean malt aromas, with a slight lemon citrus note and some apricot-like stone fruit. A mere tickle of spice is initially there too, but I couldn’t find it again on subsequent inhaling. Certainly smells like a summer lager.

Lager malt and grains greet us on tasting, clean and crisp flavours offering up some sweetness. There’s even a touch of honey to it. The hops are giving a slight floral note and a touch of peppery spice, but this is very much in the background. Carbonation is pleasant and the mouth feel is a bit watery, but that is fine for the style. The spice comes back as we finish the drink.

Coba Maya Cerveza fits the description of a lawnmower beer perfectly. Any easy to drink beer, crisp and refreshing, which won’t last long in the glass on a warm afternoon in the back garden. There are better alcohol-free lagers out there for sure, but they all do the same job at the end of the day, and I’d be happy enough with a pack of these if I had some work to do out in my non-existent back yard. Cheers!

Buy Big Drop Coba Maya Cerveza

Big Drop’s beers are available in many of the bigger supermarkets, in pub fridges and on tap if you’re lucky. You can also get your cans of Coba Maya Cerveza from the following online shops:

Nutritional Information (per 100ml, taken from the side of the can)
ABV	0.5%
Energy	11 kcal
Fat	<0.1g
Carbohydrates	2.2g
Sugar	1g
Protein	<0.5g
Ingredients
Water, Barley, Lactose (Milk), Oats, Rice, Hops, Yeast
Additional Information
Country of Production	United Kingdom
Brewer	Big Drop Brewing Co – https://www.bigdropbrew.com/
Gluten Free?	No
Vegan Friendly?	No, contains lactose