Braxzz Porter

Braxzz are a Dutch craft brewer based in Amsterdam who specialise in non-alcoholic beers of all styles. Founded by university friends Jilles Eissen and Mirko Schnitzler, who found themselves one day supping a few alcohol free wheat beers. Noticing how good they tasted and how well they were selling, they started wondering how to get the same quality into a dark beer while maintaining the zero alcohol content. And thus was born Braxzz, apparently named after the ‘Braxators’ or ‘Braxiators’, supposedly a medieval European term for brewers or maltsters.

Braxzz Porter was launched in April 2018 with the claim of being the world’s first alcohol-free porter, and later that year they took their offerings to the Great British Beer Festival. This was the first time a NA beer was featured at the GBBF in it’s 41 year history, and by all accounts it was a hit. The porter style of beer is indeed one which comes out well as a non-alcoholic drink, as long as the deep complex flavours are not stripped out in the brewing process. If Braxzz Porter can wow the tough crowd at the Great British Beer Festival there must be something to it, so lets get our noses and tastebuds to work and have at it!

The beer pours from the bottle a very dark brown, almost but not quite black. A slight caramel coloured head froths up, though I suspect a harder pour would give you something better. On the nose it’s like you’ve just been handed a fresh iced black coffee. Deep roasted malt bitterness is there with some dark chocolate sweetness too, and some liquorice vying for attention but not quite making it. Certainly an invigorating aroma, lets hope the taste lives up to it.

Black coffee taste immediately makes itself known on drinking, so much so that I had to check the ingredients for any coffee in there. Roasted malt bitterness is there, along with some slight vanilla sweetness and a flavour that seems to me like the skin of a dried fig. The body is rather light but there is a smooth mouthfeel to it, which I think must come from the added pectin, which is a fruit-based gelling agent. The finish is slightly sweet but mainly bitter.

This nolo porter is ticking all the boxes for me; looks great, smells great, tastes great. If you’re a fan of strong flavours or a coffee drinker, you’ll definitely like this. And for a beer with such strong flavours it slips down very easily. I think we may have found a new highest scoring non-alcoholic beer for the blog.

Nutritional Information (per 100ml)

0.0% alcohol by volume
27 calories energy
0g fat
6.1g carbohydrates
2.9g sugar
0g protein

(taken from the side of the bottle)

Ingredients

Water, Barley Malt, Hop Extract, CO2, Natural Aroma, Citric Acid, Pectin