BrewDog Punk AF

BrewDog have become a big player in the craft beer market. Founded in Scotland in 2007, they are now multinational and also run a chain of bars, and in early 2020 they opened their first alcohol-free bar on Old Street in London. Indeed, the company currently produces 6 different non-alcoholic beers, and this review is of their Punk AF offering, the alcohol-free version of their Punk IPA, which regularly tops the craft beer sales charts in the UK. And of course, AF stands for Alcohol Free…

BrewDog have a habit of packing their beers with flavour, and Punk AF promises to be no different, with 8 hop varieties listed in it’s ingredients: Ahtanum, Cascade, Chinook, Citra, Hüll Melon, Mosaic, Nelson Sauvin, and Simcoe. And with it being an IPA we will be expecting a lot more flavour in the brew compared to a lager.

As we pour it, we get a nice pale yellow/gold colour, with a head that fluffs up nicely but disappears quite quicky. A burst of aromas from the abundance of hop varieties comes next. On the nose it’s heavy with grapefruit citrus and tropical pineapple, with even a touch of floral scents – pretty clean.

The taste of Punk AF goes through many different levels of flavour. A pretty clean and light taste at first, it then goes through layers of fruity bitterness, with the citrus and pineapple notes from the initial aroma making a comeback. The grapefruit citrus flavour is the one that remains as an aftertaste, with a hint of pepper too. A shame there isn’t much malt around, even as a background note. Body-wise there is enough carbonation fizzing around, but not too enough to cause unwanted bloat. The beer is maybe a bit watery, but this is a common trait seen in many alcohol free offerings. And come on, would you really want them adding some adulterant to try and improve ‘mouth-feel’?

As with a lot of BrewDog’s offerings (and IPAs in general), the flavour of Punk AF might not be up everyone’s street, and certainly the ardent lager drinker will probably turn up their nose at the abundance of hops. But I’d say that this is probably one of the non-alcoholic beers that could fool a beer drinker into thinking its the ‘real thing’. This certainly graces the beer shelf in my fridge a few times a month.

Buy BrewDog Punk AF

BrewDog Punk AF is widely available in most supermarkets and off-licenses, plus it’s also available to buy from the following online retailers:

Nutritional Information (per 100ml, taken from the side of the can)
ABV	0.5%
Energy	15 kcal
Fat	<0.1g
Carbohydrates	3.0g
Sugar	1.8g
Protein	0.1g
Ingredients
Water, Lactose (Milk), Malted Barley, Hops, Wheat, Yeast, Oats
Additional Information
Country of Production	United Kingdom
Brewer	BrewDog – https://www.brewdog.com/uk/
Gluten Free?	Yes, according to website
Vegan Friendly?	No, contains lactose