Loah Beer Hola

Loah Drinks Ltd are one of the many fruits of the 2020 UK lockdown. Scores of people were stuck at home, many furloughed with nothing to occupy their time but twiddling their thumbs and watching the situation unfurl. A situation which saw many people turn to alcohol to lighten them up and help them through the day. And so it was with Hugo Tapp, until he identified how damaging this behaviour was turning out to be, and finding the market for alcohol-free beers to be rather flat at the time, had the same idea as many other entrepreneurial folks in the same predicament. He started looking into just what was needed to produce a decent AF beer, chewing the ears of anyone he knew with even the slightest connection with the brewing industry. And so in June 2020 the company was founded, but it was not until 2021 that the company released their first beer, a lime-infused lager named Hola.

After various kitchen-based experiments with different nolo beer recipes at Mr Tapp’s abode, a slice of lime was added to one of the concoctions; this simple piece of citrus fruit was the finishing touch needed to round off their first brew. The beer is ‘brewed naturally’, meaning that it’s fully fermented, but uses a recipe that includes much fewer fermentable sugars and a yeast that produces less alcohol. This means there is less technical interference in the process, but can result in a beer with a more worty taste. And of course, we can’t forget about the addition of lime. A popular addition to many South American lagers in the form of a wedge inserted into the bottle neck, it’s also liked over here in cordial form added to a pint of lager. Have Loah Beer used the juice, the rind, or the whole fruit in their lime-infused lager, and is it overpowering, or barely noticeable? Lets crack this bad boy open, pretend it’s a hot summer’s evening and take a swig shall we?

The beer proved to be pretty lively on opening, but luckily none escaped, and the pour resulted in a straw coloured liquid with some slight fridge haze to it. A frothy head is produced but quickly vanishes, but we do get a touch of lacing. On the nose we get light pilsner malt, along with plenty of juicy lime, and an almost floral honey sweetness. Very pleasant and light and summery aromas.

We’re greeted with crisp lime when we taste, but it’s neither bitter nor sharp, just unmistakably juicy citrus. It isn’t too bold, and we get a perfectly pleasant biscuity lager malt base, with almost floral honey or golden syrup sweetness. The carbonation level is good but the beer does suffer from a slight wateriness. That being said though the drink is very refreshing, and we get a short mild citrus finish to the beer.

Loah Beer Hola is almost another shandy in a can, but there’s enough lager flavour to it to call it a beer, and the sweetness level is not reminiscent of a cordial. The lime is certainly present, but I think the beer could do with more of the citrus flavours, and possibly a few more hops in there. You could do a lot worse than a couple of these on a warm summer’s day – cheers!

Buy Loah Beer Hola

Loah Beer offerings are pretty much only available from online retailers, so for your cans and bottles of Hola you can try these guys:

Nutritional Information (per 100ml, taken from the side of the can)
ABV	0.5%
Energy	11.9 kcal
Fat	<0.1g
Carbohydrates	2.4g
Sugar	0.7g
Protein	0.3g
Ingredients
Oats, Wheat, Barley, Hops, Water, Yeast, Natural Lime Flavouring, Citric Acid
Additional Information
Country of Production	United Kingdom
Brewer	Loah Drinks Ltd – https://loah.beer/
Gluten Free?	Yes, gluten below 10 ppm
Vegan Friendly?	Yes