Tasting Notes: Theakston: Nowt Peculiar

Theakston: Nowt Peculier (England: low alcohol: 0.0% ABV)

Visual: Very dark brown body, pretty much opaque. Large creamy caramel brown froth head.

Nose: Treacle. Cream. Burnt buttered crumpets.

Body: Chalk. Brown bread. Charring. Dry treacle. Dried banana. Peppery. Dry pomegranate.

Finish: Dry treacle. Charring. Chalk. Brown bread. Crumpets and toasted teacakes. Peppery. Dried banana. Cloves. Dry pomegranates.

Conclusion: Ok, this was so close. After Guinness Zero proved itself to be a surprisingly good zero alcohol dark beer I was ready for this, maybe, to be good. Dark beers are often hard to get right for alcohol free, but it seems not impossible.

The aroma on this is spot on – lots of treacle, creamy, thick and a nice crumpet like bready backing.

The body, unsurprisingly, isn’t as thick as Old Peculier. That would be too much to expect. The treacle feels a lot drier, again unsurprisingly when this is alcohol free. So, not bad so far. However it is also a lot more chalky, which gives a roughness to this.

The flavour is mainly treacle, the creamy character of the body is much reduced, much more restrained, which reduces that really enjoyable character of the original. On the upside, since the main character is far less big it leaves room for some interesting subtle notes to come out – banana, cloves and other subtle notes are visible. Nice, but not what I come to Old Peculier for. It gives almost a fruity stout take to the beer, kind of some foreign stout influenced. (Yes I know Old Peculier is not a stout, just run with me on this one).

So, I have to admit I am not a fan. The chalkiness and roughness is too high and the character I came here for too low BUT if they can just tone down the chalkiness, then it is, while different, probably a drink worth having. So, it is so close to being good, so much going for it, but the overly chalky character kind of makes it a hard one to enjoy.

So, fecking, close.

Background: I like Old Peculier, one of the earlier big thick beers I tried, and one I return to semi regularly. There are eternal rumours, legends, and possibly truth I dunno, that Old Peculier used to be higher abv and a thicker monster of a beer. I can find no evidence of that despite much searching, so I’m guessing its like how you think a beer is getting less hoppy, and no you are just more used to hops now, so what seemed like a huge beer seems less as you get used to it. However, if anyone has proof it used to be a bigger beer, would love to know of it. Anyway, that ramble exists as this, a zero abv version of Old Peculier exists! It is like they heard the rumours and went, fuck you, we are going to mess with your little minds now. It is what I would do. I was wary, but Guinness do an excellent Guinness zero, so I thought what the heck, grab a bottle from Sainsbury‘s, give it a try. This is the result. Wanted something appropriately heavy and moody to back so went with Katatonia: Last Fair Deal Done Down. Yes, again.