Phillips Brewing and Malting Co.- iOTA Hazy IPA

Phillips Brewing and Malting Co.- iOTA Hazy IPA Review

One of many recent trends in beer is the uptick in low or non-alcoholic beer. One of the newest to hit the shelves is iOTA, a non-alcoholic craft beer brewed by Phillips Brewing and Malting. The website gives no clues as to the process of making it 0.5% but the inclusion of sodium benzoate in the ingredients list might be a clue. Sodium Benzoate is a preservative that can also be used to halt fermentation. Likely Phillips brews these beers in a very similar fashion to any other of their tasty brews but then uses sodium benzoate to stop the yeast from converting too much of the sugars into alcohol. This is mostly conjectured on my part. A bigger question is how does it taste? Like a craft hazy IPA or more of a Molson Excel?

iOTA Hazy pours a cloudy golden yellow with a small white head that lingers just fine. It is moderately carbonated. The aroma is orange juice and peaches with a hint of blueberry but also a noticeable grainy note. It is light-bodied but wheat and oats help to create some of that hazy mouthfeel. The flavour is mild tropical fruit hoppiness with some malt sweetness. Though the sweetness is definitely present it isn’t quite as profound as some of the old-school NA beer brands. The sweetness does tend to take over more in the finish but there is still a good hop presence and even a little bitterness.