SLBrew
Low Calorie IPA: Session Strength, Zero Sugar
SLBrew Session IPA is 4.4% ABV with zero sugar. It is hazy and aromatic with citrus and pine character, brewed in Italy. Most low calorie beer drops the hop load along with the calories. This one does not.
The beer
SLBrew Zero Sugar Session IPA
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Zero-Sugar – 4.4% Italian IPA
Price range: £15.00 through £95.04 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
Part of our low calorie alcoholic drinks range, all zero sugar and full strength.
Hazy and hop forward
Tasting notes
Hazy, aromatic, hop forward. Citrus and pine on the nose, with the bitterness sitting where it should rather than being dialled back.
This is the thing worth saying plainly: low calorie IPA is usually a disappointment, because the easy way to cut calories in a hoppy beer is to cut the malt bill and the strength, and both are what carry the hops. At 4.4% with the sugar removed instead, the hops have something to sit on.
Not the hops
Why IPA is usually heavier than lager
Two reasons, and neither is the hops.
IPAs tend to be brewed stronger, and alcohol is where most beer calories live. They also tend to finish with more residual carbohydrate, because the bigger malt bill leaves more behind after fermentation.
A session IPA like this one sits in the middle. Enough strength to carry the character, not so much that it becomes a different proposition.
Longer fermentation
Zero sugar, hop forward brewing
The brewery ferments for longer rather than diluting afterwards, so the grain sugars convert instead of staying in the can. That is what gets it to zero sugar without reducing the strength.
With an IPA this matters more than it does with a lager, because there is more malt in the recipe to begin with.
Serving, cases and delivery
Serve cold but not ice cold, 5 to 7°C, which lets the aromatics come through. A tulip or a stemmed glass beats a straight one for this style.
Drink it fresh. Hop character fades, so this is not one to keep.
Six and twenty four packs, on its own or mixed with the lager.
Browse the full range in the shop, including the wine, gin and spritz.
0g carbohydrate
Low carb and keto IPA
IPA is usually the first thing to go on a low carb plan, and often for good reason. The bigger malt bill leaves more carbohydrate behind after fermentation than a lager does, so a pint can take a meaningful share of a twenty gram day.
This one carries 0g carbohydrate, because the brewery ferments for longer rather than diluting afterwards. It takes none of the allowance.
If you are following a clinically supervised plan, check with whoever is supervising it.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Yes, 4.4% ABV. That is session strength for the style, which means you can have more than one without it becoming an event.
No. Zero sugar. The brewery ferments for longer so the grain sugars convert rather than remaining in the can.
No. Zero carbs. The longer fermentation converts the grain sugars rather than leaving them in the can, which is what removes the carbohydrate as well as the sugar.
Mostly strength, and partly the bigger malt bill leaving more carbohydrate behind. It is not the hops.
That is the usual complaint, and it comes from beers that cut strength to cut calories. This one is full strength with the sugar removed instead.
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Session strength, zero sugar
Six and twenty four packs, on its own or mixed with the lager.