TLAP: Lucky Saint Hazy IPA

And so begins a new series I shall be calling "Two Light Ales Please", in reference to the placard from the final Smiths gig.

I made my first website, back in the days before blogging, thirty years ago this year. HTML was (and still is) easy to learn, Geocities (kids, ask your parents) provided free hosting, throw in some webrings to generate traffic (kids, ask your parents) and then all you had to contend with was slow uploading via nascent dial-up connections (kids, ask your - oh, you get the idea). One of the first webpages I wrote was a guide to real ales - I set myself a target of drinking 100 different bitters during the course of the year, then gave each a star-rating and a one-line write-up, and posted the whole thing online. In the end I'd hit the 100 before the end of September, such was the frequency with which The Man Of Cheese and I went to the pub in those days.

Thirty years... doesn't seem possible... sigh.

Anyway, times change, and trips to the pub become less frequent (and less bacchanalian). I still like a pint, though. And something I've noticed, as I get older and allegedly more sensible, is that alcohol-free offerings are far more plentiful than they were in my youth. At least they are if you drink lager ... 0% bitters are much rarer. And they're a mixed bag, in my experience, to say the least. So, to mark the 30th anniversary of my original online ale guide, this year I will be sampling alcohol-free ales and reviewing them here. I know, I know, no-one cares ... but then that's never stopped me blogging anything else, has it? Here we go, then: a very short write-up, some basic yes/no questions and, for old time's sake, a star rating.

Lucky Saint Hazy IPA

What's it like? Fruity! Maybe grapefruity, but certainly fruity. Lightish in colour and a little hazy, as the name suggests. Pours nicely but not gassy, thank goodness. Light on the palate, this is a proper IPA that looks and taste like the real thing, albeit a newfangled real thing rather than an old-school real ale sort of real thing. Don't worry, I'll be getting to those.

Would I drink it in a pub? Yes, happily.

Would I drink more than one? Yes. It's nice!

Would I drink it all night? No, that would be too much fruitiness.

Stats: 0.5% ABV. Calories 59 kcal/can. Zero Sugar. Suitable for Vegans. Currently on offer at £5 for 4 x 330ml cans in Waitrose (no, I haven't forgotten my roots, they just have a far wider selection of alcohol-free bitters than any other supermarket in my catchment area)

Stars: ★★★★☆

I'll wrap up each review with a loosely relevant song since, let's be honest, that's what most of you come here for. For Hazy IPA, here's The Bangles covering Simon & Garfunkel's Hazy Shade of Winter, and not just because I've been smitten with Susanna (obligatory sigh) for even more than 30 years...