Stoop - Mash Gang
Following on from our 2021 exploration of low/non-alcoholic beers, Dan and I are back on the wagon and looking to see what the 2022 cohort can bring to the table.
If it were up to me I' be knocking back craft beer all day everyday, but the requirements of adulthood and the desire to live beyond the age of 50 mean that, at times, I cannot simply be slave to my desires.
This presents a problem however, I don't particularly like any of the standard booze alternatives when I'm out and about or wrapping up the day. Fizzy drinks are for hangovers, fruit juices only belong at a continental breakfast, coffee is for work, tea is a non-starter (with the exception of iced green tea) and squash is for children. So, a good low/non-alcoholic beer is needed, but can they hit the spot? Today, the spotlight falls on the phantom brewers, Mash Gang, and their American style Pilsner, Stoop.
Brewery
Mash Gang
Name
Stoop
Style
American Pilsner
ABV
0.5%
Hops
Styrian Wolf
Galaxy
Nelson Sauvin
For me, as for most people, what is enjoyable about good beer, wine, or food is the ability they have to evoke deep-buried memories. The briny taste of an oyster reminds me of the Sydney fish market where I first tried them, but also of standing on a pier in southern Australia fishing with my dad as a child. The distinct savoury notes of Verdant beers always remind me of sitting in Danny Finn's kitchen, shooting the shit after a long drive to Manchester, and so on and so on ad infinitum.
The unique ability of our olfactory senses to instantly call to mind scenes from our individual pasts is of particular relevance to Mash Gang's Stoop. Stoop proclaims itself as an old school 80s dad beer. What they mean by this, I am sure, is that this beer is going to be reminiscent of the malty lagers that were the stock in trade at the time, and that I am sure all our fathers polished off by the caseload.
This is an extremely clever move by Mash Gang as, for my money, crisp, malty lagers are a better choice for the no/low-alcohol brewer than other varieties. Experience has shown me that hops suffer terribly from stage fright and need just the right amount booze to give them the Dutch courage to really show off their flavours. Therefore, not putting too much pressure on the hops and letting other flavour notes shine through.
On the nose, Stoop is pleasingly crisp with just the right hint of yeastiness to draw you in. There is a slightly sweet note in there too, giving scents of over-ripe white grape, gooseberry and even a hint of a little sourness which gives a touch of kiwifruit - this is subtle though and doesn't detract from the distinctly lagery characteristics
of the beer.
Stoop pours well too. Obviously you don't approach a non-alcoholic beer expecting masses of body, but then, I don't remember any 80s dad beer being a particularly unctuous affair either. In terms of colour, Stoop settles to a very attractive slightly hazy straw coloured lager.
Mash Gang have aged Stoop in oak. This is genius. The oak doesn't over power any of the other flavours in the beer, but adds extra dimension, something that is too often lacking in the no/low-alcohol beers I have tried in the past. On the tongue the hoppage is light, which you would expect from an American Pilsner. Personally I think it could use a touch more Galaxy in there, but that is purely personal taste. The dominant hop flavour I can identify is Nelson Sauvin, probably because it provides such a distinct profile. But its presence here is subtle, sitting nicely below the more dominant malt notes Mash Gang have produced.
One problem I have with no/low-alcohol beers is that there always seems t be a distinct soda water taste to them. Mash Gang's Stoop is no exception to that, but whereas in an IPA or a stout I would find that off-putting, here it is fine and doesn't detract majorly from the good work done elsewhere with this beer.
Will I ever get as excited by a no/low-alcohol beer as I do about their more inebriate brethren? No. Sorry, I enjoy the booze too much and do find no/low beers lacking in body. That being said, Stoop is a very good, easy drinking summer Pilsner that lives up to its promise as an old school 80s dad beer.
I began this review talking about sensory memories. Mash Gang are playing on nostalgia with this beer, and it works. drinking Stoop absolutely reminded me of taking sips of my dad's beer at summer barbeques as a kid. So, give me a big plate of seafood or a burnt sausage and a few cans of Stoop on a summer's day and I would be a very happy man, and able to drive home afterwards.
Score - 4/5
** I didn't grow up in the 80s so I don't really know what a dad beer at that time would have been like. However, 1990s Australia was, from what I have discovered by living in the UK, pretty much like the 80s everywhere else, so I guess that counts.
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