A popular collaboration beer is back. Fancy Like has returned, the beer made by Athletic Brewing Company in tandem with country music star Walker Hayes. The original version came out about a year ago.
The beer takes its name from a Hayes hit song and is a straightforward American Pale. It’s a fitting release from a non-alcoholic brewery as the musician has been sober for almost a decade. The trim beer comes in at 15 IBUS and just 45 calories per pour.
Time will tell if this limited release will make our best non-alcoholic beer list. The category continues to expand, taking on new styles and dialing-in older ones. Most traditional breweries now have some form of low-alcohol or NA release, at least on draft if not bottled or canned.
It’s good to see the NA beer sphere taking some inspiration from the traditional realm (the craft beer world especially) in pursuing the collaboration. The maneuver is smart in terms of cross-marketing and can lead to some interesting new releases. And, in the case when multiple brewers team up, it can lead to some wonderful new options.
Seems like every celebrity has drinks brand these days but companies like Athletic Brewing are doing the work by making genuinely desirable options. A non-alcoholic beer should resemble a beer and, thankfully, more and more of these releases are doing just that. We are way, way past the era of O’Doul’s.
Athletic Brewing is the nation’s largest near beer producer, based in Connecticut. The label has done a number of collaborations, including a recent one with Food52. Hayes is a Grammy-nominated country pop artist who gave up alcohol nine years ago.
