Good Karma Mantra Lager

ABV: 0.5%

Calories per 100ml: Not stated

This is a guest review by our Fundraising and Engagement Manager, Sven Stears

I sat down to try Mantra with a homemade chilli, and it was a perfect pairing. The realization that spicey food works well with beer isn’t going to bring Archimedes running down the high street. But working this well? Definitely an epiphany!

Often with alcohol-free drinks, especially alcohol-free lager, there can be an empty backend on the flavour notes. The simplicity of beer can highlight things that are missing to the point they become glaring. Some breweries will try to hide this by adding new ingredients or switching up flavours in favour of complexity, which just highlights the gap in new ways.

Not so with Good Karma.

My guess is that they have paid a lot of attention to the hops they use in their brews. Hailing from Kent – famed for its hop farms – Good Karma tell you up front what hops they are using in each of their beers. It’s clearly a point of pride for them. And that pride shows here. The beer is bursting with flavour: no weird emptiness and subtle undernotes throughout.

If you’ve been left uninspired by alcohol-free lagers so far, this might be the answer you’ve been looking for.