Eastern Long Island has no shortage of craft beer between both forks, but non-alcoholic brews? It’s an area of craft brewing that has remained relatively untouched on the forks — that is, until brewer and Übergeek owner Rob Raffa decided just because the alcohol is missing doesn’t mean the flavor should be, too.
Raffa, who launched his irreverent Riverhead-based craft brewery (and sometime contract brewing businesses for other labels in the area) with a brick-and-mortar tasting room and brewery in 2021, created the Devolve N/A brand just about a year ago, with his first entry into the category an ambitious IPA-style brew using Citra and Simco hops, as well as two-row barley and wheat.
Thursday, Raffa’s second entry under the Devolve brand hits the market via a lager-style non-alcoholic beer, right in time for summertime quenching.
“The lager is a Bohemian pilsner, and it’s just nice, it’s light, it’s crisp, it’s clean,” he says. “It’s inspired by a Czech pilsner, with very pale pilsen malt and a little bit of dextrin malt for head retention; typically the hops used are also from the Czech area, so you’d use something like a Czech saaz [pronounced zots], which gives the beer a really nice balance of bitterness.”
But although it’s the kind of beer style that many gravitate toward in the warmer months, it’s also kind of a brewer’s handshake, in part because it’s the kind of beer that can’t hide imperfections.
“These are the beers that a lot of brewers tend to gravitate towards. I feel like there’s maybe a misconception out there where people think that brewers want these giant beers, these huge IPAs,” he says. “It definitely was like that in the past, but now it’s not. Anytime I get together with brewer friends, nine out of 10 times, all of us have ordered a crispy, clean and crushable beer like this; low in ABV, and just something that isn’t hiding any sort of off flavors.”
Speaking of which, that very notion was one of the big challenges in his foray into non-alcoholic brewing. One of the important things alcohol does (other than change up your mood) is it acts as a preservative, making a product shelf stable.
“Without the alcohol, you have a very perishable product. You have a product that is highly susceptible to infection, bacteria, things getting in it that can make people sick,” he says. “It took us a year and probably about five different batches to get it perfect.”
Head to Übergeek on Thursday night at 7 p.m. for the lager’s coming-out party, coinciding with his next Geek Talk lecture series, with a talk by Stony Brook University’s School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences sea pro and small vessel captain Lawrence Bastianelli regaling sippers with tales of life aboard a research boat.
“A non-alc should not taste like cooked oatmeal or porridge. It’s such a detriment to the product,” says Raffa. “It’s nice to go somewhere and just get something that’s just crisp and clean and refreshing.”
Übergeek Brewing Co. is located at 400 Hallett Ave. in Riverhead.
