Clear Head Alcohol-free IPA

Alcohol-free beer is booming and not only among teetotallers. Many of us who take a break from drinking during the week or when driving appreciate them too.

This 0.5% IPA style beer from Bristol Beer Factory has another benefit though in that it also raises money for a charity called Talk Club, a ‘male mental fitness movement’ which creates a save and supportive environment for men to talk about mental health issues. 5% of Clear Head profits go directly to Talk Club so it’s the perfect beer to be drinking during Mental Health Awareness week.

Clear Head is a classic modern IPA, combining fresh, citrussy citra and mosaic hops, which you'd be hard pushed to tell from a full-strength beer. I’d be happy to drink it with almost anything from fish and chips to a mild(ish) veggie curry.

It’s very much part of the current trend for ‘brands with purpose’ which I wrote about in my Guardian column this week. As they put it ‘this is a beer for good’.

You can buy it direct from the Bristol Beer Factory website for £22 for 12 bottles and from specialist NoLo (no and low alcohol) retailers.

See also 5 great pairings for an IPA

Wildpress: apple juice reimagined

One of the crops that grows really well in this country is apples so it’s great to see a producer taking the whole experience of apple juice to a higher level.

Wildpress is a joint venture between Nadeem Lalani Nanjuwany and Adam Grout that uses heritage apples from uncultivated orchards to make a deliciously distinctive (and beautifully packaged) range of juices.

Some are made from one variety and others blended

I particularly liked two of the juices that came from Waltham Palace in Berkshire, Monarch, which has a lovely soft, sweet apple flavour like an apple compote and Spartan which has more of the flavour of a russet apple and is sweeter, almost like a dessert wine - in fact I thought it might go with a crumble. (you can buy a mixed case of the Waltham Palace juices for £41.50)

I also tasted the Rebel Harvest - a full-flavoured deeply appley blend of James Grieve,May Queen and D’Arcy Spice which, as they say, sounds like members of an ageing rock band and Adam’s Pearmain, known as AP, which is drier, sharper and I thought would go well with fish. Both come from Shires Farm in Lincolnshire.

I’ve never been particularly drawn to apple juice as a partner for food - I generally find it too cloyingly sweet but these were wonderfully fresh and natural tasting. For the quality they’re amazingly reasonable and come in full-sized bottles that would look great on the table.

If you can access the Telegraph you can read Xanthe Clay’s piece about the Wildpress project here.

I received the juices as a press sample.