It’s a Sunday afternoon in the middle of a sweltering July. All that rain from earlier in the week means your lawn is now in serious need of a trim.
You know it’ll take a few hours of grueling work to whip things into shape and you’ll need to stay properly hydrated. Water doesn’t sound good.
You want a beer.
In the U.S. these conditions can be found in just about any neighborhood. With our unhealthy obsession for both beer and maintaining an unreasonably manicured lawn, the crossover isn’t that tough to imagine.
In fact, the marriage of brews and backyard beautification is so prolific that beer culture geeks have coined the term “lawnmower beer”. The nickname describes the perfect brews to slam while mowing the grass.
While there isn’t a defining brand, you can probably guess the broadstrokes that define the category. They’re usually a low ABV, mass-produced, light-bodied American style beer.
Before you even finished reading that sentence you were probably already thinking of a few. Traditional lawnmower beers are crisp, refreshing, and probably cheap.
Remember though that one of the important factors in a lawnmower beer is that low ABV percentage.
You can’t be getting hammered on your fourth 9.4% IPA before doing the side yard. You’re gonna need something you can drink a few of and still safely use the weed trimmer.
So, when it comes to non-alcoholic beer, wouldn’t they all technically be “lawnmower beers”?
Not really.
You want to slam a few Porters while you’re a sweaty mess just because they’re under 0.5% ABV? Of course not, man! You still want that same low-hopped, malty, light-bodied tasting profile, but with even less alcohol than you used to drink.
Luckily, there’s a bunch of really fantastic non-alcoholic lawnmower beers that you can slam all day and still see straight enough to make a straight edge along the driveway.
