Three Magnets Brewing Co. Launches Self Care Non-Alcoholic Beer

A new locally brewed lineup of non-alcoholic beer is arriving in the marketplace with the launch of Self Care from Three Magnets Brewing Co. This past weekend saw the launch of three varieties from the Olympia, Washington based brewer. The brewer has a dedicated website for this new brand extension that includes home delivery across the United States by visiting www.DrinkSelfCare.com.

“Self care means different things to different people,” says co-owner Nathan Reilly, in a statement. “Likewise, people have different reasons to reach for a non-alcoholic beer. We originally started brewing Self Care as a tool for craft beer lovers who are looking to drink less – whether it be for physical, mental, or emotional health reasons. But it very quickly dawned on us that it’s so much simpler than that – sometimes you just want a beer. But you also don’t. And the reason why you ‘don’t’ is really none of anyone’s business. And it’s certainly none of our business.”

“This realization led us to think about how NA beer is stigmatized, which is absolutely stupid. And sad. So it has kind of become our side-mission to not only provide a more healthful beer alternative, but to also destigmatize it along the way by offering a true craft beer experience, with all the buzz and excitement of regular craft beer, but, you know, without the actual buzz.”

The idea of sobriety and a brewery was nothing new to the Three Magnets Brewing co-owners Nathan and Sara Reilly. Prior to the COVID shutdowns the two made its brewery space available for evening Al-Anon meetings twice a week in their private room at the Three Magnets Pubhouse in Olympia, WA. Prior to that, they had provided the same at their previous restaurant, Darby’s Café, dating back to 2010. The Self Care brand is in many ways a continuation in their efforts to not only support those who have chosen a life of sobriety, but also to provide a tool for folks to foster a healthier relationship with alcohol early in life before habits form.

The Self Care lineup currently consists of Self Care Italian Pilsner, Self Care Coconut Stout, and Self Care Hazy IPA. Joining the line up at the end of March will be Self Care West Coast IPA.

We have not had the opportunity to sample these offerings, but here are the descriptions on each of these NA offerings from Three Magnets Brewing.

Self Care Italian Pilsner
Head brewer Aaron Blonden has a background in lager wort production and over a decade of experience innovating within this style, including winning both a Great American Beer Festival award and a World Beer Cup award for his pilsner. And now he’s super excited to bring his knowledge and experience to the world of NA lager, starting with this very rare style in the non-alcoholic beer category.

Traditionally Italian pilsners are European malted lagers that are then dry-hopped to infuse floral or possibly spicy notes to the beverage. This lager was hopped in the kettle with a Slovenian hops, and the grain bill consisted of authentic Italian pilsner malt grown by the Adriatic Sea. It was then dry hopped multiple times throughout fermentation with Self Care’s highest hopping rate to date, with a new experimental German variety called Relax. Relax has been used primarily in the tea industry on a small scale, and recently became available to Aaron to try. He chose this hop because it would infuse hop flavor and delicate aromatics, yet it contains none of the oil that traditionally would cause bitterness when boiled. This imparted beautiful grassy white and green tea notes to the beer that should ring true as hop-driven, yet drink very dry.

Self Care Coconut Stout
Loads of raw coconut and coconut toasted in-house, both sweetened and unsweetened, helps to bring balance to the overall coconut impression. It’s sweet but not cloyingly so, nutty and savory, yet not too heavy, by using Washington premium grown malt as well as staples from English malt houses dating back to the 1900’s. To take the flavor composition to another level it was also dry-hopped, with coconut forward hops, which imparted an additional subtle coconut and oak character. This may be our first dabbling into producing a dark NA beverage, but we couldn’t be more chuffed with how it turned out.

Self Care Hazy IPA
Hops were thrown everywhere in numerous forms and methods. The brewing day featured Blanc, a fruity, grape-like variety from Germany, as well as the popular and delicious Azacca used in a newer method called Dip Hopping. This is our first release to have used straight-up fruit bomb steam-distilled hop oil in the bright tank at an enormous rate before packaging. The stable and beautiful haze was harnessed from Washington grown barley, buckwheat, Munich malt, and the water chemistry of a soft juicy NA beverage.

“We believe that non-alcoholic craft beer should taste just as great as any other traditional craft beer you may have tried in the past,” says Aaron Blonden, World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival award-winning Head Brewer at Three Magnets, in a statement. “The non-alcoholic beer market is ready for innovation. ‘NA’ beer has a huge hurdle in front of it because it is often projected as being less than—or not—carefully crafted. Developing non-alcoholic beer to contain traditional craft beer qualities is challenging, no question.”

With respect to innovating around new processes, Blonden says that leveraging relationships with small hop farms and malt houses to thoughtfully experiment with ‘NA’ brewing techniques has helped achieve what he believes are some of the absolute best non-alcoholic beers on the market. “Certainly, much like producing a traditional beer, there is not always one approach to producing these ‘NA’ beverages. Variability brings excitement to our release schedule, and we can’t wait for you to taste these latest releases!”

Self Care non-alcoholic beer is now available for home delivery via www.DrinkSelfCare.com, and at select bottle shops and specialty grocers along the I-5 corridor in Washington, Oregon, and California.