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You are here: Home / All reviews / Pale ales, golden ales and IPAs / Kompaan “Badgast Ripped” review – low-alcohol (0.5%) American ale

Kompaan “Badgast Ripped” review – low-alcohol (0.5%) American ale

By Tom Hallett on April 26, 2020

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“Badgast Ripped” is a low-alcohol (0.5%) American ale from the Netherlands’ Kompaan brewery. In this review, get tasting notes plus info on stockists, calories an ingredients.

Until recently, pale lager was the style that most people thought of when it came to beer in the Netherlands.

Odd, when you consider it shares a border with Belgium, a country famous for its variety of amazing beers and styles of beer.

The big pale lager producers in the Netherlands – including Heineken, the world’s second largest brewing co – still have a significant share of beer production in the country. But, like most countries, smaller craft brewers have popped up, bringing with them a more diverse range of beer styles.

One of these craft breweries in Kompaan, based in The Hague. Loosely meaning “Companion” in English, the brewery names reflects its background, having been set up childhood friends, Jeroen van Ditmarsch and Jasper Langbroek in 2012.

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Starting as a cuckoo brewery using other breweries’ facilities, Jeroen and Jasper set up Kompaan as a brewery proper in 2014, moving to bigger premises quickly in 2015. They soon added a tap room on the brewery site.

Kompaan does include a hoppy lager as part of its core range. Its other core beers include an imperial stout with port, a double IPA and a weizen. And then there’s dozens of seasonal and special beers, with more added all the time – the brewery says it brews more than 10 new beers a year.

Kompaan Badgast Ripped bottle on grass

With so many styles of beer on offer at Kompaan, it’s no surprise that Kompaan produces a non-alcoholic beer.

“Badgast Ripped” is a 0.5% American pale ale, first released around the start of 2018. 

Ingredients

Along with water, the ingredients are malted barley, wheat, hops and yeast.

It also includes also lactose (milk sugar), so this beer isn’t suitable for a vegan diet.

Calories, carbs and sugar

The calorie, carb and sugar content in this beer isn’t off the scale.

Per 100ml, there’s 11 calories, 1.7g of carbohydrate and 1.6g of sugar.

Flavours appearance and mouthfeel

The appearance has the characteristic copper hue of an American red ale. It’s clear with quite a few hop particles visible.

There’s a ring of lacing after the initial foam subsides.

Kompaan Badgast Ripped bottle and glass

The aroma is varied with coffee, toffee, poached orange, lychee and a dash of honey. There’s a slight pilsner-style hoppiness too, with a touch of dried herb – maybe coriander seed – thrown in.

The body is poor, despite those floaters, which you don’t notice in your mouth. There’s decent carbonation, which isn’t too harsh.

Kompaan Badgast Ripped glass in sunlight

Caramel maltiness dominates the flavour too. The malts also add a pinch of smokiness, which manages to compliment the lighter, fruiter flavours of lychee and poached orange.

Those flavours make this beer sweet initially, with a black tea-like bitterness that grows as you drink it. I found that the bitterness overwhelmed the sweet flavours by the end of the bottle.

Kompaan Badgast Ripped bottle and glass from above

Verdict

This beer didn’t get quite hit the spot for due to the light body and unbalanced flavours.

But it’s still a better option that most alternative soft drinks. It’s worth a go to experience that varied aroma, too.

Key info – Kompaan Badgast Ripped

  • Name: Badgast Ripped
  • Brewery: Kompaan
  • Style: American ale
  • Alcohol content: 0.5%
  • Calories: 36 (per 330ml)
  • Carbohydrates: 5.6 (per 330ml)
  • Sugar: 5.2g (per 330ml)
  • Ingredients: water, barley malt, wheat, hops, lactose, yeast
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Dispense: bottle (330ml)
  • Selected stockists (UK): Beer Wulf

"Ripped" (0.5%) by Kompaan Badgast

"Ripped" (0.5%) by Kompaan Badgast
6.8

Aroma

7.3/10

Mouthfeel

6.4/10

Flavour

6.7/10

Pros

  • Diverse aroma

Cons

  • Poor body
  • Not suitable for vegans

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M&S "Southwold" review – low-alcohol (0.5%) pale ale
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Disclosures

*If you buy something after you visit links marked with *, I might receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

†Reviews marked with † feature beers I didn't pay for (usually because the producers gave them to me for free). My aim is to review these beers the same as beers I've paid for but you may want to bear this in mind when reading the review.

Find out more on my disclosures page.

About Tom Hallett

New(ish) dad, slow runner and Border Terrier owner (or is it the other way round?) on a mission to find the world's best low-alcohol and alcohol-free beers.

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