• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Steady Drinker

Discover the best low-alcohol and alcohol-free beers and lagers (under 0.5% ABV)

  • Home
  • Start here
  • Best beers
  • Articles
  • About
  • Contact
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / All reviews / Pale ales, golden ales and IPAs / Pohjala “Tundra” review – low-alcohol (0.5%) IPA

Pohjala “Tundra” review – low-alcohol (0.5%) IPA

By Tom Hallett on July 2, 2021

  • Share
  • Tweet

“Tundra” is a 0.5% India pale ale from Estonia’s Pohjala brewery. This review includes tasting notes plus info on ingredients, calories, carbs, sugar and stockists.

There’s still a common misconception that non-alcoholic beer contains all kinds of weird ingredients, when in fact it usually contains the same things as a full-strength beer – grain, hops, water and yeast.

But that doesn’t mean you won’t come across the odd unusual ingredient in your beer. Some of these extra ingredients are natural, some aren’t.

Pohjala Brewery’s “Tundra” (0.5%) India pale ale contains one such unusual ingredient as it’s brewed with spruce tips.

Bottle of Pohjala Tundra non-alcoholic beer

Spruce trees are evergreen trees that you’ll probably be used to seeing if you live in the northern hemisphere. Spruce shoots are chock full of vitamin C, so they’ve been used as a food source as well as a base ingredient for tea and beer for centuries.

  • New to Steady Drinker? Start here…
  • My top alcohol-free beers and lagers
  • Why you can’t get drunk on 0.5% alcohol-free beer
  • 10 brilliant benefits of non-alcoholic beer

Most modern brewers who use spruce tips in their beers treat it the same as hops, adding them later in the brewing process to impart bitterness and flavour.

Spruce is a common tree in Pohjala’s home country, Estonia. It even has a “Forest Series” of beer alongside its core range and specials.

The brewery was set up in 2011 as a “cuckoo” brewery, using other breweries’ facilities. It soon moved to its own facilities and now exports to more than 30 countries around the globe.

Tundra is the brewery’s first non-alcoholic beer.

Ingredients and how it’s made

The OG (original gravity) and FG (final gravity) readings on the Pohjala website suggest Tundra is brewed to be naturally low in alcohol, rather than having any alcohol removed.

As well as spruce tips, water and barley malt, it contains lactose (milk sugar), maltodextrin and oats.

The malt varieties are Dextrin, Crystal T50 and Crystal 150. The hop varieties are Citra and Yellow Sub.

The lactose means it’s not suitable for vegans. It’s not gluten free either.

Calories, carbs and sugar

Tundra contains a moderate amount of calories and carbs, but quite low sugar.

Per 100ml, there are 21 calories with 4.8g of carbohydrate, of which 1.2g is sugar.

Flavours, appearance and mouthfeel

Tundra pours light orange with few bubbles and no foam. It’s opaque and there’s loads of sediment, so you need to store it upright and pour carefully – unless you want loads of floaters in your beer.

Glass of Pohjala Tundra non-alcoholic beer

The aroma features caramel, toffee, mango and passionfruit. These are intertwined with earthier pine and oak aromas, presumably assisted by the spruce tips.

The mouthfeel is full, with lots of support from the haze and sediment. But the sediment isn’t detectable as you sip.

There’s light carbonation, giving it a real ale feel. But the lactose makes it a little cloying.

The flavours in the taste have less variety that the aroma. Caramel and toffee are present again, and are joined by a resinous, cedar-like character. Hoppy, floral flavours like the place of the tropical fruits.

Glass and bottle Pohjala Tundra non-alcoholic beer

The bitterness is low, building ever-so-slightly with each sip.

Verdict

My first beer made with spruce tips, and it’s not bad at all.

The aroma has a variety that induces huge sniffs. And while the flavours on tasting and mouthfeel are a little below par, the end result is a better than average IPA.

Key info – Pohjala Tundra

  • Name: Tundra
  • Brewery: Pohjala
  • Style: IPA
  • Alcohol content: 0.5%
  • Calories: 69 (per 330ml can)
  • Carbohydrates: 15.8g (per 330ml can)
  • Sugar: 4g (per 330ml can)
  • Ingredients: water, barley malt, oats, hops, lactose
  • Country: Estonia
  • Dispense: bottle (330ml)
  • Selected stockists (UK): Wise Bartender*

Related posts:

Unltd "IPA" review - low-alcohol (0.5%) India pale ale†
Big Drop "Fieldhopper" review - low-alcohol (0.5%) golden ale
First Chop "Yes" review - low-alcohol (0.5%) IPA

"Tundra" (0.5%) by Pohjala

"Tundra" (0.5%) by Pohjala
7

Aroma

7.4/10

Mouthfeel

6.7/10

Flavour

6.9/10

Pros

  • Diverse aroma

Cons

  • Not suitable for vegans
  • Share
  • Tweet

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.

Primary Sidebar

About Steady Drinker

Hello, I'm Tom and this is Steady Drinker – a website and blog that helps you discover great low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beers and lagers (under 0.5% ABV) so you can cut down your alcohol intake. Read More…

Get something nice by email

Sign up to get reviews, articles, offers and discounts to your inbox.

(I'll only use your details to send you emails and I won't share your data with anyone else.)

Recent Posts

  • Uiltje “Superb-Owl” review – low-alcohol (0.2%) India pale ale
  • The best non-alcoholic beers and alcohol-free lagers in 2023
  • Butcombe “Goram IPA Zero” review – low-alcohol (0.5%) India pale ale†
  • Insel “Swimmer’s” review – low-alcohol (0.5%) saison
  • Divine Brewing “Polaris” review – low-alcohol (0.5%) porter

Copyright © 2023 | Privacy policy | Disclaimer | Disclosures