• 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 / Thornbridge “Zero Five” review – low-alcohol (0.5%) pale ale

Thornbridge “Zero Five” review – low-alcohol (0.5%) pale ale

By Tom Hallett on August 19, 2018

  • Share
  • Tweet

“Zero Five” (formerly “Big Easy”) is a 0.5% ABV pale ale from Derbyshire’s Thornbridge brewery. Get tasting notes, stockist info and nutritional info including calories in this review.

Founded in 2005, well before the recent boom in British brewing, some consider Thornbridge the UK’s first “craft” brewery.

Since then, Thornbridge has moved to a bigger facility in Bakewell, Derbyshire and won over both traditional ale drinkers and craft beer enthusiasts with its range of cask, keg and bottled beers. It still develops new beers at its original brewery at Thornbridge Hall.

Thornbridge’s motto is “Innovation, Passion, Knowledge” – three things a brewery needs in buckets to produce a decent alcohol-free beer.

Unlike the “non-alcoholic” beers from breweries like St Peter’s Brewery, Innis and Gunn and Leeds Brewery, Thornbridge’s alcohol-free beer “Zero Five” contains a little alcohol (0.5%). So it’s not subject to licensing laws and, as with all beers under 0.5%, won’t get you anywhere near drunk.

  • 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

It uses American hops (Amarillo and Cascade) along with pale ale, crystal and Munich malts. Presumably, the brewers have either halted fermentation early or used a yeast that produces a smaller amount of alcohol.

Bottle and glass of Thornbridge Zero Five non-alcoholic beer bottle

Zero Five pours a deep amber, with a foaming head that quickly disappears leaving a few white bubbles wandering on the surface looking to cling on the side of the glass.

The aroma is initially dominated by malty caramel, but there’s a load of mango or lychee in there too with a delicate sweetness. I also detected a bit of a soapy or metallic aroma. This wasn’t off-putting, but it did make it feel like there was something missing when I took a whiff.

Bottle and glass of Thornbridge Zero Five non-alcoholic beer hot from above

In the mouth, Zero Five is well carbonated with tight bubbles. It has a low to medium body.

When I first sampled this beer in its former guise (as “Big Easy”), the carbonation was a bit too much for me and, along with the lack of body, gave me the illusion of drinking a flavoured water rather than a beer.

Now, there’s a bit of extra body and some softness that takes the edge of the carbonation.

Bottle and glass of Thornbridge Zero Five non-alcoholic beer

Flavour wise, it’s malty but with less caramel than promised on the nose. The bitterness, which leads onto some lemon and grapefruit flavours mixed with the malt, hit me quite hard on the first sips but I soon got used to it. The bitterness lingers in the finish, which is quite dry. Despite sweetness in the aroma, I didn’t detect much in the taste.

Verdict

Zero Five has potential, but it’s not quite in the same league as similar tasting alcohol-free pale ales like Brewdog’s “Nanny State” and Infinite Session’s “Pale“.

However, its still a good alternative to sugary soft drinks if you’re a beer drinker. And it doesn’t have the dreaded wortiness and grainy flavours that let so many alcohol-free beers down.

Key info – Thornbridge Zero Five

  • Name: Zero Five
  • Brewery: Thornbridge
  • Style: pale ale
  • Alcohol content: 0.5%
  • Calories: 26 (per 330ml)
  • Carbohydrates: 2.6g (per 330ml)
  • Sugar: 0.3g (per 330ml)
  • Ingredients: water, barley malt, wheat malt, hops, yeast, orange peel
  • Country: UK
  • Dispense: bottle (330ml)
  • Selected stockists (UK): Amazon*, Wise Bartender*

Related posts:

Infinite Session "Pale" review - low-alcohol (0.5%) American pale ale†
Omnipollo "Nyponsoppa" review - low-alcohol (0.3%) fruit beer
Leffe "Blond 0.0" review - alcohol-free (0%) blond ale

"Zero Five" (0.5%) by Thornbridge

"Zero Five" (0.5%) by Thornbridge
6.9

Aroma

7.1/10

Mouthfeel

6.9/10

Flavour

6.7/10

Pros

  • Decent aroma

Cons

  • Flavour doesn't quite live up to aroma
  • 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