In July 2002, after sampling and reviewing over a dozen wheat beers for the New York Times, our Food52 co-founder Amanda Hesser came to the following conclusion: “An excellent wheat beer can be much like a very good Cabernet Sauvignon. Both can have a lot of body and complexity and a parade of vivid flavors.”
Twenty years—and a few dozen flavor parades—later, Amanda finds herself collaborating on a brand new excellent wheat brew: Today, Food52 and NA craft beer company Athletic Brewing are launching Host & Toast—a limited-run, non-alcoholic Belgian-style white beer.
Amanda, a self-described “beer nerd,” said Host & Toast aims to solve a December-specific problem. “A lot of holiday brews lean towards emphasizing a flavor that people associate with the holidays, as opposed to something that you would want to drink with holiday food,” she told me. “Holiday food tends to be rich and a little on the heavy side—so we wanted to create a brew that counteracted that with acidity and some spice.”
When picking a partner to help create her ideal holiday brew, Amanda didn’t have to go beyond her kitchen. “We always have Athletic in our fridge at home,” she says, “and we feel like they’ve been the most interesting non-alcoholic brewery—the one that’s created the best quality brews and most dynamic iterations.”
To get Host & Toast off the ground, Amanda first met with Athletic Brewing co-founder and Chief Product Officer, John Walker at the non-alcoholic stalwart’s flagship brewery in Milford, Connecticut. “It smells amazing there,” Amanda said. “It actually smells like grain—you feel like you’re in a silo.”
During her visit, John and Amanda landed on the brew style as well as its primary flavors. “We settled on a brew with Meyer Lemon and Grains of Paradise,” Amanda said, citing Meyer Lemon’s floral notes and Grains of Paradise pepperiness as each ingredient’s strength.
From there, John and his team went to work—mixing up an initial batch of the Belgian-style NA beer so that he, Amanda, and Food52’s general manager, Jojo (another beer fanatic), could review their concept. “It was good, but we both agreed it needed more bite,” John told me.
So, John’s team doubled the Grains of Paradise, brewed another batch, and, again, sent it out for review. This time, they nailed it—transforming Amanda’s vision into something you can crack, pour, and sip at any holiday feast or gathering. And the best part? It can be mixed into an NA cocktail, too.
And because we’re Food52, we created a few recipes—two NA cocktails and one brew-glazed ham with biscuits—so you can work Host & Toast into your holiday party schedule all season long. They all start with—what else?—a crisp can of Host & Toast.
Athletic Brewing Company, LLC. Milford, CT, and San Diego, CA. Near Beer. <0.5% alc/vol.
English (US) · 