Beavertown Lazer Crush Review: The UK's Best-Known Alcohol-Free IPA?
Published May 2026 · Updated October 2026 · 6-minute read · by Rich, founder of Unhopped
Lazer Crush is the alcohol-free IPA you're most likely to spot on a Beavertown shelf — and for good reason. It's one of the easiest-drinking AF IPAs in UK supermarkets, with proper tropical hop character, modern brewing technique, and the recognisable Beavertown branding to back it up. It's also one of the cleanest examples of how alcohol-free brewing has matured in the past five years.
What is Beavertown Lazer Crush?
Lazer Crush is a 0.3% ABV alcohol-free IPA, launched in October 2020 and brewed in the EU for Beavertown, according to the can. It's the only alcohol-free beer Beavertown sells today, and Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Ocado all stock it.
The brewing approach matters: rather than producing full-strength beer and removing the alcohol (vacuum distillation, cold filtration), Lazer Crush is brewed with what Beavertown calls “a unique yeast strain (it’s called Pichia)”. Pichia kluyveri yeasts sold for alcohol-free brewing ferment simple sugars but leave maltose, the main sugar in wort, alone, so the beer never produces significant alcohol in the first place; Beavertown doesn’t say which strain it uses.
Beavertown Brewery itself was founded in 2011 by Logan Plant in London. Heineken bought a minority stake in 2018, which paid for Beaverworld, a 129,000 sq ft brewery in Enfield, and bought the rest of the company in 2022. Lazer Crush, however, isn't brewed at Beaverworld — the cans say it's brewed in the EU for Beavertown.
Tasting notes and what to expect
Appearance and aroma: Hazy golden-orange in the glass with a fluffy white head that holds reasonably well. Aroma is tropical-fruit-forward — ripe mango leads, with passion fruit, peach, and a soft pine resin underneath. Less aggressive than full-strength West Coast IPAs but unmistakably hop-aromatic.
Palate and finish: Bright, juicy, balanced. Citrus (lemon, grapefruit) and tropical fruit (mango, peach) dominate the flavour, with grassy hop notes and a soft pilsner malt backdrop. The bitterness is moderate — well below what you'd expect from a full-strength IPA. Body is medium with a creamy mouthfeel that lingers nicely. Finishes on a clean, dry hop note.
How it compares: Cleaner and more tropical than BrewDog Punk AF; less aggressive than Athletic Run Wild; softer and more aromatic than UK supermarket own-brand AF IPAs. Sits comfortably alongside the higher-tier UK AF IPAs without trying to match the most hop-extreme beers in the category. See our Punk AF vs Athletic Run Wild comparison for category context.
How is Lazer Crush brewed?
The brewing process is what makes Lazer Crush distinctive. Most major AF brewers use one of two approaches:
Approach 1 — Brew full strength, remove alcohol: The beer is fully fermented at normal ABV, then alcohol is removed via vacuum distillation or cold filtration. Guinness 0.0 is made this way: Diageo says it brews Guinness as usual, then cold-filters the alcohol out. Heineken 0.0 also has its alcohol removed, by vacuum distillation, but Heineken says it brewed the beer from scratch rather than starting from regular Heineken. The downside is that the alcohol-removal process can strip out aromatic compounds along with the alcohol.
Approach 2 — Use a specialty yeast that produces minimal alcohol: A yeast strain chosen because it ferments the wort but produces very little alcohol. Lazer Crush and many modern craft alcohol-free beers use this approach, each with a different strain. (Not all of them: Lucky Saint’s lager, for example, is fermented normally and then has its alcohol removed by vacuum distillation.)
Beavertown says only that Lazer Crush uses a Pichia strain; it doesn't name the supplier. Pichia yeasts sold for alcohol-free brewing, such as Chr. Hansen’s NEER, ferment simple sugars but not maltose, which keeps the alcohol down. The result: aromatic, fruit-forward, properly carbonated beer at 0.3% ABV.
The hop bill is three American hops — Azacca (mango, tropical, pine), Amarillo (orange, citrus), and Citra (grapefruit, tropical). This is a relatively restrained hop bill next to the seven hops in Brulo’s 7 Hop 7 Grain, but it's enough to give Lazer Crush a recognisable IPA character.
Lazer Crush: key facts
| ABV | 0.3%, as labelled |
|---|---|
| Calories | 27 kcal per 100ml on the current label; about 89 per 330ml can (Beavertown’s site says 83) |
| Carbohydrate | 5.9g per 100ml, of which sugars 3.0g |
| Ingredients | Water, malted barley, hops and yeast (label); Pilsner malt, Beavertown says |
| Hops | Azacca, Amarillo and Citra |
| How it’s made | Fermented with a Pichia yeast that makes very little alcohol, Beavertown says; it doesn’t mention removing any |
| Brewed | In the EU, for Beavertown, according to the can |
| Vegan | Yes, according to Beavertown |
| Gluten | Contains barley; not gluten-free |
| Where to buy | Four-packs at Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Ocado; cases from Beavertown and Dry Drinker |
| Our score | 8.5 out of 10 |
From the UK supermarket labels and Beavertown’s website, checked October 2026. Full nutrition is on the Lazer Crush page.
Where Lazer Crush wins and where it doesn't
How Lazer Crush compares to other alcohol-free IPAs
In the UK alcohol-free IPA category, Lazer Crush sits in the upper-mid tier. Cleaner and more tropical than BrewDog Punk AF (which contains lactose and leans softer); less hop-forward than Athletic Run Wild (which is a more aggressive West Coast IPA); with a simpler hop bill than Brulo's double dry-hopped IPAs. For full category comparisons, see our alcohol-free IPA hub.
Buying Lazer Crush? Beavertown’s own shop is the cheapest place we found online, though supermarket offers can beat it. Our Beavertown discount codes page compares the price per can at every shop that sells it.
Beers to explore
Lazer Crush plus a few other AF IPAs at the same level:
