Beavertown Lazer Crush Review: The UK's Best-Known Alcohol-Free IPA?
Published May 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 brewed for Beavertown by De Proefbrouwerij in Belgium. It's Beavertown's only alcohol-free product and one of the most-distributed AF IPAs in UK supermarkets.
The brewing approach matters: rather than producing full-strength beer and removing the alcohol (vacuum distillation, cold filtration), Lazer Crush is brewed using a specialty yeast strain — CHR Hansen's NEER yeast — that focuses on glucose rather than maltose during fermentation. The result is a beer that never produces significant alcohol in the first place, retaining more hop aromatics than dealcoholised beers typically can.
Beavertown Brewery itself was founded in 2011 by Logan Plant in London. They sold a minority stake to Heineken in 2018 to fund the expansion into a 129,000 sq ft custom brewery in Enfield (Beaverworld). Lazer Crush, however, isn't brewed at Beaverworld — it's contracted to the Belgian specialist.
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. This is what Heineken 0.0 and Guinness 0.0 do. The downside is that the alcohol-removal process strips out aromatic compounds along with the alcohol.
Approach 2 — Use a specialty yeast that produces minimal alcohol: A specifically-engineered yeast strain ferments the wort but produces very little alcohol. Lazer Crush, Lucky Saint, and most of the modern UK craft AF brewers use this approach (each with different yeast strains).
Lazer Crush specifically uses the CHR Hansen NEER yeast (commercially licensed from a Danish biotech company). It's notable for producing tropical fruit esters during fermentation while avoiding maltose conversion to ethanol. 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 compared to the eight-hop monsters that Brulo or BrewDog produce, but it's enough to give Lazer Crush a recognisable IPA character.
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); softer and lighter than Brulo's DDH range. For full category comparisons, see our alcohol-free IPA hub.
Beers to explore
Lazer Crush plus a few other AF IPAs at the same level:
