Big Drop Brewing Review: One of the UK's Alcohol-Free Craft Pioneers
Published May 2026 · Updated October 2026 · 7-minute read · by Rich, founder of Unhopped
Big Drop is the alcohol-free brewery that proved AF craft could compete with full-strength on flavour. Founded long before the category was fashionable, they've built a reputation on serious brewing — a long list of international awards, multiple World's Best titles at the World Beer Awards by its own count, and, over the years, a wider spread of styles than almost anyone else in alcohol-free. Worth knowing properly.
Who are Big Drop?
Big Drop Brewing Co. was launched in October 2016 by Rob Fink, a former City lawyer, and his school friend James Kindred, a brand strategist and designer. The goal, Fink has said, was to create an alcohol-free craft beer category, because it didn’t exist.
They worked with experimental brewer Johnny Clayton (formerly of Wild Beer Co), who joined as head brewer. Big Drop brews to 0.5% from the start, using less grain, rather than making a full-strength beer and taking the alcohol out; in 2021 it called the method Reduced Amylase Brewing and said the beer is fully fermented. No alcohol is removed from the finished beer, Big Drop says. It was a meaningful innovation at a time when most AF beer relied on dealcoholisation.
In the years since, Big Drop has become one of the most-respected names in alcohol-free craft beer. It says it has won over 100 international awards, and the Brewers Journal counted eight World's Best titles at the World Beer Awards by August 2024; Big Drop also says Paradiso beat 6% beers to win its category in the UK round of the 2020 World Beer Awards. It has never owned a brewery: after licensing deals with In Good Company and then Keystone ended, it now brews with Renegade in Berkshire and Powderkeg in Devon, The Grocer reports.
What makes Big Drop different
Brewed-not-removed approach
Most major alcohol-free brewers either brew full-strength then strip the alcohol (vacuum distillation, cold filtration) or use specialty yeasts that produce minimal alcohol. Big Drop does neither: it says it brews to 0.5% from the start by using less grain, and it doesn't say it uses a special yeast. Across the range it uses barley, rye, wheat and oats — over 20 speciality grains, Big Drop says — getting depth and complexity that's hard to achieve at 0.5%.
Wider style range than most AF brewers
Most AF brewers focus on lager and pale ale because those styles are easiest to do well at 0.5%. Big Drop deliberately did the opposite — stouts, sours, a double dry-hopped IPA, milk stouts, brown ales — though the sours and its DDH IPA are now in its back catalogue of earlier beers. Today it sells Galactic Milk Stout, Pine Trail Pale Ale, Paradiso Citra IPA, Reef Point Lager, a Brown Ale and Cloudburst Passion Fruit Lager. Galactic Milk Stout and Reef Point Lager couldn't be more different beers, and both are credible.
Awards-driven validation
The Brewers Journal counted eight World Beer Awards 'World's Best' titles for Big Drop by August 2024 — more than any other UK brewery, alcohol-free or otherwise, Big Drop says (the World Beer Awards' records weren't open to us to check). The World Alcohol-Free Awards' published results show golds for Galactic in 2023 and for Pine Trail and Poolside in 2024. That's the validation Big Drop trades on.
The Big Drop range: our top picks
Galactic Milk Stout (0.5%)
The flagship and, by Big Drop's count, the most-awarded beer in the range. A milk stout brewed with barley, oats, rye, lactose and cocoa nibs. Honeycomb covered in chocolate, which is Big Drop's own description and unusually accurate. Sweet, full, dessert-territory. Contains lactose so isn't vegan; it is labelled gluten-free.
Pine Trail Pale Ale (0.5%)
The American-pale-ale workhorse. Magnum, Mosaic and Amarillo hops, according to retailers' listings; pine and citrus aroma; clean light body; moderate bitterness. Twice named World's Best in its category at the World Beer Awards, Big Drop says, and a gold medallist at the 2024 World Alcohol-Free Awards. Labelled gluten-free; the version in the shops contains lactose, though Big Drop's website now shows a vegan recipe. The everyday beer in the range.
Poolside DDH IPA (0.5%)
Hazy IPA territory — double dry-hopped, full-bodied for 0.5%, juicy tropical hop character. Drinks like a session-strength NEIPA. One of the highest-scoring AF hazy IPAs in our directory, and named World's Best No & Low IPA at the 2024 World Beer Awards, Brewers Journal reported. It's no longer in Big Drop's range, though Ocado still listed it in October 2026.
How Big Drop compares to the wider category
Big Drop sits in the top tier of UK alcohol-free brewing alongside Northern Monk, Mash Gang, and (more recently) Lucky Saint. They're among the most-awarded, by their own count; their flagship Galactic Milk Stout is a category-defining beer.
For context, see our UK craft NA breweries roundup or compare specific beers in the relevant style hubs.
Big Drop at Christmas. Galactic Milk Stout is behind door 24 of our build-your-own advent calendar, and Big Drop’s mixed six-pack, £14.50 from its own shop, is one of our stocking fillers under £20.
Beers to explore
Big Drop's range, ranked by Unhopped score:
