460: How Notch and Halfway Crooks Formulate Recipes for Tasty (and Convincing) Nonalcoholic Beer
Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine PodcastShow Notes
Last week, we hosted a series of three webinars focused on different aspects of nonalcoholic brewing. In this episode of the podcast, we share an excerpt from the first session—focused on formulation—featuring Notch founder Chris Lohring, Halfway Crooks cofounder Shawn Cooper, and Abstrax Hops technical sales manager Craig Thomas. Through the course of the conversation, the trio discuss malt choices and process for NA beers, hop usage and different formats, dialing in bitterness, building body without sweetness, adjusting chloride content for fullness, and much more.
If this piques your interest, the full webinars are available for viewing on our website:
Formulation
Fermentation
Finishing
G&D Chillers
A quick word for the brewers out there staring down a broken chiller. You know the pain—warm fermenters, stressed yeast, and that sinking feeling when the repair quote lands in your inbox. With refrigerant regulations changing and the cost of obsolete refrigerants skyrocketing, sometimes the fix costs more than the unit’s worth. G&D Chillers is there to help, whether you're a small brew pub or large full-scale production brewery. Don’t throw good money at bad equipment. Invest in a solution that grows with your brewery—and keeps your tanks cold when it counts. Big thanks to G&D Chillers for supporting this podcast since 2019, reach out to them at gdhillers.com/podcast to learn how they can support your next six years of growth.
Berkeley Yeast
Berkeley Yeast just launched Dry Tropics London! Our best-selling liquid yeast strain, now with all the ease-of-use benefits of dry yeast. Dry Tropics London delivers the soft, pillowy mouthfeel and juicy character you’d expect from a top-tier London Ale strain, but with a serious upgrade: a burst of thiols that unleash vibrant, layered notes of grapefruit and passion fruit. A lot of brewers love the clean passion fruit you get from Tropics, but they don’t want every IPA to be a tropical-fruit bomb. At the dry yeast price point, you can pitch and ditch without breaking the bank. Or, you can co-pitch with your house strain to adjust the intensity of the notes. And with nationwide free shipping, there’s never been a better time to try Dry Tropics. Order now at berkeleyyeast.com and experience the ease and impact of Dry Tropics London Yeast.
PakTech
This episode is sponsored by PakTech—delivering craft-beer multipacking you can trust. Our handles are made from 100 percent recycled plastic and are fully recyclable, helping breweries close the loop and advance the circular economy. With a minimalist design, durable functionality you can rely on, and custom color matching, our carriers help brands stand out while staying sustainable. Trusted by craft brewers nationwide, we offer a smarter, sustainable way to carry your beer. To learn more, visit paktech-opi.com.
Indie Hops Strata Cryo
The multilayered wonders of Indie Hops Strata are now easier than ever for brewers to tap into. Introducing Strata Cryo, in collaboration with Yakima Chief Hops. Whether brewing up a single-hop Strata IPA to wow customers with the depth of flavor this variety delivers or modernizing your flagship IPA to continue setting the highest standards, Strata T99, Strata CGX, Strata HyperBoost, and now Strata Cryo provide the tools for you to create your unique masterpiece. Indie Hops Strata. Life is short. Let’s make it flavorful!
Midea 50/50 Flex
This podcast is sponsored by the Midea 50/50 flex—the industry’s first dual compartment three-way convertible freezer. The 50/50 Flex is designed to flex with your life. It can convert to all fridge, all freezer, or half and half with just the touch of a button. Plus, with reversible doors and adjustable storage compartments, you can stay organized no matter your food-storage needs. The 50/50 Flex is also designed to maintain a stable temperature even in non-climate-controlled spaces. So it’s perfect for your garage, man cave, or wherever you need a little more sp
More from Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast
Masthead cofounder and head brewer Mike Pelechaty is no stranger to GABF medals, with five under his belt before adding two more to the collection in 2026, but winning both the light lager and rice lager categories suggests an approach that’s more than just coincidence. In this episode, he outlines the similarities as well as the differences in ingredients and techniques between the two lagers made with rice, and shares the brewery’s general approach to designing, brewing, and ultimately selecting and packaging beers for top-flight competition.
Earlier this year, Cloudburst founder Steve Luke announced that longtime friends at Bale Breaker would be buying the brewery while he and his wife relocated to New Zealand for her career. For many in the industry, it felt like an ideal outcome, with the beloved Seattle brand finding a home with the talented team at the Yakima-based brewery. But the move hasn’t taken Luke out of the game—he’ll be involved for at least a few years, and hasn’t let up on the tongue-in-cheek humor around craft beer history that has led to creative and award-winning takes on things like imperial hoppy red ale or hoppy amber ale.
Scott Selix of Lua in Des Moines, Iowa, started his career as a brewer before leaving for law school. After a brief stint as an attorney, the gravitational pull of the brewing world ultimately proved too strong for him to overcome. Now at Lua, he has the freedom to explore the creative front edge of progressive styles such as hazy IPA while also delving into low-ABV pale lagers—which, he admits, he and the brew team largely brew for themselves.
Denver's Off Script has built a rabid fanbase of hazy IPA drinkers who line up for can releases and special draft events like it's 2015 again, and founder Ryan Taylor has done it by focusing tightly on plush and saturated hazy IPAs. But he brews the beer themselves at Aurora, Colorado's Milieu Fermentation, where cofounder Rob Bessett also makes some high-scoring hazy IPAs of his own. Together in this episode, the pair discuss the ways the IPAs they brew are similar, as well as different, despite following a common path toward a similar end goal.
In this special episode produced in partnership with Scott Labs, we focus on beer spoilers and how to protect your beer from them. Today’s rapid growth in low- and no-alcohol craft beer and beverages presents quite a challenge for brewers because alcohol itself is one of the best ways to prevent microorganisms from turning the beautiful beverage you crafted into something less delicious or less healthy.