Athletic Brewing Run Wild IPA – my honest review
I've been drinking loads of great non-alcoholic beer recently, and I'm consistently blown away by how many excellent options there are. It doesn't feel that long ago when you'd ask for an alcohol free beer at a bar and all they'd have is Heneiken Zero, but nowadays there are so many other options.
One alc free beer I've seen a lot of hype around recently is Athletic Brewing Run Wild IPA, so I decided to buy a pack from my local M&S to see what all the fuss is about.
For starters, it's worth mentioning that I paid £5 for 4 cans of this beer. That's very reasonable and works out to just £1.25 per can. What's even more impressive is that these cans are actually 355ml rather than the standard 330ml which is the size of almost every other alcohol free beer can on the market. So per pack you're getting an extra 100ml of beer, which is nice.
However to be honest, having now tried the beer, I think a big part of the reason why it has grown in popularity so quickly is the cheap price, because I didn't really enjoy this beer. I'm not a huge fan of IPA generally, but I really love the Punk AF IPA from Brewdog, which completely blows the Athletic Brewing Run Wild IPA out of the water in my opinion.
I think it's relevant to mention that this beer is made in the USA - I'm not someone who thinks that all beer made in the USA is terrible, but I don't think the standard of beer is nearly as high as it is here in the UK. To me, this beer had a slightly strange aftertaste that I didn't enjoy. Don't get me wrong, for £1.25 per can it works well as a cheap choice. But this wouldn't be my go-to if I was looking for a nice non-alcoholic beer.
It's not even particularly low calorie - each 355ml can contains 65 calories. To put that into perspective, a 330ml can of Lucky Saint only contains 53 calories. I don't love Lucky Saint, but I'd much rather drink that than Athletic Brewing Run Wild IPA.
So overall, I can totally see the appeal of Athletic Brewing Run Wild IPA from a price point, and I'd describe it as perfectly drinkable. However, there are definitely better alcohol free IPA beers out there, and they won't cost you much more.
If you've tried Athletic Brewing Run Wild IPA, let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Finn H
Finn is the editor of You Well and has been writing about travel, health, and more for over 10 years.