Wren House Brewing Co.

Wren House operates out of a converted bungalow on N 24th Street in central Phoenix, in the Encanto/Green Gables area, and has the feel of a neighbourhood operation that happens to be very good rather than a destination brewery that happens to have a patio. Its reputation rests largely on Spellbinder, the hazy IPA introduced in 2017 that became its flagship and took a Gold Medal in the Juicy/Hazy IPA category at the 2020 Great American Beer Festival — a category that is among the most crowded in American brewing, which makes the medal a real one.

The relevant thing here is that the brewery makes a non-alcoholic version of that same beer. Non-Alcoholic Spellbinder comes in at 0.5% ABV and is not a separate, lesser recipe: it uses Spellbinder-selected lots of Citra, Mosaic and Cascade, with increased kettle hopping to carry bitterness through the lower gravity and a dry-hop ratio tuned toward tangerine citrus. Those are the two problems that sink most non-alcoholic IPAs — thin body and a sweet, wort-like finish where the bitterness should be — and addressing them deliberately is the difference between an NA beer that exists and one worth ordering. Axios Phoenix included it when rounding up local non-alcoholic beers for Dry January.

For a non-drinker the practical value is the same as at any brewery that brews its own: you are drinking the house product, poured by the people who made it, rather than a national brand kept in the fridge as an accommodation. One caution worth repeating because the names are nearly identical — the standard Spellbinder is a full-strength IPA. Ask explicitly for the non-alcoholic version, and check the can or the tap list rather than assuming. This is a working taproom with a full beer programme, not an alcohol-free venue.