I Bet My Mate £50 He Couldn't Tell AF Beer From Real Beer

This started, like most terrible ideas, in a pub on a Thursday.

My mate Gaz has opinions about beer. Not in the useful way where someone actually knows about hops and fermentation and whatever else goes into making the stuff. In the loud way. The way where every round comes with commentary.

So when I ordered an AF beer - something I've been doing quietly for about three months now - Gaz did what Gaz does.

"You can always tell," he said. "Always. It's like decaf. There's just... something missing."

"Fifty quid says you can't."

He didn't even hesitate.

The Setup

I went to the shop the next day and bought four beers. Two regular, two AF. All IPAs, because Gaz drinks IPAs and if I'd thrown in a lager he'd have called foul.

The lineup:

• Beer A: BrewDog Punk IPA (5.4%)
• Beer B: IMPOSSIBREW Triple Hopped IPA (0.0%)
• Beer C: Beavertown Neck Oil (4.3%)
• Beer D: BrewDog Punk AF (0.5%)

I poured all four into identical glasses in the kitchen while Gaz sat in the living room shouting about something on his phone. Brought them out on a tray. No labels. No clues. Just four glasses of beer.

"Right," I said. "Tell me which ones are real and which ones are fake."

"This is going to be the easiest fifty quid I've ever made," he said.

It was not.

Beer A: BrewDog Punk IPA (the real one)

He picked up the first glass. Swirled it around like a wine person on telly. Sniffed it. Took a sip.

"Real," he said immediately. "Obviously. You can taste the alcohol. It's got that warmth."

He was right. One for one. I said nothing.

Beer B: IMPOSSIBREW Triple Hopped IPA (0.0%)

Second glass. Same routine. Swirl, sniff, sip.

He took a longer sip this time. Then another one.

"Real," he said. "Definitely real. This one's got proper body. Bit fruity. Like a session IPA. Four percent maybe?"

I just wrote it down.

"What's the brand? It's good."

"I'll tell you after."

Beer C: Beavertown Neck Oil (the real one)

Third glass. He was getting confident now. Sipping like he was on MasterChef.

"This one's trickier," he said. "Could go either way." Long pause. Another sip. "I'm going to say... AF. Final answer."

He'd just called a 4.3% Beavertown Neck Oil alcohol-free.

I said nothing. Wrote it down.

Beer D: BrewDog Punk AF (0.5%)

Last glass. He was frowning now because he'd expected this to be over already.

"Real," he said. Then immediately: "No. AF. Wait." Another sip. "AF. Final answer. It's thin. Bit watery."

He was right on that one. BrewDog Punk AF is a bit thin. To be fair to him.

The Results

I read them back to him.

Beer	Actually	Gaz Said	Correct?
A - Punk IPA	5.4%	Real	✓
B - IMPOSSIBREW IPA	0.0%	Real (4%)	✗
C - Neck Oil	4.3%	AF	✗
D - Punk AF	0.5%	AF	✓

Two out of four. Coin flip. Worse than guessing, arguably, because he was confident.

The bit that made the room go quiet: he called IMPOSSIBREW "definitely real" and rated it higher than Neck Oil, which is an actual 4.3% beer.

He thought the AF beer was the real one. And the real one was AF.

"That's not right," he said, reading the results.

"That's very right. You owe me fifty."

The Bit That Actually Matters

Here's the thing that stuck with me after the shouting and the denial and the accusations of cheating (I did not cheat).

Gaz didn't just get it wrong. He got it wrong in the most specific way possible. He tasted IMPOSSIBREW and said it had "proper body" and "warmth" and "four percent maybe." He described the characteristics of a beer with alcohol in it. Attributed them to a beer with precisely zero alcohol.

I've been drinking this stuff for three months and I still think about that. Because I know the answer - it's not about the alcohol. It's the ashwagandha and L-theanine. Your body gets a relaxation signal and your brain fills in the rest. It assumes alcohol because that's the only thing that's ever made beer feel like that.

Gaz's brain decided IMPOSSIBREW was a 4% IPA because it felt like a 4% IPA. Even though there's literally nothing in it.

He was quiet for about ten minutes after that. Which, for Gaz, is a record.

What He Said Later

About two hours and several actual beers later (he paid for them, with my fifty quid), Gaz said something I didn't expect.

"What was that second one called again?"

"IMPOSSIBREW."

"That's a stupid name."

"Yeah."

"Can you get it online?"

"Yeah."

"Right."

And that was it. No big speech. No conversion moment. Just a bloke who was very certain about something, got proved wrong, and quietly went home and googled it.

I checked his Instagram two days later. He'd posted a photo of an IMPOSSIBREW can with the caption "alright fair enough." No context. No explanation. Classic Gaz.

Try It Yourself

Seriously. Get four beers. Mix in two AF ones. Make your most opinionated mate do it blind. I'll put good money on them getting at least one wrong.

If you want to really mess with them, use IMPOSSIBREW as one of the AF ones. New customers get £10 off their first order with that link. Which, coincidentally, is exactly what I used to fund this experiment after Gaz paid me back my fifty.

You can also try it with Lucky Saint if you want a lager option. That's decent too. But the IPA is the one that'll really catch people out because the hop character hides any trace of it being AF.