Former NHL player Brantt Myhres and Alley Kat collab on non-alcoholic beer

After struggling with drug and alcohol issues, former NHL player Brant Myhres has launched a non-alcoholic beer with Alley Kat Brewing. Amanda Anderson reports.

Alley Kat has collaborated with former NHL player Brantt Myhres to create a new brew with no alcohol.

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“I always wanted to create a beverage that I felt comfortable with that I was sort of proud to hold in my hand, a little edgy and obviously the liquid tasting excellent,” Myhres told CTV News Edmonton.

Myhres was suspended for life from the NHL in 2006 for substance abuse. Now sober since 2008, the former hockey star has created something he and others can drink without breaking his sobriety.

His beer, called “Unhammered,” is similar to the taste of a Corona,has some added vitamin D and is only 60 calories.

“It’s a very light, easy, crisp drinking beer. It has lager characteristics to it, it’s just an everyday drinking beer,” said Alley Kat owner Cameron French.

French says non-alcoholic beverages are a “huge growing market” right now, launching their own brand of that type a year ago. He says the “Unhammered” beer has gone through multiple taste tests and meets all the criteria of tasting like a regular beer, but without the alcohol.

Myhres says the beer’s name represents the opposite of his past.

“If you notice the can, I put ‘bold taste, zero regrets,’ everything led me to this point here today,” he said.

“The pain, the ups and downs, all that kind of stuff got me to the point where I live my life in sobriety today and everything good in my life has come from sobriety.”

People can purchase the beer in select stores in Edmonton and Calgary.

With files from CTV Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson